Are you ready for some news about Toshiba and competing with the Blu-ray format? No, it's not a joke, and they won't bring HD DVD back. However according to the Japanese media the company will be competing with Blu-ray again. Well, it promises Blu-ray like video quality. The information comes from uncited sources at Toshiba.
It seems that it is no more than an upscaling DVD player as the general press talks about technology that will be backwards-compatible with standard DVD discs and is based on a chip that is able to produce much higher-resolution images from existing DVDs
However, upscaling DVD players are already available on the market and according to the sources Toshiba would start sales of the DVD player within six months at a much lower price than a Blu-ray player.
What do you think, is this ordinary upscaling or has Toshiba something new on their sleeve?
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this is obviously another crappy try to keep us in the past. i am for blu-ray because i need the storage space. i still watch a lot of dvix encoded files, so i'm more than ok with dvd quality for movies.
Blu-Ray needs to die a horrible death. It is the bastard concoction of money hungry shit wads. The industry needs to go back to the drawing board and release a format that can handle not only 1080p but upwards of quad or even octo-HD before release discs again. Give us a format that will last at least as long as DVD has and not something that is already on the verge of being eclipsed.
It's not ordinary upscaling, it uses logic to enhance images by pulling data from multiple different frames of the video to "fill in" the image detail in every frame. Requires a lot of processing power, and if it is perfected it stands to improve video quality a lot more than simple upscaling.
@ pinkish
"this is obviously another crappy try to keep us in the past."
No, it's called trying to make a buck to keep the shareholders happy. If it sells then who do we laugh at, you (for making that silly comment) or Toshiba?
@ johnzap
"Well, at least, this time, they will surely not have to post another one billion loss?"
Man, I hope not. We need Toshiba (Rebel Alliance) to protect us from Sony (Galactic Empire).
@ Cubeman
"Blu-Ray needs to die a horrible death. It is the bastard concoction of money hungry shit wads."
You are my new best friend.
DukeNukem... psychosis-free since yesterday.
Pure business. Toshiba loss $1+ billion and they ought to find new ways to make it up. There's a bit more margin left in DVD (including royalty) and all of these companies are just trying to make more profit and squeeze our tight pocket. How much this Toshiba new upconverter will sell? I bet it's the same technology as in their HD-XA2 and disabled the HD DVD function.
HD > Upscaling
Any way you slice it. Why 'fill in' false data when you can have the real thing? You don't have to buy a BluRay player to have true HD people. Wake up.
Sony has been trying to pull the Jedi mind trick on the weak-minded, folks. As long as we use the H264 codec then DVD9 discs have enough space. Bravo to Toshiba for finally realizing this. How many of us have dual-layer burners to make "backups"? EXACTLY. Think about it.
"Blu-ray isn't the HD content you're looking for".
About this new dvd players from Toshiba: Super Resolution + SpursEngine?
http://en.cellusersgroup.com/themes/cellusersgroup-en/bnrSpursEngine_l1.gif
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9993/believeyp8.jpg
http://www.htforum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=69472&page=7
Roberto This message was edited at: 03-06-2008 19:06
@ Robertoy
Thanks for the info. Didn't understand a word of it. Too bad I can't read Spanish. If there's one thing I took away from it, though, is that Google Translate sucks.
DukeNukem,
Spanish?...No. Brazilian portuguese.
But you will understand the images comparing SD with HD 960p by upscale using super resolution + SpursEngine and links with comments in english.
http://en.cellusersgroup.com/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/09/toshiba_cell_strategy/
http://hdpro.jp/article/index_071127en.html
http://hdpro.jp/events/080402hdpfreport_en.html
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20080530TDY01303.htm
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=23384
If Toshiba is in this situation after the dead of HD-DVD:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/05/30/toshiba-knows-no-shame-plans-to-release-super-resolution-dvd-pl/
Blu-ray is in this situation due to the high prices of players (cheap players will help Forest...):
http://www.htforum.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1131244&postcount=48
Roberto
@ DukeNukem
Try running Google Translate from Portuguese to English instead of Spanish to English. (The site appears to be based in Brazil.)
Here's a money quote from that thread (in inglês, no less) about this new chip, taken from a comment left on a C|Net blog posting.
"Actually Mr. Nishida was serious about "No Blu-Ray" comment. Toshiba has been sitting on a killer image enhancement technology called "Super Upconversion"(Toshiba branded Super Resolution that has been used by NASA and CIA for image enhancement for decades) that can computationally generate a native 960p frame by fusing nine 480p DVD frame sources running on CELL processor. Journalists, mostly Japanese but I did see one UK, who have seen this demo in action confirm the output does really look HD, being able to read previously illegible letters on DVD. Toshiba originally intended to keep this technology on it and Sharp's HDTV sets only as a product differentiator, but Mr. Nishida's interview confirms Super Upconversion is now coming to DVD players in order to combat Blu-Ray and protect Toshiba's almost $1 billion/year DVD royalty. So no Blu-Ray players from Toshiba, but a bunch of new Super Upconversion DVD players from Toshiba and its Chinese allies."
I still like Blu-Ray (for new releases), but this technology looks like it'll be pretty good for all the old DVDs that we have lying around... It might be faking it, but if it's good fakery, what's wrong with that?
What is wrong with this? I am sure there are plenty of people out there that are tired of replacing their video library because some idiot decides it it time for a new format. Right now, you can buy DVDs around $5. Try buying a Bluray for that much or trying to find your movie in Bluray format in the first place. If I did ever get a HD TV, I would be interested in this since it would be a fortune to replace every movie I have in Bluray format.
@ Robertoy
I saw the images, but I don't know which is which. Is the first one standard DVD? Regular upsampled DVD?
@ shaolin007
I have about 650 store-bought DVD movies. No way will I shell out the money to buy it again on Blu-ray. This product will be a God-send for me. I'm planning on getting a 50" LCD or laser TV (fingers crossed) later this year.
This message was edited at: 03-06-2008 22:06
I'm thinking of my favoUrite line from the movie "AT THE DVD'S CORE" One of the characters says "DEATH TO SONY AND BLU RAY"......
Actually, its "At The Earth's Core" and the line is "Death To the Mayhah's", but both versions make sense....
Half of the price of an OPPO DV-983 (Anchor Bay upscale) would be good in the launch (US$200), because Blu-ray players can be found today below US$300...(Wal-Mart, "old" Profile 1.0 and Profile 1.1 players...)
Half of the price of an OPPO DV-983 (Anchor Bay upscale) would be good in the launch (US$200), because Blu-ray players can be found today below US$300...(Wal-Mart, "old" Profile 1.0 and Profile 1.1 players...)
@ DukeNuken
The video running in Toshiba Qosmio + SpursEngine was a SD video (720x480) MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (not upscaled in real time in that prototype, but in final products (tv´s/dvd´s), SD > HD 960p in real time)
"Toshiba was showed an SD video (720x480 pixels) compressed with MPEG-4AVC/H.264 that is decoded and converted up crisp, full-HD video image (1920x1080 pixels) on the PC screen."
http://www.htforum.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1093101&postcount=109
Roberto
Question, don't the movie companies have to "upscale" their movies anyways to put them on Bluray? I mean surely Terminator 2 wasn't in 1080p back in the day.
"Question, don't the movie companies have to "upscale" their movies anyways to put them on Bluray? I mean surely Terminator 2 wasn't in 1080p back in the day."
Correct. It was in 4000P or better on film.
At the moment the way is believing in what is best for the market in upscale, such as the Oppo´s ...
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/6859/ibelieveef9.jpg
Roberto
DukeNukem... psychosis-free since yesterday.
