Why Blu-Ray Should Never Have Existed: Technology Lesson Learned

[admin]

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/rob/?p=145

[Chewy]

very informative, the scalar part especially, which doesn't look good for hd players also

question, will an hd player upconvert standard dvd?

[admin]

very informative, the scalar part especially, which doesn't look good for hd players also

question, will an hd player upconvert standard dvd?

Yes, pretty much all the HD DVD/Blu-ray players will do DVD upscaling, but only through HDMI due to stupid CSS licensing restrictions.

I believe currently that the Toshiba HD-XA2 has the best DVD upscaler of all the current HD players (Toshiba's third gen is coming out soon though, but I've heard that the XA2 will remain the best for DVD upscaling). It uses renowned HQV's Reon-VX chipset, which also does video processing and high quality de-interlacing.

Here's what a review of the player said:

In other words, the HD-XA2 combines the quality upscaling of previous HD DVD players with top notch deinterlacing as well. It is the first HD DVD player I feel comfortable saying could fully replace even a high-end dedicated DVD player, so long as multi-region playback isn't a necessity.

[drfsupercenter]

Personally, I think they'd be smart to make players that do both DVD and Blu-Ray (I'm not sure what the price to make one of those would be though)... that way you can buy whatever movies you want in either format (because most are either-or) and still play them.

Although, as I have said many times, I'll continue using normal DVD as I don't have a LCD TV so it's pointless to go HD.

[Chewy]

that's ok, at your age it's called "defered gratification", the "conspicuous consumption"
will come sooner or later, at my age comes the "don't give a damn"

[toomanycats]

I just saw the latest Sony LCD with a 4ms latency rate. The picture was awesome. The BlueRay hooked up to it showed many artifacts in The Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I think 2ms will be the magic number for latency but these new Blue-Rays really show up imperfections of the DVD's. Of course, there is the possibility that I have no idea of what I am talking about. The HDMI is going to make a lot of electronics obsolete or at least relegated to the secondary viewing area (bedroom). This forum is a must for anyone contemplating buying anything new. There is just so much junk for sale.

[admin]

Personally, I think they'd be smart to make players that do both DVD and Blu-Ray (I'm not sure what the price to make one of those would be though)... that way you can buy whatever movies you want in either format (because most are either-or) and still play them.

Although, as I have said many times, I'll continue using normal DVD as I don't have a LCD TV so it's pointless to go HD.

Samsung just released one that does both HD DVD and Blu-ray (including all interactive features as well). It's new, so it's expensive (more expensive than buying separate players), but prices will come down. $US 400 is probably the magic mark that will get a lot of people interesting in buying (I paid this much for my last upscaling/networked DVD player, about 2 years ago).

[atifsh]

according to some blueray may obsolete in 3 4 months time..... as thers no defined standard yet and they need a month or 2 to finalize it. thus many will go towards HD-DVD and not blueray as trhey dont know what standards they should use to mass market the disks

[drfsupercenter]

I don't really see why it matters which format is which... I just like those BD-R discs that hold 25GB

(not that I have a Blu-Ray burner... those are too expensive, maybe once they are under $100 I'll get one)

[admin]

Nearly forgot, I summarised the pros/cons of choosing HD DVD or Blu-ray on the newly launched DigiWiki, I think it might be helpful for those who want a quick summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each format:

Blu-ray
HD DVD

[RFBurns]

Like I have said many times....standards in the industry have gone out the window and blowing in the wind like a loose leaf from a tree.

The EIA and its international counterpart are sitting on the sidelines with this format wars, causing unecessary confusion at the level where it counts the most.....the consumer.

Unless one has abundant resources to buy multiple machines to do just one thing...most will not fork out the expense of having two or more players to perfrom that single function.

Different brands of equipment is one thing...but having the industry begin to divide and conquer as it is now doing is not in the best interest of the buying public.