Toshiba's Blu-ray Killer Part III: Downloading DVD Players July 3, 2008
Read more Blu-ray , Entertainment , Gizmodo UK , HD , HD DVD , HDTV , Movies , Technology
Following the sudden defeat of HD DVD, Toshiba revealed last month that it will attempting to kick Blu-ray's butt - again - by placing a special chip in its new DVD players that will upscale DVD video into HD video to rival that of Blu-ray.
This month we get a new logo [above] and speculation that Toshiba will be adding Internet capability to the new DVD players - and DVD movie disc content - too. The "DVD Download/DL" logo has been approved by the DVD Forum Steering Committee but we have no real information on what it will actually do. Will it make a difference in the never-ending HD spat?
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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Comments
I wonder if this is going to be something along the lines of VMD?
we have both types of players in our household. the upscaled dvds are awsome, but i dont see them being considered to be a rival to hd video. lastly, what kind of pricing would they think to be justifiable... cause i'm sure it will be more then your regular dvd players
Im not quite sure what Tosh are aiming for with this, it just sounds like a more advanced upscaler, in which case....Whats so great about that? When you compare the quality of upscaled DVD content to Full HD from a bluRay disc, the latter eats the former for breakfast.
Dont get me wrong, upscaling does a good job and has given my old DVD library a new lease of life, but if something has been recorded in 576 lines (DVD), i dont see how any amount of processing/upscaling can make it look anywhere near as good as 1080 lines (Bluray).
Also im sure these new upscaling DVD players from Toshiba will cost more than a standard upscaling player, and if they do, why not just dig that little bit deeper into the pocket and buy a bluray player.
And lets just remember, bluray players will play back and upscale standard DVDs anyway. The upscaler in the new Tosh machines may well upscale better than a bluray player but im sure most consumers would rather have a single device that can do both jobs well ie. a bluray player, rather than having 2 seperate devices that will give you slightly better performance.
Give it up Tosh!! Quit while your.....behind!!
If this was so good at upscaling a standard DVD to look the same as BD, why didn't they just do this in the first place? If I were Sony, I wouldn't worry too much about this.