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    Invelos Forums->General: General Home Theater Discussion Page: 1 2 3 4  Previous   Next
Toshiba responds, cuts prices
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorwidescreenforever
Under A Double DoubleW
Registered: March 13, 2007
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and don't forget too,, the true upconverison only applies when playing back the signal thru an  HDMI cable.. not just componant or RCA ..
In the 60's, People took Acid to make the world Weird. Now the World is weird and People take Prozac to make it Normal.

Terry
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registranttwojayz
Registered: September 7, 2007
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In all fairness it's not just Toshiba claiming "Near HD" in regards to supscaling. Every company does it in order to sell the players.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantCalidain
You're no Daisy at all!
Registered: March 16, 2007
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Quoting Mark Harrison:
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Quoting Battling Butler:
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in no hurry to go B-Ray, all my HD DVD's play just fine and look fantastic


My HD DVD's still look and play fine too.  But my new Blu-ray's are equally impressive.  There's no reason to choose one and ignore the other.  Though the battle isn't over, it's should be obvious that at the very least, Blu-ray isn't going anywhere.  So I figure, why fight it.


There is a damn good reason to ignor Blu-Ray at this time...my HD-DVd player cost me $99, the cheapest "complete and future proof" Blu-Ray player I can get, the PS3 40GB, will cost me $399!!!  There's 399 reasons for me to choose HD-DVD and ignore Blu-Ray!!! 

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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorNexus the Sixth
Contributor since 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Different upscalers do a different job... The upscaling chip in the cheaper Toshiba E1 (A2?) for instance is not as good as the one found in the XE1 (XA2 in the US).
First registered: February 15, 2002
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantxradman
Registered: June 17, 2002
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Quoting Mark Harrison:
Quote:
They can call it "near high definition" all they want.  But there's a clear difference on both my A2 and PS3.  In my personal opinion, I'd say upscaled DVDs look closer to standard DVDs than they do HD material.  They still look very good of course, but there's no mistaking them for true HD material.


I think it depends on your TV and the movie.  Even on my 61" TV, sitting 8 feet back, certain SD DVDs with good upscaler look indistinguishable or even better than certain poorly mastered Blu-ray or HD DVD.  Reference HDMs are in a league of their own, however even with these, most people would tough time seeing the improvement over good upscaled DVD with screens smaller than 40" in typical home viewing environment.
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DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantAgrare
Registered: May 22, 2007
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Quoting Calidain:
Quote:
Quoting Mark Harrison:
Quote:
Quoting Battling Butler:
Quote:
in no hurry to go B-Ray, all my HD DVD's play just fine and look fantastic


My HD DVD's still look and play fine too.  But my new Blu-ray's are equally impressive.  There's no reason to choose one and ignore the other.  Though the battle isn't over, it's should be obvious that at the very least, Blu-ray isn't going anywhere.  So I figure, why fight it.


There is a damn good reason to ignor Blu-Ray at this time...my HD-DVd player cost me $99, the cheapest "complete and future proof" Blu-Ray player I can get, the PS3 40GB, will cost me $399!!!  There's 399 reasons for me to choose HD-DVD and ignore Blu-Ray!!! 



wouldn't that be 300 reasons to ignore Blu-Ray as the difference between going blue and going red according to your statement is $300

-Agrare
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantCalidain
You're no Daisy at all!
Registered: March 16, 2007
Posts: 405
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Quoting Agrare:
Quote:
Quoting Calidain:
Quote:
Quoting Mark Harrison:
Quote:
Quoting Battling Butler:
Quote:
in no hurry to go B-Ray, all my HD DVD's play just fine and look fantastic


My HD DVD's still look and play fine too.  But my new Blu-ray's are equally impressive.  There's no reason to choose one and ignore the other.  Though the battle isn't over, it's should be obvious that at the very least, Blu-ray isn't going anywhere.  So I figure, why fight it.


There is a damn good reason to ignor Blu-Ray at this time...my HD-DVd player cost me $99, the cheapest "complete and future proof" Blu-Ray player I can get, the PS3 40GB, will cost me $399!!!  There's 399 reasons for me to choose HD-DVD and ignore Blu-Ray!!! 



wouldn't that be 300 reasons to ignore Blu-Ray as the difference between going blue and going red according to your statement is $300

-Agrare


No, since I have the Toshiba HD-A2 ( a gift for Christmas actually, girlfriend bought it during the big Wal=Mart sale) there is no reason to ignore HD-DVD format, however since I don't have the PS3 or any other Blu-Ray player, that would mean there are 399 reasons to ignore Blu-Ray altogether at this moment!!!  The cost of the Toshiba has zero bearing on whether or not I want to spend the $399 for the PS3!!!
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DVD Profiler Unlimited Registranttwojayz
Registered: September 7, 2007
United States Posts: 265
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Quoting xradman:
Quote:
Quoting Mark Harrison:
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They can call it "near high definition" all they want.  But there's a clear difference on both my A2 and PS3.  In my personal opinion, I'd say upscaled DVDs look closer to standard DVDs than they do HD material.  They still look very good of course, but there's no mistaking them for true HD material.


I think it depends on your TV and the movie.  Even on my 61" TV, sitting 8 feet back, certain SD DVDs with good upscaler look indistinguishable or even better than certain poorly mastered Blu-ray or HD DVD.  Reference HDMs are in a league of their own, however even with these, most people would tough time seeing the improvement over good upscaled DVD with screens smaller than 40" in typical home viewing environment.


I have to agree. Anyone here seen Revenge of the Sith? That is a phenomenal picture from a SD...
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantMark Harrison
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting xradman:
Quote:
I think it depends on your TV and the movie.  Even on my 61" TV, sitting 8 feet back, certain SD DVDs with good upscaler look indistinguishable or even better than certain poorly mastered Blu-ray or HD DVD.


Sure it depends.  Here are some other cases where HD material won't look as good as upscaled DVDs:

1) If you're blind.
2) If you watch your TV through a sheet of tissue paper
3) If you sit 400 yards away from your TV
4) If you're insane (it's 50/50 which one you'd pick as the best looking in this case or you might just stare at the "spiders" on the ceiling instead)
5) If you have a scrambling device connected to your HD player.
6) If you put your HD disc in the player upside down.
7) If you sleep through the comparison.
8) If your DVD player is connected with component or HDMI and your HD player is connected with a composite cable.

There are an infinite number of reasons why an HD disc might not look better than an upscaled DVD.  For that matter, a reference VHS tape might look better than extremely poorly mastered DVDs, HD DVDs or Blu-rays.  I'm not really sure what your point is here. 

Let's try again.  On the proper equipment, properly calibrated, in the proper environment, with quality software that comes from quality elements transferred by a competent technician, upscaled DVDs don't even come close to HD material.  They look better than standard DVDs that aren't upscaled, but that's about it.

I agree with your comments, but I fail to see the point in comparing superb DVDs and crappy HD material.
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorLewis_Prothero
Strength Through Unity
Registered: May 19, 2007
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Quoting Calidain:
Quote:
There is a damn good reason to ignor Blu-Ray at this time...my HD-DVd player cost me $99, the cheapest "complete and future proof" Blu-Ray player I can get, the PS3 40GB, will cost me $399!!!  There's 399 reasons for me to choose HD-DVD and ignore Blu-Ray!!! 



We have a saying here: Things you don't need are always too expensive, no matter what they cost.
For you it's Blu-Ray, for me it would be HD-DVD.
Just remember that one reason to sell HD-DVD-player off so cheap may be that they can't be sold for normal price.
It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up!
But why should I give up, when it all seems so stupid?


Registrant since 05/22/2003
 Last edited: by Lewis_Prothero
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorwidescreenforever
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Checking eBay this afternoon I see the following:
DVD (3212)
HD-DVD (2039)
Blu-ray (548)

for sale..  The HD DVD prices ares still within BluRay prices  $6.99 to $18.99
But there are oh so many HD-DVD's  to choose from.
In the 60's, People took Acid to make the world Weird. Now the World is weird and People take Prozac to make it Normal.

Terry
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorwidescreenforever
Under A Double DoubleW
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Posted:
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Quoting Mark Harrison:
Quote:
Quoting xradman:
Quote:
I think it depends on your TV and the movie.  Even on my 61" TV, sitting 8 feet back, certain SD DVDs with good upscaler look indistinguishable or even better than certain poorly mastered Blu-ray or HD DVD.


Sure it depends.  Here are some other cases where HD material won't look as good as upscaled DVDs:

1) If you're blind.
2) If you watch your TV through a sheet of tissue paper
3) If you sit 400 yards away from your TV
4) If you're insane (it's 50/50 which one you'd pick as the best looking in this case or you might just stare at the "spiders" on the ceiling instead)
5) If you have a scrambling device connected to your HD player.
6) If you put your HD disc in the player upside down.
7) If you sleep through the comparison.
8) If your DVD player is connected with component or HDMI and your HD player is connected with a composite cable.


The list is funny to read out loud.. until I get to # 8 ..  ??
In the 60's, People took Acid to make the world Weird. Now the World is weird and People take Prozac to make it Normal.

Terry
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNewEnglander
Registered: 11/13/2003
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I think his point is that no matter whar, Blu-ray or HD DVD always looks better than Upscaling a DVD no matter the source.

Note that #8 has the HD connections on a DVD pkayer and the HD player on a non-hd connection. It mirrors the other options he stated.
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantMark Harrison
I like IMDB
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting pplchamp:
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I think his point is that no matter whar, Blu-ray or HD DVD always looks better than Upscaling a DVD no matter the source.


Almost, but not quite.  Sure there are DVDs that are exceptional.  And they look fantastic upconverted.  And there are HD DVDs/Blu-rays that are just crap and don't look much better than some DVDs.  I'm just saying that you can't compare the best DVDs to the worst HD discs and conclude that upconverted DVDs are almost as good as HD.  Because the best HD discs blows the best upconverted DVDs out the water.  In my opinion of course.

Of course I'm not rushing out to dump my DVDs either.  I've only replaced a few up to this point (and a few of those were free discs with players).  And there's very few that I would like to spend money on again.  But I'm also paying less and less attention to new DVDs coming out and spending more attention on new HD material.

As for #8, I was just trying to provide a more realistic situation.  I'm not sure who would hook up an HD player with awful connections and their DVD player with the best they can.  But I guess it could happen.  And in that case, I wouldn't expect them to see a whole lot of difference.
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DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantnolesrule
Registered: 09/21/2000
Registered: March 15, 2007
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The best HD discs haven't even been produced yet. Current discs will be considered terrible compared to what will come in a couple of years. Just like the early days of DVD, it takes awhile for them to master to encoding process.
 Last edited: by nolesrule
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantCalidain
You're no Daisy at all!
Registered: March 16, 2007
Posts: 405
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Quoting goblinsdoitall:
Quote:
Quoting Calidain:
Quote:
There is a damn good reason to ignor Blu-Ray at this time...my HD-DVd player cost me $99, the cheapest "complete and future proof" Blu-Ray player I can get, the PS3 40GB, will cost me $399!!!  There's 399 reasons for me to choose HD-DVD and ignore Blu-Ray!!! 



We have a saying here: Things you don't need are always too expensive, no matter what they cost.
For you it's Blu-Ray, for me it would be HD-DVD.
Just remember that one reason to sell HD-DVD-player off so cheap may be that they can't be sold for normal price.


I could give a rats arse why they sold them so cheap, I just know that I liked the price, it suited my needs, and gave me a damned good reason to finally pick up a Hi-Def format player!!!  And I will argue that if the BDA wants their Hi-Def format to replace the firmly entrenched DVD format then they are going to have bite the bullet and lower the damn prices for the hardware and the movies themselves. 

It is not the big spender early adopters who bring formats to mainstream, it is the 2 income, 2.5 kids, mortaged, middle class consumers who decide wisely each and every couple weeks what to spend their paychecks on, and I believe they aren't buying into Hi-Def right now when they still feel that their DVD based Home Theater is good enough, especially since they can purchase new movie releases on DVD for half as much as typical new movie releases on either Hi-Def format!!!  I guarantee you that consumer doesn't give a damn why Toshiba sold that player for $99 either!!!
My Collection!!!
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