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Thursday, March 02, 2006 8:05 PM PT Posted by Melissa Perenson
Toshiba Takes HD DVD on the Road
Yesterday, I had a chance to view a working sample of Toshiba's high-end HD DVD player, the HD-XA1 (announced at CES in January). Last week, Toshiba kicked off a 40-city road show, during which the company is visiting more than 130 retail stores to showcase HD DVD for consumers. The event I attended was at Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale, and the content shown certainly looked appealing on the 72-inch DLP Toshiba screen used in the demonstration.The unit on display is the $799 model; a lower-cost model, the HD-A1, will sell for $499. Two of this model's distinguishing features are its motorized front door (press a button, and it opens and closes on its own) and its illuminated, motion-sensor remote (any motion and the it lights up on its own). Of note: the display model has two front-mounted USB ports; as of this writing, though, Toshiba didn't have specific information as to how those ports could be used. Here's a photo:
Among the ports on the back of the unit are composite and component video; coaxial, optical, and composite audio; and HDMI. See for yourself:
The player has an RJ-45 LAN connection. However, but this connection will only work to download content (using the movie disc as navigator); you cannot put this device on a home network. The company recently clarified, however, that the unit will handle interactivity.
No actual movies were available for viewing. Instead, we saw movie trailers, including Universal's King Kong and Warner's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; the images, not surprisingly, had depth, and looked quite vibrant. I was even more impressed by the non-studio supplied example of HD MPEG4-AVC-encoded content. The split-screen content purportedly showed the difference between high-definition (at left) and standard def (at right) video.
Toshiba's players will be available for sale at the end of March. According to Toshiba's Tina Tuccillo, vice president of marketing communications, the company expects to sell 30,000 units in the first three months.
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Cool. I won't be getting one for awhile, too expensive, and I want to wait to see what happens with the war with blu-ray. My money is on HD-DVD, for both the cost being less than blu-ray, being able to use existing infrastructure, and really, the name. I think people will be receptive to High Definition DVD's than some random blue disc, even though the blu-ray is technically superior.
I saw the demo yesterday at the Tweeter on Oak Broo, IL.
When I got there though they...
A. Didn't have the demo hooked up to a Toshiba brand TV.
B. Had it hooked up to a Samsung that could only output 720P!
The rep mentioned that he tried to get it hooked up on another set but they declined. When he mentioned to the store manager that I had the same request, they moved the demo over to a Samsung set with 1080i. The demo looked great, but I was hoping to see it on a 1080P set, ideally, since that is what I'll be upgrading to soon.
I'll probably just buy a PS3 with Blu-Ray, but I had to make the effort to compare the 2.
HD-DVD is limited to 1080i in order to keep the price of the players down. Blu-Ray will output 1080p. The analog component video connections on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players will down-rez all HD to 540p, but this is up to the studios to implement and will be disc dependent. Personally, I won't be buying anything till the format war is over and I've had a chance to replace my analog only HDTV with one that has HDMI inputs. Of course by then someone will have figured out how to deliver 1080p HD content over the Internet rendering the format war and this discussion moot.
Is the blue-ray player output really 1080p? What about hd-dvd disc? What are they recorded in (1080i,1080p)?
WHAT IS THE POSITION REGARDING MY EXISTING DVD LIBRARY?
WILL THEY BE PLAYABLE ON THE NEW SYSTEM IN THE ORIGINAL FORMAT? OR WILL WE HAVE TO HAVE BOTH SYSTEM HARDWARE.
It is my understanding from the Toshiba and Sony representatives at CES 2006 that HD-DVD and Blue-Ray players will NOT initially offer 1080p output, only 720p and 1080i will be offered via HDMI. The reason is lack of 1080p content and very few true 1080p displays. Studios will decide whether to impliment a flag to down-rez on component outputs, but HDMI will offer full 720p or 1080i.
All HD-DVD and Blu-Ray content will be encoded at 1080p. It will be up to the player manufacturers to decide whether or not they output 1080p. HD-DVD players will eventually output 1080p as new 1080p displays come on the market and the cost of manufacturing players comes down. They went with 1080i initially to give them a cost advantage over Blu-Ray and to get their players on the market quicker. If you plan on picking up a HD-DVD player, I?d wait till the 1080p models are available or at least be sure your display will deinterlace the video to 1080p ? some newer displays will. By the way, Microsoft implied the reason 1080p will not be offered initially on HD-DVD players is because of limitations in the HDMI spec (lack of bandwidth). This is complete nonsense. HDMI has had the capacity to carry 1080p video since its inception.
You won?t need two separate players for your existing DVD library and the next generation HD formats. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players will be backwards compatible with DVD. Now if you want to be able to play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, then yes you will need separate hardware. I read recently that LG plans to make a universal (HD-DVD + Blu-Ray + DVD) player by the end of the year, but I highly doubt they could pull if off due to licensing restrictions imposed by both HD formats.
P.S. I?ve obtained this information by reading many news stories and participating in various home theater forums on the Internet. I suggest doing your own research before making any purchases.
Blu-Ray is much better
Can the Sony Blue Ray or the Toshiba out 1080i through HDMI. I have a Sony SXRD TV but it can only take 1080i throught the HDMI. Using the component input is the other option but I wan to use the HDMI connector.
First of all, the resolution of the content will determine the performance of any HD player. Whatever style of camera being used, whether 480p-720p-1080i or 1080p, the discs should get recorded in that format. Now the player will pull off the signal and send it via HDMI to your TV. It will not modify the data unless it needs to convert it to analog or step it down for whatever reason.
HDMI is now 1080p capable bandwidth-wise, but the manufactures don't want to spend the $$$ to support it. This is why Blu-Ray will cost more than HD-DVD. They will support 1080p, and have superiority in just about every other aspect of their design.
Now with any High-Def DVD content as well as with Digital TV, we are at the mercy of the producers pocket-book. Their question is "Is it worth it to produce our shows in High Definition?". And then again, "What format?". This part sucks.
So in conclusion, why would I buy an HD player only to have it outdated in a year? HD-DVD is not the answer for me, My money is on Blu-Ray.
Thanks for the reply. I think I understand your point that the output will be in the format in which it was recorded (1080i, 720p,1080p etc.). Do you know if the Sony Blue Ray player that has been annouced will give the users to choose the resoultion that it outputs over the HDMI connector i.e. if a new movie is recorded in 1080p on the DVD , can I choose to output at 1080i. The reason I would want to do this is because my Sony SXRD TV I just bought can only take in 1080i over HDMI. I have not seen any user guide or detailed spec. for the new Blu Ray player.
I have just returned from the USA where I saw in the Sears store at Cape Cod Mall a Sony HDTV, which I believe was a DLP model, with 1080p resolution capabilities, playing a DVD on a Sony HD DVD player outputting 1080p as its native resolution.
Even on the 42" screen, the pixels were virtually invisible individually close-up, truly amazing quality.
This is what HDTV is really about, 1080i and 780p are little, if at all, better than a top end standard def CRT set. Anyone running these installations and thinks they have HDTV is in for a big surprise when they see real HDTV in operation.