CES 2006 News & Announcements

[Shifty Geezer]

So it's providing higher colour detail for processing down to 24 bit per pixel fo rthe display. Right.

What worries me is that most HDTVs have their own digital processing so in the end what we see on the screen will be an approximation of an approximation of an approximation of reality. With lots of filtering in between and sometimes even analog-digital conversions thrown in.

This sounds perturbing. PS3 reads BluRay, processes it in 32 bit floats, feeds 12 bit per channel for the TV, which wants the higher-colour quality because it then does it's own processing! Ideally I want an off switch for the display, which just takes the colour for each pixel and whacks it on the screen! I guess in the end it'll still look good, but they aren't half overcomplicating things. Does anyone sell large dumb-panels, with no TV decoder or image processing, just like big PC monitors?

 

[London Geezer]

So it's providing higher colour detail for processing down to 24 bit per pixel fo rthe display. Right.
This sounds perturbing. PS3 reads BluRay, processes it in 32 bit floats, feeds 12 bit per channel for the TV, which wants the higher-colour quality because it then does it's own processing! Ideally I want an off switch for the display, which just takes the colour for each pixel and whacks it on the screen! I guess in the end it'll still look good, but they aren't half overcomplicating things. Does anyone sell large dumb-panels, with no TV decoder or image processing, just like big PC monitors?

Well you can always turn the processing off in many (most?) sets. And some sets only have the processing to help SD sources and is disabled when watching HD material (like the Sony Bravia's).
I made it sound much worse than it really is

 

[Pugger]

Shifty the thing is some of the decoders in the TV are actually better than the decoder in the players. This is also the reason why the argument regarded HDMI a pure digital source and compnent in terms of quality is not as straight forward as it first appears as LB is correct some HD TV take the HDMI source back to analogue in the decoder then back to Digital.

 

[Titanio]

Good job, have been keeping an eye out for pics for a while now, but couldn't find any!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I made it sound much worse than it really is

Curse you and your evil mindgames. As the soul source of my understanding of HDTV you have power to mislead like no other. The moment you tell me they're powered by jelly, that's what I'll be telling my friends...

 

[London Geezer]

Curse you and your evil mindgames. As the soul source of my understanding of HDTV you have power to mislead like no other. The moment you tell me they're powered by jelly, that's what I'll be telling my friends...

You didn't know they're powered by electrifying jelly fish?!


BTW, THANKS for the soul source of my understanding of HDTV, means a lot to an old auntie like me...

 

[Hardknock]

Some close-ups - they're transparent blue afterall:

http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image...ssociation-booth-report-20060106001408110.jpg

http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image...ssociation-booth-report-20060106001350393.jpg

I expected it to not be that ugly. It's not the color that I mind, it's the cheap looking plastic. Especially for a premium medium that will surely sport a premium price tag. It would have looked much much better if they used a clear blue plastic instead.

And I called it folks Those actually look a whole lot better than the first screens.

 

[London Geezer]

And I called it folks Those actually look a whole lot better than the first screens.

Maybe they changed it last-minute after seeing your post! Wouldn't be the only last-minute thing we've seen from the show this year... cough...

 

[Bad_Boy]

Funny they look just like blu-ray cases ...except red. lol

 

[London Geezer]

Funny they look just like blu-ray cases ...except red. lol

Or maybe the Bluray cases look just like the HDDVD cases, except blue...

What came first? Chicken or egg?

 

[rabidrabbit]

Would the PS3 games come in similar cases, except those that still come in DVD's?
They're both (DVD and BR-Games) likely to come in cases of similar physical forms at least, so will they be standard old DVD cases or somethin compeltely other.
My bet is they'll come in Blu-ray shape cases, be they DVD or Blu-ray games, but of different colour.

 

[mckmas8808]

Or maybe the Bluray cases look just like the HDDVD cases, except blue...

What came first? Chicken or egg?

EGG. Oh.

 

[avaya]

wco81, any info on the Toshiba HD-DVD conference?

You said the player failed to work, I know Palladin at AV forum hinted last month that the player at CES would be some sort of rush job since the first models wouldn't work.

Do they actually have (working) players being made right now to final spec?

 

[Mariner]

Anand mentions that the player crashed when they saw it. Obviously not out of beta yet!

 

[wco81]

wco81, any info on the Toshiba HD-DVD conference?

You said the player failed to work, I know Palladin at AV forum hinted last month that the player at CES would be some sort of rush job since the first models wouldn't work.

Do they actually have (working) players being made right now to final spec?

I read that in a blurb, either at the Cnet coverage or at Engadget. Or maybe a link posted here or at AVS. But the reporters noted that they just used the HD-DVD drive in a Toshiba Qosimo laptop instead.

Toshiba has already said their first players will be replaced later this year so I don't know why anyone would buy them unless they want to burn a few hundred dollars. It seems all the HD-DVD players announced only do 1080i? So maybe the later players will do 1080p.

 

[BTOA]

Anand mentions that the player crashed when they saw it. Obviously not out of beta yet!

Ouch.

BTW, has anyone seen any report on that 1080p DVD player?

 

[one]

Watch Impress's article on the BDA conference yesterday:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060106/ces09.htm

I'm only using Google Translator, but Kaz Hirai and Ken Kutaragi were both there apparently. Kaz talked about Blu-ray and games, and threw out the statistic that in PS2's first year, 74% of titles were on CD, 26% on DVD. 5 years later, 5% were on CD, 95% on DVD, and he expects the same trend to occur with DVD and Blu-ray.

Ken was there too - not sure if he spoke in front of the audience, but he spoke to Watch Impress anyway. He wouldn't confirm PS3's release date, but he said that a number of specifications, like the AACS specification (the content management system for blu-ray), were pending finalisation. He also said that Sony wants to adopt the next-generation HDMI standard into PS3, if it's ready on time (it's due in the first half of 2006), which will allow 16-bit per component colour, versus the 12-bit per component they have now. There's some other discussion about it, but the auto-translation is a bit muddy.

According to the article, the current HDMI is limited to 8bit/color and Kutaragi says they want at least 12bit and hopefully 16bit to show images internally processed in 16bit without Mach bands. The next-gen HDMI with new iTDMS serial link has twice the bandwidth of the current HDMI and compatible with UDI (here's more info in the PR for iTDMS parts developed by Silicon Image http://www.siliconimage.com/news/press/detailpressrelease.aspx?id=342) It's likely that PS3 becomes the world first mass-produced product with HDMI 2.0 interfaces.

I guess this is what Kutaragi had in mind when he talked about 120fps and a future TV interface.

 

[wco81]

Ouch.

BTW, has anyone seen any report on that 1080p DVD player?

Isn't Toshiba suppose to be using some variant of Windows? Or will be in the future?

Which 1080p player? It sounds like only the real expensive Pioneer and the presumably expensive Sony (they haven't announced the price) are the only ones advertised as 1080p output.

None of the HD-DVD players appear to be.

 

[Titanio]

Which 1080p player? It sounds like only the real expensive Pioneer and the presumably expensive Sony (they haven't announced the price) are the only ones advertised as 1080p output.

..and PS3

I updated the original post with news of 4 & 8GB memory sticks (http://www.k-videogames.de/web/news/525/s,,c)

 

[BTOA]

Isn't Toshiba suppose to be using some variant of Windows? Or will be in the future?

Which 1080p player? It sounds like only the real expensive Pioneer and the presumably expensive Sony (they haven't announced the price) are the only ones advertised as 1080p output.

None of the HD-DVD players appear to be.

Sorry, I forgot what Toshiba and the HD-DVD camp are using from MS.

I thought some companies might be showing off some DVD players (Non-Bluray/HD-DVD players) that upscale regular DVDs movies up as a 1080p feed, but I haven't really heard of anything on this matter.