CES 2006 News & Announcements

[London Geezer]

I must admit I'm looking forward to HD films be it HDDVD or Blu-Ray having lashed out an huge amount on a Pani PV500 . The one that offers the best value per a £ I'm buying. Besides if I consider it to be HDDVD I will have my PS3 as my Blu-ray player even though I know it will be a bog standard in terms of quality. The only thing I'm a bit varry of is all the trailers I've watched off LIVE on the 360 in 720p (Nania being a prime candidate) I have been really underwelemed. Yes it looks better but the jump is nowhere near what I expected. I have a Denon DVD player which upscales to 720p and although not as good it really isn't that much of a difference.

Heh that's what people have been saying, but especially on the Panny 500 (congrats, it's one amazing set) you should really see a big difference. Unless you're sitting very far from the TV in which case a DVD and a HD movie will look kinda similar...

 

[Titanio]

I will have my PS3 as my Blu-ray player even though I know it will be a bog standard in terms of quality.

Well..wait and see. The Blu-ray specification is such that the variance in quality between players shouldn't be as high as it was with DVD. PS3 ain't a recorder, but from a playback point of view it should be the equal of any of the first Blu-ray players at least.

The only thing I'm a bit varry of is all the trailers I've watched off LIVE on the 360 in 720p (Nania being a prime candidate) I have been really underwelemed. Yes it looks better but the jump is nowhere near what I expected. I have a Denon DVD player which upscales to 720p and although not as good it really isn't that much of a difference.

Well, Blu-ray is 1080p for starters. But I think the comparison is better made to regular DVD too, rather than upconverted (Blu-ray players will upconvert your DVDs, btw). I also don't know if a 720p downloadable trailer (and the potential implications for encoding priorities i.e. quality vs size) is the best way to judge Blu-ray or HDDVD movies. I'd wait to see them for myself (though the reports of even just 720p movies from previous tradeshows were very encouraging).

 

[London Geezer]

Just the fact that all Bluray players will be plugged through HDMI means that the signals are all digital, and digital signals are all the same. The only thing that will make a difference is what HDTV you plug them to, and, in case HD component output is allowed, the quality of the analog conversion.

Other than that, PS3 will be just as good as any other Bluray player, without recording capabilities.

 

[PG2G]

Just the fact that all Bluray players will be plugged through HDMI means that the signals are all digital, and digital signals are all the same. The only thing that will make a difference is what HDTV you plug them to, and, in case HD component output is allowed, the quality of the analog conversion.

Other than that, PS3 will be just as good as any other Bluray player, without recording capabilities.

Something has to create that digital signal. Its not like the Bluray player just reads bits from the disc and sends them over HDMI. It needs to be decoded and such. That said, I don't see any reason for it to be any worse. PS3 has more than enough horsepowr to do a good job.

 

[Pugger]

London, I'm not trying to be controversial or anything such like, but really the trailers in 720p from LIVE are not the jump I expected. I watch the 37inch screen from just over 2 metres away and I have shown them to friends to show off my new HD TV but not one of them has noticed a major difference. My son can see no difference whatsoever. I'm just hoping that when Blu Ray and HDDVD come along things will be different. And another thing that’s overrated is HDMI. The bloody cable does not lock into the socket either on the TV or DVD player and constantly breaks connection. It’s quite an oversight that. Anyway whinge mode off. Still can't wait to get my hands on HD material, even if it just means I can moan a bit more!

 

[Titanio]

On the point of "readiness" and market readiness, industry readiness, this article has another take if anyone's interetsted:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-01-03-dvd-ces_x.htm

 

[London Geezer]

That said, I don't see any reason for it to be any worse. PS3 has more than enough horsepowr to do a good job.

Exactly. In fact, PS3 will have more horsepower than any other Bluray player, although i'm sure Sony will make it so that most of that horsepower won't be available during playback, or everyone will just buy the "cheaper" PS3's instead of standalone players, if it turns out that PS3 gives you better image quality than those.

 

[!eVo!-X Ant UK]

Come on guys, you know how Camera's can make a colour seem crap. The might look completely diferent in real life.

 

[London Geezer]

London, I'm not trying to be controversial or anything such like, but really the trailers in 720p from LIVE are not the jump I expected. I watch the 37inch screen from just over 2 metres away and I have shown them to friends to show off my new HD TV but not one of them has noticed a major difference. My son can see no difference whatsoever. I'm just hoping that when Blu Ray and HDDVD come along things will be different. And another thing that’s overrated is HDMI. The bloody cable does not lock into the socket either on the TV or DVD player and constantly breaks connection. It’s quite an oversight that. Anyway whinge mode off. Still can't wait to get my hands on HD material, even if it just means I can moan a bit more!

I didn't think you're being controversial at all!

Not sure, it sounds strange that you and your friends can see no difference. Maybe a wrong setup? Dunno...

 

[avaya]

Exactly. In fact, PS3 will have more horsepower than any other Bluray player, although i'm sure Sony will make it so that most of that horsepower won't be available during playback, or everyone will just buy the "cheaper" PS3's instead of standalone players, if it turns out that PS3 gives you better image quality than those.

PS3 image quality could be scaled up as time goes by via software updates (put on games, online, BD-ROMS)

 

[!eVo!-X Ant UK]

Toshiba has officially announced that all their new tv in 2006 will powered by the Cell processor.

http://homeentertainment.engadget.c...-cell-processors-for-all-tvs-in-2006-and-more

i understand that we all know this but is ces related.

The Cell revolution has started

 

[!eVo!-X Ant UK]

Ok guys those who wish to sample high def go here.

http://hdclips.net/

 

[Titanio]

Ok guys those who wish to sample high def go here.

http://hdclips.net/

As nice as they are, I'm sure, these won't really show you what Blu-ray or HDDVDs will look like In fact many of the clips there look like they were just made by people at home.

Your best bet will be to see them in the flesh - unfortunately you'd need to be in Las Vegas to see that for now

 

[London Geezer]

The new high def Xmen3 trailer looks bloody amazing. On the Apple website.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Ok guys those who wish to sample high def go here.

http://hdclips.net/

Thanks for the link eVo! I've been searching for a good place to download HD video.

 

[Pugger]

Titanio, I will beleive the player on the PS3 will be a s good as a way more expensive standalone, be it a recorder or not when I see it. I remember the same being said about the PS2 DVD quality, which turned out to be poor, well compared to £150 player it was. As for the quality of the HD trailers off Live I'm hoping what your thinking, that they are off lower quality. As for 1080p the Pani pv 500 doesn't support it nor do the vast majority of HD TV at the moment.

 

[London Geezer]

Titanio, I will beleive the player on the PS3 will be a s good as a way more expensive standalone, be it a recorder or not when I see it. I remember the same being said about the PS2 DVD quality, which turned out to be poor, well compared to £150 player it was. As for the quality of the HD trailers off Live I'm hoping what your thinking, that they are off lower quality. As for 1080p the Pani pv 500 doesn't support it nor do the vast majority of HD TV at the moment.

The PS2 DVD player though RGB or component was just was good as any DVD player in the same price range at the time. Only other DVD players didn't play games.
Obviously today we have DVD players that are vastly superior, with upscaling and digital outputs and all sorts of tricks to make a crappy SD DVD video look slightly better on HDTVs that will show every flaw in detail, but that's a 5-6 years difference afterall.

 

[Titanio]

As for 1080p the Pani pv 500 doesn't support it nor do the vast majority of HD TV at the moment.

True, but 1080p downsampled to 720p may be better than "just" straight 720p. At least to my eye, 1080p clips tend to still look better on my 720p projector than stuff at 720p. Not as big a jump from DVD to 720p, certainly, but still noticeable. Though there's of course, no accounting for variation in encoding quality etc.

 

[London Geezer]

True, but 1080p downsampled to 720p may be better than "just" straight 720p. At least to my eye, 1080p clips tend to still look better on my 720p projector than stuff at 720p. Not as big a jump from DVD to 720p, certainly, but still noticeable. Though there's of course, no accounting for variation in encoding quality etc.

The LCD Panny 500 has a native res of 1366x768 therefore it will look better when downscaling a 1080i/p signal than when upscaling a "normal" 720p signal. In theory anyway.
The Plasma Panny 500 has a native res of 1024x768 so there won't be much of a difference, if any.

 

[Sis]

Well..wait and see. The Blu-ray specification is such that the variance in quality between players shouldn't be as high as it was with DVD. PS3 ain't a recorder, but from a playback point of view it should be the equal of any of the first Blu-ray players at least.

What's special about the Blu-ray spec that makes this "variance in quality" statement true?

Well, Blu-ray is 1080p for starters.

Blu-ray is capable of 1080p. Are movies being encoded in 1080p?

That said, I don't see any reason for it to be any worse. PS3 has more than enough horsepowr to do a good job.

By this logic, the Xbox 360 should have a flawless DVD decoder. It does not.


However, I continue to be mildly surprised by developments with Sony, the PS3, and Blu-ray, so while I'm skeptical that the PS3 will be "as good" as stand-alone players, I wouldn't be surprised to be surprised.

.Sis