Toshiba raises the HD DVD bar yet again, new HD DVD player gets HQV processing

[AlNom]

Not even in the same class... Although to be fair, they're intended for different source domains....

Ah... ok. I was thinking mainly of comparing the DVD upscale quality with the 360. Is it that much better with the Toshiba scaler Are there pictures for this scaler that I'm missing?

 

[Blazkowicz]

why care about expensive, specialised scaling shit?
what does that scaler crap that a $300 media PC can't do?

 

[Capeta]

why care about expensive, specialised scaling shit?
what does that scaler crap that a $300 media PC can't do?

Does a $300 media PC upscale DVDs to 1080p? I don't think CE companies are going to stop making DVD players, HD DVD players, floor standing speakers etc. because people are hooking up their $300 media PCs with their 5.1 Logitechs to their bigscreens.

 

[archie4oz]

Well at $300, you're PC is going either not have much CPU to do much with Dscaler, or it's going to have a POS motherboard and case that you don't want it anywhere near your TV. With SD content a good 3GHz+ P4 working it's ass off w/Dscaler will get in the ballpark of early gen DCDi implementations, although DCDi processors tend to be able to lock on to fast motion objects better. DCDi is so old news and passé. Now everybody is into Silicon Optix and Gennum processors...

 

[Ty]

why care about expensive, specialised scaling shit?
what does that scaler crap that a $300 media PC can't do?

If you have a large collection of DVDs, it could make a nice difference even if the scaler in your HDTV is decent.

I'm not sure it's worth the $500 premium over the other Toshiba HD-DVD player though but as always YMMV.

Does a $300 media PC upscale DVDs to 1080p?

I thought you mentioned that 1080p is a red herring?

 

[MfA]

Does a $300 media PC upscale DVDs to 1080p?

Something like a 6200 is enough to do 1080p upscaling, so I don't see the problem.

If you have a 1080p set then it probably already has pretty advanced scaling to begin with (my concept of advanced does not include linear filters, no matter how many taps they have).

 

[Capeta]

If you have a large collection of DVDs, it could make a nice difference even if the scaler in your HDTV is decent.

I'm not sure it's worth the $500 premium over the other Toshiba HD-DVD player though but as always YMMV.

And you could get a cheap $200 Oppo that upscales pretty good too, your point? Why not just get a $500 HD DVD player and a cheap $200 upscaling Oppo? Better yet why not just get a cheap $25 Cyberhome non-upconverting DVD player and let your cheap TV scaler do the upscaling while your cheap 5.1 Logitechs do the surround sound? Why not just drive a Toyota Corolla? Yes YMMV...

I thought you mentioned that 1080p is a red herring?

It is, but that wasn't the point of why I arbitrarily mentioned 1080p. I guess the Blu-ray group's hyping up of 1080p has turned every post that mentions it into some indication of real relevence now?

 

[MfA]

And you could get a cheap $200 Oppo that upscales pretty good too, your point? Why not just get a $500 HD DVD player and a cheap $200 upscaling Oppo? Better yet why not just get a cheap $25 Cyberhome non-upconverting DVD player and let your cheap TV scaler do the upscaling

Well, why not?

 

[Capeta]

Well, why not?

Same reason why some would buy a Mercedes S-class than a Toyota Camry.

 

[MfA]

Aesthetics and prestige? (Just as big a part of it as anything else.)

 

[Ty]

And you could get a cheap $200 Oppo that upscales pretty good too, your point? Why not just get a $500 HD DVD player and a cheap $200 upscaling Oppo? Better yet why not just get a cheap $25 Cyberhome non-upconverting DVD player and let your cheap TV scaler do the upscaling while your cheap 5.1 Logitechs do the surround sound? Why not just drive a Toyota Corolla? Yes YMMV...

So you wrote that whole snarky response just to agree with me? /boggle

It is, but that wasn't the point of why I arbitrarily mentioned 1080p. I guess the Blu-ray group's hyping up of 1080p has turned every post that mentions it into some indication of real relevence now?

Uhm, I'm just wondering why you choose 1080p when you were arguing with someone else just how meaningless it was.

How did BR get injected into this conversation?

 

[Capeta]

I think it's pretty obvious why somebody would want a best of class scaler in a HD DVD player that can play DVDs which cost $1000 vs a $25 iffy DVD player with a not best of class scaler built into a HDTV.

So you wrote that whole snarky response just to agree with me? /boggle

No I wrote it to point out the obvious.

Uhm, I'm just wondering why you choose 1080p when you were arguing with someone else just how meaningless it was.

Do you know the definition of arbitrary?

How did BR get injected into this conversation?

Well you wanted to inject it so I gave you a little help. Why act surprised?

 

[MfA]

Best of class based purely on anecdotal evidence ... blind testing seems about as existent in high end video as in high end audio, which is to say non.

 

[Capeta]

Best of class based purely on anecdotal evidence ... blind testing with real content seems about as existent in high end video as in high end audio, which is to say non.

You only need to do blind testing if there is a small difference between the two things you are comparing. When there is an obvious difference, the ugliness sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[MfA]

We aren't talking about huge differences here, especially not when just considering scaling.

For instance what would you say about this quote from FiringSquad on testing the famous flag scene :

Although ATI's Catalyst 5.13 still shows some very minor aliasing, it takes careful A/B scrutiny between ATI's Catalyst 5.13 versus DCDi or HQV to see the difference. ATI seems to fall behind just a hair compared to the HQV processing, but since our testing is done at 1280x1024, it's possible that the differences are due to the video scaling portion.

GPU's can do a pretty good job of even deinterlacing, let alone scaling.

PS. not that it should matter, but that FiringSquad article was written by a Silicon Optix consultant.

 

[Ty]

No I wrote it to point out the obvious.

Err, ok. Thanks for that contribution then.

Do you know the definition of arbitrary?

Yep but you didn't write that at first though but I'll accept your correction.

Well you wanted to inject it so I gave you a little help. Why act surprised?

I don't believe I mentioned BR once in this thread but it seems you wanted a pissing match...no clue why though.