We can make DVD look as good as HD, says Toshiba

[The News Bot]

In an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, Toshiba’s chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida says he knew the HD DVD game was over as soon as Warner pulled the plug on the format. “I didn’t think we stood a chance after Warner left us because it meant HD DVD would have just 20 per cent [...]
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[SeanT]

Utter bull, crap in, crap out, upscaled DVD will never match the quality of HD....

[jimihifi]

As gutted as I was that HD-DVD lost, even I find that last bit complete and utter garbage.

Why cant they just do the decent thing and make a cheap dual format player?
They would sell by the bucket load, and Toshiba could at least save some face. Coming out with statements like this is just ridiculous.

'we lied to you about the quality of HD DVD and got you to pay a premium price for them, we can actually get the same results with upscaled DVD - with our new players'

[Baxtor]

Agreed, utter tosh, no way a upscaled DVD can match Blu-Ray.
Especially on the larger plasmas and projection screens.

[SparkShot]

Toshiba is a bit of a joke at the moment and those comments just rearffirm that view.

[ROne]

On a 21" set maybe, if you're sat in the garden.

[AgentCool]

I'm guessing Nishida is referring to the alleged magical abilities of the Cell Broadband Engine which Toshiba are apparently going to start putting into their home cinema equipment (their TVs at least). Still, if the PS3 can't make SD look HD with the same type of processor then what chance have Toshiba got of pulling it off? As is always the case with these things, you can't polish a turd.

[thomo14]

What a load of rubbish. There was i thinking Toshiba threw in the towel gracefully, then they come out with comments like that.

[kourosh]

And you wonder why HD-DVD failed......................im not supprised with morons in high places!!

[bertha]

Originally Posted by ROne

On a 21" set maybe, if you're sat in the garden.

thanks for that needed a laugh

B

[mikim]

Originally Posted by markwpage

you can't polish a turd.

That exact comment sprung to mind when I read the article.

You can upscale to 720, OK... and just about get away with it, but 1080... no!

Clutching at very narrow straws I think after screwing up the HD race. Mind you, there are a million and one idiots out there who think that upscaling DVDs is high definition, so if they get the marketing right then I'm sure that the likes of Currys will lap it up to sell cheap players to the careless public

[Mark_a]

First off, yes, all things being equal, Hi-Def will always be better than DVD in pure technical terms. There's no disputing that fact. However, the point that most enthusiasts refuse to take on board is the question of when is something good enough? Being an enthusiast you will always say, "never". But that sure as hell ain't so for the great unwashed.

To jump into analogy land, most folks would be more than happy with, say, a Subaru Impreza, which is basically a normal car that has had so much technology bolted on it's all but into the supercar class. Now no one is going to say the Subaru is as good as a Bugatti Veyron, or any of the other exotic supercars out there, but even so, it's more than good enough for most folk. And for a great many of them, far more than they could ever want for their odd drives in the country and weekly trip to Sainsburys.

Unless, and until, they bring down Blu-Ray players to supermarket prices, and the discs themselves to DVD levels, not to mention cheap burners and blanks, then I don't think it will ever take its position at the top of the tree. And at present it's a helluva way off that particular spot. When it gets to the level that most folks say, 'well why not, it's just as cheap... got nothing to lose' then that's when Blu-Ray will take off.

I think Tosh may be onto something by baling early and concentrating on better upscaling. I think it's highly probable that they'll actually make more money at it in the long run.

Regards

Mark

[thomo14]

Yeh your probably right there Mark and i'm sure Toshiba will make some money out of it. But people buying into Hd will also bring the prices down of the Hd equipment as well. I think Toshiba hanging around in the dvd market will be a negative step in the long run for the consumer. There is better stuff out there that will eventually replace current HD but the studios will want to make some money out of HD before they are introduced, as it takes an age for the majority of consumers to take up new technologies and move things forward - analogue to digital being case in point.

I have SKY HD and regularly watch both HD and upscale and though some upscale does look good, i think people are kidding themselves if they think it will ever match the clarity of HD.

I also think that Toshiba are still licking their wounds and would want to do something different for a while before being humiliated into releasing Blu-ray players and upscaling dvd's for a while is what they've chosen.

[Ryu]

The biggest challenge to Blu-ray was always going to be SD DVD. It's cheap. We all know how to use it and 90% of people are already more than happy with it.

Remember S-VHS - that had limited impact even though visually it was better than VHS - because joe public was already happy with what he had.

The humble audio cassette dragged around for 30 years because joe public was happy with it. DAT could have replaced it but it didn't.

So now you have a similarly small margin of difference that isn't worth the extra investment to joe public again. (SACD, DVD audio.. the list goes on).

And don't forget what most people seem to want at the moment is lower quality in more manageable forms. MP3 audio files - scaled DOWN movies for their IPODS / mobiles.

New technolgy grave yards are full of "better" products that weren't marketed in the right way or didn't have a big enough unique selling point to make people part with their cash (escpecially so in times of econmic recession).

So Tosh's upscaling DVD players or LCD TVs might be more successful that we think.

After all the HDTV revolution is only happening because the panels are flat / slim - if they were the same dimensions as CRT it would never have taken off. Joe public really is that fickle.

[DistortionNat]

Originally Posted by thomo14

I also think that Toshiba are still licking their wounds and would want to do something different for a while before being humiliated into releasing Blu-ray players and upscaling dvd's for a while is what they've chosen.

This is my view totally. They have failed with HD-DVD and must feel resentment towards Sony and Blu-Ray. Its pathetic to be honest and provides more ammunition to those who feel that Toshiba has lied and cheated them.