Anyone know what quality of 1080p upscaling the XE1 will do ?

[Peter Galbavy]

I have a 1080p screen so I am not going to limit myself to a 1080i capable player just to win a couple of months - so it's either the XBox add-on (cheap, currently rare, clunky solution) or the XE1. While the specs clearly say the XE1 will upscale to 1080p from R2 SD DVDs (and I am sure it will not take long for it to be region free for SD DVDs) I am curious if anyone know what chipset / quality this is likely to be.

I know some folks here are close to Toshiba etc. so any more info would be useful.

The primary reason for asking is that I am staring at about £10K worth of DVDs from the last 10 years and I am not simply going to throw them away or stop watching them. The Denon 3930 or one of the more expensive Arcams are options for getting the best out of the SD content, but if I can get 80% out of a new HD-DVD player then I will wait.

As a side issue, anyone know which way "neutrals" like Denon and Arcam are going to jump and when in the HD/BD stakes ?

 

[MI55ION]

It's still a little early to tell exactly what chips will be used etc tbh. But going on what's been said about cheaper HD-E1 model over in the US where NEC chip was used, it does look promising. Here's a quote regarding the A2's (E1) upscaling performance from one new owner:

"That said, what really surprised me was the quality of regular DVD's. Though I cannot compare the up conversion to the A1 I can compare it to other up converting players and my HTPC running theatertek & FFdshow. And let me tell you that it blows any other player out of the water that I’ve seen on DVD Playback.

I watched Pulse this weekend for the 2nd time with my wife and I was floored at the playback quality difference from my 1st viewing on my HTPC. The detail was so much better on the A2! (Very dark movie) Also just watched Pirates of the Caribbean (dead mans chest) on DVD and WOW! I thought it was acually in HD.

Personally if this was just an up converting DVD player I would be happy to pay the price I did for it. HD-DVD is just a really big bonus for me. So Far I have watched Superman Returns and Aeon Flux on HD-DVD and the player has worked perfectly for me so far."

 

[gpa]

I have a 1080p screen so I am not going to limit myself to a 1080i capable player just to win a couple of months - so it's either the XBox add-on (cheap, currently rare, clunky solution) or the XE1. While the specs clearly say the XE1 will upscale to 1080p from R2 SD DVDs (and I am sure it will not take long for it to be region free for SD DVDs) I am curious if anyone know what chipset / quality this is likely to be.

I know some folks here are close to Toshiba etc. so any more info would be useful.

The primary reason for asking is that I am staring at about £10K worth of DVDs from the last 10 years and I am not simply going to throw them away or stop watching them. The Denon 3930 or one of the more expensive Arcams are options for getting the best out of the SD content, but if I can get 80% out of a new HD-DVD player then I will wait.

As a side issue, anyone know which way "neutrals" like Denon and Arcam are going to jump and when in the HD/BD stakes ?

It's my understanding that the XD1 will not accept 1080p over anything but HDMI, so that rules out the xbox(I think)

 

[Avi]

I have a 1080p screen so I am not going to limit myself to a 1080i capable player just to win a couple of months - so it's either the XBox add-on (cheap, currently rare, clunky solution) or the XE1. While the specs clearly say the XE1 will upscale to 1080p from R2 SD DVDs (and I am sure it will not take long for it to be region free for SD DVDs) I am curious if anyone know what chipset / quality this is likely to be.

I know some folks here are close to Toshiba etc. so any more info would be useful.

The primary reason for asking is that I am staring at about £10K worth of DVDs from the last 10 years and I am not simply going to throw them away or stop watching them. The Denon 3930 or one of the more expensive Arcams are options for getting the best out of the SD content, but if I can get 80% out of a new HD-DVD player then I will wait.

As a side issue, anyone know which way "neutrals" like Denon and Arcam are going to jump and when in the HD/BD stakes ?

Info released earlier in the year from Toshiba indicated that the 1080p XE1 output will be derived by converting from 1080i. This is the same process Samsung use in their BD player and is really no different to outputting 1080i to the display and letting it convert to native res.

Personally I would purchase a decent DVD transport and external video processor to get the very best from DVD whilst also providing flexibility to optimise PQ from other sources such as HD DVD, Blu-ray, Sky etc. Of course your display already upscales to its native res anyway and may do a better job than an upscaling DVD player. I assume by 1080p display you mean it has a native res of 1920x1080 rather than it will accept a 1080p signal.

I suspect it will be a while before Denon and Arcam enter the HD game.

AVI

 

[Peter Galbavy]

Info released earlier in the year from Toshiba indicated that the 1080p XE1 output will be derived by converting from 1080i. This is the same process Samsung use in their BD player and is really no different to outputting 1080i to the display.

Thanks. Well, by coincidence, I just ordered an Xbox HD-DVD drive - thanks for the folks in the forum for pointing out they were in stock - and that should get me through until next year when perhaps the hardware gets stabilised and we also get more reviews of this kind of functionality.

As you say, if all it does is deinterlace a 1080i upscaled signal then I am happy to stick with my Samsung HD950 and wait.

I may still try to get to see a Denon 3930 in action a similar setup as mine to see what things look like. £900 odd pounds vs. a large collection of films etc. may be justifiable esp once I can play HD content on my XBox. Oh, I will bear in mind that the XBox also scales (R2 only) on VGA...

 

[Peter Galbavy]

I found this rather excellent page as a summary - but they don't list any of the Toshiba models and the XBox HD-DVD was used to play a DVD at 480p - through component and not VGA. Otherwise, a good read.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=132

 

[richard plumb]

Info released earlier in the year from Toshiba indicated that the 1080p XE1 output will be derived by converting from 1080i. This is the same process Samsung use in their BD player and is really no different to outputting 1080i to the display and letting it convert to native res.

If your TV deinterlaces properly to fully recreate the original 1080p/24 (at whatever framerate) then great. But (properly done) 1080p output from the source player is a good option if your TV doesn't handle it well enough.