HDTV Lounge

Toshiba are getting their HD-E1 & HD-XE1 HD DVD players ready for Europe. These disigns are more compact than the orginal HD-A1/XA1HD players.
The lower end HD-E1 player is due for November and includes 720p/1080i output, HDMI 1.2, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio. The XE1 will also nclude DVD upconversion to 1080p via HDMI for your old DVDs.

The top of the line Toshiba machine, the HD-XE1 adds 1080p support and HDMI 1.3 to the featutures of the HD-E1. This model includes 12bit/296MHzDAC and 5.1 analog audio output

The external add-on HD DVD drive for the xbox 360 has been set a price of $200 for it’s release by Christmas this year. The add-on HD drive will enable all current Xbox 360’s to play HD DVD movies and maybe also later HD games on the 360. Sony have announced that their upcoming PS3 will include an HD Drive as standard Microsoft is trying to keep ahead of the game with this external drive.

It looks like a Hybrid HD-DVD & Blu-ray Player that can play both HD-DVD discs and Blu-Ray (BD) discs could be here soon thanks to Ricoh’s new lasers. Using a 1mm thick diffraction plate with concentric grooves on each side, the new lasers can recognize what kind of disc you’ve inserted into a drive (be it CD, DVD, HD DVD or BD) and adjust the beam to play it.

OPPO Digital today announced its new DV-970HD DVD player which features HDMI output and high definition up-conversion.

The DV-970HD follows the company’s successful OPDV971H DVD player which was a top performer in independent DVD player benchmark tests and is well regarded by Digital Home members.

Up-converting DVD players use special onboard processors and algorithms to enhance standard DVD signals to near high-definition quality. The result is video that is generally clearer, smoother, and crisper when output on high definition televisions (HDTV’s) and front projectors. Not all up-converting players, however, are made equal and the original OPDV971H was distinguished by the quality of its upconversion process.

The newer DV-970HD (seen below) is also an upconverting DVD player but adds on HDMI output and support for more video and audio formats such as Super Audio CD (SACD), DivX, XVid and more. In addition, the DV-970HD can output a native 480i/576i resolution over HDMI, making it an incredible digital transport for use with high-end video processors or scalers.

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Since our last review of a NeoDigits upscaling DVD player, the company has since replaced the player with a new rebranded model featuring several improvements over the NeuNeo HVD2085 we last reviewed. Even though the next generation of blue-laser high definition players are beginning to enter the market, so far their current pricing is well outside of what is affordable for the average consumer. However, as HDTV beginning to sell quite rapidly, this makes it an ideal time to get the most out of DVDs, while making use of the TV’s high definition capabilities through the use of a HD upscaling DVD player.

While many HDTV sets will accept a standard definition picture, the majority of these do a very basic upscaling in order to fill the display, such as simply repeating pixels in order to fill the screen. This can lead to a grainy picture, such as jagged lines, pixely looking writing and so on in the picture. While it is impossible for DVD upscalers to put missing information back into an image that was lost during the original downscaling to standard definition, upscalers work by using sophisticated interpolation on the picture during the resampling process in an aim to eliminate the side effects of stretching the image to a higher resolution conversion. Most standard DVD players have another issue in that they only output an analogue picture such as by SVHS, SCART (Europe), composite or component. What makes this DVD player so special is that not only can it upconvert the picture to high definition, but it also keeps the picture in a digital format all the way to the TV with a HDMI or DVI connection, regardless of whether the TV is HDCP compliant.

In this review, we will compare how well this player upscales its picture against a high definition projector’s own upscaling capabilities and that of a TFT display with DVI & VGA, Read more

HDMI-equipped DVD players have suddenly become commonplace this year, to the point where they don’t cost much more than a generic DVD player you’d pick up at Wal-Mart. The Philips DVP5960/37 is one good example, going for less than $80 online. For that price, you get HDMI and upscaling to higher resolutions, DivX playback, and one of the slimmest, most stylish exteriors we’ve seen.

The Philips DVP5960/37 has a design that’s as eye-catching as its name is annoying. The player stands just 1.5 inches tall, and even its disc drawer is shallower to take up less height. We liked the reflective silver faceplate and the conveniently large LED display. There are several front-panel buttons, including standby, HD upscale (which toggles through resolutions), play/pause, and stop. One notable omission is fast-forward or rewind controls, which can be useful in a pinch when the remote goes missing. There’s also a USB port on the front, which can be used to display JPEGs and DivX files as well as to play back MP3 files, from a USB thumbdrive.

Philips’s remote is small and not backlit, and it has some nonintuitive controls. For example, the directional pad’s right and left buttons also control fast-forward and rewind, which is unusual and not labeled. However, after a couple seconds of confusion, we found it easy enough to use.

Connectivity-wise, the Philips’s big selling point is its HDMI output. As with all HDMI decks, it has the ability to upconvert DVDs: in this case to 576p, 720p, or 1080i resolution. Upconversion may result in slightly sharper DVD images on some HDTVs, but it won’t work miracles–they’re still DVDs, after all. The rest of the connectivity options are made up of a component-video output, a standard composite-video output, and an optical audio output. While a case could be made about the deck missing an S-Video and coaxial audio output, we’re betting that most people buying this player are planning to use the HDMI or component-video connection.

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The home theatre environment has certainly come a long way over the past 60 years. Back then, the typical home theatre experience involved the entire family huddled around a black and white analogue set in the living room, watching the same TV programme as every other person in the country. It certainly is an archaic concept to most of us nowadays when, thanks to recent technological advancements, we can enthusiastically devour cinema theatre-quality experiences in the comfort of our own private spaces.

Enter the HD experience

The advent of high definition (HD) technology has resulted in HD TVs becoming a feature of our domestic spaces. Fifteen per cent of homes in the United States have an HDTV, with numbers growing steadily. As the insatiable appetite for the HD experience grows, the consumer market is expanding from niche to mainstream. But misconceptions surrounding the technology and capabilities of the product still abound.

The misconceptions

As a manufacturer of HD DVD players, we understand about consumers’ desires to reap all the benefits their HDTV’s promise. Some of the most frequently asked questions are ‘What resolution should I choose from my DVD player that is best suited to my LCD TV?’, ‘Will 1080i work well on my TV?’, and ‘How can I get the best high definition resolution from my TV?’

We have also noticed some misconceptions that have come into play. One common mistake is to wrongly interpret HDTV specifications that read something like ‘This TV supports 720p and 1080i high definition video input’ as meaning that the HDTV will support 720p and 1080i resolutions. The truth is, very few HDTV screens have a ‘native’ resolution that can match 1080i.

The thing to note is that each LCD, plasma and DLP TV has its own native resolution. To answer the above questions therefore, we must first find out what the ‘native resolution’ of the TV is. Older-generation plasma TV screens, for example, only have a resolution of 852 x 480, while the new generation plasma TV screens have a higher resolution of 1024 x 1024.

Step 1
The video source will output a resolution signal that is different to the HDTV’s native resolution.

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Squeeze the best image quality out of your DVDs

Let’s face it. On the eve of the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray deathmatch—surely the bloodiest format war since the VHS-vs.-Betamax debacle—any self-respecting technophile is going to watch and wait. A costly, obsolete paperweight is the last thing any of us wants to get stuck with. While you’re waiting, I have a few things for you to ponder. Because you’re reading Connected Home Express, as opposed to, say, Home & Garden, you probably have an HDTV—likely a big one—and have sunk thousands of dollars into an expansive DVD collection. (Remember when bookshelves were used for books?) Sure, you’ll catch the odd first-run movie at the theater, but as you’re being bumped and annoyed by strangers in the dark, you’re probably thinking about how much better the movie will be on DVD, with you nestled comfortably in your home theater.

The joys of the home theater are multifaceted. A home theater should assault the senses with glorious sights and sounds. But if you still have a formerly cutting-edge progressive-scan DVD player, the sights might not be quite as glorious as the sounds anymore. Thankfully, there’s a great way to squeeze every last pixel of fidelity out of those hundreds of DVDs lining your shelves. An upconverting DVD player, for the uninitiated, is like a supercharger for home theaters. The player takes the DVD’s meager 720×480 (480i) resolution and jacks it up to 720p or 1080i. This jump doesn’t rival the one you experienced when you upgraded from VHS to DVD, but on a big HD display, the results can be stunning.

The reasons to buy an upconverting DVD player are compelling. Consider cost and performance. Are you really in a hurry to start a new HD-DVD or Blu-ray library at $30 to $40 a pop? Also, remember that you’re facing a minimum $500 price tag for Toshiba’s entry-level player and a Blu-ray price of twice that amount. You can buy excellent upconverting players for $200 and breathe new life into your existing DVDs. The most crucial factor in the upconverting player’s favor is proven performance. HD players will have backward compatibility with standard DVDs, but who knows how well they’ll upscale? The best upconverting players have been fine-tuned and fulfill their specific role exceptionally well. But are all upconverting players created equal? What are the essential features you need to look for when you’re deciding on one of the dozens of players on the market? Read on—we’ve got you covered.

Deinterlacing: Transforming Interlaced to Progressive Scan
Mom used to say, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.” Upscalers are no exception. The single most crucial component (i.e., the “brain” of the player) is the video-processing chip. The task of ensuring that what you see on the HDTV screen accurately depicts the source material of what’s on the DVD is incredibly complex. Lesser chips need not apply.

The two main duties of the video chip are deinterlacing and scaling. But first, how about a crash refresher course in video resolution? Video on DVD is in 480i resolution, in which 30 still frames are displayed on a TV in two fields of 240 horizontal lines, every second. The “i” stands for “interlaced,” which means the entire frame of video is composed of the two passes of alternating horizontal lines of resolution interlaced together. A resolution of 480i was sufficient on smaller TVs, but the flaws in the interlaced, lower-resolution video become more apparent on larger displays. Increased space between the alternating scan lines can produce a flicker, and details suffer.

HDTVs can display higher-resolution video such as 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. Once again, the numbers stand for the horizontal lines of resolution and the “i” and “p” refer to the method by which the scan lines are displayed. Progressive scanning (signified by the “p”) displays every horizontal line of video in one pass instead of interlacing alternating lines in two passes. A progressive-scan picture is a huge jump in video fidelity, flicker-free with enhanced clarity and stability.

Deinterlacing is necessary any time interlaced video—the humble DVD, for example—is displayed as progressive-scan video. In theory, the task of repeating scan lines to form the progressive-scan image is simple enough. But, in practice, there are variables that can seriously mess with video quality.
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We live in an era where there is a convergence of new technology into digital format. The old cassettes and video tapes are being replaced with CDs, MP3 players and DVDs. Now it’s the turn for High Definition Content to make its mark in this world. With HDTV’s, HD-DVDs and Blu-ray technology hitting the market, consumers have to spend a lot of money on the new electronics to stay in touch with the new technological world. Although there is much hype about High Definition content now, HD has been around for quite some time. While the TV industry is being forced to start broadcasting Digital and HD content, the Movie industry were never compelled to do that. The reason they have taking their time to get into this market is so that they could come up with a way to protect their content from piracy. HDCP or High Definition Content (Copy) Protection is designed to stop you from making a perfect copy of movies, which is possible with movies in digital form.

When it was announced that the next generation HD-DVD and Blu-ray players would require HDCP copy protection compliance between them and the monitor, there was a real uproar from the public. Especially for the consumers that bought equipments early in the development of this new technology. This would mean that the expensive equipment they bought would be incompatible to the new DVD standards, forcing them to replace them within a couple of years. There was some relief when some of the major players in the movie industry announced that their initial media would not require HDCP, meaning the full 1080p resolution would be viewable through component, DVI and HDMI inputs.

It is somewhat understandable that the movie industry wanted to ensure greater protection for their media than the CSS DVD encryption, which was easily broken by John Lech Johansen. Johansen, the Norwegian hacker who developed the deCSS software that broke the CSS DVD encryption has vowed to fight HDCP and AACS protection systems like before. Ed Felten, a mathematics professor from Princeton made it clear in 2001 that there were some critical errors in the HDCP encryption scheme.
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According to Spiegel Online the much rumored on again off again HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 has been confirmed. In a recent Q&A new window the German publication spoke with Chris Lewis, Microsoft’s European Xbox 360 manager.

Mr. Lewis stated the add-on will be debuted at this year’s up-coming E3 game conference.

Spiegel Online: Is the HD-DVD-drive for the Xbox 360 still in the pipeline?

Lewis: Absolutely, yes. We’ll say a little bit more about it at E3. It will give people access to HD DVD.

Spiegel Online: But the 360 doesn’t have an HDMI-Interface — so you won’t actually be able to watch any HD DVD Movies on it because the obligatory copy protection mechanisms are missing.

Lewis: All I can say to you is — there are interesting developments in the pipeline. We will make sure that the HD-DVD-peripheral device will meet all the requirements for consumers to enjoy high-definition DVD playback.

Spiegel Online: Meaning, you will be able to watch Hollywood movies in HD through your Xbox?

Lewis: Yes.

Spiegel Online: So the drive will have its own interface?

Lewis: You will hear a lot more about that question at E3

While I still assert that game platforms won’t sway the format war either way, this does level the playing field somewhat. But in my opinion this still boils down to titles and player cost.

I think we’re still months away from getting a good indication of how hard each side is willing to fight for your entertainment dollars. Hey listen, I know it’s been HD-DVD non-stop here for awhile, but you have to admit pre-recorded HDTV content is pretty exciting stuff.