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Special Edition We went and saw Star Wars on a Digital Projector this weekend. So we thought we would give you a special review of the technology. We promise no movie spoilers. It's just a short special edition of the HDTV Podcast. Thanks for listening! Special Edition
May 26 , 2005 - Podcast #9 Our email address is hdtvpodcast@mac.com This weeks show Today we will cut through all noise about the next generation DVD. Make sure you are not on the wrong side of this debate. And if you want to wait until the DVD wars are over we talk about how to get the most out of your current DVD player. Next Generation DVD: The battle lines have been drawn, Sony and Toshiba have once again come up with competing formats for video delivery. Anyone remember the DVD format discussions in the mid nineties? Sony has Blu-Ray, and Toshiba has HD-DVD. Both promise greater storage capacities and the delivery of full high definition movies, so what's the difference? What is Blu Ray: Spelled 'Blu', because the word 'blue' cannot be trademarked, the term is short for the blue-violet laser ('ray') used to read and write data from the disc. As far as storage goes, BD discs support roughly 25 Gigs per layer. Current incarnations are single or dual layer, but in the future, multiple layer discs could be possible, with storage up to 200 Gigs. Blu-Ray will support MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and Microsoft's VC-1. Players will be backward compatible with existing CDs and DVDs. Sony has already launched a Blu-ray player/recorder in Japan for recording HD video using the 23 GB single layer rewritable media that are also available. Blu-ray products in the USA are planned for 2005 with European products to follow at a later date. The next generation Sony PlayStation (PS3) will support Blu-Ray Discs. Who's on Blu-Ray's team: Apple Computer, Inc.
What is HD-DVD: HD-DVD is very similar to Blu-Ray. Both are next generation DVD format, and both use the blue-violet laser to read discs. As far as storage goes, HD-DVD discs support roughly 15 Gigs per layer. Current incarnations are single or dual layer, and can support 2 sided discs (Blu Ray is one sided only). HD-DVD discs are manufactured almost identically to current DVDs, and can utilize existing manufacturing lines and mastering equipment. Blu-Ray discs, because of the differences in aperture and cover layer, cannot. Who's on HD-DVD's team: NEC
* Paramount, Universal and WB together owned nearly 45 percent of the U.S. DVD market in 2004
But wait, there's more: Just when you thought you understood it all, along comes the 1 Terabyte HVD. Six companies, including Fuji Photo and CMC Magnentics, have formed the Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) Alliance to promote HVD technology, which will supposedly let consumers put 1TB of data onto a single optical disc. A 1TB HVD disc could potentially hold as much data as 200 standard DVDs and transfer data a 40 times faster than DVD. This makes the single HVD disc 33 times larger than HD-DVD, and 20 times larger than Blu-ray. To put it in perspective, Sony has released a 1TB home media server in Japan. Only half of the storage capacity, or 500GB, is earmarked for video files, but Sony claims that it's enough to record six channels of TV for five-and-a-half days nonstop. If you want to get the most out of your current DVD player you can consider buying a video scaler. What is video scaler?
The video scaler function will re-format video signals to HDTV resolutions and process the video to present the best quality from the source material as possible. The resultant video signal is compatible with the High Resolutions your HDTV was designed to display. The de-interlacing function will process the video to remove interlaced lines resulting in sharper image. Does this mean that a video scaler can turn my video signals into HDTV?
How does the video scaler improve picture quality?
There are complicated algorithms that are applied in both hardware and software that execute on the scaler. A box dedicated to this process will use the latest hardware and software to provide the best solutions to process the picture. There are a few methods for de-interlacing video. Fast motion video poses a problem since there can be a big change in the picture from frame to frame. The scaler can not simply combine the odd and even scan lines in this case to create a progressive scan picture. Here are some helpful links on de-interlacing: A very very technical explanation by G. de Haan and E.B. Bellers of
Can I get away without buying a video scaler?
So unless you want to eek out every last improvement for TV you may not want to spend the money. Also, if you have your TV picture dialed in just the way you like, adding a video scaler will require you to re-adjust your TV's settings. Some people connect up the scaler and are very disappointed with the results. Only after recalibrating the picture do they see an improvement. OK, that's fine for TV but what about my DVD player. So if you are not sure which side is going to win the High Definition DVD war or if you want to wait until next generation DVDs come down in price you have a couple of options. You can buy a scaler and connect it to your DVD player. All the benefits we discussed above will be avialable to the DVD signal. But is it worth $400 to $1800 for this? The second option is to buy a DVD player that will upconvert the video and basically eliminate the need for a scaler. Samsung makes a good DVD player with this functionality. So in short, unless you really want to spend $2000 on a high quality video scaler you are better off with using your set top box for TV and buy a DVD player that will upconvert the video. The DVD won't be the same as HDDVD but it will be a nice compromise until the format wars are settled. Of course with a scaler you can upconvert your VHS tapes. And don't forget that the video scaler can be used as a video switcher for your TV. So it may not only be about the video. The scaler is also a nice video hub. Here are some Video Scalers and DVD players from Amazon.com. Buying from these links helps support the show. DVD Players Video Scalers DVDO iScan HD+ High Resolution Video Scaling Engine
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