Posted by Joshua Zyber on 04/22/06 04:59

"asj" <kalim1998@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1145670848.888814.66330@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> That review is similar to others...Toshiba's player is getting some
> bad
> reviews...

These reviews you've cited are misleading or just plain inaccurate.

> http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125431,00.asp
> The player has a hefty price tag--it is currently available in
> Japan for about $847 and will be launched this month in the U.S. for
> $800--

The excerpt you've pulled disregards the fact that Toshiba also offers
the HD-A1 model with the exact same electronics inside for $499.

> But make no mistake, the
> picture quality is great and these speed problems don't affect
> enjoyment or operation while movies are being watched.

Hmmm... that doesn't sound like a bad review at all.

> http://abcnews.com.com/Toshiba_HD_A1/4505-6463_7-31736203.html?subj=ToshibaHD-A1&tag=feed&part=abcnews
> The bad: No 1080p video output;

So misleading. Here is the most concise and informative explanation I've
seen for why 1080p output is not the holy grail it's been made out to
be:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/hd-dvd.htm
"HD-DVD: It's Here and It's Spectacular!"

-----
In the last couple of days, several technical issues have been put to
rest, at least for me. The first was the common accusation that the
initial HD-DVD players like the Toshiba HD-A1 are deficient because they
don't output "full 1080p" resolution, that they are "1080i only." I
don't see this as a practical concern. All HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs will
encode film-sourced material in full 1920x1080 progressive scan
resolution at 24 frames per second, which is the film industry standard.

Unfortunately many folks are confusing 1080i acquisition with 1080i
transmission. The primary reason we get interlacing artifacts in a 480i,
576i, or 1080i signal is that the frame was originally captured in
interlaced format, with the odd scan lines and even scan lines being
recorded at two different moments in time. When you reassemble two
fields that are offset in time, you get jaggies, moire patterns, barber
pole effects, and line twitter. That is not true of either HD-DVD or
Blu-ray film transfers since the image is scanned progressively from a
film frame that represents a single moment in time.
Therefore we would expect to see none of the common evidence of
deinterlacing when watching HD-DVD or Blu-ray movies that are being
transmitted via 1080i. Our first look at HD-DVD in 1080i confirms this
expectation. After hours of viewing three different HD-DVD movies there
is simply no evidence of any artifact that might be attributed to the
fact that the signal was transmitted in 1080i format. The picture is as
clean, stable, and as artifact-free as it could be. There is no visible
defect in the image that would be eliminated by switching to 1080p
transmission.
-----

> minuscule list of HD titles available;

We're in the first days of the launch! How many titles were available at
DVD launch? More titles are coming in the next few weeks.

> only three
> major studios releasing HD-DVD discs;

A fact that can easily change.

> discs can be programmed to
> display at lower resolution when displayed via component-video
> outputs.

Also true of Blu-Ray. So far, none of the HD-DVD studios are using the
ICT downconversion flag.

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