Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD Player. £119.99

gromituk

muddyfox470 wrote: »

If you input a normal signal from a standard DVD players you will notice tearing and general nastiness on the image quality in comparison to this toshiba HD DVD player. Please read a review on the product before making these rash statements.

Similarly, you might not notice tearing and general nastiness - it all depends how well your TV upscales in the first place. A review of this product's upscaling ability is only relevant if you have the same display as the reviewer used. Perhaps you shouldn't make rash statements either?

How do I know this, I bought the player and have noticed a massive difference on playing DVDs on a HD ready LCD.

As I said - not all TVs are the same. I'm glad it worked for you, but it doesn't mean it'll be anything other than a waste of money for some people.

PS. Any reason for spamming (posting 3 times straight after each other as opposed to just posting once?)

It could have been spam had I posted the same thing three times. Making three separate points in response to three different people could hardly be construed as spamming!

richto

jayok wrote: »

It is exactly like saying that. If you think that this player will be redundant in 2 months time, you are ignoring the following facts

Fact 1: There are hundreds of HD-DVD's available
Fact 2: This player is a DVD player therefore there are tens of thousands of DVD's available
Fact 3: This player will upscale those DVD's to a higher definition than DVD's

These facts mean it is an absolute nonsense to state that this player will be redundant in 2 months time!

Fact 4 - no Studios have changed anything until at least June, so there will be plenty more HD DVDs coming.

dc

Plus there should be some real HD DVD bargains as the big retailers clear their shelves for the next round.

richto

gromituk wrote: »

Your TV upscales anyway. What makes you think playing them through this device will make them look any better?

Because upscaling at the TV is competely pointless as the video fidelity has been lost by then, unless you already happen to have a progressive scan DVD player feeding your HD TV a progressive scan picture.

Upscaling DVD players certainly make a big difference to image quality. As do progressive scan players.

gromituk

What do you mean "video fidelity has been lost by then"? Where exactly is it lost?

You're talking about progressive scan? OK - well as you say, buy a DVD player with a progressive output. But of course progressive scan is a separate issue from the number of lines in the picture. Both have an effect on resolution though.

richto

gromituk wrote: »

What do you mean "video fidelity has been lost by then"? Where exactly is it lost?

You're talking about progressive scan? OK - well as you say, buy a DVD player with a progressive output. But of course progressive scan is a separate issue from the number of lines in the picture. Both have an effect on resolution though.

Could I suggest you go do some reading on the subject instead of cluttering this bargain thread with basic questions.

Video fidelity is lost converting from a progressive source, to an interlaced picture then back to a progressive one, for various reasons.

Relatively few DVD players have a progressive scan output, and even fewer people know how to use it on the few that do, so for most people an upscaling DVD player gives an immediate and obvious improvement in picture quality.

gromituk

Could I suggest that you don't clutter up this bargain thread with answers to basic questions which I didn't ask?

So what you're saying is that the picture quality improvements to standard DVDs offered by this player are due entirely to the fact that it has a progressive output, and not that it upscales? In other words, the upscaling is generally a marketing con - what I've been saying all along.

In which case, the moneysaving thing to do if you want these improvements is to buy a much cheaper standard DVD player which has a progressive output. I sense that claiming there aren't many around (there are more than there are HD-DVD players I'm sure) and saying that people don't know how to use progressive scan DVD players are rather desperate attempts to justify this one instead.

Incidentally, you will only get the improvement on progressive source material, such as films. It won't help with interlaced stuff like TV series.

MORPH3US

gromituk wrote: »

Could I suggest that you don't clutter up this bargain thread with answers to basic questions which I didn't ask?

Are you on the same planet as the rest of us? You asked two questions in post 108...

gromituk wrote: »

So what you're saying is that the picture quality improvements to standard DVDs offered by this player are due entirely to the fact that it has a progressive output, and not that it upscales? In other words, the upscaling is generally a marketing con - what I've been saying all along.

Where did he say that? First you can't remember what you said and then you put words into the mouths of other people....

reaper200

I see what people are getting at but lets face it, upscaled DVDs are nowhere near the quality of Blu Ray\HD DVD. I know this from personal experience.

When I said HD DVD might be dead in around 2 months I was referring to Paramount and Universals support of HD. Apparently HD DVD's contract with Paramount Studios ends around that time. Universals has already ended and it has been confirmed that they did not renew it but they have said for the time being they will continue to support the format. However even though they are supporting the format the fact that they won't renew shows they could be considering switching.

That said this is all speculation. We will just have to wait and see how things play out. I believe that by the middle of the year we will know how things stand. But one thing is certain if Paramount and Universal switch to Blu Ray then this HD Player will be utterly useless as a HD player. Might be good for up scaling and watching the few titles released before but that’s all!

jayok

Few titles = 400 titles! I like your maths