The high definition scientists over at HD Guru make a possibly obvious but nevertheless important point. You should not buy a DVD upscaler—though not for the reason you think. It’s not because DVD upscaling doesn’t bring some benefit to watching DVDs on HDTVs; it’s because most TVs are upscaling already.
If you’re a fan of retro gadget styling, you’ve probably come across the work of Italian company Brionvega once or twice. One of Brionvega’s most classic designs was the Radiogonografo RR126 from 1965, a versatile piece with folding speakers, a radio, an amplifier, a phonograph and a friendly little robot face. The RR126 is almost impossible to find nowadays and would cost you a fortune–but the company’s coming out with an “updated” version called the RR226.
It’s tough to decide whether Toshiba is being incredibly intelligent or incredibly stubborn in their decision to back upconverting DVD technology instead of Blu-ray. I mean, they were certainly burnt – badly – by Blu-ray with that whole HD DVD format war, but is their decision to stick to DVD smart?
Take their latest DVD player, the XD-E500 DVD upscaler. It’s marketed on the fact that it can take your vanilla old DVDs and upscale them to HD-like quality with 1080p output. That sounds pretty good (although the press release says that standard def DVDs are 480p – not in Australia, Toshiba!). But then there’s the price: $199.
Sure, the Toshy’s got some pretty catchy-sounding tech on board (XDE Technology, anyone?) for upscaling, plus DivX playback, HDMI CEC connectivity and a host of connections, but is it worth $200 bucks? Sony’s latest Blu-ray player has an RRP of $449, but you can pick it up for $380 online, and it will not only upscale your DVDs, but playback Blu-ray movies as well. Even at $150 for the Toshy, don’t most people already own a DVD player?
Still, if the infinite format war takes Blu-ray as its next victim, Toshiba will probably be the company laughing all the way to the bank.
It’s becoming all about Blu-ray nowadays, but LG hasn’t forgotten the DVD player: its DVS450H is doubly interesting for its design and DivX playing. Check out those sleek lines—pretty sci-fi, especially with that concealed display and sliding-door disc tray lid. LG call its shape “floating”, and it can be desk or wall mounted. And its the first “DivX Certified(R) DVD player from a major manufacturer capable of playing HD video” according to LG, with playback capabilities from DVD or hard drives attached to its USB port. It’s due in October for around US$240. Press release below.
Don’t get me wrong, Toshiba’s XD-E500 is a decent 1080p/24fps upscaling DVD player–it toasted one of their own upconverting players in the demo, and they’ve gotten pretty good at doing it. It’s got three different intelligent processing modes, two of which are really solid–sharp (which only sharpens where it’s needed, not the whole picture), colour (dials up blues and greens plus sharp mode), and contrast (deepens blacks, probably the worst mode because you lose some dark detail).
Look, John Connor, I get that we at Skynet are considered your enemies. I also understand that with the whole trying to “terminate” you thing, you’d probably get a little “drag Hector around the walls of Troy” once you’ve claimed victory over one of us. But this, sir, is ridiculous. Even genocidal robots have certain rules of engagement, and frankly, turning our reclaimed skulls into a harmless consumer electronic ought to be violating some code of conduct. Are you even listening to me? Wait, what is that you’re approaching with? The second season of Scrubs? Are you serious?! What kind of monster are you? Amnesty! AMNESTY!!! [Toxel via Geekalerts]
All you need is the Homebrew Channel to add your Wii to the hundreds-long list of devices in your house that can play DVDs. Previous DVD hacks required a modded console, but now you can grab a .DOL file and install a DVD-capable version of mplayer without opening the hood. It should also play video files off of an SD card, although this is still experimental. We haven’t tested yet, but if you do, let us know if it works. [Hackmii]
Those still fuming over the Wii’s refusal to play DVDs can finally get their “my Nintendo plays DVDs!” fix with this Nintendo DVD player. A stock NES was gutted and filled with the heart of a US$20 DVD player, but since a simple case swap isn’t all that impressive alone, the modder also mapped the NES controller’s buttons to DVD functions:
If Blu-ray had actually done the job right, it would have marched on after its bloody victory over HD DVD and taken the battle to the armies of DVD with the goal of vanquishing the last-gen technology to the Hades of the tech world. Instead, it stood around cheering and big-noting itself. Now, DVD is preparing to take the next-gen format by surprise with a stealth attack in the form of the Samsung F1080 upscaling DVD player.
Okay, so it isn’t that stealthy, and it isn’t that violent, but the F1080 is a very attractive piece of kit, especially for a DVD player. It features Samsung’s AnyNet+ technology and touch sensitive controls, which is always a nice addition to home theatre kit. Plus it will upscale your DVDs, bringing a pseudo-HD experience to your loungeroom.
And the price? $199. That may seem a bit pricey for a DVD player these days, but that’s the price you pay for style, I guess.
[Samsung]
Poor Toshiba’s still not quite over the HD DVD defeat earlier this year, as evidenced by its president saying that they will “not market DVD players that are compatible with Blu-ray,” instead opting for upconverting DVD players to bide their time before Blu-ray becomes so prevalent that the company has no choice.
