It's no
secret that the first players that are to be released by Toshiba for HD-DVD
playback, are limited to 1080i (interlaced) resolution. At least we have been
told this is the case for the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 models due out in the next weeks.
For some of us, this seems a bit risky- as why would we want such a player
if it cannot produce the highest resolution from a blue laser disc, 1080p
(progressive)? The investment for one of these players is significant to
most and with a format war to boot, we want to be sure we are making good
decisions.
Here we have an interview with Richard
Doherty, a senior manager for Microsoft, who is also an administrative
member of the AACS Licensing body. This is the group responsible for copy
protection mechanisms for both HD DVD and Blu-ray players. In this talk, Mr.
Doherty dismissed the whole issue, since owners of 72 frames per second, 1080p
displays, will be able to "digitally reconstruct" the 1080p image from the 1080i
signal.
 Microsoft's Doherty conceded that manufacturers will see cost
differences between implementing 1080p and 1080i signaling, both for the
analog connection and the HDMI digital connection, and that those costs
may have played a factor in Toshiba's initial design choice. "The
vast majority of all HDTVs delivered so far do not know how to communicate
at 1080p," said Doherty, "so Toshiba in their very first players has made
a design decision that can be changed in the future, and in fact, could
likely be changed on existing players...by a firmware update to support
communication over 1080p."
But another way that
consumers could solve the dilemma of how to get the optimal picture
quality from a first-generation HD DVD player, Doherty said, is for them
to purchase a modern HDTV display that can reproduce a 1080p image.
Because the high-def signal is digital to begin with, he said, "you can in
fact reconstruct completely the original frames, no matter how you
communicate. So in fact, the difference over the digital connection
is meaningless, and we're getting into a lot of areas of 1080p versus
1080i that, in fact, have no consumer difference
whatsoever.
"Because [the signal]
originally came from a progressive source - 1080p/24 on the disc - and was
communicated in a digital form," Doherty reiterated, "it can be completely
reconstructed in its native, original form."
In response to statements
from Blu-ray proponents that its first-wave support of 1080p places it
automatically ahead of HD DVD in the format war, Doherty classified their
argument as "a big red herring." The current, new generation of
so-called "smart displays" for HDTV, he said, whose maximum output is
1080p/60, should be capable of re-compositing the signal most appropriate
for displaying film or video encoding from any high-definition disc.
"So a very smart display," he said, "could take a connection in any format
- whether that be 1080p/24, 1080i/30, or 1080p/60 - and reconstruct the
appropriate and best-looking display for the display that you're looking
at." |
Well there you have it! If you would
like to read the TG Daily interview in it's entirety at the source, please visit this link. As you can see, this person has quite a lot of
information at his disposal. The firmware upgrade comment is interesting indeed.
Source: TG Daily
