Okay we all know that HD DVD is dead. But Blu-ray will have to face competition from DVD folks and to convince consumer to adapt the technology faster (if they can).

Toshiba CEO announced that they will not manufacture Blu-ray and will concentrate on DVD instead.

There is a rumor that Toshiba will focus on SUC (Super Up Conversion) at 960p which is much better than current up-conversion algorithm today.

DVD titles are close to 100.000 around the globe while Blu-ray titles only less than 600 to date.

You don’t need to repurchase the titles on expensive Blu-ray, keep your DVD collection and use Toshiba new super up-converter later when they are available.

Only a few % of people have HDTV, and the majority less than 42” so they won’t know the difference between Blu-ray and up-converted DVD.

DVD blanks are cheap, $0.10 compared to $10 BD blanks.

DVD movies are cheap compared to Blu-ray movies.

DVD is popular throughout the world while Blu-ray is not and might not be popular especially in third world countries (no PS3 games and Blu-ray bootleg –lol-)

Above that, cable and online companies are pushing Video on Demand in hi-def, same date and day release in DVD/Blu-ray disc, another competitor for Blu-ray.

And Blu-ray player is still expensive for most people!

From 480 to 960p? hmm. I doubt it will look as good as real 1080p.

What about hi-def audios?
Will the Toshiba "super upconvert" do DD5.1 --> lossless?

Can you post a link to this announcement?

The one I found really doesn't say much. Click.

1. Depends on what Toshiba hides up the sleeve. If there is an algorithm that hasn't been implemented anywhere yet it may very well make it or brake it for the company.
Think about it this way. The first 700MB divx encoded movies were nothing but crap in both picture and sound quality. Todays rips by the scene (still same 700MB) are so good sometimes its not easy to tell them from the source.
Hardware example: a crappy 350 MB 1 hour TV show rip looks pathetically pixellated on the old Phili 642, but put in a latest Pioneer and it looks close to DVD with very little artifacts.

2."Will the Toshiba "super upconvert" do DD5.1 --> lossless?"
Can you always tell 320k mp3 from flac (CD) ? Not on a wally mart stereo.
I have a 2 Kenwood speakers + sub setup and dont really plan to do anything about it.

Thanks. Another curious thing is whether those players will support real 960 progressive lines written on a DL DVD. Butter it with x264 and Sony may run out of sparkling wine. (yes I intended it not to be champagne)

That is the first april joke this year...........

Nah, its still from my 2007 backup Or did you mean the japanese?

960p ......LOL.