With all the talk of 1080p, what ever happened to 720p? Is the resolution-challenged HD format going the way of the evolution-challenged dodo bird? Brian over at Home Theater Blog thinks there’s still a place for 720p. FOX, ABC, and ESPN all broadcast in 720p, so if you have a 720p display you’ll be watching natively (always the best way). He also points out that 1080p isn’t any truer an HD format than 720p, the “True HD” nomenclature notwithstanding.

Personally, I’m of two minds. 1080p won’t really give you a better picture in many cases, especially for screen sizes that aren’t large. You need a really large display to realize the full benefit of the 1080p format. On the other hand, there’s the bragging rights. Make no mistake about it - buying home theater equipment like an HDTV is a very emotional experience, no matter how many specs we look at. We like to know that we bought the ultimate in perfomance for as little green as possible.

My next HT purchaes, from pre/pro to display, will support 1080p. While I hope to one day have a 100″ or bigger screen in the basement with a 1080p image on it, until then I’ll have to satisfy myself with bragging rights. And before that… well, I have what I have now!

720p bargains

Ultimate AV reports on the Toshiba line show recently held in Florida.

For one, there are promises that Paramount might actually release some HD DVD titles soon, though no exact dates or titles were given. Um… so okay, no news there. What else? Oh yeah. Supposedly some “talks” going on about manufacturers creating HD DVD players not made by Toshiba. (All current ones are Toshibas or rebranded Toshibas.)

The big news is that Toshiba is moving into LCD big time. They now have 20 sets ranging from 20″ to 47″. Their lineup of plasmas (just two of them) is anemic in comparison. Most of the LCD’s have the REGZA sub-brand. That’s (R)eal (E)xpression (G)enerated by Ama(Z)ing (A)rchitecture. The REGZA XHD are actually 1080p devices, which is cool. But no, they don’t accept 1080p signals. Get with it Toshiba!

Of course Toshiba is still into DLP, with a total of nine models, four of which are 1080p. Which also don’t accept 1080p signals. * sigh *

Toshiba Goes Coconuts

Conspiracy Theory is a fun movie starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Mel Gibson has all sorts of whacky ideas about the government, big corporations, and stealth helicopters. Most of his ideas are really quite far fetched, but one of them turns out to be true.

Some people think that Hollywood is in a conspiracy the likes of which Jerry Fletcher has never seen. Some people with a little too much time on their hands are saying that Hollywood studios, Microsoft, Sony, Toshiba, et al, are all in a conspiracy to make us buy into HDMI/AACS now and get screwed later. The plan is pretty simple - no ICT now, lots of ICT later. That is, make sure movies don’t have ICT to give consumers and especially early HDTV adopters warm fuzzy fealings. Then when everybody’s bought HD DVD and BD players, ZING! Introduce ICT on all movies. Consumers will already have bought into the technology big time so they won’t be able to do anything about it.

ASIDE: Remember that ICT stands for “Image Constraint Token”. If this is enabled on a BD or HD DVD disc, it’ll mean that you won’t be able to watch a BD or HD DVD movie in its full HD glory over the player’s analog outputs. You’ll be constrained to 960 x 540. Yuck!

Personally, I don’t believe that there is any such conspiracy. I think that each each studio hit upon this strategy on their own. Or they at least decided to follow the leader, seeing what a great idea it was. Seriously! Trying to get all those companies to agree is like trying to put the worms back into the dirt when it rains. But I have a dreadful feeling that one day all BD and HD DVD movies will indeed have the ICT flag enabled.

Hollywood reportedly in agreement to delay forced quality downgrades for Blu-ray, HD DVD

c|net is the latest in a long line of interested reviewers taking a look at Sony’s VPL-VW100 projector, otherwise known as the Ruby. The folks at c|net really loved this projector as well, ultimately giving it a score of 9.1 out of 10, or “spectacular”.

They point out that this is the lowest-priced front projector that does 1080p. Which is a good point. This projector is in the same price class as several 720p DLP projectors with colour wheels and rainbows. While it’s in the same price class, it seems like it’s in a better quality class. c|net says that it has solid video processing and produces detailed imagery with great blacks. Significantly for future HD DVD, BD, and PS3 owners, this projector’s HDMI input accepts 1080p signals.

Not is all good, though. While it is the least expensive 1080p projector, that’s a relative term. It still costs $10k. And the replacement bulb is expensive too. The screen size is limited to 100″ by the fact that the projector isn’t too bright. There are a couple more things that you can check out the review for.

But on average c|net loved this projector, saying that it “produces big, beautiful 1080p images at a price-to-performance ratio that no current projector can match”. And that’s all that counts, right?

Sony VPL-VW100 Review

Supposedly someone got a hold of a Samsung BDP-1000 BD player and then someone posted what he said over at AVS Forum. So this information took the long way around the rumour mill, so take it as such. But it’s still interesting to note the salient points:

• Disc load time from placing the disc in the drawer to seeing video on screen is about 10-15 seconds
• Player has a small footprint, about the size of a normal DVD player, and no fan noise
• Samsung will output 1080p
• no HDMI errors or buggy operation
• all the same output connections as Tosh

Loading times still aren’t great, but they’re not horendous like the Toshiba’s. The small footprint I don’t really care about, but the fan noise is an important issue to me. 1080p output is on theoretical importance to me because one day I hope to have a 1080p projector pointed at a large screen. And of course in this world of HDMI compatibility problems, it’s nice to see that the Samsung plays nice.

Samsung BDP-1000 BD Player: First Impressions from an insider (with disclaimer)