up-scaleing and HD DVD

[Methost]

So I was looking at Brians recomended NeuNeo. It claims to up-scale any DVD to HD quality. How tru is this? How does this picture compair to real HD? I assume this unit will play real HD DVDs as well? And it also plays DVD-A and SACD disks? all for under $300?

Is this right?

 

[Methost]

I have also seen DVD players that claim to play SACD and DVD-A disks, yet do not have 5.1 RCA outputs. Whats the deal with this?

 

[racquetman]

So I was looking at Brians recomended NeuNeo. It claims to up-scale any DVD to HD quality. How tru is this? How does this picture compair to real HD? I assume this unit will play real HD DVDs as well? And it also plays DVD-A and SACD disks? all for under $300?

Is this right?

The picture isn't going to compare to true HD quality. You're dealing with source material that is 480i on a DVD. True HD is 720p or 1080i. The upscaling may help to approach the native resolution of a fixed pixel display, but it is blatant misadvertising to say that by doing this you will get an HD quality picture. This is not to say that the picture won't look very good.

There are no "real HD DVDs" at this time unless you are referring to a windows media 9 HD movie or similar codec. The player will not play the upcoming HD-DVD or Blu-ray formats.

Any DVD player can play a DVD-A disc. You may only hear the DD or DTS versions, but at least you'll hear a surround sound version. Unless a player specifically says it plays SACDs, it won't play them (except CD layer of a hybrid SACD). You will need 5.1 analog outputs for SACD and usually for DVD-A unless you are using a company's proprietary solution for passing the signal digitally.

Brian maintains that his player can play the advanced resolution tracks on a DVD-A while the company's website says it cannot.

 

[brian32672]

There are no "real HD DVDs" at this time unless you are referring to a windows media 9 HD movie or similar codec. The player will not play the upcoming HD-DVD or Blu-ray formats.

This is incorrect. Actually the company has movies that were transcoded in 720p. And there are a handful of dvd's out there that are in 720p. But there are very few of them. (Usually chinese movies, but there are some english movies as well) So it would be in true HD format...

NeuNeo is not the only one that has 720p DVD's. However they claim the ones they have will only work in the NeuNeo players (why, I don't know)

Anyhow here is part of the claim...

High Definition DVD Titles

All our High Definition DVD titles are encoded in native 720P format and offers great enhancement in the visual video quality. It is the great show case to see what is the real "high definition".
Please notice: All our High Definition DVD titles will ONLY be played by our HDV108 and HVD208/2081 HD DVD Players.

This clearly has not been updated for their new model 2085...

 

[brian32672]

Brian maintains that his player can play the advanced resolution tracks on a DVD-A while the company's website says it cannot.

I guess I am about to have to prove that it will play the LPCM DVD-A tracks (not just in DD)

Fine, I will take pics in a few minutes....

 

[MDS]

Please notice: All our High Definition DVD titles will ONLY be played by our HDV108 and HVD208/2081 HD DVD Players. [/B]

That means it is their own proprietary 'value add'. They created their own disc with the same form factor as a dvd and only their player can decode it. Reason being...it is not a DVD. To be a DVD, it has to follow the rules of the DVD consortium which limits the video to 480i.

 

[brian32672]

That means it is their own proprietary 'value add'. They created their own disc with the same form factor as a dvd and only their player can decode it. Reason being...it is not a DVD. To be a DVD, it has to follow the rules of the DVD consortium which limits the video to 480i.

This being the case, I am on the understanding that there are 720p titles out there.
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Bare with me, I'm doing some pics now.... However I am not using the tripod, so they will be a little blurry.

OK, here are some starting pics. Also remember wndbrd3, states the same thing with his Oppo, which until just recently Oppo had claimed their DVD player would not do DVD-A. (When they did firmware upgrades for this months ago, just never updated the website)
Anyhow, here are some starting pics...

 

[brian32672]

Only allows for 5 pics at a time, so heres more. With even more to follow, of the reciever when I get around to it...

 

[brian32672]

And last one for now, till I get around to some more...

Also, I have posted the rear connections before. Don't remember which thread. So I will not repost rear pictures here. Just use advanced search with my user name and put in key word NeuNeo.

 

[racquetman]

This being the case, I am on the understanding that there are 720p titles out there.
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Like MDS said, 480i is all you get with the DVD standard. Why? That's what can fit on a disc with MPEG-2 video.

 

[racquetman]

This is incorrect. Actually the company has movies that were transcoded in 720p. And there are a handful of dvd's out there that are in 720p. But there are very few of them. (Usually chinese movies, but there are some english movies as well) So it would be in true HD format...

NeuNeo is not the only one that has 720p DVD's. However they claim the ones they have will only work in the NeuNeo players (why, I don't know)

Anyhow here is part of the claim...

High Definition DVD Titles

All our High Definition DVD titles are encoded in native 720P format and offers great enhancement in the visual video quality. It is the great show case to see what is the real "high definition".
Please notice: All our High Definition DVD titles will ONLY be played by our HDV108 and HVD208/2081 HD DVD Players.

This clearly has not been updated for their new model 2085...

Like MDS said Brian, these are not technically DVDs anymore then. A DVD has to be playable in all DVD players. Any company can make up some proprietary format. This sounds like an attempt to sucker people into thinking there is already an HD-DVD format out there. Oh, but you can only use "our" player. This is a marketing ploy. Look at all the titles!! You have a whopping 6 to choose from. Why? No major studio is going to sign off on this format, so they will never allow movies to be offered in this format.

As far as the DVD-A side goes, none of those screenshots prove anything Brian. You need to show me a screen while a disc is playing telling me that it is outputing 192 khz 24 bit stereo or 96 khz 24 bit 6 channel surround. Then that will prove to me that it isn't playing DD or DTS.

 

[brian32672]

OK, I found this. The NeuNeo is using what they are calling HVD titles. However its actually the EVD standard. Clearly a Chinese format, trying to get out HD discs, because the format wars are taking to long.
Anyhow, here is a decent site. Its the first time I saw this site...
http://www.the--untouchables.com/audio-video/index_eng.htm

 

[MDS]

The pictures of the Fleetwood Mac disc shows one side that specifically says DD 5.1 and the other simply says LPCM stereo. Either of those will play in any standard DVD-V player; that is unless the LPCM side is greater than 16 bit / 48 kHz in which case it would require a DVD-A player. It doesn't say the bit depth or sampling rate on the disc in the picture so we can't be sure that the player can play DVD-A.

 

[BMXTRIX]

EVD, while quite clearly a standard, has as much value... or less... than a digital VHS recorder. Yeah, it can do HD, if you can find a movie that was actually made for it that way, and reviews seem to be non-existent on the actual HD quality of the machine. It seems to be more of a marketing point than an actual product feature that adds value for the customer.

To the original poster: No, it will not play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Disc which look like they will emerge as the two most common HD formats here in the USA over the next year or two. The new formats are based on a blue laster technology so if you are buying a traditional DVD player with a red laser, there is no way it will read the new generation of HD disc standards.

As was said in the original response: "There are no "real HD DVDs" at this time unless you are referring to a windows media 9 HD movie or similar codec."

This clearly falls under the 'similar codec' category and should not be confused with the much hyped and (somewhat) anticipated release of the official HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Disc technologies. It may look great with EVD discs, but finding actual, official, movie titles for it may prove to be very difficult.

Actually... I just found this article, while a bit tough to read, does say that HVD is the correct format name and is even lower down the totem pole than the aforementioned EVD. Seems that China is trying to come up with some new standards for HD discs on their own due to the number of players being manufactured there and the royalties that they are forced to pay out because of that. Which might work if China actually produced all the content - the movies - that went onto these discs. But, they end up needing studios to release them, and WANT to release them on those discs.

http://www.opticaldisc-systems.com/JanFeb2005/HIGH-DEFINATIONONVIDEODISC/VIDEODISC38.htm

Seems like they have some good ideas, but no real game plan. New Codecs don't seem to me to be better than just giving more space on the discs in the first place and offerring numerous options. That's what HD-DVD & BD will be giving us.

 

[soundsfine]

Seems that China is trying to come up with some new standards for HD discs on their own due to the number of players being manufactured there and the royalties that they are forced to pay out because of that. Which might work if China actually produced all the content - the movies - that went onto these discs. But, they end up needing studios to release them, and WANT to release them on those discs.

Judging by the number of DVDs my friend brings home from China, I would guess that they will go ahead without the studios -- and without their permission.