Toshiba Advances Bullet-Time to Next Level In Ad Filmed By 200 Camcorders

Toshiba's new "timesculpture" advert takes The Matrix's Bullet Time film technique one bizarrely cool step forward by animating within the freeze-frame. It was filmed with 200 Gigashot camcorders arranged on a special rig, recording a mahoosive 20 terabytes of data from which the ad was composed. Check it out—it's like a weird moving Bullet-Time ballet, and then check out the making of clip to learn how it was made. More »

Toshiba's Regza ZF HDTVs Do Their Own Cell-Processor Upscaling

Toshiba's new Regza ZF HDTVs don't upscale your DVDs to HD resolution with any old chipset or engine: they do it with a Cell-processor based system. Bonkers! It's the first TV to upscale with a Cell, and according to its European executive vice president, Toshiba's future "does not involve Blu-ray disc" but will use this sort of tech to deliver high-res imagery. The upscaling system uses the Cell for some advanced image-processing techniques, creating interpolated pixels to give the final image "near-HD" quality. The sets will also have Active Vision M100 100Hz HD picture processing, 178-degree viewing angle, 30,000:1 contrast ratio and 10-bit processing. The ZF TVs will be in 40- and 46-inch sizes, the 40-inch out now with pricing of around $2,390, the 46-pricing and availability is not announced yet. [Toshiba.co.uk and Toshiba.de-via Google translate.]

DLO's Homedock Pro Adds 1080i HD Output to Your iPod

It was way back in February when we first alerted you to DLO's upcoming Homedock, but now there's more info available. The Homedock HD Pro is an upscaler dock that can add 1080i or 720p output to your iPod through an HDMI cable to your TV, and it's going to be demoed at the upcoming CEDIA Expo show. It's got "industry standard connectivity" over RS-232 and I.P., with digital optical audio and an IR receiver so you can bolt it into your media setup and control it with universal IR remotes. Better still the dock has an "enhanced on-TV interface" which "features album art in an icon-based format," which makes it sound like a mini AppleTV. There's no pricing info as yet. [CEPro]

$4300 Kaleidescape 1080p DVD Streamer Reviewed (Still Not Real HD)

Sound & Vision gave a gushing review to the Kaleidescape 1080p player, a DVD upscaler that streams movies from a home server for the price of a nice used car. They especially liked the Gennum VXP video processor chip, which upscales DVD content to vividly sharp 1080p detail, with very accurate colors and high contrast. The Kaleidescape's updated ability to play content without importing it to the server first was also a big draw. But seriously, $4300? Come on. More »

Sony PS3 Firmware 1.8 Announced: 1080p Upscaling, Network Streaming

It's not quite the 2.0 firmware rumored to be coming out soon, but this 1.8 firmware for the PlayStation 3 seems to have some nice features of its own too. More »

Dealzmodo: Toshiba Upscaling HD DVD Player, $48

This is the perfect deal for those who need their HD fix, but aren't ready to to make the jump to a next-gen media format. This is the Toshiba SD-K860SUB HD Upscaling DVD Player. It will upscale to 720p, 1080i and includes HDMI, component, s-video and composite outputs. Best of all, it supports DivX. This player normally goes for $70, but Buy.com is offering $22 of instant savings. –Travis Hudson More »

PS3 One-Ups 360, Getting DVD Upscaling Eventually

Seeing as we've already established that the PS3 is the best bargain Blu-ray player out there now and a better DVD player than the Xbox 360, it's pretty fitting that Sony's dream machine is going to have DVD upscaling. More »

Pioneer DVD Players Cater to the Lowbies

Blu-ray, Schmue-ray is what I have to say and Pioneer agrees (kind of) by announcing the DV-300V and DV-400V DVD players. The DV-300V (top) is a simple, progressive DVD player that will be available in April 2007 for $69. The DV-400V (bottom) is a nicer DVD player that has an HDMI output, sound equalizing options and 1080p upscaling. It will also be available in May for $99. – Travis Hudson

Oppo DV-981HD Upconverting DVD Player Reviewed (Verdict: 1080p Alchemy)

I just reviewed the Oppo DV-981HD Universal DVD Player, and like its brandmate the Oppo DV-970, the player does a great job of up-rezzing regular old garden-variety DVDs to high definition. This one takes it a step further, though, up-rezzing that unwashed standard-def signal all the way to the holy-grail 1080p resolution. More »

Oppo Unleashes Best DVD Upscaling Player Yet: DV-981HD Does 1080p

Even though you've probably never heard of the company, Oppo uses the the best upscaling tech in the biz—by Faroudja. Now Oppo jumps onto the 1080p bandwagon armed with its latest BFG: the $229 DV-981HD player that upscales garden-variety DVDs from the usual 480p up to 1080p resolution. It has an HDMI output, but gone is the component video output of its predecessor. That coveted 1080p video doesn't travel well over component outputs anyway, especially if you're forced to deal with HDCP (copy-protected) content. More »

Helios H4000 Upconverting DivX/DVD Player Reviewed (Verdict: Pirate-tastic)

The last time we looked at the Helios H4000, we thought the combination of multiple format support, 1080p upscaling, and low, low price made this an incredible buy. Now that i4u got their hands on one, we can definitely say this is worth your money. More »

Helios H4000 DVD Player Upscales Your DVDs to 1080p

For our money, this is the sexiest 1080p upscaling DVD player that we've seen in a long time. The Helios H4000 DVD player can product 1080p and 1080i video using HDMI, component and VGA, making your older DVDs infinitely more watchable and holding off the next-gen onslaught for another few years. More »