CES 2000 Picture Gallery!

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Site created 12/15/97.

page created: 1/8/00
(updated 1/13/00)

CES 2000 Picture Gallery

Page 9

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Okay... we told you we heard an amazing DVD-Audio demonstration, right? Well that was thanks to the folks at Toshiba, who had set up a full demonstration room to wow the crowds with. And wow they did. Here's the upside: during their 15-minute presentation, Frank and I were treated to gorgeous high-definition video on a Toshiba TW65X81 rear projection DTV. We also watched a few beautiful progressively-scanned minutes of Miramax's Shakespeare in Love DVD.

Then came DVD-Audio. We started with a 2-channel 24bit 192khz recording of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. That was followed by a 6-channel (5.1) sample of classical piano music. The experience was stunning - audio quality of exceptional clarity and dynamic range. The lows were lower, the highs were higher, and the soft tones of the piano seemed to linger and hang in the air with just the proper amount of sound decay. This is music on disc that at last sounds live - trust us on this. Frank and I are BIG fans of what DVD-Audio can do, and we can't wait for it.

Toshiba's booth featured a very nice DVD-Audio/Video/progessive scan demo. Here's their SD-9200 and SD-9000A players.

Toshiba's booth featured a very nice DVD-Audio/Video/progressive scan demo. Here's their SD-9200 and SD-9000A players.

Just a quick note on Toshiba's "Super Digital Progressive", which they distinguish from standard progressive scan - the difference here is indeed as our friend at Sony explained it to us. The MPEG-2 decoders in DVD players output an interlaced video signal, which is converted to progressive scan in current progressive players. Toshiba's Super Digital Progressive player (any Sony's future players) takes the progressive signal directly from the DVD, decodes it, and outputs the progressive signal without any conversion. Not having much experience with watching progressive DVD video, it's hard to see the difference (but I'm sure it's there nonetheless). We hope "Super Digital Progressive" becomes the norm on all of Toshiba's DVD players.

And the logos for both players. Note that one features "super digital progressive", which Toshiba claims is better than standard progressive scan.

A minute ago, I said there was an upside to Toshiba's corner of the show. Well there was a downside too. The people who were running their special demonstration were trained actors reciting a script by rote memory... and they had no ability to answer questions whatsoever. And Toshiba's main booth (where all their products were on display) was invitation-only. As press, Frank and I were able to gain entry... but not before some rude sales guy in a suit gave us the old 20 questions routine. A PR person quickly put an end to this when she saw what was happening and cleared us in... but not before the encounter left a bad taste in our mouths. Once inside it got a little better... a little. We encountered a handful of friendly people who were willing to talk to us, and explain their forthcoming DVD products. But there were far more present that weren't interested in giving the press the time of day. These seemed to be salesmen, who were eager to jump on the every need of the various distributors who were visiting the booth. When I asked for a press packet of specs and other information on their DVD products (which were available at the asking from every other manufacturer), one salesman rather snidely said they had run out. A few minutes later, I watched as he handed several over to prospective customers. Toshiba it seemed was not going out of its way to put on a friendly face. Maybe we just came on a bad day...

Here's my vote for DVD Gizmo - Best of Show. This is Toshiba's display of prototype DVD portables (shown with laptop connection, LCD glasses and in versions with and w/o LCD).

Still, there was one DVD product at Toshiba's booth that almost completely made up for the lack of a warm welcome. They had on hand a truly amazing little DVD portable, that gets my vote as one of the two coolest things I saw at CES. There was no model number in evidence - this (I was told by a thankfully friendly engineer) was a prototype only, of product the company hopes to ship in the spring. No matter - I'll gladly wait. You wouldn't believe the picture quality! This unit features a true progressive scan 5" LCD display with 800x400 picture resolution. This, my new friend said, was more than 4 times the resolution of any other DVD portable product on the market. And you'd better know that I believe him. The color was brilliant, the detail was crisp - you could crisply see every sarif on the lettering of text that appeared on screen. And the contrast, for an LCD screen, was amazing.

But that's not all. The unit also has DTS and progressive scan outputs, and can be connected to (and controlled by) a laptop as a fully functioning DVD-ROM drive! Two versions were on display at the show - one with LCD and another without. The LCD version is expected to retail for $1499. Now, I'm just a simple 21st century caveman. But I GOTTA get me one of these babys...

A closer view. This unit's got a progressive-scan LCD display to die for, with 800x400 pixel resolution. It has progressive out, and it can be driven by a laptop as a fully-functional DVD-ROM drive. Coming Spring 2000 (at $1499 est.). In a word... awesome.

Toshiba also had their full range of set-top DVD players for 2000 on hand. Among them were the following (and I'll try to get this all straight): the SD-9000A (DVD-Video/Audio plus Super Progressive), the SD-5109 (DVD-Video and "standard" progressive), the SD-1200 (DVD-Video/Audio), the SD-2200 (DVD-Video - 2 disc trays), the SD-6200 (DVD-Video plus Super Progressive), the SD-3205 (DVD-Video with rotating carousel), and the SD-6109C (DVD-Video plus built-in AM/FM receiver). Whew! All (or almost all) of the units mentioned are pictured below. Expect them to debut in the spring, with DVD-Audio capable units shipping pending the finalization of the format's CSS-2 copy protection scheme.

Another view of Toshiba's top-of-the-line SD-9200 player, with DVD-A/V and super digital progressive.

Toshiba's mid-line SD-6200 Cinema Series player. DVD-Video with super digital progressive.

And Toshiba's SD-5109. DVD-Video with regular progressive scan.

A final look at Toshiba's forthcoming fleet of set-top DVD-Video & Audio players.

All in all, Toshiba's got some nifty DVD goods on the way. Now if they'd just be more friendly and willing to show them to us... they might really have something.

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