I haven't seen this posted here and I was wondering if anybody has any info on this. Is this a Sony twist on words or is this the new standard of making DVD's look better for HDTVs?

Superbit™. Pure Performance. Pure Entertainment.

"The Superbit Collection sets a new benchmark in high resolution DVD picture and sound, creating the ultimate in home entertainment.

Superbit DVDs utilize a high bit rate digital transfer process that optimizes video quality and offers both DTS and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. All Superbit DVDs are widescreen presentations in the original language. Other languages are subtitled."

Excellent post... I just picked up two DVDs at the NYC Virgin Megastore that have this "new" enhancement. All I can tell you is that they are more expensive, running you a whopping $26.25 + tax each. I will tell you how they perform once Im back in EZE and connect all my theater paraphernalia.

Scotty, whats the scoop on this? Any special hardware (ie. DVD player) requirements?

Get a GOOD DVD player with Fardouja's Interlace and filtering technology. You WILL see a difference on a Superbit DVD if you play the standard and Superbit content. Also, look at a DVD video performance analysis tool and you will see that the bit rate is driven on average 20% more. The encoding is a higher quality HENCE why you have no trailers or extras on the disk as the movie size is larger than on a standard disk - so no room for extras.

If you have a crummy or normal DVD player though I wouldn't waste the money...

Added to say that it is HIGHLY unlikely even with a good DVD player if you use composite or S-Video you won't be taking any real use of high quality video output. You should be using component out video.


[This message has been edited by NickP 1K (edited 10-15-2003).]

Well, I use component video out from a progressive scan DVD to a Plasma.... so, should I tell the difference?

Would depend on how good your DVD player is on decoding and optimizing the output...

[This message has been edited by NickP 1K (edited 10-16-2003).]

DVDs are all encoded with using variable-bit rate MPEG-2. The only difference with Superbit discs and common-or-garden DVDs is that, in the former case, the Q-factor has been tweaked to give higher average bit rates. The corollary of this is that you can fit less of anything else onto the disc, because the size of the video is larger.

Excellent explanation...

All this superbit stuff and similar technologies are about to go out the window. The Blu Ray machines are starting out in Japan in a month ago and are expected in the US within 6 months. They basically will hold a ton more info and will blow superbit away.

You know, except for absolute resolution a good LaserDisc transfer still has better overall picture quality than an average DVD because it is compressed far less than a DVD. You can see this easily by looking at shadow details and backgrounds. In DVDs darker shadow areas block up and lose a lot of detail in the transition from shades of grey to black. You can also see digital 'blocking' in average and poor transfers. Also, the backgrounds in DVDs often look still or 'dead'. This comes from the extreme compression of the MPEG 2 format.

IMHO, DVD was released about two years too early. MPEG-2 was chosen because it was the smallest compression that would allow a typical 2-2/12 hour to movie fit on the then maximum 4.6-gigabyte single-layer DVD. Less that two years later we had dual-layer DVDs that could hold over twice that which would have allowed twice as much of the original information, or half as much compression, thus allowing a much better quality.

As for the topic, I can clearly see a difference between the Super Bit The Fifth Element and the standard DVD release. But only using component outs on my Arcam DVD player.




[This message has been edited by anrkitec (edited 10-19-2003).]

Another question that I had was that after doing a search for dvd players with " Fardouja's Interlace and filtering technology " , the interface required was DVI. I have a DVI input on my HDTV and also have the DVI output on my HDTV cable box but was told by Comcast that it is not enabled. Is anybody out there using DVI? Is there a big quality difference between DVI and Component Video?

If the display device is a digital device (i.e. LCD, Plasma, DLP Projector) then DVI has advatanges. It skips the whole process of converting to analogue then back to digital and just sends the signal digitally to the display.

Even my LCD panel for my PC has the DVI option but it looks like DVI is not that prominent in the main stream arena yet. I could be wrong.

DVI is slowly reaching critical mass for PC's, but is relatively new/exotic on consumer electronics.

Any decent PC video card and most office/advanced lines of LCD's have DVI ports these days.

One future problem is that DVI's official bandwidth peaks at the equivalent of 1600x1200@60Hz. The 24" Samsung LCD, for instance, requires running the cable beyond its specs to get the full 1920x1200, or using a lower refresh rate.

Fardouja's technology can be implemented with little issues on progressive component outputs. (to an HD set for example). Most Fardouja implementations in this environment just output to 480p across the component output.

I have YET to see a STANDARD DVD player with DVI. (I've seen one or two recorders with DVI...)

Samsung makes one (931).

However, your display must be HDCP compatible.



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