14 DAY TRIAL // The format war might be over for Toshiba's HD-DVD, but it seems that the next target on the list of casualties will be the victorious Blu-Ray. Those of you who are already prepared to toss the Blu-Ray movie titles and jump in the new format's bandwagon, are advised to wait a little more, as the new format is still in diapers.
The mighty Red-Ray format is a new standard, able to deliver "Beyond-HD" video quality, namely movies at impressive 4096 x 2048 pixels screen resolutions.
Blu-ray players are also marketed as "Beyond-HD" devices, but this labeling is at least misleading, since high-definition specifications say that the HD standard is achieved at 720p (1280 x 720), 1080i (1920 x 1080i), and 1080p (1920 x 1080p) resolutions. The Blu-Ray standard is only able to deliver 1080p, which is in the HD range.
The "Beyond-HD" image quality is achieved by increasing the essential specifications of the standard, namely the rendering resolutions. The only format able to support "Beyond-HD" definitions is the one backed by Red. Its playback device is able to display videos running at blaring resolutions of 4K (4096 x 2048), 2K (2048 x 1024) and regular 16:9 4K (3996 ? 2160).
However, the Red-Ray player cannot work with either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs, but instead, it allows users to play back video content from SD and Compact Flash memory media. The player is still a work in progress and is expected to hit the market sometime in 2009, just in time to force the transition from the Blu-Ray to another HD standard.
The device already sports a couple of important drawbacks, such as its pretty salty price. The new players will come with a price tag of $1000, and is almost useless, given the fact that there are no movie titles to offer 4K screen resolutions. Actually, such resolutions can only be caught on digital supports using a Red One camera, which is quite expensive ($25,000).
Provided that you have the device and the accompanying movie titles, there's still one question left unanswered. Average HDTV screens are able to work with video content of up to 1080p resolutions, and the only Quad-HD TV sets can run at maximum resolutions of 3840 x 2160 pixels. Such displays are not only hard to find, but they are also expensive.
However, a lot of things could change until 2009. Let's not forget that When Pentium 4 chips hit the market, they cost a fortune, and now they're powering the kitchen toaster.
