IMDB had a news bit today about Sony unveiling a new device called the Qualia 001 Creation Box which sharpens an SD image to make it look HD... hmmmmmmm... it can't just dream up the missing pixels.... but they are charging $5k for it, so it must do something...

Anyone seen another source on this?

The summary is here: http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/#13

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119286,00.asp

http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=displaynews&NewsID=4664

But is it any good??

Algorithms can magic up missing pixels - I'm working on such a project myself which makes these announcements doubly interresting to me. But there are many ways of doing such a thing, and some will indeed improve the image, and some will make it worse.

I for one, are fed up with the excessive edge enhancement I see on commercial DVDs. When you project the DVD onto an 80" wide screen, the small edge enhancement that might go un-noticed on a crappy TV is ghastly on the big screen, and the Disney style over-the-top edge enhancement that looks bad on a crappy TV even, just looks like VHS when blown up big. The proper place for bad enhancement is in the crappy TV so that I don't have to see it!

I guess that's why my algorithm is producing sharpness without edge enhancement :-)

Graeme

The best conversions I've seen come from a company (that was called) Terenex.
Their $50K+ boxes produce startling HD from SD sources. Terenex was
recently purchased.

Silicon Optix? bought Terranex. I saw what Terranex were doing at last NAB, and it was nice.

Graeme

<<<-- Originally posted by Graeme Nattress : http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119286,00.asp

http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=displaynews&NewsID=4664

"I guess that's why my algorithm is producing sharpness without edge enhancement :-)

Graeme -->>>"

Graeme,
I looked at the sample you have posted on your web site. Very impressive! I've seen a similar type of plugin in photoshop- Genuine Fractals which seems to do a similar type of effect at least with stills. Seeing that it takes a few seconds in Genuine Fractals, I wonder though how long it would take to uprez a significant amount of footage!
Any time frame when this project will be finished? Looks exciting!

The R&D is still a long way off, but I'm working hard to make it a reality asap.

And it's using a very different method to GF, and it should be a fair bit faster, and it's being purpose designed for video use.

Graeme