There is a scam taking place and precious few people know that it is being perpetrated.
Walk into any stereo store, best buy or other TV dealer and ask about HDTV. The salesperson will of course show you the latest sale item, explain how great the picture is, maybe talk about HDDVD or BluRay but almost never will the conversation turn to pixel depth, why? Well because this years newest HDTVs are more concerned about price and less concerned about quality. Sure the quality is great and it is always getting better but if you visit a Costco you will see what I am writing about.
At Costco just as an example you can see racks of big screens. There are Plasmas, LCDs, a token rear projection. But, the little tag will tell you a little bit more. That tag with the price will tell you the resolution and the resolution really ranges. The best you can find and the one that people think that they are getting is 1080P but out of 20 sets in my latest trip to Costco only 2 had this magical high resolution.
Why is this happening? Well simply put there are not as many people out there ready to spend 3000 dollars on a new HDTV so the prices were going to have to drop to get more people in the market to buy a Plasma or LCD TV.
What are these resolutions? OK, so maybe you are now scratching your head wondering what all of these resolutions mean. HDTV has three main resolution, 1080, 720, and 480. Here are the resolutions.
1080p 1,920x1,080 lines
720p 1,280x720 lines
480p 852x480 lines
As compared to your standard computer monitor which is either 1024x768 or 1280x1024. Or if we look at what we are used to today the horizontal resolution of VHS tape is (about) 240 lines; broadcast TV (about) 330 lines, laserdisc (about) 420 lines; and DVD (about) 480 lines
Progressive vs Interlaced
The P or I at the end is the way that the TV screen gets painted. Just to simplify I, which is interlaced is the way that a tv generally looks with every second line being painted at a time and alternating to every other second line at once. P stands for progressive which means that every line is painted with every refresh and looks a lot more smooth to the eye to watch.
By: Bill Nadraszky
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Blu-ray Has Arrived
Computer meets video player in the next generation of Blu-ray disc players. Not only do these high-tech wonders display an amazing 1920 x 1080 lines of high-def resolution, they also feature internet connections and Java technology. BD Java interactive technology promises a whole new experience when viewing Blu-ray movies.
Picture-in-picture features have been included in Blu-ray’s rival, HD-DVD, since the get go however it wasn’t a required part of the Blu-ray technology until October 2006. To meet the demands of BD Java requirements, Blu-ray players must meet minimum hardware requirements including memory storage (at least 256MB of persistent memory) and at least 1GB of storage for downloaded internet content.
The days of downloading movies to your laptop are numbered. Who wants to watch movies on a tiny laptop screen anyway? Blu-ray recorders equipped with an internet connection let you watch your HD movies on your own terms, on your own giant screens!
Blu-ray technology incorporates many formats familiar to computer geeks including MPEG-2 which is enhanced for high definition as well as for the playback of HDTV recordings and DVDs, MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1 which is based on the familiar Microsoft Windows Media Video technology. While these video codecs are cool for the geeks among us, for the rest of the world, it simply means your Blu-ray disc player will support these features and the movie studios know it. They’ll use whichever codec best meets their needs with the understanding that these are the common choices from which to choose.
Likewise Blu-ray incorporates a variety of audio codecs including the mandatory codecs such as Linear PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS Digital Surround. Optional audio codecs include Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio. For the audiophiles out there pick your favorites but don’t expect all Blu-ray movies to have the sound of your choice, it’s purely up to the movie studios to decide what to use.
Contributed by: Martin Wyman
Picture-in-picture features have been included in Blu-ray’s rival, HD-DVD, since the get go however it wasn’t a required part of the Blu-ray technology until October 2006. To meet the demands of BD Java requirements, Blu-ray players must meet minimum hardware requirements including memory storage (at least 256MB of persistent memory) and at least 1GB of storage for downloaded internet content.
The days of downloading movies to your laptop are numbered. Who wants to watch movies on a tiny laptop screen anyway? Blu-ray recorders equipped with an internet connection let you watch your HD movies on your own terms, on your own giant screens!
Blu-ray technology incorporates many formats familiar to computer geeks including MPEG-2 which is enhanced for high definition as well as for the playback of HDTV recordings and DVDs, MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1 which is based on the familiar Microsoft Windows Media Video technology. While these video codecs are cool for the geeks among us, for the rest of the world, it simply means your Blu-ray disc player will support these features and the movie studios know it. They’ll use whichever codec best meets their needs with the understanding that these are the common choices from which to choose.
Likewise Blu-ray incorporates a variety of audio codecs including the mandatory codecs such as Linear PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS Digital Surround. Optional audio codecs include Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio. For the audiophiles out there pick your favorites but don’t expect all Blu-ray movies to have the sound of your choice, it’s purely up to the movie studios to decide what to use.
Contributed by: Martin Wyman
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