In the November issue, we mistakenly measured the Paradigm UltraCube 12 as part of the Paradigm system instead of the Seismic-10 that was mentioned in the review. The correct measurements are below.
—GM
HT Labs Measures: Paradigm Seismic-10 Subwoofer
This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the Seismic-10 subwoofer (blue trace).
The Seismic-10’s close-miked response, normalized to the level at 80 Hz, indicates that the lower –3dB point is at 23 Hz and the –6dB point is at 21 Hz. The upper –3dB point is at 106 Hz with the Subwoofer Cut-Off Frequency control set to maximum and the Bass Contour control set to 0dB. —MJP
CEATEC (See-Tech) is a yearly trade show in Tokyo, Japan. For the most part it is either a preview of what the Japanese manufacturers are going to show at CES, or what they’re hoping to come out with in the near future. Then there’s the rest of the massive building that has parts like LEDs, IR transmitters, and all the bits that are in the products you buy.
Last year I got to see the plasma that would eventually become Pioneer’s KURO. This year there was no such amazingness, but there was still a lot that was very cool. Clicky clicky for all the pics and info.
If you read the post below, it is obvious that I was in Germany, though I neglected to mention why. Every year, the IFA show takes place in Berlin. It is a truly gigantic trade show that encompasses a few dozen buildings. CES, every year in Vegas, probably has more booths. But the average size of each booth at IFA is much larger. Some of them are entire buildings.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much to report. Most any announcements for the US market will be announced at CEDIA (check our blog for that show here). The European announcements were either things we won’t get here, or things we already have here.
One cool thing was the latest iteration of Philips Ambilight. I’m not convinced on the videophile repercussions of this colored, video-synced, backlighting technology, but from what I hear, many people like it. Called “Aurea,” this logical advancement in the idea adds LEDs embedded in the bezel, instead of just on the back (and sides). As you can see in the pictures the result is very impressive looking. At the moment, it’s just for Europe, but don’t be surprised if it heads here soon.
There are more pictures from IFA if you clicky the link below.
CEDIA is this week. Here’s the link for that blog again: CEDIA 2007
Autobahn, Part II If you haven’t read my first post on the road of roads, read it below first.
First off, I know 126 mph isn’t that impressive. But when you consider that the 1.6L, 102 hp engine in the Mark V Golf I rented was designed for economy, it’s not at all bad. Also, you have to give it to any company that engineers even their budget engines to be able to run at 6200 RPMs for over an hour and not explode. Sure, many of you (and I) have gone much faster in other cars, but as I said, this wasn’t about raw speed.
But what about these speeds. Let’s take a look at the numbers. At 126 mph, or just over 200 kph, the little 4-cylinder is burning fuel at a prodigious rate. Thanks to the handy onboard trip computer, it was imbibing 16.6 liters every 100 kilometers. That’s all kind of backwards to us in the new world, so let me translate. Flip it all around and you get somewhere in the vicinity of 14.1 miles per gallon in a car/engine the EU rates at 38.5 mpg “highway.” Boo-yah.
It occurred to me that there were three reasons why most people on the Autobahn weren’t taking advantage of the lack of speed limits. The first, and most simple, is that many of the tiny European city cars simply can’t break into the triple digits. This isn’t a knock, just a fact. If you have 50 or so hp, you may get 50 miles per gallon, but the car just isn’t designed to travel great distances above and past the speed of sense.
Secondly, it seems that most Germans are probably smarter than me. Or at least, have had a few decades on the Autobahns for the novelty to have warn off. I can’t even fathom that, but that’s me.
Lastly, gas is roughly $7 per gallon. Pretty cheap by European standards. As the speed goes up, gas mileage goes down (as I mentioned above). This is noticeable even from 55 to 65. And you can feel it, even on short runs.
I drove at 200 kph for about an hour (roughly, there was often slowing, but lets ignore that for now). At 200 kph the car was burning 16.6 L/100k. So in an hour I would have burned 33.2 liters of gas. This equals about 8.3L every 15 minutes, or 0.553L every minute. Convert that to gallons, and we have roughly 0.15 gallons every minute. With the current rate of exchange, this means my high speed burn across the German countryside was costing me, roughly, $1.05 per minute, every minute, for just over an hour. In my opinion this is a pretty good example of totally worth it.
At 126 miles per hour, I develop a whole new appreciation for Kraftwerk. I’m traversing 11,088 feet every minute, or just shy of 185 feet per second. Even so, I’m still being passed.
At this exceptional velocity, headlights do as much good as happy thoughts and a teddy bear. If something were to appear from the darkness, not unheard of in the German countryside, the most you’d have time for is maybe a “Crap!” or “Oooo, a bunny!” An exceptional car will stop from 80 miles per hour in 185 feet. I’m not driving an exceptional car, nor am I going 80 miles per hour. For that matter, I’m sure my reflexes would have to equate in there somewhere. See bunny, lift off gas, stand on break… yeah, goodbye bunny.
I rapidly pass a car, which is probably still doing 90+. My mind drifts to Einstein. They look so slow to me, but to them I look so fast. I am amused. Then my mind drifts to Newton, and I am not.
At this speed, there is no such thing as a good landing.
I move to the right to allow a car, a station wagon of all things, to pass. Its shockwave makes a “woomf” sound as it blows past me.
I bleed off speed and come to a crawl as a knot in traffic struggles to get by some plodding trucks. Then I laugh as I realize this “crawl” is still 20% faster than any legal rate in the entire United States of America.
I’m sure you’ve all gone 100 miles per hour. Most of you have probably done a lot more. That’s not the odd part here. There is a point, below which you’re driving fast, above which, you’re driving. The radio gets turned down, or perhaps drowned out. Both hands clench the wheel. Your eyes drift farther and farther down the road, yet dart to any cars around you. Your palms sweat. Suddenly, the car is too warm. Then too cold. Then too warm, but you don’t want to take your hands off the wheel. Your elbows start to get sore from being stuck in the same position. Hundreds of tiny corrections happen nonstop, tiring you. For me, in this car, this happened at around 115.
But again, the speed is not the thing here. Not in and of itself. It’s the overriding, penetrating feeling that what you’re doing is wrong. Very wrong. And someone is going to pop out of the bushes and tell you to get off their lawn. Or come in for dinner. Or to go to your room. It’s a good thing they don’t, because you’d probably swerve, and then it’d be over anyway. But yet you continue. And so does everyone else. And then it starts to sink in that what you’re doing isn’t wrong. In fact, it’s the way it should be. A natural way. You could get used to making up your own mind for your own personal speed limit.
Then you pass a green and white Polizei, and you have an impromptu test as to whether all that Lipitor is really worth the money. But despite going more than double his speed, he does nothing.
The adrenalin has done a surprising job of clarifying your mind. You remember that if all roads were like this, in our beloved land, idiots in their SUVs would be trying to defy physics, and it would all go back to ol’double nickel faster than you can say “Well, it’s for your own good.”
Sure, there are many speed limits throughout Germany’s Autobahn system. Sure there is enough congestion to make 55 seem like speeding, but as you edge out into the countryside, there’s this moment. This moment where the traffic opens up, the beautiful diagonal lined sign appears, and you can push your favorite foot down. Down so the engine growls. Down so the air screams. And the needle drifts up and around to that forbidden side of the dial, where the dreams of every teenage boy inside of every man still lie. Dormant, waiting for this moment to burst free. And in that instant, you know what it is to be alive.
In the August issue I initiated a “bold challenge” for you to prove to me that you had more music files than I did. Well I was quite impressed with the number of and the numbers in the responses. And I thought I liked music. Here’s the highlights, in ascending order.
Brodie Wolstenholme
Brodie has over 13,000 music files, with more than 6,000 of them losslessly compressed. Not bad, not bad at all.
Dave Cotell
Dave has 7737 files, but they take up 307 gigabytes. He didn’t specify which encoding he used, but it certainly wasn’t highly compressed with that ratio.
Edit: Dave let me know that it's actually 200 in AAC format and another 7700+ in lossless WAV.
Ryan Mielke
Ryan has “only” 8278 songs, but they’re all Apple Lossless. Nice work.
Frank Bertola
Frank claims he didn’t want to sacrifice any quality, so encoded his 500 CDs as .wav files. 8,207 and 404 GB later, and he claims he’s looking to get additional hard drive soon. I don’t doubt it.
Mark Decker
Mark has 19,814 AAC and MPEG files. HT Contributor and professional pianist John Higgins would approve of his playlist entitled “Rachmaninoff,” so extra points for that.
Ed Ting
In terms of numbers, Ed wins. He has 38,524 mp3s taking up 386 gigabytes. But as I said, those with lossless files get extra points.
Zbigniew Tyrlik
Zbig almost won this thing outright. He has a staggering 28,286 files, all lossless. That’s around 663 gigabytes.
Ben Bowen
But Ben takes the cake. He has, and he sent me screenshots to prove it, over 35 thousand songs. Wait, it gets crazier. Almost all are either lossless or completely uncompressed .wav files. That’s over 1.3 terebytes of data. Now that is dedication. Oddly, more than half are Led Zeppelin bootlegs. How’s that for a resource. Then there’s his backup hard drives…
So who won? I have about 15,000 songs, all encoded as MP3s (wait, don’t yell) almost all at very high bit rates. I still listen to CDs if I’m going to sit down and listen to music, so my files are just for my iPod. Excuses, excuses, I know. The collections of everyone above impressed me, so like I promised they’re all going to get a HD DVD or Blu-ray disc, though perhaps I should have offered to send a new hard drive or two.
One more thing. It took great restraint not to comment on some of the music selections I saw in the supplied screenshots. But I just knew that for every album in my own collection that is nicely esoteric or obscure (say, International Submarine Band) would reveal one that is decidedly not (go Hootie!). That said, I have just one question. What’s with all the ABBA?!? Just kidding. Thanks for all the responses.
This is the first of a three part series where I get to write about two of my favorite things that I never get to write about: audio and cars. As more and more audio companies get out of the house, we’ll see more and more of this cross-pollination.
THX II Certified Car Audio System and the Lincoln MKX
In most ways, the Lincoln MKX is pretty typical of sport utility vehicles of late. It’s pretty big, heavy, and has a certain “I’m here!” look to it. There’s a fair amount of chrome, but certainly not as much as some others. Perhaps not as typical are a V6 engine (most have V8s), a stepped on jelly bean sort of look, and a high end audio system option. The $995 price for the aural upgrade isn’t bad, and far less than some audio system upgrades.
The MKX was the second Ford product that THX designed from scratch, the first being the Zephyr (now called the MKZ). THX head guru Laurie Fincham praised the Lincolns for one aspect that makes any car audio designer’s life easier; they’re quiet.
Every car audio speaker system is approached in different ways, as every car, company, and designer is different. THX and Ford looked at the fact that most media played back in a car is just 2-channel. That, and the fact that surround sound can sound very odd to the people in the back, drove (yes, a pun) them to design the MKZ system as 2.1. From scratch it was also made to maximize the bandwidth, so it can play both deep and high cleanly.
The 2.1 configuration doesn’t mean there isn’t a center channel. A specially designed slot speaker was integrated into the dash. This so the stereo sound doesn’t get pinned to the doors. There are three modes: “Driver,” “All Seats,” and “Front.” Depending on the mode the center channel gets activated to even out the mix. “Driver” centralizes the balance so the driver gets the best sound. “All Seats” spreads the sound so it’s as good as it can be for everyone. The sound spreads more to the doors, but there is a fullness that “Driver” doesn’t have. “Front” does as you’d expect, sounding a lot like “All Seats,” minus the fill from the rear. I found “All Seats” to sound the best overall with most material.
The speakers themselves are mostly in the doors. A 1-inch tweeter is in front of the door handle, and a 5x7 mid-woofer is a little below. The dash has that special slot center channel, which is a 1-inch tweeter and a 2.75-inch midrange. The back doors house a 5x7 two-way. The subs are located on the sides of the trunk. Like many of the new car audio systems, the rear 1.5-inch rear speakers are up out of the way (and aimed towards the passenger compartment) on the D-pillars.
The MKX’s 12-channel (one for each speaker) amp has integrated DSP. It has built in limiters to reduce clipping, or very occasionally for heat.
The sound is quite good. There is no boomy bass, easily the most trite and annoying trend in car audio. THX succeeded in their goal for bandwidth, as the entire frequency range is readily audible. Well, at least it sounds that way, I couldn’t measure the frequency response. The treble is clear, but not harsh. Bass is not quite as defined as some car audio systems, but isn’t bad. There is plenty of volume capabilities.
Is it worth it?
It’s odd reviewing car audio, as for most readers here, they’ll probably upgrade the audio system regardless. So instead, what if you’re in the market for one of these types of vehicles. Is this one more or less worth it because of the audio? Well, yes and no. The audio system is quite good, and its integration into the electronics of the vehicle can’t be duplicated by any aftermarket installer. Here’s where my hobby intersects with my job. I just can’t see why anyone would buy this car. It’s an excellent example of the mediocrity of current Ford vehicles. I will grant that I would never buy an SUV, but as far as SUVs go, there are far better. The inside of the MKX has miles of plasticy crap. The engine is fairly torquey, and makes nice sounds, but the driving experience is mundane even for an SUV. There is little wrong with the MKX, it’s just not very good. Hopefully THX will be able to put their substantial experience and talent into a system in a decent car. Oh, wait, they do…
Sony unveiled a slew of new TVs at their recent TV unveiling in NYC.
Perhaps the coolest of the bunch is the new XBR5 line of SXRD RPTVs. Availible this fall in both 60-inch (KDS-Z60XBR5, $5k) and 70-inch (KDS-Z60XBR5, $6k) versions, they look like LCD flat panels. In fact, the only way to tell that they aren’t is to view them from the side. Unlike Hitachi’s short-lived try at this trick, even side views aren’t a dead give-away. They look to be around 10 inches deep. The stand holding up the display in the pictures below is just that, an optional stand, not a part of the TV.
Also new is the inclusion of 120 Hz MotionFlow to the SXRD line (both XBR and A3000). This works the same as it does in LCD flat panels. There are different settings, which adjust the severity of the frame interpolation. Also available is two different levels of black frame insertion, which, like the frame interpolation, will reduce motion blur and perhaps increase apparent black level.
The lower model A3000 series has removable and interchangeable bezels so you can match your RPTV with your décor.
Last Monday was Mitsubishi’s line show. Yes, it’s taken me all week to put up info.
Mits sees big growth in big screens. Really big screens. They love their 73-inchers.
On the RPTV side, there were nine new models.
The 733 series has a 57 ($2,499), 65 ($2,999), and 73-inch ($4,699) models. They’re 1080p, offer x.v.Color (This is Mits and Sony’s name for xvYCC, which you can read about here), and have Mits’ 6-color color wheel. (WD-57733, WD-65733, WD-73733)
The 734 series has 57 ($2,799), 65 (price N/A), and 73-inch (price N/A). These are just like the 733, but also have “Dark Detailer,” for alleged better blacks, “Deep Field Imager” for better in-scene contrast, and “Sharp Edge” which should do as it sounds. You also get a front HDMI input. (WD-57734, WD-65734, WD-73734)
Lastly, the Diamond, or 833 series has, surprise, a 57 ($3,399), 65 ($3,999), and 73-inch ($5,899) versions. Here you get a 120Hz mode, TV Guide On Screen, and the 3D mode mentioned below. (WD-57833, WD-65833, WD-73833)
LCDs
All Mitsubishi’s new 1080p LCDs have thinner bezels, so larger sizes can fit in smaller spaces, and to just plain look cooler.
The 133 series includes 40 ($2,699), 46 ($3,399), and 52-inch ($4,499) models. All have x.v.Color. (LT-40133, LT-46133, LT-52133)
The 134 series has one model, the LT-40134, for $2,899. It adds a couple of minor electronic features and a side HDMI input.
The 144 series has 46 ($3,899) and a 52-inch ($5,099) models. The big jump here is for 120Hz. (LT-46144, LT-52144)
The Diamond or 244 series also has a 46 ($4,499) and a 52-inch ($5,699) models. These also have 120Hz and CableCARD, TV Guide Daily, and a side HDMI input. (LT-46244, LT-52244)
In the back they had set up a compelling demo of xvYCC. I was just as impressed seeing as it in person as I was seeing it on paper, but it’s still meaningless without content.
Also shown was a demo of a DLP showing 3D game content. You need special 3D glasses (of course), but said glasses are light and presumably cheap. It is said to work with just about any 3D game. What made it interesting was that the TV was running at 120Hz, so each eye saw a 60 Hz framerate (as in no flicker). It was infinitely less fatiguing than many 3D technologies. More info as I have it.
Other stuff
As of last week we are no longer a Primedia Publication. Please congratulate our new owners on their 1.2 billion dollar purchase. As far as I can tell, this affects you and us none.
If you’re looking for some cool and different art, check out our very own Steve Guttenburg’s photowork here. I dig.
Pioneer announced eight new plasmas on Wednesday. That in itself is not terribly exciting. What is exciting is that it is based on their 8th generation glass, which I’ve talked about before.
Called “Project Kuro” (Kuro means “Black” in Japanese), the 8th gen glass is a substantial reworking of how Pioneer’s plasmas work. I’ll go into more detail when I review an actual product, but here’s the short version. By using different electrode placement, they were able to reduce idling brightness by 80%. Basically this means that blacks can be significantly darker than before.
They also announced a new pricing strategy that would take them away from the “race to zero” that every other flat panel manufacturer is going for. So don’t expect the new plasmas to come cheap (like Pioneers ever were).
They proof, they say, is in the pudding. At the unveiling, all the plasmas were shown with some bias lighting. This was unlike CEATEC from last year where the prototype of this glass was shown in a totally dark room. If Pioneer was so sure of their black levels, why not a black room? We didn’t get a chance to see anything interesting on them that night, but the next day we were invited back to see the new plasma against some competition.
Any time a manufacturer, any manufacturer, sets their product head to head with another manufacturer, you have to take the results with a grain of salt. Without being able to check all the settings, one would have no idea what they’ve done to each display to make them look good or bad. That said, when one of the displays is one of their own models (which is still for sale), you can at least garner some initial opinions. Here, judge for yourself:
The upper left is their PRO-FHD1 that I reviewed a few months ago. Up top is a new Samsung, and the bottom right is the latest Panasonic. That leaves the lower middle, which is a 768p version of their 8th gen glass. I think the picture pretty much says it all. The black level was noticeably better on the new glass. How much better? I won’t know till I get one in the lab, hopefully in a few months when they’re released. Keep in mind the settings on all displays were supposedly "out of the box."
Even if the new black level is close to a Panasonic (it looks a lot better), then that is big news. Now you have some of the best processing in the business, and a good black level. I can’t wait to check one out.
The 42 and 50-inch 768p models will be out in June for $2,700 and $3,500. A 50 and 60 1080p models will be out in September for $5,000 and $6,500. These for are straight Pioneer models. The Elite models (which have some step-up features and such but the same glass), will have the same sizes, but the 768p models will be available a month later. Prices on those are $3,200, $4,500, with the 1080p 50 and 60 being $6,000, and $7,500.
And in case you didn't see it anywhere else on the site, the Home Entertainment Show
starts Friday. If you’re in or near NYC, come on down. I’ll be doing a panel called “HDTV 101” on Saturday at 1:30. Feel free to come heckle say hi.
Well, it took a little longer than expected, but here's what we've been working on. It's, admittedly, a little rough around the edges. Now that we have the bugs worked out, the next one will be a lot better. As for the host, well I can’t see him getting any better…
I've got four 1080p projectors in for testing for the June issue. Look for a bit of a preview in a few weeks. In the mean time, I figured I'd add some irrelevant off-topic filler.
So, is SED dead? I've heard some rumors of a big player voicing some interest, but nothing substantial yet. Personally I think the morons
folks over at Nano-Proprietary have done an excellent job at winning the battle and completely losing the war. I guess we'll have to wait and see (what a surprise).
Anybody watch The Unit? David Mamet is my hero. Damn good show.
On the other hand, Jericho is the worst written show I've ever seen. It's like David Mamet puked, and that puke wrote this show (stealing one of the mans jokes right there). No, that could only be the case if the puke was also asleep and illiterate. Yet I, and many other people, still watch it every week. What's with that? And the music, oh man the music. Can someone please tell TV producers that MIDI makes your show sound like crap. Everyone notices, stop assuming your audience is a bunch of idiots. I hate that.
I'd like to go on record in saying that I couldn't care less who wins this format war. I'm completely neutral, as in both sides annoy me equally.
All you fanboys read that last paragraph and stop emailing me that your format is 1337 and the other is the suxors.
Speaking of which, I love fanboys. If I agree with them, apparently I'm a genius. If I disagree, I'm incompetent. This could happen four times in the same article.
Gram Parsons rules. Just sayin.
Upconverted DVD is NOT the same as HD DVD or Blu-ray. Not even remotely close. You can dress that pig up for the dance, but she's not going to win prom queen.
My car is cooler than your car. Just sayin. Prove me wrong.
Sony had their line show on Tuesday. Continuing the sick joke from previous years, it was in Las wasn't-I-here-last-month Vegas. Instead of Caesars, it was at Paris.
Paris has this cute/cheesy thing where everything is in French and English. This kind of ruins the effect to me, as if this was actually Paris, there certainly wouldn’t be any English. That’s probably asking too much. Whatever. The good bits follow. The “Pics here” links all lead to the same place, so you only need to click on one. Or click on them all, that’s ok by me.
There is a new Blu-ray player coming out, the BDP-S300. They claim it will do everything the BDP-S1 will do (like 1080p/24), but for $600. In addition, it will read and output xvYCC color space, if we ever see discs so encoded. The case also had DTS and Dolby Digital Plus logos, which would be interesting if those end up on the final product (for having what those logos imply). They’re saying “summer” for availability. Pics here. This one will play CDs, oh the future.
On the marketing side, they’re expanding the “BRAVIA ” sub-name to home theater equipment, rear-pros (including SXRD models), and even front projectors. Up next, BRAVIA the FLAME THROWER!!!! Kids just love that one.
In the “not-dead-yet” category, the E3000 series are 1080p LCD RPTVs. The most interesting feature of these are their extremely thin form factor. The 50-inch is only 12.6 inches deep. The 46-inch is just 11.9. They’ll even accept 1080p/24. No pricing, but expect them to be less than the SXRDs when they ship in July. Pics here.
The KDL-32XBR4 was hyped as being a showcase of things to come. It has a WCG-CCFL (Wide Color Gamut-Cold Cathode Florescent Light) backlight, a 10-bit LCD panel, and “Motionflow.” The latter interpolates frames to double the apparent frame rate to 120. Fully interpolated frames tend to make my skin crawl, but we’ll see. Nearly every major LCD manufacturer is coming out with 120 Hz panels, and each has a slightly different approach on how to get the signal up to this refresh rate. As of yet none are doing 5:5 pulldown (24 fps x 5) for film content.
A handful of other LCDs were shown. The 1080p “V” series, the 768p “S” series. The “V” series has a WCG-CCFL backlight, and 10-bit LCD panels. One feature well discussed for both lines was the BRAVIA Theatre Sync that lets BRAVIA products all talk to each other. Panasonic has a similar system that you can read about here. All “S” series have the WCG-CCFL, but only the 40 and 46-inch models have 10-bit panels. No prices, one pic.
The other big news was the BRAVIA Internet Video Link. This $300 add-on module for most of the TVs I’ve mentioned above allows a user to access AOL, Yahoo! Grouper, Sony Pictures and Sony BMG Music and stream (not download) free content. You’ll need a broadband Internet connection, but then you can get “Internet video programming, music videos, movie trailers, user generated videos and RSS feeds.” So all the Sony movie trailers and guys getting hit in the nuts videos that your heart desires are just a few clicks away. It is only for access to these sites, so no checking your email or anything. If you thought that YouTube video looked bad a 425 pixels wide, imagine what it will look like when you zoom into it to blow it up to 1920 by 1080 and 46-inches diagonal. Personally I don’t see the big deal of this, but I’ve missed the point of things before.
Second to lastly, Sony’s Xross Media Bar first seen in the PSP (and also in the PS3 and a receiver), is popping up in just about all their products. This is a good thing. It will make navigating your way around the TVs copious features a little easier.
Lastly, they teased us once again by showing a "1,000,000:1" contrast ratio OLED display. No definite plans yet, but it's pretty. Pics here and a short video of it in action downloadable here (Quicktime, 21MB).
Well, better late then never. Here’s my review of Pioneer’s PRO-FHD1 1080p plasma. It’s probably the best looking flat panel you can by, at least for right now. It’s also $8,000… Impressive none the less. Read about it here.
Check back later this week (or early next) for my review of the LG LH100 (you know, the one that plays Blu-ray and HD DVD). So far it looks great.
Not shown, but discussed, was a new 3-chip 1080p projector that should be available in the spring for around a mere $45,000. Full specs weren’t ready, but expect a very bright image with Minolta lenses, and an external scaler with a Silicon Optix HQV chip inside. This fall there will also be two new 1080p front projectors in the sub-$10k market. More info on all those as I get it.
We got a peak at it at CEDIA, but they’re now discussing for real a 1080p 100-inch in-wall rear projection display. They’re saying around $29k.
They also had on hand their Xscreen which I’ve had a sample of here at the studio for well over a month and have yet to take it out of the crate. Soon, I promise, as it is a really cool idea.
We’ve had a lot of issues recently with posting comments on the blogs (mostly from spammers). Here are a few tips to help make posting easier.
Your first post will probably disappear. Sorry. My advice is to write out your response in Word (then look it over!) then copy (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) it into the text section.
Remember, it’s 1024 total characters. That includes spaces. Check the end of your post to make sure it didn’t get cut off.
If you have a specific question on something, email me at htletters@primedia.com. I’ll answer it a lot quicker there (seriously). Just put “Blog Post Question” or something in the subject line.
If you want to break up your text (please), type “<” then a “p”, then a “>” without spaces or any of the quotes. This will create a new paragraph.
Post early, post often. And be nice, or I will delete you.
In the February issue, the Samsung HL-S6188W was derided, and rightly so, for it’s staggering light output of almost 170 ft-Lamberts. For a 61-inch display, this is way to bright to watch in a dark room. It’s the kind of light output that hurts, literally.
I mentioned in the article that buried in the service menu there was a way too enable an iris. We didn’t review it this way in the magazine because I don’t think it was fair to assume that every ISF calibrator would know how to do this (though by comparison it is fair to assume that they will know how to calibrate the grayscale on every TV). The fact that there is an iris, but there isn’t a control for it in the user menu is a conundrum that is above my ability to figure out. So we tested this iris, and it certainly works.
There are only two settings for the iris, on and off. Default, as you can imagine, is off. On drops the light output by half. The contrast ratio essentially stays the same, but now instead of 158 ft-Lamberts (what we measured this week now that it has many more hours on its lamp), it drops by more than half to 77.06 ft-Lamberts. This is still bright, but lacks the pop that you would expect if you’re used to this TV in its brighter mode. That said, if you watch this TV in a dark room, it’s well worth it, not least for the drop in black level that also goes down by half.
In reality of the article, it doesn’t matter that the TV does this, as it wouldn’t have affected its ranking one bit. But if you want to get a highly accurate TV, and one that doesn’t blow you out of the room, this TV can give you both. Unfortunately, you have to choose between the two settings, as there is no easy way to switch between them.
How to do it
I will not tell you how to get into the service menu, so don’t even ask. I don’t care if this annoys you. One way to look at this is “plausible deniability” another is “lack of liability.” If you screw up your TV, it’s your own fault. So when your ISF calibrator is at your house calibrating this TV, or you’ve found the codes to screw it up yourself, this is how you enable the iris:
Under the “SP Actuator” section of the service menu, turn “DB On/Off” to Off. Then in the same section of menu, scroll down to the now available “DB Aperture” setting. Set this to “Close.” It’s that easy.
Feel free to make fun of me for my paranoia about end users using the service menu, but remember that anyone can post the service codes on a website, and not get blamed for you making your set unwatchable (and losing your warrantee). If I print it, on the other hand, it’s my ass. So otherwise… have fun!
Everyone wants a matched system, so how about some speakers to match your plasma? That’s right, plasma speakers. These puppies will really wow the neighbors. They’re not common, and the seller buries the most important sentence in the middle of the posting “Measurable amounts of O2 (ozone) are produced during operation.” Let’s not nitpick that ozone is actually O3. The next sentence is even better “Some people claim they are sensitive to this in the room, others find it fresh smelling or don’t notice it!” Yeah, until it kills you. Leave a door open, turn out the lights, and marvel at the pretty tweeters that make sound with "light."
Get 'em while they're hot (literally).
P.S. Audio Technical Editor Mark Peterson, who found this listing, still wants a pair despite (because of?) the fact that they could also kill you by means of fire,
compressed gas explosion, electrocution and the possibility of crushing you if they
fell over. Now that’s some serious audio gear.
As I’ve talked about before, console games have to be written for a specific resolution (unlike computer games). Nearly every Xbox 360 game, for example, is 720p. The console then converts that up or down depending on how you set up the console. Those with older TVs drop it to 480i, those with HD sets can choose 720p or 1080i (and occasionally 1080p).
So far, the PS3 has a mix of 1080p and 720p native games. Apparently, and we’ll test this soon, the 720p games won’t convert to 1080i. If your TV doesn’t accept 720p, then you get 480p. Excuse me?
You see, this is why console gaming is lame. My computer will output whatever resolution I tell it, and if it doesn’t I smack it around. Hitting it always fixes the problem.
Sony said at first that they’ll fix the issue, but now they’re backing away from that. Sure interlaced gaming isn’t great, but if it’s a choice between an artifacty interlaced HD and 480p, I’m guessing most gamers would chose the former.
So if the PS3 is all powerful, and if it can scale 720p to 1080p, and de-interlace 1080p to 1080i, then why can’t it de-interlace and scale 720p to 1080i? I mean the 360 can do it.
So we have one console that will output 1080p to about 50 people, and one console that won’t output 1080i to a few more. Lame, don’t these things go through product testing?
Here’s the real question, how many of you have an HD display that doesn’t accept 720p? My hunch is that it isn’t many more in number than those that can input 1080p over component, but that’s just a guess. Send me an email at htletters@Primedia.com
At midnight last night, the very first PlayStation 3s were sold. To herald the even, there were huge launch parties in New York and San Francisco. A few of us journalist types were brought up to check it all out.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m gamer. Always have been. But not once have I even considered sleeping outside a store so I can be the first one to have a game. Maybe it’s because I’m not a console gamer. Maybe it’s because I’ve always had a job. But there in the chilly and damp streets of San Francisco where over 500 people who had been there for days. Fascinating.
Before the festivities, I had a chance to ask a few questions and play with the PS3 for a bit (Check out Peter Suciu’s more in-depth first look here). As we’ve discussed before, a game has to be written to take advantage of the 1080p output. According to the Sony rep I was talking to, it is a legitimate 1080p/60, not upconverted to that resolution. In checking out the games they had on hand to sell, about a third were 1080p, the rest were 720p or 1080i.
The controller looks identical to the PS2 controller, but is lighter, wireless, and has motion sensors like Nintendo’s Wii.
Ironically, they were showing the PS3 on an older Sony SXRD RPTV, so they could only feed it 1080i.
One feature they demoed for us was the Playstation Store, which gives you access to demos and games that can be downloaded to the PS3’s hard drive. They were really excited about this, but in my mind it brought up the question I always ask at this point: How is this better than a computer? Well I have a partial answer. If you wanted to build a computer that will give you BD playback and 1920x1080p/60 resolution and framerate, you’d have to spend a lot more than $600. Rumor is, Sony is spending more than that to make each PS3 .
At 8:00 a truck arrived to drop off the PS3s. It was accompanied by police and black suited “G-Men”. Lights, sirens, and cheering, oh my. You’d think I’d be the demographic that would get a kick out of all this, but apparently I’m just a jaded journalist. I wonder if the people in line (most of whom couldn’t see all this), thought it exciting, or were at the “lets get this over with” stage. An hour later the band Angels and Airwaves played. Apparently it was started by one of the guys from blink-182 after they broke up. They broke up? And I was such a fan. I had all their albums (no, really).
So at midnight they let in the horde to much media hoopla. The tired person you see on the lower left in this picture is the first person on the west coast (as far as the media was concerned) to purchase a PlayStation 3. I was going to ask him how long he had been waiting in line and if thought it was worth it, but I really didn’t want to know.
OT: UAV Tech Ed. Shane Buettner and I ate at a restaurant on Third Street called Bong Su. They call it contemporary Vietnamese cuisine, and everything about the place was fantastic. Best meal I’ve had in long time.
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The back doors house a 5x7 two-way. The subs are located on the sides of the trunk. Like many of the new car audio systems, the rear 1.5-inch rear speakers are up out of the way (and aimed towards the passenger compartment) on the D-pillars.
The controller looks identical to the PS2 controller, but is lighter, wireless, and has motion sensors like Nintendo’s Wii.
At 8:00 a truck arrived to drop off the PS3s. It was accompanied by police and black suited “G-Men”. Lights, sirens, and cheering, oh my. You’d think I’d be the demographic that would get a kick out of all this, but apparently I’m just a jaded journalist. I wonder if the people in line (most of whom couldn’t see all this), thought it exciting, or were at the “lets get this over with” stage. An hour later the band Angels and Airwaves played. Apparently it was started by one of the guys from blink-182 after they broke up. They broke up? And I was such a fan. I had all their albums (no, really).
So at midnight they let in the horde to much media hoopla. The tired person you see on the lower left in this picture is the first person on the west coast (as far as the media was concerned) to purchase a PlayStation 3. I was going to ask him how long he had been waiting in line and if thought it was worth it, but I really didn’t want to know.
