HDTV Reviews

Siemens Business Services has announced that it is providing the coding, multiplexing and distribution infrastructure for the BBC’s trial HDTV system, which will be used in its HD trials later this year.
As part of the range of infrastructure and services Siemens will provide during the trial, it has also secured a contract with Red Bee Media to provide project management assistance in implementation of its HD playout solution.
The HD trials represent an important step in the play-out, distribution, multiplexing and transmission of HD content in the UK, and Siemens is heavily involved at every stage of the broadcast chain.
Key activities include:
# Providing HD connectivity from The World Cup in Germany to Television Centre in London.
# Providing HD cross site inter-connectivity in London for cable platforms.
# Providing project management services for a HD play-out system for Red Bee Media.
# Providing coding and multiplexing systems for the HD on DSAT trial.
# Providing a coding and multiplexing system for the HD on DTT trial.
# Providing the Uplink facilities for the HD on DSAT trial.
# Working with BBC, BBC Resources and BBC Research for system architecture and technical standardisation of the HD broadcast chain.
The BBC’s HD trial will launch in May and feature some of the broadcaster’s best sport, drama, events and documentaries including the BBC’s World Cup coverage and major Wimbledon matches. The trial is due to last 12 months and will show a few hours of originated programming a day.

Squeeze the best image quality out of your DVDs

Let’s face it. On the eve of the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray deathmatch—surely the bloodiest format war since the VHS-vs.-Betamax debacle—any self-respecting technophile is going to watch and wait. A costly, obsolete paperweight is the last thing any of us wants to get stuck with. While you’re waiting, I have a few things for you to ponder. Because you’re reading Connected Home Express, as opposed to, say, Home & Garden, you probably have an HDTV—likely a big one—and have sunk thousands of dollars into an expansive DVD collection. (Remember when bookshelves were used for books?) Sure, you’ll catch the odd first-run movie at the theater, but as you’re being bumped and annoyed by strangers in the dark, you’re probably thinking about how much better the movie will be on DVD, with you nestled comfortably in your home theater.

The joys of the home theater are multifaceted. A home theater should assault the senses with glorious sights and sounds. But if you still have a formerly cutting-edge progressive-scan DVD player, the sights might not be quite as glorious as the sounds anymore. Thankfully, there’s a great way to squeeze every last pixel of fidelity out of those hundreds of DVDs lining your shelves. An upconverting DVD player, for the uninitiated, is like a supercharger for home theaters. The player takes the DVD’s meager 720×480 (480i) resolution and jacks it up to 720p or 1080i. This jump doesn’t rival the one you experienced when you upgraded from VHS to DVD, but on a big HD display, the results can be stunning.

The reasons to buy an upconverting DVD player are compelling. Consider cost and performance. Are you really in a hurry to start a new HD-DVD or Blu-ray library at $30 to $40 a pop? Also, remember that you’re facing a minimum $500 price tag for Toshiba’s entry-level player and a Blu-ray price of twice that amount. You can buy excellent upconverting players for $200 and breathe new life into your existing DVDs. The most crucial factor in the upconverting player’s favor is proven performance. HD players will have backward compatibility with standard DVDs, but who knows how well they’ll upscale? The best upconverting players have been fine-tuned and fulfill their specific role exceptionally well. But are all upconverting players created equal? What are the essential features you need to look for when you’re deciding on one of the dozens of players on the market? Read on—we’ve got you covered.

Deinterlacing: Transforming Interlaced to Progressive Scan
Mom used to say, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.” Upscalers are no exception. The single most crucial component (i.e., the “brain” of the player) is the video-processing chip. The task of ensuring that what you see on the HDTV screen accurately depicts the source material of what’s on the DVD is incredibly complex. Lesser chips need not apply.

The two main duties of the video chip are deinterlacing and scaling. But first, how about a crash refresher course in video resolution? Video on DVD is in 480i resolution, in which 30 still frames are displayed on a TV in two fields of 240 horizontal lines, every second. The “i” stands for “interlaced,” which means the entire frame of video is composed of the two passes of alternating horizontal lines of resolution interlaced together. A resolution of 480i was sufficient on smaller TVs, but the flaws in the interlaced, lower-resolution video become more apparent on larger displays. Increased space between the alternating scan lines can produce a flicker, and details suffer.

HDTVs can display higher-resolution video such as 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. Once again, the numbers stand for the horizontal lines of resolution and the “i” and “p” refer to the method by which the scan lines are displayed. Progressive scanning (signified by the “p”) displays every horizontal line of video in one pass instead of interlacing alternating lines in two passes. A progressive-scan picture is a huge jump in video fidelity, flicker-free with enhanced clarity and stability.

Deinterlacing is necessary any time interlaced video—the humble DVD, for example—is displayed as progressive-scan video. In theory, the task of repeating scan lines to form the progressive-scan image is simple enough. But, in practice, there are variables that can seriously mess with video quality.
Read more

Newport Beach-based Conexant, a provider of semiconductors for the communications and other markets, has scored a win at Humax. The firm said today that it Humax, an international manufacturer of digital satellite set-top boxes, has based its HDTV set-top box on Conexant’s MPEG-4 satellite set-top box design. The set top boxes will be put into production by a German broadcasting firm this summer. Conexant provides a series of chips used to develop set-top boxes and other broadband communications equipment.

We live in an era where there is a convergence of new technology into digital format. The old cassettes and video tapes are being replaced with CDs, MP3 players and DVDs. Now it’s the turn for High Definition Content to make its mark in this world. With HDTV’s, HD-DVDs and Blu-ray technology hitting the market, consumers have to spend a lot of money on the new electronics to stay in touch with the new technological world. Although there is much hype about High Definition content now, HD has been around for quite some time. While the TV industry is being forced to start broadcasting Digital and HD content, the Movie industry were never compelled to do that. The reason they have taking their time to get into this market is so that they could come up with a way to protect their content from piracy. HDCP or High Definition Content (Copy) Protection is designed to stop you from making a perfect copy of movies, which is possible with movies in digital form.

When it was announced that the next generation HD-DVD and Blu-ray players would require HDCP copy protection compliance between them and the monitor, there was a real uproar from the public. Especially for the consumers that bought equipments early in the development of this new technology. This would mean that the expensive equipment they bought would be incompatible to the new DVD standards, forcing them to replace them within a couple of years. There was some relief when some of the major players in the movie industry announced that their initial media would not require HDCP, meaning the full 1080p resolution would be viewable through component, DVI and HDMI inputs.

It is somewhat understandable that the movie industry wanted to ensure greater protection for their media than the CSS DVD encryption, which was easily broken by John Lech Johansen. Johansen, the Norwegian hacker who developed the deCSS software that broke the CSS DVD encryption has vowed to fight HDCP and AACS protection systems like before. Ed Felten, a mathematics professor from Princeton made it clear in 2001 that there were some critical errors in the HDCP encryption scheme.
Read more

Buying a new high definition video projector can provide you with an immersive home theater experience that’s hard to rival with all but the largest of LCD’s and Plasma’s. There are however a few things to keep in mind with video projectors to ensure that you get the most out of your new investment.

Projector lamps, much like the stylus on a turntable, are designed to wear-out and must be replaced before they exceed their life expectancy. While projectors offer more for the money than ever before, the very component that is responsible for illuminating the screen (the lamp) remains a relatively costly part to replace. The cost of the replacement lamp should be factored into your final decision.

I recently found myself unprepared for just such a replacement. However through a stroke of luck and InFocus’s admirable decision to honor an expired warranty, I managed to squeak by with only paying the shipping cost to send them my projector. I know however next time I won’t be so lucky and I will be purchasing a replacement lamp sooner or later. All of this puts me in the position of recommending something I used to instinctively pass on, buying an extended warranty.
Read more

According to Spiegel Online the much rumored on again off again HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 has been confirmed. In a recent Q&A new window the German publication spoke with Chris Lewis, Microsoft’s European Xbox 360 manager.

Mr. Lewis stated the add-on will be debuted at this year’s up-coming E3 game conference.

Spiegel Online: Is the HD-DVD-drive for the Xbox 360 still in the pipeline?

Lewis: Absolutely, yes. We’ll say a little bit more about it at E3. It will give people access to HD DVD.

Spiegel Online: But the 360 doesn’t have an HDMI-Interface — so you won’t actually be able to watch any HD DVD Movies on it because the obligatory copy protection mechanisms are missing.

Lewis: All I can say to you is — there are interesting developments in the pipeline. We will make sure that the HD-DVD-peripheral device will meet all the requirements for consumers to enjoy high-definition DVD playback.

Spiegel Online: Meaning, you will be able to watch Hollywood movies in HD through your Xbox?

Lewis: Yes.

Spiegel Online: So the drive will have its own interface?

Lewis: You will hear a lot more about that question at E3

While I still assert that game platforms won’t sway the format war either way, this does level the playing field somewhat. But in my opinion this still boils down to titles and player cost.

I think we’re still months away from getting a good indication of how hard each side is willing to fight for your entertainment dollars. Hey listen, I know it’s been HD-DVD non-stop here for awhile, but you have to admit pre-recorded HDTV content is pretty exciting stuff.

Celebs have tried everything in the book to make them perfect on the big screen but looking bigger on camera is now the least of their worries. With the introduction of high-definition television (HDTV) pictures the A-listers are now more worried about their acne than the answer to the usual ‘does my bum look big in this’

The Channel 5 newsreader Kate Gerbeau said “HDTV is not going to be forgiving in any way. Basically, if you’ve got bags under your eyes or wrinkles, you’re not going to be able to get away with it any more. For the last few weeks in our makeup department we’ve started experimenting with make-up for HDTV.

One of the big things is we’ve been using an airbrush to apply the foundation, which looks like a dentist’s drill.”