HDTV Magazine Articles

Is CES Worth Attending Anymore?

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:42:40 -0800

For those that have been under a rock for the past few decades CES is the International Consumer Electronics Show that every year is held in Las Vegas in January. I have been attending it for about 15 years, my purpose? HDTV, but also hi-end audio.

After 6 days and 80+ meetings of product/exhibitor appointments the short answer is...

Perception of Passive 3DTV - A No-Brainer Analogy

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:09:51 -0800

In previous articles I described the differences between active-shutter and passive polarized 3D technologies, as well as the subject of “perception” endorsed by the passive polarized 3DTV camp. Graphs and descriptions may get in the way of understanding the concepts so perhaps we should describe the subject of brain perception vs. true image quality with an analogy that may be less complicated than comparing the nuts and bolts of 3DTV technologies, as I did in other articles.

Imagine spending your Saturday visiting new car dealers...

Hi-End Audio Legend McIntosh Labs Meets HDTV Magazine on the East Coast

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:46:42 -0800

Last week McIntosh Labs stop by the Washington DC/Virginia area in Fairfax, VA to reach out to fans and to introduce their products, the event included live music as well.

McIntosh was and still is up there among the few American companies that still work very hard to continue producing quality audio products. They still have their traditional metered displays and blue-hued backlighting and unique knobs. Audio quality and elegant appearance made McIntosh so special to many for decades.

Would you prefer ugly 3D glasses or ugly 3DTV images? Maybe neither.

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:00:41 -0800

On the previous 4 articles I detailed the differences of the technologies currently in the market for glasses-required 3DTVs, active-shutter and passive polarized. Here is part 1, which links to the other three. I received some questions and remarks from readers and others in the industry regarding the articles. The comments lead me to believe that the concepts are still hard to comprehend by some, so I decided to summarize the subject using a simple visual comparison in one article.

I previously mentioned...

Passive 3DTV Brain Perception - An Excuse for Technical Limitations?

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:06:34 -0800

As you may know, LG continues their offense against active-shutter 3DTVs and claims that their passive-LCD-3DTVs are better because most people that viewed their sets during (their arranged) consumer tests in retail centers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. preferred them over active-shutter 3DTVs.

Although the challenge seemed primarily targeted to the active-shutter technology itself, LG also launched aggressive advertising directed to the manufacturers of that technology as well, such as Samsung and Sony.
The battle of words, ads, and press releases has become...

3D World Conference 2011 in NYC: Are you ready for 4K? How about 3D in 4K?

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:21:05 -0800

Last week I attended the 3D World conference at the Content and Communications World (CCW) 2011 in NYC. Although my main interest has been the professional aspects of the 3D industry from content acquisition to display devices I always find interesting other digital TV subjects and initiatives in conference tracks and discussion panels, this time 4K was very notorious. As I did in 3D World 2009 and in 2010 I flew in and out of NYC the same day so I had to make my conference day as effective as possible, this was a long day indeed.

HDTV Magazine is...

LG's Passive-Polarized-Glasses 3DTV - Where is my Pixel?

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:11:08 -0800

In the previous articles I covered the subject of the current battle between active-shutter glasses 3DTV and passive-polarized-glasses 3DTV technologies to gain consumer acceptance. I also illustrated how both TV technologies show 3D images and briefly introduced LG’s new passive 3DTV.

In this article I illustrate how that 3DTV employs a proprietary feature to claim it displays the full resolution of the original 3D images, a claim LG used to challenge active-shutter glasses 3DTV technology known to be capable of full resolution per eye.

As mentioned in other articles, passive technology discards half of the pixels of the original 3D images and LG’s implementation of the technology has a more complex pixel management. This article discusses that complexity.

Typical Passive 3DTVs - Displaying and Perceiving 3D Images

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 07:43:27 -0800

The first article of this series covered the current battle of 3DTV technology concepts between active and passive 3DTV manufacturers. The second article provided a brief introduction of how passive and active 3DTV differ in displaying video pixels to make 3D images. This article further expands the illustration of the passive 3DTV method. The next article will illustrate LG’s implementation of the passive 3DTV display method.

Small Pixels make...

Displaying 3DTV Images - What is Wrong with this Picture

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:38:44 -0800

The first article on this series covered the battle of passive vs. active 3DTV methods. This second article is a teaser to make you think about how much our brain is expected to work when viewing passive 3DTV images.

Each pixel of a TV is important, larger objects in an image show sharper when their pixels show accurate information, every pixel counts regarding image quality. Let us go down to the pixel level.

Imagine each picture below...

3DTV - The Battle of Passive vs. Active Methods

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:45:46 -0800

As you may be aware there is a battle of concepts going on in the 3DTV market for home panels. The price of the glasses has been one main difference for consumers looking for low cost solutions for 3D group viewing, but that is only part of the story.

Manufacturers of active-shutter 3DTVs claim their panels display the full resolution of the original images stored on 3D Blu-rays per eye, and they do, but their glasses are relatively expensive and fragile, and the TV/glasses style of operation was reported to create visual discomfort to some viewers.

Manufacturers of passive polarized 3DTVs claim...

Streaming Inflation

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 07:17:16 -0800

A recent report compared streamed image quality to Blu-ray, as it was tested by several viewers with different abilities. The report provided some interesting points. I few months ago I drafted my own research on the subject but I postponed the publishing of the article because other articles required prompt attention. I still plan to publish the article, hopefully soon.

The matter of comparing streaming vs. pre-recorded media in terms of quality, convenience, number of viewers reported by research companies, features, etc. has appeared on the press many times. A common denominator in most cases is that usually the whole picture is not analyzed.

Articles mainly respond to...

Auto-Stereoscopic 3DTV (Glasses-Free) - One Company's "picture perfect" Solution, How Does it Work?

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:00:50 -0800

On my first pair of installments on the subject I covered 3DFusion and their demoed 42” auto-stereoscopic 3DTV panel (AS3DTV) at CES 2011, which to my eyes was the best of its kind at the show.

A recent article covered how 3DFusion managed to create this product, which is not simply a 3DTV.

This article offers further details about how the product actually works, and how can be used for what purpose...

Auto-Stereoscopic 3DTV (Glasses-Free) - Who Made it Work Right - and Now

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:34:18 -0800

As introduced on my previous installments on the subject, 3DFusion demoed a 42” auto-stereoscopic 3DTV panel (AS-3DTV) at CES 2011 that to my eyes was the best of its kind at the show and the best of what I have seen so far in glasses-free 3D panels, including Sony’s and Toshiba’s prototypes of the same technology demoed at CES 2011, and including other screens shown at the 2010 Display Taiwan Show I attended in Taipei a few months ago.

This article describes how this company managed to create this product, and the product is not only a 3DTV. The next article covers how the product actually works.

The primary reason 3DFusion’s panel stands out of the crowd is due to...

3D Technology Damaging HD Viewing

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:50:45 -0800

Two months ago I cautioned consumers about the possibility that some new passive 3DTVs could affect the quality of 3D side-by-side images but also the quality of HD viewing, which is what most viewers would still watch because most content is not available in 3D.

Some viewers may prefer to convert to 3D all content if the set is capable to do that, and although some 2D content may show an interesting improvement with the touch of some 3D depth, I would not recommend on-the-fly 3D conversions of all content because some may be difficult to watch when converted to 3D, and abusing of that practice could even hurt the general acceptance of 3D if viewers become disappointed with the results and think all 3D is the same, when actually is not.

Recent events that happened when several 3D public theaters projected 2D movies may bring to surface the potential of possibly affecting 2D viewing on some 3DTVs at home...

CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2011 at the Hill, and the Digital Patriots Event - Who can actually use more innovation?

Fri, 13 May 2011 18:30:55 -0800

Yesterday I attended the “CES at the Hill” event. Today I am heading for the Digital Patriots dinner to honor leaders that contributed their efforts to the consumer electronics industry and to innovation, those are Sen. Tom A. Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) and Dr. Robert E. Kahn, chairman, CEO and president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), also known as the co-founder of the Internet TCP/IP protocol.

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), explained the importance of...