Jan/100
3D at CES 2010
Not sure why we’ve been putting this off, but we’ll just come right out and say it: there’s no doubt that this was the year for 3D at CES. We walked the show floor for countless hours and can tell you that just about everyone was showing something related to 3D at their booths. Most of these demos required a bit of a wait to experience them (thanks, hype), and everywhere you went people were talking about 3D. Granted, not all of that talk was positive, but it was talk nonetheless. Whether or not the technology will be seen in history as a success in the market place is obviously still up in the air, and much like a finely crafted episode of Lost, 3D at CES this year was littered with more questions than answers.
Who will be the first, the best?
Someone has to be the first to market, and someone the best — though not necessarily the same company — but based on CES demos and announcements, that someone appears to be Panasonic. This isn’t much of a surprise since Panasonic has been doing lots of 3D demos since CES last year, and it even drove a truck around the country showing it off. But while Panasonic had the best 3D demo this year, it might not be first to market, as DLP fans will tell you they were first (and by years). That said, this new 3D technology isn’t exactly the same as what Mitsubishi and Samsung have been doing, but the new formats will be backwards compatible. Mitsubishi announced a new converter box that will allow the newer sequential 3D to checkerboard 3D that its DLP sets support, and it is assumed this same box will work on Samsung DLPs and plasmas. These aren’t the only front runners, ‘course. In fact Sony, Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Vizio were all talking 3D in press releases and showing live action demos. Like the rest of the HD market, most of the new 3DTVs were LCDs, and although LG did announce new plasmas, none were of the 3D variety like Samsung and Panny. Only Vizio dared to put a price on 3D, and some manufacturers wouldn’t even give model numbers, so it’s hard to tell exactly when this technology is going to come home (and how badly it’ll dent the wallet when it does). Still, we’d be shocked to see ship dates slip beyond 2010, and if we were the betting type, we’d guess that the first wave will land in the summer.
3D Blu-ray players will obviously play an important role as in-home 3D attempts to blossom, and Broadcom was on hand showing off its new chip for these very decks. We’re guessing said chip will find a home in the new players announced by Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic and Sony, though no one has yet to come clean and make that clarification. Interestingly, the maker of one of our favorite Blu-ray players didn’t announce a 3D version, and while we’re not sure what LG is waiting for (market acceptance, perhaps?), we’d be shocked if we didn’t see one at some point this year.
RealD is a winner, again
Just like in the theater, RealD seemed to have the most traction at home. What’s different is that while the RealD glasses you’ve worn at the theater were less than $1 and of the circular polarized variety, the RealD glasses that Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba are using are active shutter glasses — only JVC is using circular polarized. There were other glasses on display though — Gunnar Optiks was showing some more stylish ones, and XpanD was showing active shutter with Bluetooth instead of IR, which is the same tactic that Vizio is using. XpanD also told us that its IR active shutter glasses would work with other 3DTVs, which makes some sense since the main 3D demo at Panasonic’s booth was using XpanD glasses, not RealDs.
What about content?
Just ask Samsung or Mitsubishi and they’ll tell you that 3DTV is nothing without content. We learned all about the 3D Blu-ray spec and that the PS3 would do 3D before CES, but during the show we were able to dig in deeper and reveal that the Blu-ray spec isn’t what it could be. Even before DirecTV had a chance to make an announcement at CES, someone let slip that the carrier would have 3D programming this year — and it brought a 3D demo (which looked great) to CES. Couple this with announcements from ESPN as well as Sony, IMAX and Discovery, and you’ve got the promise of some compelling 3D content at home very soon. ESPN has promised World Cup Soccer this year and the BCS National Championship game in 2011 with other events scattered in between, but while we expect a few IMAX movies from Sony and Discovery, so far the exact programming picture is still very cloudy. The only thing we do know is that three animated features will be out on Blu-ray starting with either Monsters vs Aliens or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs this summer, and Disney’s A Christmas Carol in December. The one title we don’t know about is Avatar, which we just have to believe will be out on 3D Blu-ray this year. We’re sure there will be even more 3D content to scope out as the bandwagon grows, and we’ve already seen streaming services get the 3D itch.
And video games?
Besides movies and sports, games may be the biggest beneficiary of 3D displays. The video game edition of Avatar is already available (and 3D-enabled) on both Sony and Microsoft’s boxes, so the PS3 version we played is just like what’s available at home right now. While the extra dimension couldn’t raise a very average adventure game to the heights of an Assassin’s Creed II, the effect did its job of bringing us further into the world and making it seem even more realistic. While a demo run of Gran Turismo 5 was slightly less impressive (varying greatly depending on camera angle), making things blow up in our faces playing Super Stardust HD clearly showed there will be compelling reasons to upgrade with the technology in the right game maker’s hands. On the PC side, NVIDIA has been pushing 3D capabilities for quite some time, and while most of our demos consisted of Blu-ray 3D showings from Cyberlink and WinDVD, we got enough gaming in to figure out that shutter glasses will soon be as common as headsets, precision mice and customized keyboards on the desks of shooter fans — if WoW ever goes 3D, there could be serious problems.
The new “upconverting?”
Even with major content providers on board, native 3D content will be scarce for some time, just like the rollout of HDTV. That’s a gap several manufacturers are looking to fill by providing technology for converting 2D to 3D. If that sounds a lot like the scaling buzz applied to DVDs and other standard-definition video, that’s because it is, as shown by Toshiba’s decision to expand its Resolution+ branding to Cell TV hardware that upscales and can convert from 2D to 3D in realtime. It showed off a demo that did an effective job separating different planes on simulated home video footage to make it 3D. Unfortunately, that didn’t make watching someone else’s vacation tapes any less boring, and popping elements out like cardboard cutouts seemed like the cheap gimmickry we were hoping to avoid. Samsung had the most effective conversion demo, plugging a standard Xbox 360 into one of its new displays and letting us play Gears of War 2 converted to 3D. While there wasn’t any extra detail to be found, it showed a subtle amount of additional depth that brought us even further into the game, especially when launching mortar shells at far off opponents. Sony announced plans to convert significant amounts of Jimi Hendrix footage to 3D for an upcoming Blu-ray release and even demoed some concert video in its CES theater — in this case the added depth did help the “you are there” feeling of a concert experience, but it still couldn’t compare with anything created natively for the new format.
While we’re sure someone will attempt to be the “Fox Widescreen” of 3D with converted footage on their broadcasts — JVC was showing off a rack mounted unit aimed at broadcasters for just this purpose — it will probably suffer the same fate and eventually go away altogether. The good news? Nothing we saw conjured up memories of the Cowboys Stadium 2D-to-3D disaster, and in some cases it could even be a very useful feature while we wait for content to catch up with displays. But just like DVD upscaling, even if it’s a high priced feature now, it will likely spread out across all displays in the future if customers enjoy it. We’ll be keeping a careful eye to see who has the best processing technology in real world situations later this year.
The glasses-free option
Ah yes, the nirvana of glasses-free 3D. While it was on display at more than one location this year, there’s still a number of factors keeping it from coming into play in our home viewing. Consistent on all three displays was a focus on CGI animations, not any kind of live video or other TV-style content. Though advances in standard HDTVs have increased the resolution behind the lenticular film that enables this technology, most of the progress displayed by Intel and Magnetic3D was on their ability to process and render images so they’ll pop out even when viewed from multiple angles. That’s useful for their intended use in POS advertisements, slot machines and the like — and it will surely impress digital signage nuts in the crowd — but it still suffers lost resolution and requires extra processing power for each viewing angle. With most viewers unwilling to assume a Sheldon Cooper-esque couch position, it’s unlikely any content or displays based around this will be breaking into the consumer space anytime soon.
Wrap up
By all indications, 2010 is set to be a flagship year for 3D. There should be plenty of new displays, set-top boxes, glasses and content. Many will be striving to be the first to market, while others will be happy to sit on the sidelines and watch it all develop. We see many parallels between 3D and the development of HD and that combined with the fact that we find the technology very compelling, should make it clear to you that there’s going to be more 3D coverage than you could want here on Engadget HD. So regardless of how this turns out, we want to be here to watch it flourish or perish. Now, of course we aren’t going to rename the site or anything like that — some of you might think we did. Now this doesn’t mean we’re going to let up hitting the HD news, no not at all. We’re confident we are up to the challenge of covering both very comprehensively.
Nov/090
Netflix on internet ready Sony BRAVIA
Good news for folks who against all odds don’t have a home theater Netflix streaming option yet, and yet inexplicably own an internet-connected Sony BRAVIA TV: Netflix just went live. It just takes applying the latest software update and you’re in business. BRAVIA owners were promised the update back in July, and let us be the first to point and laugh insensitively at PS3 owners who have use a “DVD” to get Netflix working on their Cell-powered supermachines.
Oct/090
Theaters upgrading screens to Sony’s 4k projectors
With some help from Sony, Hollywood Theaters is upgrading to 4K digital cinema, some of which that will do 3D. The project kicks off over the next few months when 13 locations will get the upgrade that consists of 167 screens all of which will all be going digital. On top of that, 53 of those screens will also support 3D movies thanks to RealD and circular polarized glasses. Of course we won’t be happy until every theater in the US is digital and 3D, but this is a decent step in the right direction.
Oct/090
The latest 3D technology is coming home
Now wait one second before you start on the whole “I’m not wearing any stupid looking glasses,” because no matter what you say, there are more people paying extra to go 3D movies than ever and the reason is simple; it’s because this isn’t like the crappy 3D you saw during the Super Bowl last year — or that our parents grew up with. No, the 3D that Sony, Panasonic, and others are promising next year is like nothing you’ve seen. We’ve come a long way since the old anaglyph red and blue glasses that come in cereal boxes, so before you knock the new technology before it’s even out, click through and read about the technologies that might bring us a real 3D revolution.
We have two eyes for a reason and while we’ve enjoyed stereo sound since-like-forever, stereoscopic images haven’t quite arrived. At its core, 3D is as simple as using two cameras to capture the data that our eyes would, but it’s the display part that’s proven tricky. Ultimately, the technology has to find a way to present each eye with a different variation of an image, at that point our eyes and brain do the rest.
Circular polarized or active LCD shutter glasses
The one thing that hasn’t changed about 3D is the need for glasses — if you’re holding out for 3D on a big screen without glasses, you’re going to let this generation of 3D pass you by. The technology in the glasses varies by a lot and the main two types these days are circular polarized and active LCD shutter. Both serve the same purpose, to ensure each eye sees a different image, but in much different ways.
LCD shutter glasses
So in comes the LCD shutter glasses — the technology itself has actually been around for some time, in fact there were eight Sega Master Systems games that worked with shutter glasses dating back to the 80’s. But the technology was limited by the display technology of that era which could only show 480i at 30 frames per second, which worked out to about 15 FPS per eye in 3D — so yeah, the flickering could make you sick.
It’s not all good though, besides the cost of the glasses and the added emitter in the TV, some say that there is added flickering, and with the shutters closing in front of your eyes, the image is dimmed a bit. Both Sony and Panasonic claim these are no longer issues in thanks to the super fast refresh rates and brightness available on the latest HDTVs.
Yes, you read that right, all four of these tech giants are pushing the same home 3D display technology. While Samsung and Mitsubishi have been demoing its DLP HDTVs with shutter glasses for-like-ever, both Sony and Panasonic have been showing LCD and Plasma (respectively) HDTVs that can display 3D HD at CES, CEDIA and other shows. In fact Sony and Panasonic promise to release the first consumer 3D capable displays next year. That last part is an important one, so listen up: both will offer HDTVs next year that will work just like any other HDTV today, but will also work with 3D. So not only are the HDTVs going to be fully backwards compatible, but supposedly the new sets won’t cost much more than a normal HDTV. In fact Panasonic believes that in the next few years most of its HDTVs will be 3D ready.
We know what you’re thinking, you just bought a new HDTV and you want to know why it can’t handle 3D. Even if it was possible to add an IR emitter to keep the shutter glasses in sync, the experience at 30 FPS per eye wouldn’t be as enjoyable. And just like when the first 1080p HDTVs hit the shelves without the ability to actually accept 1080p input, the current crop of 120hz HDTVs can’t actually display 120 frames per second — only show each frame of a 60 fps signal, twice.
3D sources
Of course, 3D-capable displays don’t do much without 3D content, and the good news is that most of the infrastructure needed for 3D in the home is already here thanks to HD. With the new 1.4 spec, HDMI has been updated to accomdate 3D and the first source is almost guaranteed to be Blu-ray. In fact as we speak the BDA is working on standardizing the storage of 3D movies on a Blu-ray Disc. It actually isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds, because what is essentially needed is to up the spec from 1080p at 30 FPS to 1080p at 120 FPS. In fact a 50GB Blu-ray Disc has more than ample capacity to handle a 3D HD movie thanks to the wonders of video compression where only the difference of each frame is stored. So 3D movies only require about 50 percent more space, and the one thing about the new 3D Blu-ray standard that has been determined, is that every 3D Blu-ray Disc will include a 2D version of the movie.
But not everyone can see 3D
When we say that 3D isn’t for everyone, we mean it. In fact it is estimated that 4 percent of us are actually physically incapable of seeing 3D no matter what the display technology. And even worse, according to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, “Research has shown that up to 56 percent of those 18 to 38 years of age have one or more problems with binocular vision and therefore could have difficulty seeing 3D.” So if you are one of these affected, it might be time to see an opthamologist and get screened for amblyopia. And if you happen to be blind in one eye you can still watch 3D, but it’ll just look normal to you — assuming of course you have the glasses on.
Where we go from here
One thing we weren’t able to learn in our quest for 3D knowledge was how compatible these different technologies are. Essentially we assume that the functional compatibility between the two main 3D display technologies described above are like the differences between LCD and Plasma — in other words, they both connect to the same HD set-top-box and Blu-ray player — but until the BDA announces the final details of the 3D specification there isn’t really any way to know for sure. But it seems that if Blu-ray was compatible with both circular polarized and LCD shutter glasses, then certainly whatever broadcast standard or game console announced down the road would also work with both.
Like it or not, 3D is coming and just like HD before it, there will be plenty of technology pundits predicting its demise. The problem right now is very few have had the chance to check out the technology and if you have been lucky enough to see it, it is hard to convey how cool it is to others. On top of this, 3D has a long road ahead because most people think they have seen it because they’ve tried the anaglyph glasses during a Super Bowl Commercial. The other big hurdle is the whole stupid looking glasses argument — which doesn’t make that much sense since you’ll be wearing them in the privacy of your own home. Now we know that the same technology lovers who read Engadget would never hate on any new technology without experiencing it first hand, but tell your friends and family that something new is coming, and no it isn’t like anything else they’ve seen.
Sep/090
3D Home Judgments on the Technology
With the the big 3D push coming in 2010, I planted my eyes on three types of 3D technologies displayed at CEDIA (home theater expo) that you may have in your next TV…and passed some judgments without pulling any punches.
It should be noted, all designs require glasses.
Panasonic’s 3D Plasma Concept
The Tech: Plasma with Active Shutter (alternating left eye, right eye progressive frames)
As a baseline reference to get our bearings, I took yet another look at Panasonic’s 103-inch plasma display that we’ve seen twice before. My original impressions stand. It’s decent—and definitely the best technology of the three that we saw at CEDIA. Why? There’s virtually no flicker in the image because of plasma’s instantaneous response times/ability to push legitimate high frame rates. Plus, it probably helps that we’re talking about a 103-inch display (that has its own trailer). The bigger a 3D display, the better the illusion. But glasses aside, it’s not what I’d deem a perfect experience. You see ghosting around some objects. And…OK, I still can’t ignore the damned glasses. It creates an inherent distance from the image inducing an unintentionally ephemeral viewing experience.
Sony’s LCD Concept
The Tech: 240Hz LCD with Active Shutter (alternating left eye, right eye progressive frames)
Even Panasonic will tell you that 240Hz is the baseline speed needed for an LCD to pull off 3D. But you know what? 240Hz isn’t enough. Watching Pixar’s Up, the color and sharpness are both great, but there’s an absurd level of flicker that’s nominally better than on old timey crank projector. And on this normal-sized LCD, it’s incredibly obvious when 3D objects break the illusion by reaching the TV’s frame. Granted, we’re not talking about a final product here, but the specs seem pretty much identical to what consumers can expect to see in the high-end display market next year.
JVC’s GD-463D10 LCD
The Tech: Polarized filter (two images are interlaced on the screen, each eye sees half the data, glasses don’t need power)
Of the three technologies here, JVC’s is the only final product that’s actually available now. And it costs $9,153. It’s also easily the worst of the three—completely unwatchable, in fact. The interlaced 3D means that the resolution takes a huge hit. But it’s worse than just a 1080i picture. Your brain can almost make out these lines. I could say more about the tech, but I honestly couldn’t stand to look at the screen for more than 10 seconds at once. Oh, and the kicker? For nine thousand bucks, you still only get two pairs of the cheap, polarized glasses. Sorry kids, Mommy and Daddy are watching TV tonight.
There’s no doubt that some home theater enthusiasts will go out and plop down $5k or more on a commercially available 3D display when they enter the TV lines of major manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic in 2010. But I’m hoping, really hoping, that the public can resist the gimmick until the technology is perfected. To me, that means when we don’t need to deal with these silly glasses at all. But for whatever it’s worth, plasma is definitely looking like the clear front runner in execution.
Sep/090
Sony’s VPL-VW85 & VPL-HW15
Sony today announced a new high-contrast, high-definition projector, adding more options for those looking for a true cinematic home theater experience.
The new VPL-VW85 projector features a full HD 1920 x 1080 progressive Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD™) and 24p True Cinema™ technology, delivering a true film-like performance. The new model also has an exceptionally high dynamic contrast of 120,000:1 and brightness of 800 ANSI lumens.
Specifically designed with the custom installation market in mind, the VPL-VW85 has a motorized, fully adjustable, ‘lens shift’ function that offers more options in terms of installation and projector placement, without any image distortion. Additionally, the lens offers a 1.6x motorized zoom with horizontal and vertical adjustment, making it easy to set up in a variety of environments.
The VPL-VW85 projector also adds Sony’s Motionflow™ 120Hz with black frame insertion technology, providing exceptional clarity and resolution for fast moving images. The model also features Sony’s Anamorphic Zoom Mode that, when paired with an external anamorphic lens (sold separately), allows users to enjoy a true big screen home theater experience.
The new projector also offer RS-232C control, as well as two HDMI inputs, single component and composite inputs, and a PC input. In addition, the VPL-VW85 includes access to a dedicated CEDIA certified technical support hotline for all troubleshooting and is eligible for Sony’s Advance Exchange program. This minimizes downtime for exchanges if a customer experiences any problems within 90 days of original purchase.
The VPL-VW85 will be available in October for about $8,000, and will be offered direct at Sony Style® retail stores nationwide and authorized installation dealers around the country.
Sony also introduced the VPL-HW15 SXRD projector, for those looking to upgrade their home cinema experience at a value. The full HD 1080p model features 24p True Cinema™ technology, a 60,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and a brightness of 1,000 ANSI lumens. It offers RS-232 control, two HDMI inputs and single component and composite inputs, as well as a PC input.
This VPL-HW15 projector will also be available October, for about $2,800, and will be offered direct at Sony Style® retail stores nationwide and authorized installation dealers around the country.
Sep/090
3D may fall flat
The big theme that stood out for me last week at IFA was the idea of 3D driving sales of new TVs. Both Sony and Panasonic made strong plays for 3D at their press conferences, although Sony did a much better job, giving the audience 3D glasses and showing the trailer for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” along with footage of FIFA Soccer and Gran Turismo running on the PS3 — the cockpit view in GT was particularly impressive. Panasonic’s presentation was a little odder, with the audience being asked to “imagine” what 3D would look like during a slideshow of still images of various events like boxing matches. It was kind of like introducing color TV by showing off a black and white screen and asking the audience to imagine it in color.
I understand the need to drive new sales of TV sets and find some sort of purchase driver. Let’s face it. Screens have gotten large enough, perhaps even too large — if I offered you a 150-inch TV, where would you put it? Resolutions have maxed out and it’s hard to make sets much thinner. OLED displays could be a great purchase driver but are a few years off. So something new needs to drive the market. I’m just not convinced that 3D will really help move things forward.
Second, you need deep content support. At the moment, there’s far more content available on good old HD than there will be in either 3D format and that’s not going to change very fast. Unless you’re a really big fan of a particular title that’s available in 3D, you’re likely to sit this out for a while.
The best content in 3D just doesn’t offer that much more relative to standard HD, especially on smaller screens |
Third, you need a clear and visible consumer value proposition. CDs and DVDs both offered obvious value propositions to consumers. There was a noticeable difference in the experience that was easily grasped, and both were marked by moving from an analog tape format to optical disk, which was more reliable and offered novel features such as random access to content. What’s more, both offered clear quality improvements over what had come before — except to my six friends who still swear by their vinyl LPs and tube amps [and your editor! -- ed.], the upgrade in quality was far more than just noticeable. But when I look at the best content on 3D it just doesn’t offer that much more relative to standard HD, especially on smaller screens in regular homes. On top of that, 3D in movie theaters is still mostly a gimmick, and the content that we’ve seen to date doesn’t quite have a compelling feel to it.
With cheap HDTVs and plenty of HD content, the savvy consumer who holds off on a 3D purchase is clearly going to be the winner in 2010 — and consumers who’ve already invested in HD screens over the last few years are not likely to upgrade. In the long run, there may be no winner. The last time two formats fought a battle like this over incremental quality was in the audio arena, when it was SACD against DVD-Audio, and both sides lost to the convenience of less-than-CD-quality MP3s and the iPod. In this case, while we wait for large OLED screens to come to market, these efforts in 3D may just fall flat.
Sep/090
Sony’s 1080p SXRD BRAVIA VPL-VW70 and VPL-HW10 projectors
Sony Electronics will unveiled two full high-definition 1080p BRAVIA® projectors (models VPL-VW70 and VPL-HW10) offering more choices for customers looking for the ultimate home theater viewing experience.
The new 1920 x 1080 progressive Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD™) projectors feature 24p True Cinema™ technology, delivering film-like performance.
Built for the home theater enthusiast, the VPL-VW70 features 60,000:1 dynamic contrast, brightness of 800 ANSI lumens.
The model can accept an external anamorphic lens (sold separately) that, when paired with Sony’s Anamorphic Zoom Mode, allows users to take full advantage of panel resolution and screen size while watching a movie with native aspect ratio of 2:32:1. When Anamorphic Zoom is selected through the remote, the VPL-VW70 will output a trigger signal that can be used to activate the optional lens and screen transition to maximize the theater experience with a 2.35:1 movie.
For customers looking to enter the full HD home theater at a value, Sony’s VPL-HW10 model features a 30,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1000 ANSI lumens for brighter room applications.
Specifically designed with the custom installation market in mind, the projectors are also equipped with a panel alignment adjustment function that aligns each red, green and blue pixel for precise images. The adjustment range is +/-1 pixel in 1/10 pixel steps. The VPL-VW70 takes it a step further with panel zone alignment allowing users to further calibrate the picture. The model also adds a unique automatic lens cover that helps protect the lens from dust.
Both models feature the BRAVIA Engine™ all-digital video signal processing engine with unique algorithms for noise reduction and color enhancement to deliver sharp, vibrant images.
The VPL-VW70 projector will be available in November for about $8,000, while the VPL-HW10 unit will be available in September for about $3,500. Both models will be offered direct at Sony Style® retail stores nationwide and authorized dealers around the country.
Sep/090
Verdicts in the battle of Plasma vs. LCD vs. OLED.
hasn’t the world pretty much moved beyond rear projection?
This means three HDTV display technologies seem primed to race for all the marbles: plasma, LCD, and OLED.
At this year’s CES, both plasma and LCD have bragging rights to some new-and-improved’s, while OLED is just new and improved in general. So what are their strengths, weaknesses, and likelihood to be the reigning HDTV-display technology?
OLED
THE SCIENCE
With OLED (organic light emitting diode), a stack of organic polymers, including both emissive and conductive layers, is deposited on a substrate containing a thin-film transistor (TFT) array. An electrical charge passing between the bottom electrodes and an additional transparent layer on the surface of the display stimulates the emissive organic layer, which in turn creates light.
STRENGTHS
If you’ve not seen a prototype OLED TV or Sony’s new compact model, it’s hard to fully understand the impact of the picture. I’ll sum it up in one word: contrast — or rather Contrast, with a capital ‘C.’
Like plasma, OLED is a self-emitting display technology that requires no backlight or projection lamp. But unlike most plasmas we’ve seen to date, an OLED doesn’t need to keep its pixel cells partially fired up at all times to be ready to respond to the signal. That’s because OLED cells respond so quickly, they can be fully turned off until needed. Signal response time in an OLED is measured in microseconds (a far cry from the several millisecond response times in today’s LCDs). Bottom line: Blacks on an OLED should be pretty much as black as black can be, which makes for a bright and dynamic picture with depth that has to be seen to be believed. Add to this a wafer-thin form factor that will have your interior designer drooling, and you can make a good case that OLED is the future of HDTV. At its core, the manufacturing process is simpler than LCD or plasma, which could eventually make OLED the most economical display type. OLEDs also promise dramatically reduced power consumption, and much faster screen response times than either LCD or plasma. With a depth of only a few millimeters, OLED is by far the thinnest display technology available — its ultra-slim form factor makes it akin to an architectural element like glass or mirror. Also, variations on the technology, such as transparent OLED, hold the promise of cool, futuristic stuff like video displays that transform into a window-like surfaces when switched off. Other OLED benefits include punchy contrast and color, wide viewing angle (a characteristic it shares with plasma technology), and low power consumption.
WEAKNESSES
How about ridiculously expensive and prohibitively small, for starters. I’ve not seen an OLED prototype from any manufacturer beyond 31 inches diagonal, and the only commercially available product right now — Sony’s XEL-1 — measures a mere 11 inches and costs $2,499! I suppose you have to start somewhere, but I wouldn’t anticipate big, affordable OLEDs anytime soon. While the XEL-1’s $2,500 price tag will limit its appeal for now and manufacturing OLEDs involves several patented technologies, which might require costly license fees. Still, large-scale production could eventually lead to OLED displays actually costing less to build than their LCD and plasma counterparts. Whereas plasma and LCD are both mature technologies snagging sizeable chunks of the current TV market, OLED technology has barely busted out of the lab. OLED displays can be found in digital cameras, GPS units, and portable media players, but the only consumer OLED display you can buy today is an 11-inch monitor from Sony that costs $2,500 — about the same as an average 52-inch LCD or plasma TV! Two reasons why OLED manufacturing lags behind the other flat-panel options are low yield (only a small number of panels actually make it past the quality-control stage) and differential aging (the blue pixels in an OLED display tend to lose brightness at a faster rate than red and green ones, which means OLED TVs have a limited lifespan compared to LCD and plasma — technologies spec’d to last two decades or more).
DOMINATION POTENTIAL
Great promise, and probably the eventual winner in the HDTV technology sweeps, once sizes grow and prices drop. But recent advances in plasma and that technology’s cost-size advantages in today’s world (see below) could give OLED a serious contender for the long term, at least in picture quality. And LCD has heavy market forces behind it. Despite its modest size, Sony’s 11-inch XEL-1 could be the start of something really big. OLEDs redefine how thin a display can be, and their low power consumption will be a clear plus point in an increasingly green conscious world. A critical assessment of OLED’s performance potential will have to wait until we get one into our testing facility. Until OLED’s technical issues get ironed out, it will continue to be aimed at the portable electronics, as opposed to home theater, market. But once its hurdles are overcome (and you can be sure TV makers are working feverishly on it), OLED’s wafer-thin form factor and crisp, punchy picture quality will likely let it trounce competing flat-panel technologies. Plasma and LCD are hereby put on notice.
Plasma
THE SCIENCE
Employs an enormous array of tiny cells of ionized gas (plasma), which activates each cell’s colored phosphor.
STRENGTHS
Plasma sales have been fading as of late against the LCD jauggernaut, but it’s not due to lack of image quality. Of course, this has to be qualified: When I talk about plasma HDTVs these days, I refer primarily to those coming from Pioneer — a company whose current sets are so far above the competition, they clearly define the state of the art.
That said, Pioneer continues to vastly reduce — and promises now to eliminate — the aforementioned “idle brightness” that keeps plasmas from delivering totally black blacks. The most talked about demo at this year’s CES, by far, was of Pioneer’s prototype ultra-black panel offered as proof-of-concept, followed by the company’s 9mm wafer-thin prototype. Pioneer says it will bring out TVs that combine both features, probably within a couple years. If they can, there may be life yet in this old dog, even in the face of OLEDs slow march to presumed dominance. Plasma displays continue to define picture quality standards, especially when it comes to darker images and shadow detail. The best examples can deliver a sense of color accuracy and consistent screen brightness from corner to corner that LCDs have a hard time matching. As Sound & Vision’s recent Plasma vs. LCD TV comparison test made clear, plasma still retains a distinct performance edge over LCD. Picture contrast, screen and grayscale uniformity, viewing angle — plasma TVs consistently rate better than LCD on all these key parameters. So for the foreseeable future, I will continue to nudge quality-conscious consumers seeking a new flat-panel set toward plasma.
WEAKNESSES
Heavy and power-hungry come to mind, though it remains to be seen if a super-thin plasma will still carry a big weight. And truth be told, image burn-in will always remain at least a mild concern with plasma TVs despite advances in this area. Manufacturing a display with cells small enough to deliver the 1920 x 1080 “Full HD” resolution demanded by many specification-driven customers can be costly. Power consumption has been improving with each generation, but still lags behind LCD displays. Plasmas tend to look less punchy than LCDs in a brightly lit environment. For a given size, plasma sets are usually deeper and heavier than an LCD. While plasma offers a lot to satisfy demanding videophiles, those with more general viewing habits may find fault with the technology. Although the plasma “burn-in” issue has been seriously over-hyped by misguided sales folk, it’s true you can potentially damage a plasma TV if you use it mostly to play videogames or continuously watch channels like Bloomberg TV (that are crammed with static onscreen graphics) with the contrast and brightness settings cranked up.
DOMINATION POTENTIAL
Today’s best flat-panel images come from today’s best plasmas, and it remains an evolving technology from which the best is yet to come. Unfortunately, though, recent plasma advances may simply be too little, too late. I won’t fully discount it yet, but beyond the most demanding consumers willing to pay top prices, plasma is likely to cede the market to LCD. Plasma continues to rule the roost in the 50-inch-and-up category, and remains the technology of choice for many videophiles. Early generation concerns regarding burn-in and panel life are now largely solved. When used in a controlled home theater environment, plasma delivers superior picture quality over competing flat-panel technologies. For the most part that’s something that won’t change dramatically. But unless plasma-makers manage to successfully reduce panel depth (Pioneer displayed a [3/4]-inch deep prototype model at the recent CES, indicating that progress is being made in that area), it may have a tough time going forward as new technologies like OLED shift into the big-screen TV marketplace.
LCD
THE SCIENCE
A matrix of thin-film transistors applies voltage to liquid crystal-filled cells sandwiched between two sheets of glass. When hit with an electrical charge, the crystals “untwist” to filter light coming from behind the cells. Each pixel comprises a red, green, and blue cell.
STRENGTHS
Image quality is advancing rapidly among LCD flat-panels lately, especially with the advent of LED-array backlights that can dim “locally” behind dark areas of the screen to achieve deeper blacks. Response time, color accuracy, picture uniformity (the ability to deliver consistent brightness and color across the screen), and horizontal viewing windows have (for the most part) also improved notably in the latest generation of sets. But the biggest thing LCD may have going for it is that manufacturers are banking on it as the future of mass market television, and have invested mountains of cash in new automated plants that will drive volume up and prices down. LCD boasts the widest range of screen sizes, from compact tabletop 13-inchers, to 65-inch-plus room fillers. 1080p resolution is common even in mid-sized models, though the benefits of 1080p with screens under 50 inches are debatable. Most LCDs have matte screen surfaces that are less susceptible to reflections in a brightly lit room, and power consumption is typically less than similarly sized plasmas. LCD picture quality has undoubtedly come a long way in the past year. When you combine that development with the reasonable prices LCD sets command, the technology’s broad appeal is understandable.
LCD is also the bright-room TV champ, edging out plasma by a nose when it comes to retaining picture contrast in well-illuminated spaces. And with new developments like LED-backlit LCD panels and ultra-fast refresh rates (180 Hz prototype models were shown at this year’s CES), picture performance just keeps getting better and better. Going forward, we’ll also see a shrinking of LCD cabinet depth: Hitachi just introduced a series of 1 1/2-inch deep models at CES, and it also displayed an even thinner 3/4-inch prototype with a 32-inch screen.
WEAKNESSES
Despite the new backlight technologies, LCD’s blackest blacks remain a notch below the best plasmas or any OLED, so it can’t quite equal those technologies in contrast and image depth. Narrow viewing angles on some models can also still be a problem in rooms with a broad swath of seating, though the best LCDs in this regard have very wide viewing windows. Many LCDs lose contrast when you’re seated off-axis. While prices are competitive in the 47-inch-and-under range, larger LCDs tend to cost more than equivalent plasmas. Some models are susceptible to motion blur and judder. LCD is currently riding the marketplace popularity wave, but its long-range prospects could be limited. That’s because, unlike self-emissive technologies like plasma and LCD that generate their own luminance, LCD display require a backlight. As Hitachi’s engineers demonstrated at CES, that backlight can be squeezed into a strikingly thin, 3/4-inch deep frame. But I can’t imagine LCD sets ever getting much thinner than that.
DOMINATION POTENTIAL
With plasma strong technically but fading in the market, and OLED still really a gleam in our collective eye, we can probably count on LCD to eventually take over as the volume leader for HDTV sales. LCDs sales dominance has been marching steadily up through the size ranges, and they now control most of the market below 50 inches. Their bright and punchy picture is a real asset on a brightly lit sales floor, even if that doesn’t always translate to a better picture in the typical home environment. We’ll be watching to see whether OLED can become a serious challenger. LCD delivers a one-two punch of solid picture performance and affordable price. For those reasons alone, LCD TVs are going to find their way into millions of homes over the next few years. But as other technologies — most notably OLED — manage to grow their screen sizes while retaining a wafer-thin form factor, LCD may ultimately get displaced — much in the same way current flat-panel TVs consigned bulky CRT models to the consumer electronics landfill.
Aug/090
Sony’s new BDP-S360 Blu-ray Player
Sony’s New Blu-ray Player Promises to Enhance the Cinematic Experience
The latest Sony Blu-ray player BDP-S360 is endowed with numerous functional features designed to enhance the cinematic experience in your home.
Sony Singapore unveils its latest Blu-ray player for home cinema enthusiasts who are seeking an unforgettable cinematic experience. Incorporating the latest in cutting-edge technology, the BDP-S360 delivers pristine 1920 x 1080p picture quality, with full 7.1ch surround sound through a compatible AV receiver.
By offering consumers the opportunity to immerse in the exciting world of BD-Live, the BDP-S360 takes interactive entertainment to the next level. This feature continues to break new ground by allowing movie lovers to download and stream bonus content such as additional scenes, trailers and movie-based games. The BDP-S360’s built-in USB port means that exclusive additional content can also be downloaded from special websites dedicated to movies boasting these features and saved onto an optional USB flash storage device.
“The BDP-S360 forms the gateway to a whole new world where movies are a total immersive experience. The BDP-S360 combines ease of use with a sleek product design and high-class performance features and is perfect for every consumer making the switch from DVD to Blu-ray,” says Mr. Takeo Kobayashi, Managing Director of Sony Singapore. “This new model shows Sony’s full commitment to the constant development of our Blu-ray hardware and software range to ensure that we are on top of the latest format advancements.”
Sony’s new Blu-ray player: BDP-S360
Consumers will be pleased to know that their existing DVD movie libraries will be given a new lease of life with the BDP-S360. Equipped with Sony’s Precision Cinema HD Upscale technology, the BDP-S360 can convert standard definition signals to 1080p; providing a near high definition picture via High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) so that users can enjoy their favourite films in a whole new way.
With its Quick Start Up mode, the BDP-S360 allows users to boot up their Blu-ray player in just six seconds, a speed that is unrivalled in the market today. Its BRAVIA Sync technology enables users to control the player, BRAVIA TV and home theatre system with just one remote control, allowing users to switch all three products with the touch of a single button. Also included is the added functionality of Bonus View, providing Picture-in-Picture capability with certain titles, so users can watch that insightful director’s commentary in real-time alongside the main movie in stunning HD quality.
Additionally, the BDP-S360 adds Sony’s Precision Drive technology, which helps to detect and correct wobbling discs from three directions, supporting stabilisation of the playback of bent or scratched Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. It also supports Deep Colour video output and AVCHD discs encoded with x.v.Color (xvYCC) technology.
The BDP-S360 also includes those features users have come to love in Sony’s Blu-ray range. With 24p True Cinema for cinematic picture quality, users are able to experience movies exactly as the director intended them to. With Xross Media BarTM, featuring simple and intuitive navigation between menus, the user experience is enhanced.
