Just when you thought the next-gen DVD war was on the verge of being over, a couple of studios decide to muck things up even further. Today, Paramount and DreamWorks Animation announced that they will exclusively support HD DVD on a worldwide basis.
According to the press release, "The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment."
"The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs. Paramount Home Entertainment will launch its exclusive HD DVD program with the release of the blockbuster comedy hit 'Blades of Glory' on August 28th and follow with two of the biggest grossing movies of the year 'Transformers' and 'Shrek the Third'."
Until today, Paramount was putting out movies on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, so needless to say, the announcement came as a surprise. Also, all of this comes in the face of reports that on the software front, Blu-ray was outselling HD DVD by a 2-1 margin, and that both Blockbuster and Target would be pushing the Blu-ray format in stores. (Note HD DVD fans: Yes, Target will continue to carry the XBox 360's add-on HD DVD player). Consensus was that things were looking pretty bleak for HD DVD. Is this a game changer?
In the short term, probably. The move clearly prolongs the war for at least another year, which means I get to write at least another six columns on the topic. Was money a factor? Is someone getting paid off? I don't know, but no one makes these types of decisions without an economic incentive. What do you think? Is this good for the consumer or will such announcements just continue to slow the adoption rate for either format?
Here's a video of the multi-touch tablet PC prototype that Jazzmutant showed off last week at Siggraph. It's got the pinch and spread features that Apple popularized on the iPhone, but this can actually take an unlimited number of contact points. You can use as many fingers (or styluses) as you were born with to move and spread stuff around. We could see this in a tablet, but replacing the traditional mouse and keyboard in a laptop is pretty unlikely.
Beware European Iphone roaming charges! A Miami resident recently took a short trip to France and used his iphone to check his email and send text messages. To his surprise upon his return he received a data usage bill to the tune of $4190.76!!!! His friends made this video for him using a scan of the ACTUAL bill. Next time u go on a trip to Europe, leave your Iphone at home!
probably the best RC aircrafts u have ever seen! big respect for guys who made them! video game hate love xbox360 PS3 PSX playstation sony microsoft nintendo wii ebay note adobe final cut apple premiere news bush republican o'reilly reilly spin factor liberal clinton iraq iran war news topless bottomless tits boobs cunt pussy titney cats dogs mice rats crocodile hunter australia japan tokyo america new york old 9/11 trade world center grand theft auto halo 1 2 3 episode 10 100 50 clitoris sexual fight boxing basketball baseball soccer tennis sports NBA NFL ESPN horror comedy drama romance...
This is the 2nd draft, and I plan on doing one more final draft. Please leave comments on what could be changed or improved, or what needs to be excluded or included. Subscribe if you want to be notified when the revision is released.
UPDATE: I just added this video to Mojiti where you can actually write your comments into the video itself. It is an exciting experiment in "Video 2.0". Go check it out at http://mojiti.com/kan/2024/3313 and add your voice!
Transcripts are now available as well: http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?...
A couple of people have noted that the statement, "XML was created to do just that" (separate form from content) is misleading because CSS enables the same effect with HTML. I tried to integrate CSS into the video, but it ruined the flow. Perhaps in the next draft.
My statement on XML is based on the following from xml.com: "In order to appreciate XML, it is important to understand why it was created. XML was created so that richly structured documents could be used over the web. The only viable alternatives, HTML and SGML, are not practical for this purpose. HTML, as we've already discussed, comes bound with a set of semantics and does not provide arbitrary structure."
Thank you all for the comments. With your help the next draft will be cleaned up and hopefully free of factual errors.
A higher quality version is available for download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?6duzg3zioyd Please note that this is the second draft and the final version will not be available until late February after I review all comments and revise the video. Please return for a new download link at that time.
The song is "There's Nothing Impossible" by Deus, available for free at http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/103/ Deus offers music under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, yet one more example of the interlinking of people sharing and collaborating this video is attempting to illustrate.
CC: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Michael Wesch Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kansas State University (more) (less)
Confused by the alphabet soup of cell phone acronyms? I don't blame you. Here's a cheat sheet that'll help you navigate the waters while your shopping for your next phone—or trying to get the most out of the handset you've got. Most of the confusion arises when it comes to the various types of cell phone networks. For example, when I ask my aunts and uncles which networks their phones work on, they'll usually tell me their carrier instead of whether they're using GSM or CDMA—and frankly, before I started writing about cell phones for a living, I didn't know the difference, either. So first, let's start with a quick overview of the two main standard for cell networks:
GSM: Short for Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM is the most widespread standard for cell phones networks in the world. If you're a jetsetter who likes keeping in touch during your far-flung travels, you should go with a GSM-enabled phone, and here in the U.S., AT&T and T-Mobile are both GSM carriers. Besides the technical differences between CDMA and GSM networks (I'll spare you the details), the main distinction of a GSM phone is that it comes with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card—a little plastic chip that, as its name implies, identifies your phone on the GSM network. If you take the SIM card out of your GSM phone and put it into another GSM handset, you'll be able to place and receive calls on the second phone using your own cell phone number. GSM phones are also capable of handling six-way conference calls.
CDMA: Short for Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA networks are much more prevalent in the U.S. than they are abroad, and while CDMA boasts many of the same features as GSM networks (including caller ID, call waiting, and text messaging), there are some key differences—namely, CDMA phones don't use SIM cards. Instead, your phone's identity and number are programmed into the handset by your carrier, and you can't easily switch numbers on CDMA phones as you can with SIM-equipped GSM phones. Also, CDMA phones can only handle three-way conference calls, versus six-way calls on GSM networks. Major CDMA carriers in the U.S. include Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and regional operator Alltel.
OK, so you've got your two main flavors of networks, but now I'm going to stir another variable into the mix: 3G. Here's the deal: GSM and CDMA are both considered second-generation, or 2G, networks (the first generation being AMPS, an analog network used mainly back in the 1980s). Unlike the old voice-only AMPS networks, digital GSM and CDMA networks can handle both voice and data calls, which means you can send text messages, surf the Web and get caller ID info. But data flows slowly over GSM and CDMA—think dial-up, only slower. Streaming video and music? Forget it.
That's where 3G, or third-generation networks, come in. These so-called 3G systems allow data to flow at speeds you'd expect from a home DSL modem or better—and at those speeds, you get features like streaming video and full-track music downloads. The main types of 3G networks include:
EV-DO: An add-on for CDMA networks, EV-DO (or Evolution-Data Optimized) delivers data speeds between 144Kbps to 2Mbps to CDMA cell phones, perfect for streaming video and music. Sprint offers EV-DO access through its Power Vision phones (which are typically a little pricier than standard models); on Verizon Wireless, look for the "V Cast" label.
UMTS and HSDPA: Both UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) are upgrades to GSM networks, and like EV-DO, they provide DSL and cable-like data speed. The only difference between UMTS and HSDPA (besides the technical nitty-gritty, of course) is that HSDPA is even faster than UMTS; for that reason, HSDPA networks are often called 3.5G rather than just 3G. In the U.S., only AT&T offers UMTS and HSDPA networks. (T-Mobile is busy working on its own HSDPA network, which should begin going online by the end of the year.)
Somewhere between 3G and 2G lies, naturally enough, 2.5G networks, which give you data speeds that are slightly faster than dial-up—no good for streaming video, but fine for messaging or mobile Web browsing. These networks include:
1xRTT: A variant of the CDMA standard, 1xRTT (or "1 times Radio Transmission Technology") gives you data speeds between 30Kbps and 90Kbps, a bit better than your typical 56Kbps dial-up modem. Most of the non-3G phones on Sprint and Verizon have 1xRTT capabilities.
GPRS and EDGE: The 2.5G flavors of GSM networks, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) also give you data in the 30Kbps to 90Kbps range, with EDGE running slightly faster than GPRS. Again, most of the non-3G phones on AT&T offer either GPRS or EDGE, while T-Mobile—which has yet to launch a 3G network—only does GPRS and EDGE.
Whew! That's a lot of terminology, I know—and believe it or not, I've barely scratched the surface. I'll tackle more wireless acronyms in future posts; in the meantime, if you're curious about the technical details of the various cell networks, I'd suggest combing through Wikipedia, or check out Phonescoop's exhaustive glossary.
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet WriterFri May 18, 12:46 AM ET
At least 25 countries around the world block Web sites for political, social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a network meant to be borderless, according to a study out Friday.
The actual number may be higher, but the OpenNet Initiative had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than they had initially expected, a sign that the Internet has matured to the point that governments are taking notice.
"This is very much the revenge of geography," said Rafal Rohozinski, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge in England.
China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.
In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance, tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North Korea.
Yet researchers found no filtering at all in Russia, Israel or the Palestinian territories despite political conflicts there.
Governments generally had no mechanism for citizens to complain about any erroneous blocking, with Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates being among the exceptions.
The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto, has previously published reports detailing censorship in specific countries. The latest study was its attempt to compare filtering worldwide.
The study did not attempt to chronicle the effectiveness of the efforts. Some technical approaches are better than others in blocking sites, but all can be bypassed with enough technical know-how to use "proxy" techniques or special software.
The organization said the regions chosen for review should not be considered comprehensive. It didn't include any countries in North America or Western Europe on grounds that filtering practices there have been better known than elsewhere. It also excluded North Korea and Cuba for fear of risks to collaborators it would need in those countries.
The group supplied software to volunteers in each of the countries tested. Web sites checked include those for gambling, pornography and human-rights abuses.
Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford, said filtering appeared to occur most widely in countries where Internet penetration is higher, possibly explaining the lack of any censorship efforts in Russia and Egypt.
First VoIP plundered the PTSN subscriber base, sending the baby Bells’ profit margin into a tailspin. Now VoIP applications have tunneled into every communications technology, bringing VoIP to millions of potential users (billions globally) from every available platform. Today, seasoned startups have staked their success on applications designed to bring VoIP to end-users through blogs and Web sites, cell phones and wifi. Some of these platforms have nearly a half dozen companies fighting for superiority, while others have their market cornered.
Related Articles:
* VoIP on the Go * State of the VOIP Market * Can Your VOIP System Handle 911? * Getting Started with Asterisk
Companies like Jajah, iSkoot and YapOn are offering consumer VoIP applications to the 2.14 billion cell phone users around the world, while other VoIP applications have begun to fundamentally change the way we use the Internet. New click-to-call features are bringing voice into seamless integration with blogs and sites – giving such diverse industries as tech support and dating services new avenues for connecting with users.
Here are the top ten ways to make VoIP even better, this list also provides the free and low-cost apps that make it possible: 1. VoIP WEB CONFERENCING
Yugma
WebEx, founded in 1996, has dominated Web conferencing by leveraging its pre-established position as a videoconferencing provider while capitalizing on rapid innovations into web-based business solutions.
But now WebEx has a serious competitor, Yugma, a plucky startup founded in 2003, is hitting WebEx where it hurts. While WebEx has grown fat selling its web conferencing services for $75 per month per host, Yugma has guaranteed that its basic services will be free, forever.
With Yugma you can invite up to 10 other people to simultaneously view documents and applications of any format; you can host an unlimited number of sessions (one session at a time) and you can collaborate on both PCs and Macs at the same time on any Web browser (including Safari), any application, and almost any operating platform (Linux coming soon) – with the flexibility to launch “on the fly.”
Easy to install, easy to use, highly reliable and platform independent. Does WebEx have a widget its paying clients can post on their product sites, blogs, intranet or student collaboration sites? No. Does Yugma? Of course, and for free. Does WebEx support VoIP technology? Only for its public relation conference calls when it announces the acquisition of a smaller company.:
Does Yugma work with VoIP? Yugma is specifically designed to seamlessly interact with all VoIP providers globally.
2. VOIP EMAIL AND FILE SHARING
Jubii
No one in the voice 2.0 world has developed anything quite like what Jubii offers: a fully integrated email, chat, text message, VoIP and file share service bundled in one Web-based application with gigabytes of storage space.
Jubii automates day-to-day routines and its simple tagging system allows for powerful yet quick managing and searching of emails, documents, pictures and videos. Its easy and powerful trusted contact management eliminates the list management demands of an email address book and ends the need to login to different programs, just to share images and information.
Designed for openness with whom you chose and privacy from those you don’t, Jubii’s patented intelligent inbox helps you to ensure that you and your people have the privacy you need for your online life.
3. VOIP MICRO-BLOGGING
Twitter
Call it microblogging or text blasting – Twitter allows you to do it for free. From your phone, an IM client or from Twitter’s Web site, you can send a text message to multiple friends’ phones simultaneously or straight to your MySpace page. The only catch: Twitter wants you to keep it short – posts are limited to 140 characters, and the topic is always, "What are you doing?"
All your recent twitters are then saved on your profile page along with links to your friends’ Twitter pages, a thumbnail photo, and a short bio. Plus, you can search Twitter’s 100,000 members to see what they are doing.
4. VOIP ON YOUR CELL PHONE VIA WIFI
Gizmo Call
Gizmo Call gives users two options that will make unlimited worldwide calling accessible and cost efficient. Any wifi routed call to another Gizmo Project user is free, with no time limits or fees, and calls to landlines and cell phones start at 2 cents per minute.
Gizmo has announced an official partnership with Nokia, whose n80i is the ultimate next generation telephone – a mobile that smoothly transitions from cell technology to wifi. But the n80i still costs nearly $500, so this plan isn’t for someone looking to lower their total voice costs. To buy tomorrow’s phone today, it’s going to cost some of the money you saved yesterday.
But look on the bright side, by buying into the Gizmo-Nokia partnership, you’ll be a year ahead mainstream phone culture. If your personal image depends on having the next best thing, you better get an n80i with Gizmo before your clients do.
Truphone Truphone offers a VoIP-over-WiFi service that currently works on four Nokia cell phone models in the U.S. and U.K., including the Nokia n80i.
Installation on these phones is simple: Sign-up, pick your phone model and latest OS version, and enter your phone number. Truphone sends a text message to your phone that guides you through the simple installation process. Then you select your Wi-Fi settings. Making calls is simple: click on the phone number you wish to dial, then choose from a cellular or a VoIP connection.
Not only is Truphone available in a wider selection of Nokia phones, its call quality also surpasses Gizmo, which has trouble with its packets when connected at a low bandwidth. Additionally, the U.K.-based Truphone understands international calling from mobiles better than Gizmo, giving Truphone an advantage in the global market.
5. VOIP CLICK-TO-CALL BLOG WIDGETS
Jaxtr
Living and shopping in an online community has until now been a solitary and silent experience, with 90 percent of the transactions occurring through email, blog posts, or other keyboard functions. Sure, Skype and webcams have stimulated our other senses, but audio/visual elements have until now been in the HOV lane of the information superhighway. The next generation of multimedia convergence is upon us, and it’s unifying voice with Web surfing. Long after Google’s click-to-call went belly-up, several new services are filling the void:
Jaxtr offers a new widget designed for blogs or e-commerce sites allow users to contact you by phone without giving your phone number away to the entire internet. In over 30 countries in four continents, Jaxtr is catching on, and it’s still only in beta!
Direct CallBack Direct CallBack is a direct competitor of Jaxtr. DCB allows a visitor of your Web page to call you directly to your cell phone. All you need is a phone that accepts text messages; you don’t even need a computer.
CallWidget Or, if you want visitors to leave their number so you can call them back at your convenience, you can use the CallWidget, which allows anyone to call you for free without them having to register. Designed for e-commerce site owners, CallWidget lets customers get in touch by phone for free, without you having to take a phone call in the middle of the night.
Jangl Jangl has created a feature-rich Jaxtr competitor, with all the blogging widget flexibility of Jaxtr plus additional features like voicemail integration and a real-time accept/decline feature.
Online, you can post a Jangl Widget on your online profile, blog, or personal page. When readers see your widget, they can simply enter their own phone number, click Go, and instantly get a Jangl phone number to call you. Your number and their number are both safe. This is a great way to connect when dating, expand your friends list, talk with your blog readers or selling products online.
Offline, you can give out your Jangl ID just like you would your regular phone number – put it on a business card or a napkin. When site visitors call the first time, they’ll be asked to leave a short message introducing themselves. When you get a Jangl call, you'll hear the caller's introduction and then have the ability to accept or reject it in real time. Jangl works on your mobile, home, work or VoIP phone.
6. VOIP-TO-CELL CALL-BACK APPLICATIONS
Jajah
Several companies are competing over the same cheap telephony turf – using VoIP plumbing to redirect cell phones that allow callers to make long distance and international calls for next to nothing. Chief among them is Jajah.
Jajah made a name for itself when it released a Web-based callback system, a sort of long-distance rate run-around. Type in your number and the number you want to call, and Jajah calls you both, connecting the call via VoIP to your existing phone line, which now includes cell phones from any global carrier and Apple’s upcoming iPhone.
RebTel
RebTel, a Luxembourg company, is hot on Jajah’s heels. With over 36 countries to call for free from the U.S., RebTel offers 10 international calls per month for free without any time restrictions. On the downside, the call procedure is trickier than Jajah’s: the person receiving the call has to call back to the number RebTel transmits through the receiver’s caller ID (also sending it as a text message). The receiver hangs up while the caller stays on the line. The receiver calls back the number sent by RebTel and the two talkers are connected.
A little too complicated to become the next Skype, but with the right marketing plan, a company with a name like RebTel could do well in certain rebel-friendly markets like in the southern U.S. or with "Star Wars" fans.
Hullo Hullo combines Jajah-style VoIP calling from cell and landlines with the PC-to-phone capabilities of Skype. Trying to separate itself from the field, Hullo offers a feature-rich environment that powers one of the most flexible calling services ever offered. Currently, Hullo is not accepting new users because its beta test period has ended. So while the design team is working out the kinks, here are some of Hullo’s features that you can look forward to when it relaunches:
* Hullo Chat: Turn a regular phone call into a conference call, during the call, just by clicking on your buddy list. * Hullo Handoff: Move a call from your cell phone to your desk phone when you get into the office, without disconnecting the call. * Hullo Blast (coming soon): Send a voicemail to everyone at once by selecting them from your buddy list.
Talkster Talkster is the only service that lets you talk to your Instant Messenger buddies on MSN, Google Talk and Gizmo Project – without the need for any software on your phone or PC, special devices, networks or data plans from your carrier. A mobile phone with a browser will work, even a phone without a data plan can work if you set the call up online with a PC.
There are only two steps to make a call to your buddies or any telephone number using Talkster. First, choose your friend from a buddy list or a telephone number for one of your contacts. Second, Talkster triggers your phone to call in to one of its local access gateways, or calls you back on your phone. Once your call is connected over the standard cellular voice network to our gateway, your contact's phone or instant messenger client will ring on the other end and you are talking – just like you would in a regular phone call.
7. VOIP ON YOUR CELLPHONE VIA A DATA NETWORK
Fring
Unlike Jajah and its clones, fring brings VoIP to your cell phone in totally different way – harnessing your mobile data network. fring allows users to make free mobile calls, send instant messages to other fring users, and communicate with PC-based VoIP applications such as Skype and Google Talk.
But “free” is a loaded term with this service. It’s free once you pay your mobile carrier’s data network plan. If you’re paying by the kilobyte, fring is far from free. The fring Web site is a basic, text-only page with entry windows for your phone number and email address. You sign up, and download fring onto your phone like a ringtone.
8. FIND THE CHEAPEST VOIP RATES VIA SMS
YapOn
Unlike Jajah and its brood that use your mobile calling minutes, or fring, powered by your provider’s data network plan, YapOn targets another blade in your Swiss Army telephone: SMS text messaging technology.
With its ‘Text to Talk’(TM) feature, YapOn can provide mobile subscribers across the globe, regardless of carrier, the ability to access the most competitive long-distance rates directly from their mobile device.
Step 1. Register at YapOn’s web site. Step 2. Text YapOn to the number you want to call. Step 3. YapOn calls you back and connects you, charging a low rate plus a 30-day free trial. Great for cheap international calling with your mobile phone.
YapOn also offers ‘Quick Connect'’, which enables YapOn subscribers to initiate long-distance calls (landline and mobile) via YapOn’s web interface.
9. USE VOIP AND SKYPE ON YOUR CELL PHONE
iSkoot
Run by two Israeli brothers from their Cambridge, Mass. headquarters, iSkoot enables users to make unlimited, superior quality calls via their cell phones’ voice network to other Skype users, or through SkypeOut to nearly any phone number on the planet.
In January 2007, Skype confirmed that iSkoot met its usability and quality standards, making iSkoot the first and only third-party mobile client to be Skype-certified. Skype’s approval of iSkoot has left competitors, like Mobivox, out in the cold. Having dominated the Skype-to-cell market, iSkoot is venturing into other social-networking sites, seeking to unite cell phone consumers and computer users under a single product. As iSkoot Founder and CEO Jacob Guedalia said, “We would like iSkoot to be known as the company that brought Internet calling to all mobile phones.”
10. GET A VOIP SWITCHBOARD
GrandCentral
Using VoIP architecture, GrandCentral allows you to control which of your phone numbers ring when you get a call, plus providing you with feature-rich options that will re-invent the role of telecommunications at the office.
When a call comes in, the GrandCentral interface will first show who’s calling. Then, you can accept the call or send it to voicemail, like any other phone system – or, you can utilize GrandCentral’s unqiue features. You could accept the call while recording it. Or, using GrandCentral’s trademarked ListenIn feature, you can listen in real time as your caller leaves a voicemail with the ability to take the call at any time. Unrivaled flexibility with no hardware to buy.
GrandCentral also allows you to consolidate your voicemail in a Web interface, which lets you to organize your contacts into groups and setup automatic behaviors and filters for each incoming phone number. GrandCentral is not yet available outside the U.S. or even in every area code. But they’re growing, currently in all but 14 of the lower 48 states.
Every once in a while, when the reader e-mails keep piling up in my in-box, I feel the need to revisit a topic that I've already written about. In this case, the subject is HDTV resolution, and 1080p resolution in particular. This seems to be on everyone's minds as we head into the holiday buying season and we're faced with more HDTV buying choices than ever before. Not a day goes by without someone asking whether they should just buy a "standard" 720p/1080i set or step up and pay the extra bucks for a higher-resolution 1080p set. Or what it all means. And so, I've tried to condense the whole discussion into a neat, little cheat sheet. Read on for the quick and dirty lowdown on 1080p.
1. 1080p defined 1080p resolution--which equates to 1,920x1,080 pixels--is the latest HD Holy Grail. That's because 1080p monitors are theoretically capable of displaying every pixel of the highest-resolution HD broadcasts. On paper, they should offer more than twice the resolution of today's 1,280x720, or 720p, HDTVs, such as Samsung's HL-P5085W. Some companies, such as LG, refer to these super-high-res of sets as ultra-HD, while others prefer to substitute true or full for ultra.
2. Why 1080p is theoretically better than 1080i 1080i, the former king of the HDTV hill, actually boasts an identical 1,920x1,080 resolution but conveys the images in an interlaced format (the i in 1080i). In a tube-based television, otherwise known as a CRT, 1080i sources get "painted" on the screen sequentially: the odd-numbered lines of resolution appear on your screen first, followed by the even-numbered lines--all within 1/30 of a second. Progressive-scan formats such as 480p, 720p, and 1080p convey all of the lines of resolution sequentially in a single pass, which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content. As opposed to tubes, microdisplays (DLP, LCoS, and LCD rear-projection) and other fixed-pixel TVs, including plasma and LCD flat-panel, are inherently progressive in nature, so when the incoming source is interlaced, as 1080i is, they convert it to progressive scan for display.
3. What content is available in 1080p? Really, nothing at this point. Today's high-def broadcasts are done in either 1080i or 720p, and there's little or no chance they'll jump to 1080p any time soon because of bandwidth issues. Meanwhile, some newly announced DVD players from Denon and NeuNeo (who?) are claiming to upconvert standard DVD movies to 1080p resolution, but that's a far cry from native high-def content. More promising is the post-DVD future. There's been a lot of chatter over whether the new breed of high-def movie players, Blu-ray or HD-DVD, as well as the upcoming Sony PlayStation 3, will output in 1080p. Allegedly, they will, but those players and recorders will be very expensive at first (more than $1,000), and they probably won't hit more modest price levels until 2007 or even 2008. The PS3, on the other hand, is designed to be more of a mainstream product; we hope that means a price tag in the neighborhood of $500. It's unclear, however, exactly what it will output in 1080p--games, Blu-ray movies, or both--or neither.
4. How much extra does a 1080p TV cost Not surprisingly, you'll initially have to pay a premium to get the latest and greatest technology. If you take a look at the product lines of Sony, Samsung, and Mitsubishi, you can see that, on average, you can expect to pay about $1,000 extra for the bump in resolution. For instance, take the Samsung HL-R6167 (720p resolution) vs. the step-up HL-R6168 (1080p). At buy.com, the 6167 is currently going for $3,500 while the 6168 is $4,500. Eventually, of course, the gap will narrow, but it'll take a couple of more years for 1080p displays to become the standard.
5. Why you should buy--or not buy--a 1080p set While we haven't posted any reviews of 1080p rear-projection sets yet--before you ask, we've requested review samples from most major manufacturers, and received some promises but no product yet--we have gotten early looks at several of the new models, some of them have been early, nonshipping units. These include HP's MD6580N, a 65-inch 1080p DLP, and Sony's KDS-R60XBR1, a 60-inch LCoS (SXRD) set that brings the technology from Sony's highly regarded Qualia 006 down to a more-affordable price point. After seeing 1080p in action, we've come to some conclusions.
Obviously, the quality of the source material you're viewing is very important, but so are screen size and how far you're sitting from your TV. Indeed, our resident video guru, Senior Editor David Katzmaier, reports that the extra sharpness afforded by the 1080p televisions he's seen is noticeable only when watching 1080i sources on a larger screen. Comparing a 50-inch 1080p DLP set to a 50-inch 720p DLP set, for example, he says you'll be hard-pressed to notice more detail with 1080i sources, especially from farther than 8 feet away. Even if you can see the difference, it will be much less obvious than, say, the difference between DVD and 720p HDTV. Of course, performance will vary from set to set, and we'll know more when we have a chance to thoroughly test more 1080p televisions.
Katzmaier also says that the main real-world advantage of 1080p is not the extra sharpness you'll be seeing, but instead, the smaller, more densely packed pixels. In other words, you can sit closer to a 1080p television and not notice any pixel structure, such as stair-stepping along diagonal lines, or screen door effect. This advantage applies regardless of the quality of the source.
Another thing to consider: even if the display has a native resolution of 1080p on paper, it can't necessarily display all 2 million-plus pixels in the real world. For example, the Sharp LC-45GX6U, a 1080p 45-inch flat-panel LCD, actually wasn't as sharp as it claimed to be; it couldn't resolve every line of a 1080i-resolution test pattern.
Finally--and this may sound weird--but many 1080p televisions don't accept 1080p sources at all. In our experience, only the aforementioned HP can handle 1080p via its HDMI inputs--all other current 1080p HDTVs cannot. Instead, they upconvert 720p and 1080i sources to 1080p.
Oh, and I would be remiss not to mention computer connectivity. Those of you thinking of running your PC through a 1080p set should be aware that you may not necessarily get to use all that extra resolution--even if you have the right high-end graphics card. For instance, the Sharp set we tested allows you to max out at only 1,280x1,024 resolution while the less-expensive Westinghouse LVM-37W1, along with Samsung's 1080p RPTVs and one series of high-end sets from Mitsubishi, accept true 1,920x1,080 resolution from a PC. We expect most 1080p HDTVs announced in 2006 to handle 1080p sources, but for now, that capability is rare.
The bottom line: if you're thinking of going big, really big (a 60-inch screen or larger), the extra resolution may make it worth the difference--as long as you have a pristine, 1080i HD source to feed into the set. As to whether true 1080p sources from PS3, a Blu-ray deck, or an HD-DVD player look better--we'll have to wait until 2006 to find out. Of course, it's probably a good idea to buy--or wait for--a set that can accept a 1080p signal so that you'll be able to make that judgment.
Learn about HDMI Connector (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)
With the launch of HDMI version 1.3, HDMI continues to increase its overall functionality to meet the needs of the High-Definition marketplace. HDMI 1.3 will include the following new features:
Higher speed: HDMI 1.3 increases its single-link bandwidth from 165MHz (4.95 gigabits per second) to 340 MHz (10.2 Gbps) to support the demands of future high definition display devices, such as higher resolutions, Deep Color and high frame rates. In addition, built into the HDMI 1.3 specification is the technical foundation that will let future versions of HDMI reach significantly higher speeds.
High-def video coming from HD-DVD, Blu-ray, and in all likelihood, other future high-def video sources will be available only via HDMI outputs (which are copy-protected by a standard known as HDCP). The same video from those sources will be "down-rezzed" to sub-HD resolutions when output via the component-video ports. As such, you'll want products--video players, A/V receivers, and TVs--that can pass the full-resolution HDMI signals throughout your entire home-theater system. Once you've committed to an A/V receiver than can handle HDMI, the key features you want to look for are:
1. HDMI switching: Look for receivers with as many HDMI inputs as possible.
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.
When the first high-definition television (HDTV) sets hit the market in 1998, movie buffs, sports fans and tech aficionados got pretty excited, and for good reason. Ads for the sets hinted at a television paradise with superior resolution and digital surround sound. With HDTV, you could also play movies in their original widescreen format without the letterbox "black bars" that some people find annoying.
But for a lot of people, HDTV hasn't delivered a ready-made source for transcendent experiences in front of the tube. Instead, people have gone shopping for a TV and found themselves surrounded by confusing abbreviations and too many choices. Some have even hooked up their new HDTV sets only to discover that the picture doesn't look good.
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