Recently Filed in The New HD

If you’re thinking about buying an HDTV, or if you already own an HDTV and are thinking about switching content providers, here’s a sampling of current and upcoming HD channels from a variety of companies. Please note that these listings may change depending on your location. This overview does not take pricing or package tiers into consideration. DirecTV HD Channels TNT ESPN ESPN2 Universal Discovery HDNet HDNet Movies National Geographic HBO Showtime Regional Sports Networks (not including NFL SundayTicket): Altitude Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Comcast SportsNet… View this story
HDTV • Cable • Satellite • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

You’ve seen the commercials where they say “It’s the mirrors.” The marketing oversimplifies things a bit, but the heart of every component using Texas Instruments’ DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology is an optical semiconductor known as a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). Mounted on hinges, up to two million microscopic mirrors tilt toward (pixel on) or away (pixel off) from the light source in coordination with a high-speed rotating color wheel. DLP technology offers a combination of high resolution and contrast for an extremely bright and… View this story
DLP • Front Projection • Rear Projection • Video Projectors • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers • Slideshows

Electronic House editor Cindy Davis discusses the differences between 720p and 1080p with SIM2 marketing manager Greg Nicoloso. EH: On a recent press trip to the SIM2 factory in Italy, you were mentioning some of the advantages of 720p over 1080p. SIM2 has both 720p and 1080p front projectors, so I was surprised to hear this. This goes against everything we are hearing about 1080p, please explain your reasoning behind this. Greg Nicoloso: In such a broad market, we think it’s unrealistic to rely on… View this story
Video Projectors • Video Screen • HD DVD • Video Tuners • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

&uotThe latest rage in consumer electronics is 1080p resolution. Also called “Full HD,” 1080p features progressive scanning, which displays a whole frame of video at once rather than switching off between even lines and odd lines as 1080i displays do. By displaying a full frame of video, images look sharper—especially those with lots of motion—and you’ll encounter less flicker. Steve Storozum, video transport professional and officer of the Video Services Forum, puts it into perspective: ;A 720p HD display is at a disadvantage in sharpness… View this story
HDTV • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Games • Gaming Systems • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

With all this high-definition hardware popping up, what is there to watch? More than you’ll be able to take in. In addition to the brimming pot of prime-time fare on broadcast and cable TV, look for DirecTV to add hundreds of channels of HDTV programming during 2007, including 150 national channels and as many as 1,500 local HD channels. Contingent on the deployment of two new satellites, DirecTV will add HD for A&E, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CNN, Food Network, FX, HGTV, MTV, National Geographic, Sci-Fi… View this story
HDTV • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

Even the standard DVD will get a performance bump this year. Look for both high-definition DVD players and some standard-def models to offer upconversion to either 1080i or 1080p. You won’t get the same detail and quality from the interpolation as you would from a disc mastered at high resolution, but you’ll see an improvement. “We’re making up five-sixths of the information you’re seeing on the screen,” says Pioneer’s Walker. “We have to take 300,000 pixels and turn them into 2 million, and we’re guessing… View this story
HDTV • DVD Players • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

Still trying to decide whether to buy an analog or a digital TV? Too late. Starting in March, every TV capable of receiving a broadcast signal must have a digital tuner built in (video recorders included). That ruling precedes the next big date in the digital-TV transition: February 2009, when all signals hitting the TV will be digital. Of course, we don’t have to wait until 2009 for next-gen picture and sound. More and more digital programming is available every day, and much of that… View this story
HDTV • Blu-ray • HD DVD • The New HD • Home Theater • Audio • Info and Answers

If you’ve been on the fence about high-definition DVD because you’re afraid of a format war, LG’s BH100 ($1,199) is worth a look. The dual-format player, called Super Multi Blue, spins both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs along with standard DVDs. Note the caveats, though. Super Multi Blue doesn’t play CDs and it can’t handle the interactive features of HD DVD. It does support the BD-Java interactive function of Blu-ray discs, which delivers features such as picture-in-picture commentary. For those willing to commit to a… View this story
HDTV • Blu-ray • DVD Players • HD DVD • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

Resolution advances aren’t just part of the HDTV picture. The additional disc capacity provided by Blu-ray and HD DVD allow for expanded audio, too, and Dolby and DTS have ramped up surround-sound offerings to make use of the extra bandwidth. Here’s a peek at the latest high-res audio codecs. DTS-HD Master Audio No compression is used in DTS-HD Master Audio, which delivers up to 7.1 channels of lossless sound with 96/24 resolution (that’s a sampling rate of 96,000 times per second compared with 48,000 for… View this story
Surround Sound • The New HD • Home Theater • Audio • Info and Answers

The latest word in TV is 1080p, referring to the 1,080 vertical lines of resolution displayed in progressive format on a plasma, LCD, DLP or LCoS TV (CRT TVs display lines in interlaced format). Until recently, 720p and 1080i were the most advanced specs for vertical resolution and both were more than adequate for displaying all the video content available from broadcast TV and DVD. With the advent of Blu-ray and HD DVD, consumers for the first time have access to 1080p content, and TV… View this story
DLP • Flat Panel • HDTV • LCD • Plasma • Blu-ray • HD DVD • The New HD • Home Theater • Info and Answers

LG’s dual-format BH100 high-definition DVD player—aka “Super Multi Blue”—is now on sale at U.S. retailers for $1,199.99. The BH100 is notable because it can play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. This allows consumers to base their purchasing decisions on content rather than format. In addition to offering Full HD 1080p picture quality from high-definition discs, the player incorporates interactive functions based on BD-Java, which allows advanced menus and functions to be displayed over the video of Blu-ray discs. The interactive menu functions used by… View this story
Blu-ray • DVD Players • HD DVD • The New HD • Home Theater • Product News

Two new video scalers from Gefen—the Home Theater Scaler and the Home Theater Scaler Plus—both deliver scalable high definition video in multiple resolutions up to 1080p, plus digital audio from each source to the display. The scalers connect different home theater sources to any HDTV display or projector using HDMI. The Home Theater Scaler ($449 MSRP) comes equipped with two HDMI inputs each with separate audio in S/PDIF and TOSlink formats, and two component inputs each with analog audio. When all four audio and video… View this story
Displays • HDTV • The New HD • Home Theater • Enhancements • Product News