Email Address: hdtvpodcast@mac.com

Listener Comment Line: 1-949-528-6747

 

 

Warner: DVD Albums to replace DualDiscs 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pioneer 1080p Plasma

We recently stopped by our local BestBuy to take a look at the new Pioneer PRO-FDH1 1080p 50 inch Plasma TV. This is another in our series of in store first impressions. We look at the TV as you would when going to a retailer trying to buy one. This TV was located in the Magnolia Home Theater section of the BestBuy store we went to. The first impression we had was "That is the best HD picture we have ever seen". It was that good! So what was playing on the screen that blew us away? It was your typical flowers and scenic shots. Something that is easy for good TVs but even still, it looked spectacular. Almost like you were looking outside your window. We asked the very helpful Magnolia representative what was the source and he replied that it was media on a hard drive. Well that's great if everything you watched recorded to and played off a hard drive.

How would this fantastic looking TV perform with HDTV that is available today? For that we asked the Magnolia rep to switch the inputs to either a DirecTV feed or a Blu Ray player that was right next to the TV. He was very happy to help out. Side note - if you want to buy a HDTV ask the retailer to show you content from different sources. Mostly like what you will be watching. This particular BestBuy had HD from cable and DirecTV. They also had material on next and current generation DVD players. The only thing that was missing was OTA HD broadcasts. Once the Blu Ray player was plugged in we could see a noticeable difference in the picture. Everything looked fuzzier compared to what was on the screen just seconds before. That included the flower and scenic shots of the Blu Ray demo disc. Now that's not to say it looked bad, its just that the picture was not up to the capability of the TV. This is a problem for TV manufactures. They can build an incredible looking TV in a controlled environment but when it goes out into the wild it doesn't live up to its potential.

There is a silver lining though. When either or both HD Disc formats increase capacity and DVD creation matures, this TV will perform to its absolute potential. Which is breathtaking! To round out the discussion. The TV has:

• 1920X1080p resolution
• ISF calibration included
• A True wide viewing angle
• All kinds of video processing - see the site for details
• Independent dual HDMI inputs
• Basic speakers
  

Cost $9500 US

 

 

 

We close out our discussion of sound formats with SONY's SDDS. Although SDDS never made it's way into consumer level equipment we include it for completeness. SONY Dynamic Digital Sound or SDDS uses eight discrete channels, five of which were on the front wall. Its because of this that SDDS sounds best on very large screens. We both worked for one of the patent holders of this technology when we were at SONY Pictures.  Like Dolby Digital, the audio track is printed on the film outside sproket holes. The audio is high quality with a data rate of 2.2 Mbps at a 44.1kHz sample rate, which is similar to DTS and much better than the .37 Mbs of Dolby Digital.  The data is printed on both sides of the film and slightly offset so that a splice can be made without affecting the data. The first film to be released on SDDS was Last Action Hero staring Arnold Schwarzenegger in June of 1993.

Directly from the SDDS website:

How the soundtrack is Created (this is specifically for SDDS but many aspect of it is true for all audio)

Once filming is complete, the project enters the post-production phase. The process of creating the SDDS soundtrack often begins during the editorial phase where sound editors create a unique "sound design" that matches the picture and conveys the mood and feelings of the director. With SDDS, the availability of two additional behind-the-screen channels gives the editors a chance to be more flexible and creative with the soundtrack.

The sound mixing professionals take the elements created by the sound editors and blend the dialog, music and effects together to create a pleasing and balanced soundtrack. The mix happens at the re-recording facility essentially a full scale cinema that contains the mixing console and recording equipment. The re-recording facility allows the mixers and directors to make creative decisions in an acoustical environment that closely matches where the audience will ultimately hear the film.

Once the mixing is complete, an optical transfer facility takes the master recording and creates the 35mm SDDS sound negative used for mass production of release prints. The 35mm negative is created using a special digital recorder that is added to the industry standard Westrex® or Albrecht® analog stereo sound recorder. The SDDS soundtrack is recorded at the same time as the analog soundtrack.

Once the sound negative has been made, it is sent to the laboratory to be combined with the picture negative. The color picture negative and the separate sound negative are run through an optical "printer" to marry the digital and analog soundtracks onto a third 35mm film strip with the picture. This creates the release print which is distributed for exhibition in theatres.

OnAir Solution USB HDTV-GT

The new USB HDTV Tuner from OnAir Solution, called the 'GT', has generated quite a bit on interest.  To be honest, who isn't looking for a USB ATSC tuner?  We had the chance to play with one this past week and really enjoyed it.  It was simple to setup, easy to use, and for the most part, just worked.

Features:

Supports Standard ATSC HD Format (1920 x 1080)

Pauses live television in Digital modes

Supports Time Shifting for Digital TV

Supports USB2.0 (OnAir Solution made the world's 1st External HDTV Device interface via USB2.0)

Supports Digital Cable (64QAM / 256QAM for unencrypted channels only)

Supports MS Windows XP Media Center (MCE 1.x or above) in Analog mode only (no HDTV or QAM support)

S-Video & Composite Inputs

Supports Dolby Digital 5.1 via compatible sound card

MPEG 2 Stream Resolution (720x480, 640x480, 480x480, 352x480)

MPEG 1 Stream Resolution (352x240)

First of all, the device is small and very transportable.  You may not be able to pick up HDTV signals wherever you take your laptop, but you sure can try.  The GT includes a small antenna to assist in the effort, but it didn't do us much good.  We used it with Lacrosse antenna from Terrestrial Digital we reviewed a few weeks ago.  Being over 60 miles away from the transmitters, we didn't expect a whole lot out of the tuner.  It certainly exceeded any expectations.  Granted the Lacrosse antenna is very good, but you typically need a good tuner to lock on to what the antenna pulls down.  We were able to watch every digital channel broadcast out of Los Angeles in pristine High Definition.  We had a few drop-outs and hiccups, but we chalked that up to our distance from the source.

The GT is easy to setup and very easy to use.  One quirk is that some of the software license keys are printed on stickers that are stuck on the install DVD itself.  It's very difficult to read the numbers when the CD is spinning so fast.  Using it is a snap.  It's USB bus powered, so you just plug it into the computer and your off to the races, or the football game, or the NCIS rerun, whatever happens to be on at the time.  The playback software crashed a couple of times, forcing us to rescan for available channels when we restarted it.  After the second or third crash, we got smart and scanned for channels, closed the application so it could save its state, then restarted again.  The crashes seemed to coincide with dropouts in signal, but that was just a casual observation.

You can use the GT to view over-the-air HD and SD (ATSC and NTSC) as well as unencrypted analog and digital cable channels.  It even allowed us to watch some of the HD locals from our local Cox affiliate to compare them with the OTA broadcast.  The quality between them was very comparable.

Overall a great product and a great deal at $179 US.