HDTV Almanac

Ilgin Display has announced that they intend to ship an add-on projector for mobile phones in Korea starting this September, followed by exports to other markets soon after. The projector uses a tiny imager with solid-state lasers as the light source. It’s bright enough to display a 20-inch diagonal image on a wall or other surface.

This is exciting as cell phones are new services that deliver video and other content. A cell phone that can read memory cards could be used as the new slide projector, making it a portable platform for showing digital photos to small groups of people. And as I’ve theorized, downloadable movies from the Internet could be stored on FLASH memory cards, so all you may need to watch a movie on your next airplane flight is your cell phone and one of these projectors. (Or maybe there will be a version of the projector that can read memory cards or USB drives by itself.)

Iljin also makes an intriguing comment about the projector; it would alsio be useful for making video phone calls. With technology like this, can Dick Tracy’s two-way video phone be far off?

ABI Research has published a new study that finds that almost half of all U.S. consumers watch video on their PCs. (Actually, I expect that since you read HDTV Almanac , you are probably ahead of the curve and among the half that watches video on your PC.)

What are they watching? About 72% are watching video with their Web browser. This is hardly surprising, given the popularity of YouTube and other sites. (And I find the video search features on Google and Yahoo! are great for finding niche topics such as woodworking or sailing.) Nearly two thirds of people who watch video on their PCs watch DVD movies. This also is no surprise; why do you think computer companies are selling all those widescreen monitors? It’s certainly not because the extra 20% or so pixels offer some tremendous productivity gain!

Only about a quarter who watch on their PC view video that they created themselves with a camcorder. Again, I’m not surprised; the siren’s song of becoming a home Felini is often more appealing in theory than it is in the actual practice of editing. Two areas are relatively small, but I expect them to start growing rapidly; 14% watch video purchased over the Internet, and 7% watch cable or satellite content. Online movie rentals have strong potential, and both NetFlix and Blockbuster are backing this the delivery mode of the future. And people are beginning to realize that a computer monitor is all they need to watch cable or satellite feeds, given the correct inputs and cables. There are lots of settings where a personal television screen is appropriate, and there’s good reason to save space and money by using one screen for both television and computer functions, both at home and at work.

The lines between computers and televisions are going to continue to blur as the content we watch and where we get that content changes. Stay tuned.

Syntax-Brillian announced their new Olevia 665H, a new 65″ HDTV that has a suggested retail price of $1,999. Does that get your attention? It’s got 1080p resolution, dual HDMI and dual component connections, a PC input. It’s also got RS-232 serial control for commercial applications. Video processing is handled by Pixelworks DNX technology.

Okay, 65″ 1080p HDTV for less than $2,000; how do they do it? This is a rear projection model, using LCoS imagers. And if it gains anything from its Brillian heritage, the image will probably be outstanding. Many experts hold that LCoS provides the best HDTV image quality overall of all the various technologies. The new 665H will be on display at CEDIA 2007 in Denver next week, and I’ll be on hand to take a look at it so you’ll have some advance information about it before it ships in the fourth quarter of this year.

Confused about what HDTV technology is best for you? The answer is in now available in paperback from Amazon or other fine booksellers.

At the height of the personal computer price wars, I often said that the only company making money in the PC market was United Parcel Service. Manufacturer and dealer margins were razor thin – if not actually negative — and only the freight companies were profiting from the sales.

Well, it’s deja vue all over again (with a tip of the cap to Yogi). Flat panel HDTV manufacturers continue to expand their production capacity, and they have to keep running forward as fast as they can to avoid doing a financial face plant. Retailers are struggling with shrinking margins and more competition. Wal-Mart is wading into the fray like the heavyweight that it is, and traditional consumer electronics outlets are trying to find solid ground to stand on. This means looking for other sources of profit, but they are hard to find. As reported in a New York Times article last week, “retailers complain about the lack of high-profit accessories for the new flat-panel TV buyer. ”

This problem is caused by two factors; the consumers are growng more price sensitive, and they often are more knowledgeable. Best Buy has its Geek Squad and Circuit City its Firedog services, both of which are being bundled at fire sale prices to help increase demand for their HDTV installation and setup offerings, but it’s not clear that these have sold well. Consumers are declining the expensive after-market warranties, especially as prices drop and they gain more confidence in the reliability of the HDTV products. Even the accessories market is difficult; most items are low priced and don’t contribute much to the bottom line. The new high-definition DVD players could help, but consumers hesitate to pick one of the competing formats, especially since the prices are so high compared to standard DVD players. (And standard definition DVDs do look great on an HDTV.)

Some stores push expensive cables, but even this is a tough sell. If you have an analog connection, then a more expensive cable may have less signal loss than a cheap one, though this probably won’t be noticeable unless you have a long cable run. With digital connections, however, it’s more or less pass/fail. Either the cable will work, or it won’t. As a result, I recommend that you buy the cheapest cable you can buy for digital connections such as HDMI. If it works, you’re done. If not, then you can look into buying a more expensive cable to see if that helps.

The bottom line here is that it is far better to be an HDTV buyer these days than a seller.

As I’ve mentioned before, sales of rear projection HDTVs continue to defy gravity. The advantages over flat screen models are considerable; they cost less, they weigh less, and they take up less space because their bezels are a small fraction of the typical plasma screen. And the new slim models are not much deeper than the base of an LCD or plasma panel of the same screen size.

One of the big complaints about rear projection models is that they use projector lamps that grow dim with time, and need to be replaced after 3,000 hours or so. (If your TV is on five hours a day, then you’ll need to replace the lamp every two years.) At $200 to $300 per lamp, this can add up to a significant expense.

Manufacturers have addressed this problem by moving to solid-state light sources that should last for the life of the HDTV. Panasonic has just started shipping their new LCZ and LCX model lines which use the new LIFI light source from Luxim. Not only does the lamp last longer, it also starts up faster, cutting the startup time from about 60 seconds with a conventional lamp to as little as 15 seconds.

The LIFI lamp uses plasma as a light source, sealed in a tiny quartz capsule. Instead of using an electrical current to excite the plasma, the lamp uses microwaves. This eliminates the need for electrodes in the capsule, which means that there is no metal to be transferred to the inside of the capsule (which is a major cause of light loss in a standard projector lamp).

Panasonic has released five models with the LIFI lamp. The PT-56LCX70 is a 56″ 720p model, with a suggested retail price of $1,699.95, and the PT-61LCX70 is a 61″ model for $1,999.95. The LCZ series has 1080p resolution, and comes in 50″, 56″, and 61″ sizes: the PT-50LCZ70 for $1,699.95, the PT-56LCZ70 for $1,899.95, and the PT-61LCZ70 for $2,199.95.

Sharp announced a new prototype LCD HDTV this week. The 52″ model is remarkable for the fact that it is less than 30 mm thick. For those of you who don’t have the metric system memorized, that’s less than an inch and a quarter. And that’s about the thickness of a typical 10″ LCD. The panel is also lightweight at about 55 pounds, which is about a third less than others of similar size.

The panel apparently relies on new technology advances in both backlight and the panel construction, though details were not released at this time. A company representative did say that they expect to put the new technology into production in 2010. In any case, the pictures of the screen look great, and this is a remarkable achievement that adds to LCD’s advantages over plasma.

Is an LCD or plasma HDTV the best choice for you? The answer is in Professor Poor’s Guide to Buying HDTV, now available in paperback from Amazon or other fine booksellers.

Paramount and its subsidiary DreamWorks announced this week that they were dropping production of Blu-ray high definition discs for future movie releases, and will go ahead exclusively with HD DVD. Up until this announcement, the studios released titles in both formats. According to an interview by (a former colleague) Melissa Perenson in PC World with Paramount CTO Alan Bell, the main reasons for the decision were that it is easier to develop interactive features and that the players cost less.

Other sources cite additional reasons: the production costs are lower, and the HD DVD titles have been more reliable. Another rumor that is widely circulated is that the DVD Forum – creators of the HD DVD format — paid for an exclusive with Paramount, that will run for the next 18 months. The PC World article reports that a Paramount spokesperson said they “never discuss business terms” of co-marketing agreements, but did not deny that there was a deal with the DVD Forum.

This news comes at a good time for HD DVD, as the Blu-ray publicity juggernaut is banging away at the fact that Blu-ray discs are currently outselling HD DVD titles. One good reason for that fact is that many PlayStation 3 owners are probably buying one or two movies just to check out how they look on their new console. Still, HD DVD players cost about half as much as Blu-Ray players, and that is likely to have an impact as the fall buying season proceeds. With manufacturers giving away five movies with most players, a unit sales advantage on the HD DVD side could rapidly alter the balance of number of discs “sold”. I still believe that Paramount is backing the ultimate winner here.

While we’re on the subject of Blu-ray versus HD DVD, let me correct a detail that seems to be widely misunderstood. Many sources, including Associated Press, cite Blockbuster’s decision to “only stock Blu-ray”. The fact is that Blockbuster tested both HD DVD and Blu-Ray in a sample of 250 stores beginning in November 2006. In June this year, the company decided to roll out the high definition support to the remaining 1,700 stores, and those stores would only be getting Blu-ray titles. The original 250 stores will still carry both formats, as will the online/mail rental service that competes head to head with Netflix. So while the decision clearly favors Blu-ray, it is not slamming the door on HD DVD. (And I guarantee you that come November, if hordes of customers with new HD DVD players come into those 1,700 stores asking for HD DVD titles, the company will change its mind quickly.)

A reader who purchased a copy of “Professor Poor’s Guide to Buying HDTV” sent the following comment yesterday:

Your “calculation” of distance from the TV produces impractical results. At 1080p, your calculations indicate for a 42 inch TV you have to sit 5 feet from the screen. It makes no sense!

A lot of people have that reaction, but the fact is that an HDTV needs to be much larger than you might think, especially when compared with a standard resolution television. The real reason that the screen needs to be large is so that you can see the extra detail in the picture. If you don’t need to see the detail, you can save a lot of money by purchasing a lower-resolution panel; from a distance, the image will look the same.

Here’s the proof. Get a standard mechanical pencil with 0.7 mm lead. Get a piece of white paper, and using a magnifying glass, make a dot about the size of the pencil lead diameter. Now make a second dot the same size, spaced about one dot’s width apart. Now, move away from the paper until you can no longer see the two dots as separate items. For me, that’s about six feet.

The pixel pitch for a 42” 1080p LCD is smaller than the pencil lead: less than 0.5 mm. And to really test your ability to “resolve” the dots, you should place two dots adjacent to each other, without the white space between, and move to the distance where you can’t tell if it’s one or two dots. So my test above is a generous approximation of your experience with a 1080p display.

I’m certain that one reason we’re seeing increased sales of larger HDTVs is that the prices have come down, but I think another may well be that people who bought their first HDTV have decided that it is indeed too small, and are now buying a larger one to take its place.

How big a screen do you need for your viewing distance? Find out in Professor Poor’s Guide to Buying HDTV, now available in paperback from Amazon or other fine booksellers.

In June, Tweeter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors. The company announced restructuring plans that included closing all stores in California, Tennessee, Alabama, New York and most of Georgia. In July, the company’s assets were sold to Schultze Asset Management for $38 million. On Friday, the new owners announced that half of the corporate staff would lose their jobs, including 80 employees at the headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts. Tweeter is now pinning its hopes on plans to remodel 40 stores as high-end “consumer electronics playgrounds“.

It doesn’t look as though times will get better for Tweeter any time soon. Consumer jitters about the economy and stock market, and about tighter home equity credit are likely to put a damper on fall purchases, especially for high ticket items such as high-end HDTVs. Competition from Wal-Mart, the big box stores, and the warehouse club stores is heating up and their target customer populations overlap. HDTV manufactures are producing enormous amounts of product, and are going to be anxious to sell them this fall. This looks like a recipe for a buyer’s market, and it may be that the most desperate will be the one who gets the sale. It does not look like a scenario that will help Tweeter recoup its losses.

I hate to pick on National Public Radio (NPR) because they do such an excellent job of broad and deep reporting on a wide variety of subjects. Following a sequence of links, I came across a piece on their Web site that does a pretty good job of addressing the problem of the upcoming cut-off of analog TV over-the-air broadcasts, and how to make sure you’re getting an HD picture on your HD resolution TV set. The article does a great job right up until the end, and then you run into this:

The good news: After February 2009, most programming will be created in digital widescreen formats.

No, after February 2009, all programming broadcast over the air will be in digital. This will have no effect on cable systems, and it’s likely that many will still operate on an analog signal. But how programming is distributed does not change how it was created and produced. Most primetime programming on the major networks is already in wide-format high definition. Some of the primetime standard definition shows are also in wide-format; presumably it’s less expensive to scale down the image for standard definition than to maintain two different production streams. And many advertisements are in wide format — both standard and high-def — probably for the same reason.

But tons of programming remain in standard definition and standard 4:3 aspect ratio. HD production equipment — cameras, editing gear, storage, and more — is expensive, and it will take a long time before all the video production will switch over completely. The amount of standard format content will certainly decline over the next year and a half, but I think it’s premature to claim that “most” programming will be in widescreen format by February 2009. And unfortunately, statements like that add to the confusion rather than reduce it.

If you see something about HDTV that is wrong, or just makes you go “huh?”, write me at alfred@hdtvprofessor.com and you could win a cool Truth Patrol t-shirt.