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For those
of you following my quest for a "top pick" home theatre system,
you'll know I chose a DLP
projector for my system, after we reviewed the outcome of last
year's CES show. See below for some of the exciting new
CES 2005 HDTV technology announcements, like SED from Toshiba, SXRD
from Sony, and DarkChip3 from TI. Editor's Note: Canon has already released their SX50
LCoS projector, the first ever under $5,000), and Optoma has
released their H78DC3
DarkChip DLP projector (under $4,000). (Editors Note: see coverage
of the CES 2006 show).
Although there is no
1080p source material yet, TI and Samsung demonstrated a new 1080P DLP
chip, and Epson demonstrated a 3-chip 1080p LCD display.
Canon Announces New 3 chip LCoS projector: Canon announced the
development of a high definition 3 chip LCoS front projector, with
special lens technology that maintains a compact form factor (Editor's
Note: This unit, the amazing SX 50, is now available for sale, as of
October 2005)
TI Announces New DarkChip3 DLP projection chip: TI released
information about the upcoming DarkChip3™ that features architectural changes to the DLP chip resulting in a 20 - 40% improvement in contrast over DarkChip2™
(Editor's
Note: The Optoma
H78DC3 is the first DarkChip3™ projector under $4,000)
New technology: Sony was showing an SXRD 1080p rear projector, the Qualia 006, which will ship later this
year in Canada for $17,000. The 70-inch display uses three high-definition
SXRD panels. (Silicon Xtral Reflective Display) panels. Even when
viewed at extremely close distances, the picture is incredibly smooth,
vibrant and film-like. The Senior Vice-President Home Products for Sony Electronics
Inc., Mike Fiddler, said: "We believe SXRD will be the Trinitron of the 21st century."
SXRD is Sony's rendition of LCOS technology.
News from Toshiba: Toshiba said it will soon introduce the first flat-panel displays utilizing the
SED (Surface conduction Electron emitter Display) technology it has co-developed with Canon. The first SED televisions will be
expensive, but as yields improve and production increases, prices will
be reduced. Yoshihide Fujimoto, CEO of Toshiba's Digital Media Networking
Company, stated: "Theoretically, prices for SED can be much lower than
plasma".
Scott Ramirez, Toshiba's Vice President of Marketing, further stated that
"SED is going to be the new standard in flat
panel; it's going to change the way you look at flat panel". The
specifications are impressive: 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution, extremely
high 8600:1 contrast ratio and 1 msec response time.
The SED is a new type of flat-panel display technology, that was created through the merging of Canon's proprietary
electron emission and micro-fabrication technologies with Toshiba's CRT technology and mass-production technologies for liquid crystal
displays and semiconductors. Like conventional CRT televisions, the SED utilizes
the phenomena of electron collision with a phosphor coated screen to emit light.
The main difference is that the electron emitters, which correspond to an electron gun
in a CRT television, are distributed in an amount equal to the number of pixels on the display. In addition to high brightness and high
definition, the SED delivers exceptional overall image quality, fast video-response performance, high contrast, high gradation levels
and low power consumption.
Other News: LG and Toshiba and said they would ship DLP rear projectors with resolution of
1080p in 2005. Panasonic announced new DLP rear projectors, including a 61-inch 1080p
model, Samsung was demonstrating an outstanding 1080p DLP projector, and
BenQ had a 70 inch DLP front screen projector at its exhibit. Sharp is also entering the DLP market, and will
soon have 56 and 65 inch models available. Some manufacturers will also
introduce premium models with CableCARD
digital tuners and Gemstar Electronic Program Guides.
For the sake of clarity, here are some acronym and terminology definitions relating to
the various display technologies, used in the other table below to compare the
various screen types:
| TERM |
DEFINITION |
| TLA |
Three Letter
Acronym |
| HDTV |
High Definition
Television. The highest quality video picture
available in Digital TV. In the U.S., the 1080i and 720p
resolution formats in a 16:9 aspect ratio are the two acceptable
HDTV formats. Regular NTSC analog TV is 480i. |
| HTPC |
Home Theater
Personal Computer. The use of a PC as a processing
and source control platform for a home theater system. |
| RPTV |
Rear Projection
TV. The type of home theater screen system where the image
is projected onto the back of the screen. Can be DLP, LCD, CRT
projection technology. |
| Lumens |
An ANSI Lumen is
a measurement of light radiation or brightness. A 3,000 Lumen
projector creates a brighter picture than a 2,000 Lumen unit. The ANSI
prefix is a standards designation (American National
Standards Institute). |
| Nits |
Plasma and LCD
manufacturers use this term to define the brightness of their
screens. Another term for Nits is Candelas per square meter (Cd/m2).
One nit = 0.2919 foot-lambert. Nits includes an area definition,
unlike lumens, so you can't simply divide by Watts to establish a
Nits/watt spec. |
| 480i 720p
1080p |
resolution
measurement in lines, p for "progressive
scan", i for "interlaced scan".
Conventional TV (e.g. 480i) is interlaced whereby the screen is
scanned twice by alternate lines that are interleaved
(interlaced), whereas HDTV (e.g. 720p) can scan all lines
sequentially (consecutively or progressively). |
| DVI HDCP |
Digital Visual
Interface technology with High-bandwidth Digital
Content Protection. Developed by Intel Corporation,
HDCP is a specification to protect digital entertainment content
through the DVI interface. The HDCP specification provides a
transparent method for transmitting and receiving digital
entertainment content to DVI-compliant digital displays. Some
products, such as set-top boxes and DVD burners will require this
connector. Even if you have a HDTV set-top box, if it lacks the
DVI, your signal may be degraded. |
| HDMI |
High Definition
Multimedia Interface. Like DVI, HDMI is another
digital interface, and from what we saw at CES 2005, it may become
the universal standard. Developed by Sony, Hitachi, Thomson (RCA),
Philips, Matsushita (Panasonic), Toshiba and Silicon Image, the
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) has emerged as the
connection standard for HDTV and the consumer electronics market.
HDMI is the first digital interface to combine uncompressed
high-definition video, multi-channel audio and intelligent format
and command data in a single digital interface. |
| SACD |
Super Audio
CD uses a new recording technology called Direct Stream
Digital. DSD records a one bit digital signal at a
sample rate of 2.8 million times per second, 64 times higher than
conventional CD's.
|
| NTSC |
Existing color
TV standard developed in the U.S. in 1953 by the National Television
System Committee. NTSC vertical line resolution is
525 lines/frame and the vertical frequency is 60Hz. The NTSC frame
rate is 29.97 frames/sec.
|
| CRT |
Cathode Ray
Tube - venerable old style picture tube |
| PDP |
Plasma Display
Panel, plasma is a physics term for an electrically charged
gas |
| LCD |
Liquid Crystal
Display, same as laptop screens |
| TFT |
Thin Film
Technology, a type of LCD |
| DLP |
Digital Light
Processor, a reflective light switch chip developed by TI.
Has a very fast response time - no motion lag |
| TI |
Texas Instruments
Corp., original manufacturer of DMD's and DLP's |
| DMD |
Digital Micro-mirror
Device - chip for DLP technology by TI |
| DNIe |
Digital Natural
Image enhancement - chip for optimizing video
picture quality, by Samsung (used in their DLP units) |
| LCoS |
Liquid Crystal
on Silicon, reflective light switch |
| SXRD
projection |
Silicon X-tal Reflective Display:
Sony's incarnation of LCoS technology. Sharp picture, no pixelation, very high resolution, reflective
system won't burn out picture element, "no moving parts"
design usually incorporates 3 imaging chips for primary colors,
instead of color wheel. |
| SED |
Surface conduction
Electron emitter Display by Toshiba/Canon |
| FED |
Field Emission
Display: New technology from Sony |
| OLED |
Organic Light
Emitting Diode display: new technology from Seiko-Epson |
| D-iLA |
Direct
Drive Image Light Amplifier, LCoS chip
developed by JVC |
| QXGA |
high screen
resolution of 2048 x 1536, attained by D-iLA chip |
| DCDi |
Directional
Correlation Deinterlacing (a de-interlacing
method to eliminate jagged edges (jaggies) along diagonal lines
caused by interpolation, developed by Faroudja corp. An
important feature to look for, this Emmy® award
winning technology was once only available in products costing
$20,000 or more, and is now available in numerous products costing
well below $2,000 |
| aspect ratio |
ratio of screen
width to height. An aspect ratio of 4:3 is conventional TV and
16:9 is HDTV (and film) |
| 3-2 pulldown |
a method of
film-to-video conversion |
| twitter and
judder |
terms describing
film conversion related artifacts |
| anamorphic
lens |
a special lens
that compresses the pixels of a 4:3 screen into a 16:9 format, and
allows a projector to use the full brightness of the display,
without black bars above and below the image. Must normally be
removed for regular 4:3 viewing. |
| SDE |
Screen Door
Effect is a term used to refer to the visible pixel
structure on a screen. |
| YADR! |
Yet Another
Dang Remote! A common exclamation heard from people
who just bought their third or fourth home audio/video component.
And then there are further unmentionable expletives when you find
out a component isn't supported, or it's just too complicated to
program everything in?? Maybe it's time to read about our experience in the remote
control review article. |
The following table provides a quick comparison of the display types;
"pixelation" refers to the ability to see individual picture elements
(pixels) at normal viewing distances (note that all the types below can
contribute to the YADR index). Please note that these products are being
constantly improved and not all manufacturer's models may be subject to
the disadvantages listed below:
| DISPLAY
TYPE |
PRO
- ADVANTAGE |
CON
- DISADVANTAGE |
CRT
conventional
picture tube |
Cathode Ray
Tube: very
sharp and bright, high contrast ratio, good picture view from
side, low cost, handles regular analog NTSC channels well, no
moving parts |
heavy
and bulky, limited in size to about 36", picture can fade |
CRT
projection
|
low
cost, large screens possible, no moving parts |
heavy
and bulky, limited viewing angles, visible raster lines, mis-convergence
can be a problem, picture can fade over time |
| LCD flat
screen panel |
Liquid Crystal
Display: bright,
sharp picture, light and compact, can hang on wall, solid state,
no moving parts |
picture can fade over time |
| LCD
projection |
fairly
bright, large screens possible, sharp picture, no moving parts |
display can fade due to heat damage to
organic compounds that some manufacturers use in the LCD,
projector bulb can fail |
| PDP Plasma
flat screen panel |
Plasma Display
Panel: bright
picture, light and compact, can hang on wall, wide viewing angle,
no moving parts, handles fast motion really well |
expensive,
some pixelation, display can burn out. |
| DLP
projection |
Digital Light
Processor: bright,
sharp picture, high contrast, no pixelation, reflective
system won't burn out picture element, very fast response time -
no motion lag. |
possible visual "rainbow" artifacts on single chip versions
caused by spinning color wheel, projector
bulb can fail |
| LCoS
projection |
Liquid Crystal
on Silicon: bright,
sharp picture, no pixelation, very high resolution, reflective
system won't burn out picture element, "no moving parts"
design usually incorporates 3 imaging chips for primary colors,
instead of color wheel. |
projector bulb can
fail |
| SXRD
projection |
Silicon X-tal Reflective Display:
Sony's incarnation of LCoS technology. Sharp picture, no pixelation, very high resolution, reflective
system won't burn out picture element, "no moving parts"
design usually incorporates 3 imaging chips for primary colors,
instead of color wheel. |
projector bulb can
fail |
| SED
panel display |
Surface conduction Electron emitter Display:
very bright
picture, very high resolution, can hang on wall, very high
contrast ratio, can be viewed from any angle,
no moving parts, handles fast motion really well |
expensive at
first, not available yet |
| FED
panel display |
Field Emission
Display: New technology from Sony, properties are similar
to SED |
expensive at
first, not available yet |
| OLED
panel display |
Organic Light
Emitting Diode display: new technology from Seiko-Epson |
expensive at
first, not available yet |
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