Blu-Ray vs HD DVD, Projectors Explained, DVD Up-Convertion...

Special HD News Update - HD DVD Bows out and Blu-Ray is the sloe champion of the High Definition War

Just like the Beta vs VHS war for video tape - the High Definition war has been decided. It has been way too long in coming but a victor in the ongoing battle between Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD home video formats has finally been declared. Toshiba formally announced that they would cease production of HD-DVD players and recorders. This action will quickly bring a costly end to the HD-DVD as a consumer product and leave Blu-ray as the undisputed high-definition successor to the popular DVD format.

KUNG FU HUSTLE is one of only a handful of martial arts-related movies currently on Sony’s Blu-ray format, the winner in the next generation format war with HD-DVD.

The decision came after a spat of recent defections by high-profile companies such as Warner Home Video, Netflix and Wal-Mart who all announced plans to carry only Blu-ray products. The end of HD-DVD has been further influenced by developments in the video gaming market where Sony’s decision to put Blu-ray players in all of its pricey Playstation 3 consoles has begun to pay off in spite of an early lead by Microsoft’s less expensive Xbox 360, which made its competing HD-DVD player optional. This, along with the 360’s 16% hardware failure rate, has already led to a significantly larger number of Blu-ray players sold to support the current crop of early hi-def titles available on the market. According to the Associated Press, Microsoft has sold 300,000 of the optional HD-DVD players compared to the 10.5 million Blu-ray-installed PS3s sold worldwide.

Another factor in Sony’s win is its substantial presence in the film industry through Sony Pictures, in additional to broad support from competing studios. This guaranteed that at the very least, Sony would be able to provide in-house content for its own format.

For those of us around long enough to remember the last major format war, this is quite the upset victory for Sony. They previously emerged on the losing side back in the early 1980s when their Betamax tape format was beat by JVC’s VHS format. With grindhouse movies distribution gradually moving from theaters to television, VHS ended up being the medium of choice for martial arts movie enthusiasts to buy, sell and trade their favorites.

For the last decade, DVD, with its higher resolution, storage capacity, longevity, and interactivity, has been the format of choice for home video consumers. Nothing has changed up to this point, despite the availability of next-generation formats. For the last two years, Blu-ray and HD-DVD have been locked in a fight to determine who would emerge as the successor to DVD in the age of high-definition video. Until recently, neither camp had emerged as the likely winner. This deadlock was undoubtedly taking a toll on home video sales due to confusion and reluctance to buy into either format for fear of betting on a loser. Those who have bought into HD-DVD may be feeling a measure of defeat. Small consolation may come in reduced prices for remaining HD-DVD stock and an opportunity to show off a piece of soon-to-be-forgotten history when they dust off their closeted HD-DVD player for visitors.

With Blu-ray now the winner, the way is clear for studios to begin converting their existing libraries to the new format with greater assurance of return. It also means consumers now know where to put their money as they begin upgrading their home entertainment system. There are factors other than a costly, two-year format war that will continue to slow the progress of Blu-ray’s growth. The most obvious factor is cost. Blu-ray players range in price from $400 to $1000, compared with DVD players that can be had for less than $50. Upscaling of DVD technology has improved playback quality on select players and a wide assortment of low-cost DVD recorders and copiers are now available as well. Prices on Blu-ray players should begin to drop as competition heats up between manufacturers. For its added value as a gaming console, the $400 PS3 is currently the best buy on the market for a standard Blu-ray player.

Blu-ray and HD-DVD Basics

The Current State Of DVD

DVD is very successful, and will definitely be around for some time. However as it is implemented, DVD is not a high-definition format. DVD players typically output video in either standard NTSC 480i (720x480 pixels in an interlaced scan format), with progressive scan DVD players capable of outputting DVD video in 480p (720x480 pixels displayed in a progressively scanned format). Although DVD has superior resolution and image quality, when compared to VHS and standard cable television, it is still at best, only half the resolution of HDTV.

Upscaling - Getting More Out Of Standard DVD

In an effort to maximize the quality of DVD for display on today's HDTVs, many manufacturers have introduced upscaling capabilities through DVI and/or HDMI output connections on newer DVD players.

Upscaling is a process that mathematically matches the pixel count of the output of the DVD signal to the physical pixel count on an HDTV or projector, which is typically 1280x720 (720p), 1920x1080 (1080i), or 1920x1080p (1080p).

The upscaling process does a good job of matching the upscaled pixel output of a DVD player to the native pixel display resolution of an HDTV or projector, resulting in better detail and color consistency. However, upscaling, as it is currently implemented, cannot convert standard DVD images into true high-definition images. In fact, although upscaling works well with fixed pixel displays, such as Plasma and LCD televisions, results are not always consistent on CRT-based high definition televisions.

True High Definition DVD Is Finally Here...

For the past several years, high definition DVD player and recorder prototypes have been on display at trade shows. Now, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray players are now available, with units adding recording capability also available in some PCs and Laptops, to be followed by standard HD-DVD and Blu-ray recorders available possibly sometime in 2008 or 2009 in the U.S. Market.

Employing Blue Laser technology (which has a much shorter wavelength than the red laser technology used in current DVD) high definition DVD enables a disc the size of a current DVD disc (but, which much greater storage capacity than a standard DVD) to hold an entire film at HDTV resolution or allow the consumer to record two hours of high definition video content.

Two Competing High Definition DVD Formats

However, there is a catch with regards to the introduction of high definition DVD recording and playback. You guessed it; there are two competing formats that are incompatible with each other.

The competing formats are Blu-ray and HD-DVD:
Blu-ray Support
Blu-ray is supported on the hardware side by Apple, Denon, Hitachi, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung (also supports HD-DVD), Sharp, Sony, and Thomson (Note: Thomson also supports HD-DVD).
On the software side, Blu-ray is supported by Lions Gate, MGM, Miramax, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner (also supports HD-DVD).

HD-DVD Support

HD-DVD is supported on the hardware side by NEC, Onkyo, Samsung (also supports Blu-ray) Sanyo, Thomson (Note: Thomson also supports Blu-ray), and Toshiba.
On the software side, HD-DVD is supported by BCI, Dreamworks, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, New Line, Studio Canal, and Universal Pictures, and Warner (also supports Blu-ray). Microsoft has also lent its support to HD-DVD.

VIDEO PROJECTORS

A video projector takes a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a movie screen using a lens system. All video projectors use a very bright light to project the image.
The cost of a projector is not only determined by its resolution, but also by its light output, acoustic noise output, contrast, and other characteristics. While most modern projectors provide sufficient light for a small screen at night or under controlled lighting such as in a basement with no windows, a projector with a higher light output
measured inlumens, abbreviated “lm”) is required for a larger screen or a room with a higher amount of ambient light. A rating of 1000 to 1500 ANSI lumens or lower is suitable for smaller screens with controlled lighting or low ambient light.Between 1500 and 3000 lm is suitable for medium-sized screens with some ambient light or dimmed light. Over 3000 lm is appropriate for very large screens in a large room with no lighting control (for example, a conference room). Projected image size is important; because the total amount of light does not change, as size increases, brightness decreases.The 3 most common projector technologies are:

• LCD projector using LCD light gates. This is the simplest system, making it one of the most common and affordable for home theaters and business use.
• DLP projectorusingTexas Instruments'DLP technology. This uses one, two, or three microfabricated light valves called digital micromirror devices(DMDs). The single- and double-DMD versions use rotating color wheels in time with the mirror refreshes to modulate color.
• LCOS - the future...but not yet

Here is detailed information on these 3 technologies

DLP Projection

DLP technology is based on an optical semiconductor called a DMD chip (Digital Micromirror Device), which was invented in 1987 by Texas Instruments (cant remember the guys name). The way it works is that a DMD chip is made up of millions of tiny tiny mirrors, that can rotate at a 10 degrees angle (12 degrees on better models). These mirrors are literally capable of switching on and off thousands of times per second and are used to direct light towards and away from a dedicated pixel space. The length of time a pixel is on/off determines the level of gray seen in the pixel. Completely on is lightest (white) and off is darkest (black), although neither are ever pure white or black. The current DMD chips can produce 1024 shades of grey. However, color is still to be added.





On a DMD chip , color is added using a color wheel. This is a wheel that spins round anything from 150x per second to over 250x.


DLP is the future of Home Cinema Quality projection. However, due to the high cost of manufacturing the chips, LCD and CRt are still viable options on the cost front. The potential drawback of this single-chip DLP technology is that in any given instant, the picture on the screen is not the total image, but is instead rapidly alternating between images consisting of the individual red, green, and blue colors. Thus the eye and the brain play the last critical role in making single chip DLP projectors work, by combining or averaging or integrating the picture, so that the viewer perceives the desired image and not the rapidly flashing momentary components of the image.

A problem with DLP has been some light leakage around the mirrors ending up with an occassional halo effect on some scenes. This has been addressed with the new Dark chip (DDR) which has a dark coating underneath the mirrors.

LCD Projection

LCD Projection is a cheaper projection technology and will be replaced with DLP and LCOS in the future. It does provide to highest brightness for the dollar. LCD (liquid crystal display) projectors contain three separate LCD glass panels, one for red, green, and blue components of the image signal being transfered to the projector. As the light passes through the LCD panels, individual pixels can be opened to allow light to pass or closed to block the light. This activity modulates the light and produces the image that is projected onto the screen.
Below is a diagram showing how it works:



LCD is generally more 'light efficient' than DLP meaning that a 850 Lumen LCD projector will produce a brighter image than an 850 Lumen DLP projector. LCD tends to produce more saturated colors. However, the colors being more saturated makes people perceive the projector to be brighter overall, even though the DLP white may be brighter. LCD tends to produce a sharper image. This can actually be a bit of a disadvantage for video, where it makes the pixellation more obvious. However, on a good XGA model you wont really notice it unless up close. To explain this more look at the following image. LCD's have a low fill factor whereas DLP has a high fill factor:



This can sometimes cause what is known as a chicken wire effect. Again this is really not noticeable to most people unless viewing the screen up close. This is sometimes referred to as Screen Door Effect (SDE). An example of this can be seen below: Note the image is magnified a lot.

LCOS

A new technology, LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) has now become more commonplace in the projector market, popularised by manufacturers such as Canon LCoS represents a step forward in contrast levels over many LCD projectors, while producing very crisp, saturated images. LCoS is proving a hit with customers who are willing to pay a little more for exceptional picture quality. Look for this to set the standard over the next couple years.

DLP projector technology is generally preferred for home cinema and portablity. LCD projectors are the best value today for birghtness where you are stretching your budget. To be honest it is a personal choice and a financial constraint that helps people make up there mind. Projectors are coming down in price all of the time. With our All-Inclusive systems we have been able to upgrade our projectors without raising the price a couple times a year. This trend will continue.

What is Up-Conversion ?

Well, it is really easy to be confused about the "upconversion" term. Now you can see many DVD players support upconversion to 1080i in the market. But;how does upconversion work? Can it really enhance your video graphic to a high defintion? Up Conversion' means that to get the output at HD resolutions the video is 'resized' instead of 'stretched'. So instead of making a simple copy of a pixel using the same color, it creates a 'new' pixel using the surrounding pixel colors. Doing this keeps edges from getting a stair step look to them.

Upconverting, also known as "upscale", is a software way to increase the lines of an interlace or mpeg 2 file converted from your DVD source.

Upconverting DVD players take a standard definition DVD and use upsampling techniques to make it appear to be higher resolution. You might see upconverters claiming to be 1080i or 1080p, but it's not true high definition, since your picture quality is limited by the source content on the disc itself. You do get a much improved picture and detail with your HD projector or TV, but an HD source such as HD DVD or a high definition Direct TV signal will always be better. The difference between Standard DVD and upscaled content content will be clear. So will the difference between upscaled content and True HD content.