Weekly Site Roundup (09/30/02)
ARTICLE SPOTLIGHT
Mid-Range Compact Audio Systems
Want big sound but have little space? Check out some my favorite mid-range compact audio systems. These units are perfect for the office, bedroom, or apartment.
HOME ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY NEWS HEADLINES
Three National Retailers Announce Support Of New High-Definition, D-VHS® Patform (Widescreen Review)
NAB Opposes Analog Return Bill (Stereophile Guide To Home Theater)
DTS To Target U.S. Cable, Broadcast Markets (TWICE)
Onkyo To Release DVD-A/SACD Combo Player (Audio Revolution)
CEDIA Launches: The Customary And Uncustomary(TWICE)
ABC Unveils HD Super Bowl (TWICE)
Zenith Web Site Offers HDTV Program Listings (TWICE)
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Toshiba 65HDX82 16:9 Rear Projection HD-Ready TV
If you like it big, check out the latest generation HD-ready projection TV from Toshiba. The 65HDX82 not only has a 16:9 widescreen, but has the capability to display 480p, 720p, and 1080i resolutions (with an addition an HD set-top box) without any up or down-conversion. The 65HDX82 also incorporates the new DVI HD interface.
FEATURED LINKS THIS WEEK
Zenith - Interactive HDTV Guide
Zenith and TitanTV team up to give consumers an excellent resource on HDTV, including program schedules, HDTV station listings, and information on what antenna is best to receive over-the-air DTV programming in your area.
Featured in the Television Subject Page.
Pacific Custom Cable
If you have a DVI-equipped HDTV, here is a great selection of DVI cables to get most out your HDTV viewing.
Featured in the Home Theater Subject Page.
FROM THE HOME THEATER FORUM
How To Connect Home Theater Components
From SCOTTTV1:
I just purchased a Pioneer Elite 520 HD TV, Denon 3802 Receiver, DirecTV dish with 3 LNB's, and Hughes HDTV receiver. I want to connect them with an existing Denon 3700 5 disc DVD unit (needs TV's progressive scan capability - not ready to purchase another DVD) and a Toshiba VCR (older - no component or s-video connectors). I have a separate antenna for local HDTV broadcasting. My front, center, rear speakers, and sub-woofer are more than adequate.
I'm a novice and very confused with all the connections. Basically I'd like to view and hear with the best quality. I know the proper cables and connections are very important (optical, coax, component, s-video, etc.).
How do I connect Sat HD receiver to TV and 3802?
How do I connect VCR to sat receiver, if necessary, and TV, and 3802?
How to connect DVD (needs progressive scan capability of TV) to TV and 3802?
My family would like to "Just" turn on TV for sound and use DVD or VCR without 3802 and surround.
Any way to accomplish "my way" and "family way"?
I've read each component manual and each describes generally how each component "could" be connected. I don't know or understand how to read between the lines.
I (we) would be eternally grateful for some advice or at least an explanation of the various types of connections.
Please help or point me in the right direction
Join in on the discussion.
ELSEWHERE ON ABOUT.COM
Computer Peripherals
FROM THE MAILBOX
From MGMike:
I followed a link to your article, (which was presumably written earlier this year), entitled "DTV Confusion 2002, What is up with HDTV". I found this article very interesting.
However, there are a couple of points with which I would take issue. In your ranking of what you correctly state have become the three de facto standards, 480p, 720p and 1080i, you imply that 720p is a midrange format. A moderate but acceptable upgrade from 480p and it is questionable to label it HDTV.
I believe that you may have fallen into a subtle trap, somewhat analogous to the megahertz hype in the PC world, where the microprocessor with highest number does not necessarily compute most rapidly. Think of the marketing wars between Pentiums and Athlons.
In practice 720p utilizes a very similar amount of bandwidth to 1080i and delivers the most motion information per second of the three HDTV formats that you discuss. Because 1080i is interlaced it updates only half the image in each frame. It therefore refreshes only half of 1920 x 1080 pixels (which is 1,036,800 pixels) per frame. This determines the required bandwidth.
720p refreshes 1280x720 pixels every frame which is 921,600 pixels, which utilizes approximately 90 percent of the bandwidth occupied by 1080i. Now, if there were no movement from frame to frame the 1080i transmission would produce an image with much superior definition. Still images are noticeably higher resolution in 1080i.
However, TV is a moving picture medium and it is necessary to provide motion information. Interlaced signals suffer from motion artifacts which degrade the picture quality as it is reconstructed on the TV screen or monitor. Progressive scanning entirely avoids those artifacts that are a function of interlacing.
For program material containing a typical amount of subject motion, the 1080i signal is approximately the equivalent of a 630p transmission. For certain material such as sports programming, with a great deal of motion in the image, the quality is further degraded. I recommend that you look closely at 720p HDTV as transmitted by ABC and compare it with 1080i on a really capable display. I think that you will be interested to see the quality tradeoff between the two changing as the type of program material varies.
The engineers at ABC are competent people and it may well be that they have made the optimum choice of tradeoff between static resolution and motion information.
The Faroudja scaler probably produces a very pleasing image. However, you cannot get a "quart out of a pint pot" and, in the process of interpolating to remove motion artifacts some spatial resolution is lost. Simply outputting a 1080p signal does not increase the information content of the original 1080i signal.
There is the further problem that very few, (if any), HDTV display devices are capable of refreshing the display at a 1080p rate, which exceeds the ATSC signal bandwidth specification. Hence, at present, the expensive Faroudja processor has little real world usefulness.
From Your Guide:
Your perspective on this is very well taken -- I have seen both 720p and 1080i images and personally prefer the latter (although the difference is very subtle in some cases) -- In fact, I am one of those that thought the orginal analog HDTV system that was in use in Japan was best of all --
The only other issue is that not all HDTV and HDTV-ready sets can display a native 720p image, but are capable of displaying 480p and 1080i native.
FINAL WORDS
Although I update this site regularly, sometimes I miss broken links, this is especially a concern as old product listings expire and new ones have different link addresses. If you encounter any broken links in my articles or listings, just bring it to my attention so I can correct the address or delete it from the site if it has expired and can no longer be accessed.
Lastly, I would like your feedback on this Weekly Site Update Page. If you have any comments, either positve or negative, just let me know.
For a look at earlier Home Theater Nooz and Vewz Weekly Updates, CLICK HERE
Feel free to email me at hometheater.guide@about.com
with your questions and/or comments.
