[opendtv] Re: Sparkle
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2016 07:38:07 -0500
On Nov 24, 2016, at 7:55 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That's the word: sparkle. Sparkle I think best describes what to expect from
HDR images, that's lacking in SDR video.
I think those are compression artifacts...
;-)
It's just like any other high fidelity issue. Once you know what to look for,
it is painfully absent in what came before. Imagine approaching a city in an
airplane, at night. You see this sparking city beneath. Now pay attention to
any such scene on regular TV, even HDTV. That sparkle is completely absent.
Same thing in daylight, bright sunny day on the water. The sparkle is missing.
Next TV will have to be HDR.
Seriously, I'm beginning to agree with Bert that 4K will be a market success.
It may take years until we can enjoy "the sparkle," but it seems inevitable
that we will be buying displays with higher pixel densities like 4K.
Let me explain...
I mentioned to Bert I planned to buy a new iPad today. I actually got it last
night at Target; more on that in a moment. Wednesday night I went to Best Buy
to look at accessories and took the time to wander through the TV department.
As Bert noted previously there are 4K sets everywhere, although I didn't see
much sparkle. Most of the 4K sets looked about the same as the 1080p sets.
There was a small display of high end sets, some curved, that claimed to offer
HDR. The LED versions did look slightly better, but nothing dramatic. But next
to them were two LG OLED sets with HDR...
Talk about sparkle! Well actually let's talk about BLACK.
These sets stood out like two sore thumbs on a pale person who's lived in a
cave for years. They were not as bright as the LED 4K sets, but the difference
in dynamic range was stunning. Like Bert, my next set will be HDR/WCG, just
like my new iPad Pro.
So last night I decided to see how many people were jumping the gun on Black
Friday. Target was offering aggressive discounts all over the store, but there
were two long queues in the electronics department dedicated to iOS devices:
one line was for iPhones, the other for Apple watches and iPads. The line I was
in ran along the smaller TV displays, so I got a very close look at 40" and 50"
displays, both UHD and HD, and the very small price tags.
The 4K sets were ~$300-500; there was a 40" Westinghouse UHD for $199, but it
looked pathetic. What was most obvious in the 4K sets was the lack of visible
pixels compared to the 1080p sets. At a viewing distance of 12" to 18" the
difference was obvious. Back up a few feet and it was hard to tell any
difference.
There was nothing about the 4K sets that was obviously better than the 1080P
sets, but with the small price difference I now conceded to Bert that people
will buy 4K. Sadly, this could result in another wave of TV sales before sets
that really support HDR and WCG become widely available and cheap.
It's all about the investment in display manufacturing technology. Every
computing device is moving to higher pixel density displays, so TVs will
migrate there too, if for no other treason than the massive investment in new
panel fabs.
The more important question is whether in-home TV entertainment will move to 4K
as well? My bet is that 4K content will remain a premium niche for years, but
1080P with HDR/WCG will become the most popular emission standard for big
screens at home. As I have said before, it's all about OVERSAMPLING.
4K image capture and mastering is already commonplace in Hollywood. This is a
major reason Apple has introduced a range of products that support HDR and the
DCI-P3 color gamut used for post production and theater projection.
But the TV folks are still stuck in the last century with 1080i. They use 4K
for mastering of shows that are delivered as 1080@24p, but live TV is still
mostly 720p or 1080i.
Frankly I don't see this changing much soon, but we could see a move to
1080@60P when the current HD remote trucks get an upgrade. The more important
part of ANY future upgrade will be HDR/WCG, not the delivery of 4K pixels. The
TVs will easily upsample 1080p to their native 4K resolution, and they will
finally be able to do a good job displaying unfiltered Internet content.
By the way Bert. The "sparkle" does not come from more detail. It comes from
increased dynamic range.
We've all grown up and lived with TVs and computers that lack dynamic range and
filter out detail. We can color correct a bit in post production to emphasize
the detail in light and dark scenes, but we need better displays to actually
see the sparkle. This transition may be more important than the transition from
SD to HD.
Regards
Craig
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- » [opendtv] Re: Sparkle- Craig Birkmaier