[opendtv] Closer
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 15:14:53 -0500
This is the second post that I mentioned when responding to Bert's
message about his new 26" "TOY."
This post will relate some of the experiences I have had installing
and getting used to our new 50" Samsung rear-projection DLP monitor.
Some of what I am about to relate came as a surprise to me,
especially as I look back on a recent post from Tom Barry about his
new 720P display.
The new 16:9 Samsung P-5063W replaces a Hitachi 42" CRT-based 4:3
rear projection HD capable monitor. Here are the critical dimensions
of each unit:
Cabinet Size Hitachi 43" (4:3) Samsung 50" (16:9)
Width 39" 46.25"
Height 43.5" 34"
Depth 20" 13.75"
Screen Size
Width 34.5" 43.5"
Height 25.75" 24.5"
Diagonal 42.5" 49.75"
The location for the set is in a corner of a long room (about 30
feet). This room flows into the kitchen, which parallels the living
area at the far end of the room (from the TV. The screen is at a
slight angle so that it can be viewed from three locations:
1. Primary - couches and recliners (I'll get into the viewing
distances in a moment).
2. Informal dining - about 25 feet from the center of the table.
3. Kitchen - about 25 feet to center island.
The bottom of the screen is at about 30 inches, to allow viewing over
the furniture.
The depth of the old display was fairly uniform from side to side.
Because it is positioned in a corner, this limited how far back it
could be pushed into the corner. Thus the distance from the back wall
to the front of the screen was about 30 inches. Although the new
display is wider, it fits into the corner better, sitting at least a
foot further back that the old display. It is important to note that
this location is next to a fireplace, so the limiting factor was the
width of the display that could fit in the space - about 52" IF the
speakers in the set are NOT mounted at the sides of the screen; the
speakers are bottom mounted on the Samsung.
In the end, the new set sits about a foot further back than the old
one. The optimal viewing position for the old set was about 13-14
feet - anything closer and the SD picture appeared soft, and the
artifacts more noticeable. Initially, we moved the sofa a chairs in a
foot to match the viewing distance for the old set. After looking at
a DVD from a progressive player, we moved the sofa in another six
inches.
My initial observation was that the de-interlacer in this set is not
as good as the older Hitachi, but the analog CRTs may have been
hiding some of the artifacts. For most analog sources the picture on
the new set is sharper, but busier than the old set; this seems to be
consistent with Tom Barry's observations about "swarming bees," but
the culprit is NOT MPEG compression. In this case, it appears that
the deinterlacing chip uses block based processing (as did the
Hitachi) and that a noisy analog source will exhibit the same kind of
artifacts (blocks and the buzz) as a poorly compressed MPEG-2 source.
Still, despite the artifacts, it is possible to sit closer than we
did for the old set.
Then I borrowed a Scientific Atlanta HD STB from my friend Dan, who
spent the week after Christmas in Key Largo. Currently our local Cox
cable system has the following HD lineup;
Discovery HD Theater
ESPN HD
HBO HD (for HBO subscribers)
Showtime HD (for Showtime subscribers)
InHD 1
InHD 2
WESH-DT (Orlando NBC)
WUFT-DT (Gainesville PBS)
WGFL-DT (Gainesville CBS)
When the box arrived Monday morning there was not much to watch.
Going through the set-up controls for the STB I had to choose 1080i
output, as this box ONLY supports 480i, 480P and 1080i outputs. I am
assuming that it converts 720P to 1080i after decoding, and that the
Samsung converts this back to 720P.
The HD channels with upconverted SDTV looked MUCH BETTER than their
analog counterparts (e.g. ESPN versus ESPN HD). The 1080i HD sources
looked good, but not fantastic, only slightly better than a DVD
movie. The movies on HBO looked very good, but not much better than
off a DVD ; as I keep saying, movies are NOT about resolution!
With HD box in had, I invited a few friends over to watch a Bowl game
in HD. This was Tuesday night, and the featured HD game was Notre
Dame versus Oregon State. The preceding game was not in HD, and ESPN
could not join the Notre Dame game until it was over. So four of us
were sitting there watching upconverted SDTV until they cut to the
Notre Dame broadcast.
The transformation was stunning. Suddenly a decent but soft 4:3
picture, sitting inside the ESPN HD pillar box fillers, was replaced
with a widescreen 720P shot of the stadium. Several "wows" were
uttered when the display came alive in HD. To be honest, given what I
had seen thus far, I did not expect the 720P source to look so good -
it absolutely blew away anything I have seen in 1080@60i or 1080@24P
on this display. Makes me wonder if it can get any better with a
receiver that outputs real 720P.
Now for the part that Tom will like. The picture invited us to move CLOSER!
So I moved the sofa and chairs in about another 6 -12 inches. They
have not been moved since. The viewing distance is now 12 feet, or
just over 5 picture heights. I can move even closer and still see a
sharp picture, however, the furniture placement does not permit
getting much closer, and for the normal analog SDTV fare, the
artifacts are too noticeable inside five picture heights.
The Samsung also supports DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs. The highest
refresh rate that it can support for the modes from my Powerbook is
1024 x 768 @75 Hz. It will support 1280 x 720 and 1920 x 1080 outputs
from computers that offer these modes.
One thing that I was not expecting is the way that the single chip
DLP engine and the display processing work together to ELIMINATE any
appearance of a raster (i.e. pixels). Even when I hook up the
computer in XGA mode you cannot see individual pixels; everything is
just a little soft. I have not seen "the rainbow effect" that I have
heard is an issue for single chip DLP displays with a color wheel. If
I get right up to the screen I can see just a bit of dither around
the edges of sharp text. I NEVER see the raster. My guess is that
they have sacrificed a bit of resolution to make everything play nice
together.
Thus the MAJOR limiting factor in how close I can sit seems to be the
perception of aliasing artifacts, especially with analog sources.
Other observations
Bummer: The level of the audio output of this set is NOT controlled
by the volume controls on the remote. This means I cannot keep using
my external speakers and sub woofer (that have no level control) as I
did with the old set. I guess surround sound is next on the wish
list...
The set comes with a "book" instead of an owners manual. The added
levels of complexity may be daunting for some consumers who are not
used to having so many set-up options, or the "logic" employed by the
(presumably) Korean software designers.
The plastic screen is REALLY nice, although it may be contributing to
the post filtering I observed. There are no reflection problems at
all and the light output levels are consistent over a wide range of
viewing angles (both horizontally and vertically - this is a huge
improvement over the CRT projector.
The bulb takes several minutes to reach full intensity after a cold
start. The replacement procedure appears quite easy.
There are noticeable, but different audio delay problems for the HD
channels coming from Cox Cable. ESPN-HD is the worst, with a delay of
more than 10 frames. All of the other HD channels have audio sync
problems as well, but not as severe. I am assuming that this is a
cumulative problem because of all of the digital processing that is
taking place, both at Cox and here. It looks like Cox is converting
ESPNs 720P to 1080i to deal with the current generation of STBs they
are using. Then the set converts it back to 720P adding more delay.
Discovery HD Theater has an eclectic mix of content that only an HD
early adopter could love. I saw a bit of Discovery Sunrise - a series
of coffee table videos designed to provide some ambience. The episode
I watched consisted of scenes from the Cape Cod seashore, with nice
soothing nature sounds...
The amount of HD content is still not sufficient to justify the
investment in an HD receiver or the extra $20-30 per month that it
would cost from Cox Cable. But I am going to try and borrow Dan's
second HD STB for the Sugar and Orange Bowls.
;-)
Regards
Craig
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