[opendtv] Re: Picture brightens for large-sized LCD panels, says iSuppli
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:25:38 -0400
At 3:18 PM -0400 7/12/07, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Looks like LCDs, widescreen LCDs specifically, are becoming the standard
for TVs and computer monitors. Makes sense to me. Once you're rid of the
constraints imposed by vacuums on glass bottle bottoms, going widescreen
doesn't cost anything extra.
I figured that as TVs went to widescreen, PCs would soon follow. It
looks like 16:9 will become the new display monitor standard.
VERY FEW PC displays are 16:9.
16:10 is far more common. For example all Apple cinema displays are
16:10 with resolutions as follows:
20" 1680 x 1050 pixels
23" 1920 x 1200 pixels
30" 2560 x 1600 pixels
All Mac notebook displays are 16:10 as well.
All Dell widescreen displays are 16:10 as well.
The reasons for this are rather obvious:
1. The extra vertical pixels allow for a menu bar above the 16:9 screen area;
2. With LCD manufacturing techniques, display aspect ratio is
virtually meaningless - it's just a matter of how you cut up the
substrates.
There are many other wide aspect ratios out there. My new iPhone has
a 480 x 320 (160 dpi) display with a 16 x 8 aspect ratio.
The reality is that it really does not matter, as the display must
deal with content in MANY aspect ratios - most movies are WIDER than
16:9.
The other trend is to larger TVs, as the prices of panels 40" and bigger
is coming down faster than the price of smaller panels. Which should
increase the demand for "better than SD" quality signals for TV.
Yes, interlaced SD quality is finally giving way to progressive
formats that maximize the image quality at any screen size or aspect
ratio. This was entirely predictable in a post-CRT era, as we pointed
out in 1992.
My new iPhone has almost twice the resolution of NTSC, and it is
immediately obvious. And by the way, the 3.5" diagonal screen with
this level of resolution makes watching video a quite pleasurable
experience.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of content that is available today
is still interlaced SD. It is equally unfortunate that in TV land the
focus is mostly on HD, rather than an appropriate mix of formats that
can deliver high quality at lower bandwidths.
Fortunately, outside of TV land this is happening. Internet TV is
wide open - you'll find almost everything out there, not just the
Table 3 formats.
The thing that is increasing the demand for better than SD quality is
not the screen size, but the poor quality of the video when
interlaced SD is de-interlaced for viewing on these new display
technologies. As we have covered MANY times before, resolution
requirements scale with display size. The vast majority of TV
displays will continue to be less than 40" diagonal for many years to
come - enterprising content producers will understand that they don't
need to deliver HD, even if they are shooting HD.
Fact is that this is ALREADY happening as well. Many independent
producers are buying HD cameras and shooting in HD, even though most
of their projects are still output as interlaced SD. And most of the
cameras that these folks are buying are not even shooting with full
HD rasters. The highly popular Panasonic HVX200 uses CCDs with 960 x
540 resolution.
In other words, while some folks continue to be hung up on formats,
aspect ratios and pixels, in the real world this stuff really does
not matter. What matters is proper sampling and processing
techniques. Being digital means that everything can be variable...
As we pointed out in 1992.
It took a looong time. We seem to have really left behind the amazingly
long-lived ancient TV standards of grainy, low definition images, square
screens, and huge sets.
It's STILL going to take a long time to be rid of the ancient form of
image compression known as interlace. The vast majority of what we
watch is and will continue to conform to the "ancient TV standards of
grainy, low definition images, [for] square screens."
For every person watching HD on a new TV there are six or more that
have not decided to upgrade to an HD source. More than half of HD set
owners do not have an HD source and are THRILLED with the quality of
movies delivered via SD-DVD. And the next generation of TV viewers
are happy to download stuff form the Internet that is no better than
NTSC.
Sadly, all that we are leaving behind for now are big glass "lightbulbs."
Regards
Craig
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