Audio News for February 14, 2014

by | Feb 14, 2014 | Audio News

UHD-TV Problems – UHD is short for Ultra High Definition Level 1, more precisely 3840×2160—vs. plain old HDTV of 1920x1080p lines. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has selected UHD as the industry term for consumer 4K video, but it is not 4K, which is only shown in the commercial theaters. Yet the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and some manufactures are calling it 4K anyway. All telecast HD material is only 720 lines. The head of field operations for Fox says they have no plans to deliver 4K, because they spent millions going into HD and never got an extra dime from advertisers. Some of the sports events are promoting they are shooting in 4K, but the telecasts are only 720p. Research by EBU’s Beyond HD and Broadcast Technology Futures groups has proved that to provide a clearly perceptible improvement over HDTV requires much more than just four times the resolution of 1080p HD. (That’s why unless you have huge, expensive display and sit very close you will not see an improvement with UHD.) Provision of a clearly perceptible improvement requires higher frame rates, higher dynamic range, increased color space and more. Each of these contributes in its own way to improvement in image quality.  When these are addressed, viewing the image at 4 to 5 times the picture height can be perceptibly better than 1080p HD. A big delta-step in image quality enhancement is required—way beyond simply increasing resolution. In other words, don’t purchase a UHD TV now; wait until the next time around when these other areas are hopefully addressed.

High End Movie Showings in the Home – Sony now offers a fee-based FMP-X1 media player which works only with Sony UHD displays. The service offers sales (c. $30) and 24-hour rentals ($4-$8) of movies and TV shows, with Sony planning to have over 100 titles available by now. For really luxury showings, one must go to Prima cinema.com, where from the studios it has it can deliver first-run movies to its in-home server for viewing over a short time beginning on the release date of the movie in the local theaters. It requires the user to be prescreened by the company to ensure the system will be used in a noncommercial home heater. Purchase of the $35,000 server rests on whether one’s home theater meets Prima Cinema’s minimum quality criteria. Each movie costs $500 to watch each time.

New OTA TV Antenna from Winegard – The 60 mile-range outdoor FlatWave AIR outdoor antenna in the Flat/Wave family has a small form factor, pleasing aesthetics and surprising performance on its 60-mile range. Wimegard is one of the leading companies in terrestrial receiving antennas. They have additional DTB-channel information at:  https://Tramsotopm/FCC/gpbimb/engineering/dtvmaps, www.TVFool.com

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