hdtv - THE LATEST ON HDTV – A Report to the Nation
by Greg Gibson

NextGenElectronics' resident HDTV expert Greg Gibson answers your questions about HDTV and what you should do about this exciting emerging technology. If you have a question or comment you'd like Mr. Gibson to comment on, please feel free to email him personally by clicking here. All inquiries are subject to publication, however, no personal information will be given away or published.

Let us look at the state of HDTV in 2004 – the “Year of HDTV” as it was hyped in January (including by us).

There has been good and bad in HDTV so far this year, and a lot of misinformation is still out there. So let’s tackle the “MUST READ” subjects, both the GOOD and the BAD, especially if you are considering a new HDTV:

1. BAD: EDTV – Enhanced Definition TV continues to be sold to unwary consumers as some hybrid HDTV. EDTV is NOT HDTV; the picture is less than 30% of the picture quality of HDTV. It is being sold by unscrupulous retailers who state (correctly) “it gives you the same picture quality as DVDs”. What they don’t tell you is that DVDs are also at 480p lines of resolution, and you can immediately distinguish the much lower picture quality on an HDTV set. Shaving off $400 to $1000 might be an enticement for a flat panel EDTV, but you are going to be one very mad consumer when you don’t get the 1080i HDTV picture you thought you paid for! We strongly recommend you avoid EDTVs.

2. GOOD: LCD – BETTER PICTURE LARGER PICTURE. At the end of the year, we may be saying that 2004 was really “The Year of LCD”. Significant improvements have been made in LCD panels over the year, but 2004 is the year that these improvements are finally coming to market. There have been 2 really significant improvements:

a. Refresh rates for LCD pixels are now down to 12 ms which eliminates the poor picture quality when watching fast moving events. Recall that at 60 frames per second, the picture must be refreshed every 16 ms! Older LCDs (and some still on the market) had refresh rates as high as 25 ms, which meant that you would get “skips” (choppy) in the frame progression!

b. Size has been a limitation for LCDs, but 2004 saw the emergence of improved manufacturing techniques producing larger panels. SAMSUNG has now released its new LTP468W a 46-inch LCD with 12ms refresh, HDMI interface, and 800:1 contrast ratio. Priced at the very high end ($9999) it does indicate that viable large LCD displays are coming to the market. Recall that LCDs are also much less susceptible to image burn in (really not a problem), but they do have problems with failed individual pixels (possible red dots in picture).

3. BAD: DLPs – SLOW INTRODUCTION, BEWARE THE WRONG CHIP. We are VERY disappointed at Texas Instruments (TI) and most of the manufacturers for the mess that Digital Light Processor (DLP) technology is in. Using a totally new technology involving a micro-mirror device, DLPs offer many advantages over traditional sets (tube, projection, plasma) in that there is no danger of “burn in” of images. Unfortunately, TI has had difficulty in managing the product development stream… so we have a mess with their series of micro-mirror devices: HD2 chip (avoid), HD2+ chip (better light output and resolution), just released HD3 chip (much improved picture quality), and the upcoming xHD3 chip (1080p perfect picture). There are a lot of HD2 and HD2+ sets on the market now, and in a side by side comparison, the HD3 and xHD3 sets will knock you out.

4. GOOD – DLP HD3. Once again, it is SAMSUNG that is leading the charge in manufacturing with several just released product lines using the HD3 chip: 46-inch HLP4663W, the 50-inch HLP5063W, the 56-inch HLP5663W, and the 61-inch HLP6163W. All feature a 1500:1 contrast ratio and have a native resolution of 1280-by-720 progressive. The xHD3 will move the resolution upward to a true 1080p… but don’t look for the xHD3 until 2005. Remember that you MUST buy an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your DLP TV – if you have a sudden power outage, the lamp will burst from latent heat when the fan suddenly stops cooling it.

5. GOOD – Mitsubishi Finally Woke Up. OK, I have a Mitsubishi tube projection 65 inch HDTV. With the exception of a very limited number of plasmas, Mitsubishi has not moved to other technologies. 2004 may be the year that we look back on to say Mitsubishi either failed and fell out of the market, or that they re-entered with a vengeance. The later half of 2004 appears to receive improved plasmas (note below), DLP, LCD, and LCD projection from Mitsubishi. As a former prime time player, Mitsubishi has lost the HDTV leader title to SAMSUNG in 2004… it remains to be seen whether they can retain their former number one rating.

6. BAD – The Plasma Cover-up Continues. We even read a major trade magazine this month (July) that had a subtitle “grabber line” – “PLASMA rumors persist about fade”… and then never discussed the problem with plasma’s losing their picture quality over time. As we reported from CES2004, plasma “half-life” is a real issue plaguing the Industry. Yes, it doesn’t show up for 2 to 4 years – but when you pay upwards of $8000 you sure don’t want to throw away your HDTV because the picture loses its’ “pop”. Our discussions with SAMSUNG and PIONEER, leading manufacturers of plasma panels, at CES2004 disclosed that the industry is working hard to improve this problem from the current estimates of 15,000 hours to reduce the same degree of deterioration to 30,000 hours (5 years)… so it’s still an issue.

7. GOOD – HDMI (FINALLY). Yes, we finally have a standard. High Definition Media Interface (HDMI) has been agreed upon because it can provide Hollywood with content protection (HDCP), and can keep all the “wires” (video and audio) in one wire. Since the rear of my set looks like the insides of a nuclear power plant, the idea of simplified wiring is VERY appealing.

8. GREAT – Hy-TEK. I know you probably have not heard of Hy-Tek. They make the perfect product: an LCD HDTV with a full PC built in. You can put the Hy-Tek flat panel monitor on the wall, and watch HDTV or play DVDs with the built-in DVD player, listen to digitial music in Dolby Surround, record TV with the built-in hard drive recorder, or do ALL your computing (work, games, internet, etc.) using the wireless mouse and keyboard. We are trying to work with Hy-Tek to get more information, but they received the GAMING ILLUSTRATED prestigious EDITORS CHOICE award at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in March 2004. If Hy-Tek can utilize the newly released HD video cards, coupled with their existing technology – Hy-Tek could be the next FORD MOTORS (recall that Henry Ford made one model and made a fortune – because the one model did everything that 90% of the people wanted!). We predict that Hy-Tek will take off over the next 2 years, and likely be bought out by Microsoft or SAMSUNG/MITSUBISHI… can you imagine a single flat panel HDTV without the plethora of stupid components (tuner, DVD, surround sound processor, and digital video recorder) sitting on top of or underneath your TV with their bevy of remote control devices (a friend of mine currently has 4 remotes controls for his “stuff” and his wife can’t operate the TV – a fact she vocally reminds him of daily).

As we move into the second half of 2004, we hope you will be CAREFUL in choosing your HDTV. Please read all our columns, and benefit from our PRIMER and the HOMEWORK that we strongly encourage everyone to complete BEFORE you buy your HDTV… but rest assured, an HDTV is in your future, and the future is coming!

A last word to consider:

• Americans spend an average of 2 hours per day in their automobile
• The average automobile costs $20,000.
• Americans spend an average of 4 hours per day watching their primary TV
• DO the math…

Commentary By: Greg Gibson - email