glmtblog

720p, 1080i, Oh My..

There seems to be much talk and confusion regarding certain resolutions of HDTVs. CNET.com has posted this article that really helps to explain this. I personally have a 720p/1080i set, and I think it is just fine. If I had a bigger HDTV, say 50″ or larger, then a 1080p set would make more sense. Frame rates also come heavily into play, with Panasonic recently introducing a true 24 fps plasma HDTV. 24 frames per second most accurately captures the “cadence” of film.

DVD, Blu-ray, Digital Downloading Stop Fighting… Consumer Satisfaction Follows!

Everybody seems to pit optical media formats versus something. DVD vs. Digital Downloading. DVD vs. Blu-ray. Blu-ray vs. YouTube. ENOUGH FIGHTING!!! It is confusing everybody. It looks as though Hollywood is going to mediate a peaceful resolution. The Disney movie Bolt will be released in a package that contains a DVD, a Blu-ray Disc, and a Digital Copy.

When I buy a movie, I want it to work on everything. I want it to work on my phone, my blu-ray player, my DVD player. For once in the last 5 years, I think the industry is doing itself a favor. Plus, disc manufacturers like GLMT should be salivating over the opportunity.

Windowboxing… Why won’t you just fill the whole !#%^ screen?!?

Last night I sat down to watch the premiere of The Chopping Block on NBC and was surprised to see that my broadcast was being windowboxed on the screen.

What is windowboxing you ask? While I am watching this program on my 42″ LCD HDTV, there is a thick black outline around the entire image, filling up half of my screen with dead space. This phenomenon is occurring more often recently as we shift into High Definition broadcasting.

The traditional tube television displays in an aspect ratio of 4:3 (for those of you not familiar with aspect ratios, that is the relationship between the length of the image and the height of the image). Brand new High Definition televisions now have a screen that is much wider than it is high, with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Just as the devices we use to watch programming have changed their aspect ratio, the cameras used to record the programs also have changed the shape of the images they capture.

So to get a 4:3 image to display without distortion on a 16:9 screen, the image is pillarboxed: the image is centered horizontally on the screen, and black space fills the left and right sides of the screen. Inversely, to view a 16:9 image on a 4:3 screen, the image is letterboxed: centered vertically, and black space fills the top and bottom.

So what I was seeing on my screen last night, was a program that was recorded in 16:9, but then was converted to be viewed on a 4:3 screen, which was then converted to fit my 16:9 screen. Dizzy yet?

Now this would make sense to me if I was watching a station that does not broadcast in HD, but this was not the case! The program before and after filled my screen with all of their HD glory! Apparently this revolution even confuses the “experts”.

3D: 1980’s Deja Vu or Video Display of the Future?

The thought of a new high definition version of 3-D is enticing. Prior to the Super Bowl, I picked up a pair of “3-D Glasses” to watch the half-time Sobe Commercial. I naturally assumed that with the advent of HD, 3-D would be greatly enhanced. I was disappointed.

I went on to read that the version of 3-D used fro the halftime show was not actually new technology. It was the same old school, eye-fatiguing, red and blue-lens technology used as a gimmick in the late eighties.

However, this attempt to raise 3-D awareness was merely a marketing ploy and not a display of the power of the technology. Apparently, new movies like Coraline that utilize “RealD” technology are incredibly impressive. I will be viewing one of these movies in the next week and I will write about my observations.

GLMT Featured In One To One Magazine!!!

Please take a look at the article published in One To One magazine featuring Great Lakes Media Technology and its unrivaled blu-ray authoring services.