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Just when you thought it was safe to buy a new HDTV: Sony and Panasonic have just announced plans to release three-dimensional TV sets in 2010. ESPN is testing 3-D production, promising to “have football players appear to jump out of the screen”. Of course, special glasses would be required when viewing.

The new 3-D sets won’t come cheap, and some critics argue that there is not enough bandwidth available to broadcast 3D programming. No surprise there, considering that there still isn’t enough bandwidth available to broadcast true 1080p HD content.

These new televisions would be able to play shows in 2-D or 3-D, and 3-D video games.

Blu-ray has also said to be working on a product that would play three-dimensional movies at home.

Netflix Streaming: Improving the Quality of the Stream

I recently installed a Netflix Streaming Blu-ray player in a friend’s house. The idea seemed pretty seemless until you start digging into it. My first observation was the installation is not something a “non-geek” can do with ease. The player did not have the right firmware out of the box and we had to do a complicated USB download and installation (the USB stick had to be totally clear of any other files).

Once we got the correct software loaded on the player, it worked quickly. You queue up some movies in your Netflix account and select them on your on-screen menu and it starts to stream the video to your blu-ray player within 30 seconds.

My problem was with the quality. There was a “quality bar” indicator that showed us that we only had 2 bars out of 10. Apparently the quality of the video codec streamed to your tv depends on your connection. The streaming of the movies were terrible at 2 bars. Barely watchable.

Here are some tips from Netflix on how to improve the quality: http://blog.netflix.com/2009/03/netflix-trying-for-consistent.html

If you do actually get your player to work, at a watchable quality, you will come to know quickly that a very limited library is available for streaming. That was the most disappointing aspect.

As a videophile, I recommend not hassling with the above. It will likely lead to disappointement.

Marketing Downloadable Content as “HD”

A Suspicious Value Statement

It is logical to assume that in the future we have a “mystical box” that pipes in high definition movies and games to any television/monitor in the house. This HD content will be relayed wirelessly to our cell phones, maybe even our virtual reality visors. We will command it by voice, it may even have a name, and it will know us, and download movies it knows we’ll like without command. This “magic box” will sense our every entertainment want and need and predict, download, and present it in glorious high definition on any type of screen we want. The cost of this box? Nothing. The cost to download a movie? Zilch. Writers will never strike and meaningful HD content will be bountiful.

As we step back to planet earth we see industry giants capitalizing on this ideal of entertainment utopia. At CES 2008, Apple announced its “HD” version of Apple TV. You can download “HD” programs to your XBOX 360. Some of the major networks are even letting you download “HD” video versions of their sitcoms. The problem is that none of these downloads are truly HD and marketing them as such is potentially fraudulent.

George Ou, a technical Zdnet.com columnist, confirmed the industry-wide misrepresentation in “Don’t Believe the Low Bit-Rate Lie.” The article draws a clear distinction between resolution and bit rate, which few understand. As a review, resolution is simply the physical number of columns and rows of pixels creating the display. Bit rate refers to the actual amount of video data being transferred per second to the display. The true measure of whether something is HD should be measured first by bit rate then by resolution. This confusion has led to many media conglomerates taking advantage of the bewildered consumer.

When the consumer goes shopping for an HD display, they are pursuaded to choose between resolutions as a measurement of quality. There is a price disparities between resolutions. For example, a 1080p display will command a premium over a 720p display. However, the amount of video data being transferred to that display is more important.

What is more interesting is the fact that a standard definition (480i) DVD played on a 720p display with a bit rate of 8 mbps will look better than the “HD Movie” downloaded on your computer, XBOX Live, or your Apple TV with bit rates less than 5 mbps. DVDs are not marketed as “HD” despite the fact that they can be scaled to display on any TV resolution. The fact that some digital downloads advertise themselves as “HD” when really it is worse than DVD quality is puzzling.

The HD bit rate has been set by the next generation formats as being a minimum of 36 mbps. This is why when you view video presented in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray it is spectacular in comparison with all other forms of HD.

It is suspicious that Dish Network and Cable frequently wage war against each other on the amount of HD it offers. What is lacking in the battle is a discussion on quality of HD. However, when a digital downloading service is advertised as offering “HD”, and the quality is less than the standard definition DVD quality, it should remove the “HD” label altogether. Offering something that transfers 9 times less video data at a resolution often used by HD video should not be labeled HD as consumers associate “HD” with high quality.

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD vs. Digital Downloading? Discs are Here to Stay!

EngadgetHD, a leading blogger on high definition, posted 10 reason discs will remain as a viable medium! I thought they were very insightful.

1. They offer the best picture and sound quality.
2. You own the disc, no one can expire it or take it away.
3. Discs still cost less per GB than a Hard Disc.
4. Discs don’t ‘just’ go bad and cause you to lose your movies.
5. Discs are portable and can be shared with friends.
6. Eventually HDM players will cost less than upconverting DVD players.
7. Xbox Live Marketplace HD expires and is locked to the device.
8. HD VOD is limited in selection and availability.
9. Even when VUDU gets HD, it costs too much, and the content is locked on the box.
10. HD Movie channels crop, compress, and offer worse audio than DVD.

Source- EngadgetHD