By Kevin Hunt
Tribune Newspapers: The Hartford Courant
Just as tax refunds begin trickling through the postal system or soft-landing into direct-deposit accounts, the year's sparkling new HDTVs start showing up in local electronics stores.
Conspiracy, coincidence or harmonic convergence?
As the new year in high-definition dawns, a new type of HDTV tempts consumers: big-screen sets with 1080p resolution. It sounds more like a new tax form, but 1080p -- the highest HDTV resolution available to broadcasters -- offers twice the resolution of today's 720p sets.
At least that's the plan. Or maybe it's just a lot of big-screen hype.
"TVs, just like anything else in America, are sold by mostly spec comparisons, and if the number is bigger it must be better," says Michael Amkreutz, vice president of product marketing at Hannspree, a recent entrant in the U.S. television market via China.
It won't be much better, at least this year. Because of the extra bandwidth required, broadcasters haven't started delivering 1080p programming. And TV manufacturers jumped in too soon. Most of the 1080p sets introduced in 2005 couldn't even accept 1080p broadcast signals -- if any were available.
But the 1080p TVs displayed last month by Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic, Toshiba and JVC, among others, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas are better equipped for the ultra-high-resolution future. More sets will accept a 1080p signal, when those signals arrive from broadcasters or the coming high-definition DVD formats, Bluray and HD DVD.
Prices on 1080p sets have quickly moved closer to other HDTV sets too: JVC introduced a 56-inch 1080p set that, at $3,500, costs $300 more than its 720p set.
Will a 1080p set make a difference? On a big screen, at least 56 inches, with pristine 1080p programming viewed from a few feet away, almost certainly. Meanwhile, these new sets convert today's 1080i (see LCD, at right, for definition of 1080i) broadcasts to 1080p, which could improve picture quality slightly over 720p sets.
Otherwise, it may be hard to tell the hi-def pictures apart.
Plenty of new HDTVs are on the way.
4 NEW FAVES FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE
1080p
Pioneer Electronics turns 1080p into a luxury item with the 50-inch Elite PureVision PRO-FHD1 plasma, due in June for $10,000.
A 1080p set has 1920x1080 resolution, or 2,073,600 total pixels displayed progressively (that's the "p" in 1080p) in a full frame. A 720p set has 1280x720 resolution or 921,600 total pixels.
With more than double the pixels, a 1080p image should look smoother.
LCD
The Olevia Signature LT42HVi, a 42-inch set from Syntax-Brillian Corp., arrives in spring with 1080p resolution and high-end video processing from Silicon Optix. Cost: $3,500.
A 1080i signal -- favored by CBS, NBC and PBS -- has the same 1920x1080 resolution as 1080p but uses an interlaced (the "i" in 1080i) format. But because interlaced images take twice as long to display, 1080i often doesn't look as sharp as 720p with fast-moving action like sports.
DLP
The Samsung HL-S5679W has a 56-inch screen with 1080p resolu-tion. When it reaches stores in May ($4,200), it will be the first DLP set using an LED, or light-emitting diode, light source. The LEDs will last 20,000 hours, or about 10 times longer than projection lamps typically costing about $300 in current DLP sets.
Plasma
Vizio's 42-inch P42HDTV promises high-definition plasma at a bargain-basement price ($1,799) when it goes on sale next month.
The P42HDTV displays every picture in 1024x768, called its "native resolution." Plasma televisions, like LCD and DLP sets, are known as fixed-pixel displays because their native resolution is the only way they can create a picture.
Thinking about the big picture?
We've found the big, small and notable in the hi-def world
1080p
The revolution in high-resolution.
Big-time: Pioneer's 1080p debut, the 50-inch Elite PureVision PRO-FHD1 plasma, arrives in June for $10,000. If 50 inches (or $10,000) isn't enough, Panasonic's 65-inch TH-65PX600U will reach stores this summer, price unannounced. And Sony showed a hulking 82-inch LCD prototype, a potential wall-buster.
Small-time: Sharp's 37-inch Aquos LCD, with titanium finish and detachable bottom speakers, will cost $3,500 when it arrives in May.
Budget: Akai promises a 46-inch set this summer that uses new DLP technology (see DLP). The PT46DV27L will cost $2,300.
Others to watch: Two Olevia Signature LCD sets from Syntax-Brillian Corp. arrive in the spring packaged with the superb Silicon Optix Realta video processor. Expect great clarity and brilliant colors from the 42-inch LT42HVi ($3,500) and the 47-inch LT47HVi ($4,000).
Plasma
A plasma television uses red, green and blue phosphors that absorb ultraviolet light generated by inert gas mixtures. Most plasma sets have screens 42 inches, measured diagonally, or larger.
Big-time: Panasonic's 103-inch prototype with 1080p resolution is now the world's biggest plasma. "Wow, that's a big screen" said former Olympic skier Picabo Street, apparently unscripted, appearing at a Panasonic news conference at the Las Vegas show.
Samsung's HP-R8082, at 80 inches, will be the largest available when it arrives this month at $150,000. Wow, that's a big price.
Small-time: Panasonic's 37-inch TH-37PX60U, due in spring at $2,200.
Budget: Vizio's P42HDTV, a 42-inch plasma with 1024x768 resolution, arrives this month for $1,799 at Costco and directly from the company at www.vinc.com. (The price drops to $1,499 for one week starting March 20 during college basketball's March Madness.)
Plasma TV manufacturers get their sets' glass panels from the same few sources -- so if a no-name company does things like video processing right, then the consumer gets big-name quality at a steep discount.
Others to watch: LG introduced four plasma sets with built-in 160-gigabyte high-definition digital video recorders that store up to 15 hours of HD programming or 66 hours of non-HD. The series includes two 50-inch models, the 50PC1DR (finished in black-silver gloss) and the 50PC1DRA (black gloss). They're expected in March, $6,100 each. LG also showed a wireless plasma that receives signals via Wi-Fi (802.11a). But don't expect to see it anytime soon.
LCD
An LCD television projects light through liquid-crystal panels. Most popular screen sizes are smaller than 37 inches.
Big-time: Westinghouse Digital Electronics demonstrated a 56-inch LCD with a staggering 3840x2160 pixel count -- four times the resolution of 1080p sets.
Small-time: Panasonic's 23-inch wide-screen TC-23LX60, with 1366x768 resolution and HDMI connection, is due in May at $1,000.
Budget: Vizio's L32HDTV adds a digital tuner to last year's L32 model and remains $1,000 for a 32-inch screen with 1366x768 hi-def resolution, picture-in-picture and HDMI connections. It's due in March.
Others to watch: Philips' MiraVision monitors combine an LCD television and a mirror. Fuss with your hair while watching the Weather Channel in picture-in-mirror each morning, then flex in front of it at night while watching "Six Week Body Makeover."
Celebrity cachet: Demi Moore owns one of the older, smaller MiraVision sets.
Beauty secret: The standard frame pops off and can be replaced with a standard-size, feng shui-approved frame from your local frame shop.
Sharp showed off a 45-inch "Two Way Viewing Angle" prototype LCD that displayed two programs at once. Look straight at the screen and you'd see one image, then look at a mirror held by an attendant off to the side and you'd see another.
What? So maybe someday parents will watch "Reservoir Dogs" while the kids marvel at "Nanny McPhee" while gathered around the same TV.
A more likely scenario: Sharp also showed a 7-inch version used in cars in Japan that simultaneously shows a navigation map to the driver and a DVD movie to the front-seat passenger.
DLP
Digital Light Processing, a projection-TV technology from Texas Instruments, uses thousands of tiny pivoting mirrors and a spinning color wheel illuminated by a projection lamp to create a picture. This year, however, a DLP variant drops the lamp and color wheel, eliminating lamp-replacement costs and improving picture quality.
Big-time: The Samsung HL-S5679W, a 56-inch screen with 1080p resolution due in May ($4,200), will be the first available DLP set to use an LED light source -- a significant upgrade in Digital Light Processing technology.
Until now, all DLP sets used a spinning color wheel and a projection lamp to produce color. Some viewers were sensitive to trails called the "rainbow effect" created when the wheel's speed couldn't keep up with some moving images. The lamps lasted only about 2,000 hours -- for some people, about two years. Replacements cost $200 to $300. Red, green and blue LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, replace both the color wheel and projection lamp in this Samsung set.
The LEDs should last at least 20,000 hours, eliminate the rainbow effect and generate richer colors. The Samsung set accepts a 1080p signal, which will become an attractive feature when new high-resolution DVD technology (HD DVD, Blu-ray) and broadcasters catch up and start delivering 1080p video.
Small-time: A Mitsubishi PocketProjector that fits in your palm (or pocket), weighs only 14 ounces and uses the new LED light technology. And, with 800x600 resolution, it's at least DVD quality. It's due in July for $799.
Budget: The RCA M50WH185 offers a 50-inch screen -- and old-style color wheel with projection lamp (no 1080p) -- for $1,799 in June.
Others to watch: Akai's 52-inch PT52DL27L ($2,699), with 1080p resolution and an LED light source, coming later this year.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com
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