[Update: Mark Fleischmann has a commentary on 1080p]

Your HDTV may boast a resolution of 1280 by 720, or 1024 by 768, or 1280 by 768, or whatever. But it is highly unlikely that your HDTV boasts a resolution of 1920 by 1080 interlaced. It is even less likely that you have a full 1920 by 1080 progressive display. The number of HDTV models that fall into that category are few. 1080p isn’t being broadcast by any networks, nor is 1080p supported by a single DVI cable, though HDMI does support it.

But that is starting to change. Companies like Sharp are introducing 1080p LCD sets to the market and pretty soon 1080p is coming from DLP manufacturers. Soon 1080p HDTVs will be common, and we can only hope that there will be 1080p content to see on these displays (as opposed to upconverted 1080i content).

Link: PCWorld

Two alliances in Taiwan have jointly presented a red-ray high-definition optical disc standard called FVD, or Forward Versatile Disc. FVD can contain 5.4 - 6GB on a single layer, and 9.8 - 11GB on two layers. At those kind of capacities it can’t be using MPEG2 to store HD content - Microsoft’s WMV9 and WMA9 are the two compression schemes in use.

One of the main advantages of FVD over competing formats is price. The players and content will be sold for significantly cheaper than competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD products.

At the end of last year there were a lot of press releases about how volume production of FVD players would begin soon. We still haven’t seen any press releases about it actually happening. We wait!

Link: DVD-Recordable.org
Link: SatelliteGuys.US
Link: The Inquirer

Dell, long the purveyor of build to order computers, is jumping into television too. It’s another bold move into the consumer electronics market by a large player in the computer market. Dell isn’t the only company to move into consumer electronics, Apple being the most obvious other computer manufacturer to do so. Companies like Viewsonic and Gateway are also making plays into the consumer electronics field, and it will take some time to see how these moves pan out.

Dell sells both plasma and LCD televisions, ranging from a 19″ LCD TV for $699 to a $4,115 42″ Plasma HDTV. The Northwest Herald has an article talking about Dell’s move.

Link: Northwest Herald
Link: Dell

[Update: pics available at LinuxDevices.com]
[Update: Digital-Lifestyles.info has more info on this an other Pace Micro PVRs]

Pace Micro Technology yesterday announced the new Tahoe HD PVR featuring an expandable 160GB hard drive, dual HD decoding for HD picture-in-picture, home media server DVR functionality, and more. Pace’s product are available through local cable companies.

Link: Audioholics
Link: Pace Micro

If you’re going for the BIG IMAGE in your home theater, you have to look at front projection technology. There are many kinds of front projectors, including CRT, LCD, DLP, and LCOS. But one thing all those things have in common is the screen. You need something to project your images onto. It is a vital part of the system, and if the screen isn’t up to snuff, it will compromise your whole home theater experience. That being said, while you see a lot about projectors in the AV media, you don’t see a lot about screens. Which is why it’s great that Audioholics stepped up to the plate with a review of Carada screens. If you own a projector, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Link: Audioholics
Link: Carada

One more manufacturer has taken sides in the upcoming battle for blue laser dominance. It looks like Onkyo has joined the HD-DVD Promotion Group, which doesn’t mention this on their website (yet?). Onkyo has not ruled out joining the Blu-ray Disc Association, though, so for now their allegiance to HD-DVD is non-exclusive.

Link: TechJapan

It is estimated that most HDTVs aren’t even used to display HD. (There are only 10 million viewers, but millions more sets.) Maybe the cable HD is unavailable in your area or satellite/cable HD programming is too expensive. Whatever the case, if you’re in this basket and you live in an area where you can receive HD signals over the air, you owe it to yourself to take a look at HD tuners. Price should no longer be an issue with Humax’ ATSC Set-Top Tuner, set to retail for $229. This tuner includes a Dolby Digital optical output and even an HDMI output with HDCP.

Link: Twice
Link: HOME Theater Magazine
Link: Humax

Calibration has long been a known method of improving the image quality a display produces. There are basically two ways that a television or projector can be calibrated.

The first is to adjust the set’s basic controls. These are the contract, picture, sharpness, etc controls that are easily accessible from the user menu. There are several DVD’s available to help in this process, including Video Essentials and Avia Guide to Home Theater. Using this method, a dramatic improvement in picture quality can be achieved.

The other way is to get a set professionally calibrated, often by an ISF technician. This involves getting the grey scale adjusted, setting overscan, focusing the lenses, cleaning, and more. This usually gives another large improvement in picture quality.

Doing these professional calibrations has become a small industry, and the AVSForum delves into it a little deeper.

Link: AVSForum

[Update: a TechNewsWorld article about DLP competitors]

A new company, Miradia, is working on a technology said to compete with TI’s DLP chips.

Rather than produce out-and-out knockoffs, the start-ups are pursuing new design and manufacturing tricks to reduce the cost and size of the guts of projection TVs. Miradia, for example, sculpts its mirrors entirely from silicon, instead of the more expensive aluminum layer that TI uses to make its mirrors. “It’s a new way of making this device,” says Miradia Chief Executive Officer Greg Miller.

Link: Startup Journal
Link: Miradia

JVC is expanding their rear projection H-ILA lineup with sets that include 1080p resolution:

First offered in 52- and 61-inch screen sizes, JVC will add 56- and 70-inch sets this year. The company will market 720p versions in all four screen sizes, plus 1080p 56-, 61- and 70-inch sets. All of JVC’s HD-ILA rear projection TVs use the company’s three-chip D-ILA (Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier) technology that has been used for many years in the company’s high performance professional video projectors.

Late in the year’s third quarter, JVC will ship the 56-inch HD-56FH96, 61-inch HD-61FH96 and 70-inch HD-70FH96, which offer resolution of 1080p using a 1920 x 1080 (over 2 million pixels x 3 panels), 0.7-inch D-ILA device. Each will offer dual HDMI inputs, and the 70-inch model will also include a memory card slot.

Link: JVC

PVRblog.com is an interesting read and contains some HD information like an article on extracting HD video from a Motorola 6412.

Link: pvrblog.com

Twice got a chance to talk to Sony VP Mike Fidler and put some questions to the man. They discuss Qualia, the changing market, CRT, DTV tuners, and such.

The real nugget is at the end of the article, where Blu-ray is discussed. Twice asks about the plans for Blu-ray, and Mike Fidler responds with:

We still have a late 2005 launch goal — but to be quite frank it looks like early 2006. There is still work to be done on the content protection side, and a few application elements to finish. Everything else — the codecs etc. — is pretty much done. There are also negotiations to be done on the recording side for rights usage as well as for robustness rules. So, that will still take a little time. Some of it will continue as the products are introduced.

Link: Twice

[Update: another article about the flat-lining of flat panel TVs.]

Pioneer may increase production of plasma televisions through another production line to meet strong demand:

In November, the newspaper quoted Pioneer President Kaneo Ito as saying the company could spend about 27 billion yen ($256.6 million) to build a line as early as 2005/06.

Link: The Economic Times

This is happening at the same time that plasma prices are falling flat, a glut causing prices to fall:

Global demand for plasma TVs is expected to soar to 7 million units in 2006, up from 2.7 million units in 2004, according to industry estimates. The sets use a plasma display panel, a type of flat-panel technology.

Even though demand is rising, a glut is undermining prices along with the bottom lines of manufacturers.

Link: The Asahi Shimbun

LCD is also attracting new investment, as NEC plans to boost its output:

Japanese hi-tech maker NEC Corp. will invest up to 40 billion yen (US$385 million) in China and at home to boost its output of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels amid fierce competition from regional rivals, a report said Saturday.

Link: Channel News Asia

At their 2005 dealer show Sony stated plans for LCD:

the company introduced four direct-view LCD TVs and four Grand Wega 3 LCD-based, high-definition, rear-projection HDTV models, while stating that it will essentially carry over a large percentage of existing products in plasma television, CRT rear-projection TV and a majority of its FD Trinitron WEGA direct-view CRT TVs.

Link: Twice

Samsung is working on improving the quality of LCD panels:

Samsung Electronics Co. (KSE:005930) said Sunday that it has developed a new high definition liquid crystal display (LCD) that can give clearer picture resolution regardless of surrounding conditions.

Link: Forbes

MacWorld reports that there are rumblings from Sony that a compromise might be possible between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps. If this were to happen, the introduction of an HD optical disc format would have to be delayed further. It is unlikely that the Blu-ray consortium will just give up on Blu-ray and whole-heartedly embrace HD-DVD. It is equally unlikely that the HD-DVD camp would have a similar change of heart. So both parties would have to come to the table and hammer out a new standard that takes pieces from both. This would mean putting on hold the current plans to release Blu-ray and HD-DVD to market within the next year, thereby delaying the day consumers get to watch HD movies from an optical disc format.

So the theoretical choice comes to be between a unified format later, or two separate formats sooner. If, once the formats hit the market, one clearly becomes dominant in a short period of time, the answer is simpler than if there’s a long format war. But no matter what happens, the consumer loses: delay or two formats. No other choice.

Link: Macworld

[Update: another article about the battle. Link: eCoustics]

In this link at DVDReview.com Guido Henkel falls firmly in the Blu-ray camp after viewing both Blu-ray and HD-DVD at CES 2005. He says:

The lines of the image were so fine, it was unbelievable, and best of all the image was without a hint of an artifact. Perfect color balance, perfect shadow delineation, perfect edges and rock solid colors and blacks. I noticed the same effect on other Blu-ray presentations and clearly, this is what I am looking for.

Mr. Henkel was less impressed with the HD-DVD presentations. He also mentions that he could care less about backwards compatibility with DVD, which is something to think about. I already have a DVD player which will do fine for the DVD movies that I want to watch. One day it’ll go the way of my VCR and its VHS tapes: unused. OTOH, it would be nice to have just one component instead of two in my equipment rack during the transition period, so maybe backwards compatibility is a good thing after all.

Meanwhile, in this article over at Softpedia, they discuss the same issue, though they are carefull not to take sides. They do take pains to point out that the studios backing the Blu-ray format are not doing so in an exclusive way. While the same is true of the studios backing the HD-DVD format, the article does not point this out.