Want an affordable upscaler for your HDTV display? Gefen introduced the Gefen Home Theater Scaler and Home Theater Scaler Plus. Both scale signals all the way up to 1080p.

The Gefen Home Theater Scaler ($449) offers these inputs/outpus:
- two HDMI inputs each with digital audio (optical and coax)
- two component video inputs each with analog (RCA stereo) audio
- one HDMI output with (optical and coax) audio out

Gefen - Home Theater Scaler

While the Home Theater Scaler Plus ($499) offers:
- one component input with analog audio
- one composite or s-video input with analog audio
- and two HDMI inputs with digital (optical and coax) audio.
- one HDMI output with (optical and coax) audio out

Gefen - Home Theater Scaler Plus

[via IGN]

So I was doing some research yesterday on HDMI and DVI. This stuff is good so listen closely.

So DVI came first in about 1998 mainly as a means to change people from the VGA (analog) interface to a DVI (digital) interface. Basically, HDMI is DVI with a different connector. This is from a cable standpoint. You already know that HDMI can send audio as well as video.

Another thing I learned was that DVI has a parallel channel in place for very large resolutions and refresh rates. This is to support computers with multiple monitors and people with heavy graphic capabilities. HDMI didn’t use this parallel channel, but because it piggybacked on DVI the cable had the capability. That is where HDMI version 1.3 comes in.

HDMI version 1.3 added a bunch more capability. More color depth, lip sync, and bandwidth for lossless audio, but essentially in the same wrapper. How did HDMI find all this extra bandwidth? That parallel channel on the DVI/HDMI cable that was just sitting there. This is where it gets important.

HDMI supports some things that sound cool, but you need to know how this all fits into the big picture. First, HDMI 1.3 adds color depths up to 16 bits (billions of colors). Sounds cool? Sure but remember most home theater and TV displays can’t show that many colors (even if they support the connection). Also, DVD and HDTV DVDs have a 8-bit color depth (or 17 million colors). So lets get some understanding here.

The biggest reason YOU need HDMI 1.3 for is two things. Lossless audio and lip sync. Color depth should only be considered if you are using the display for a computer, personal video, or a console game that supports bit depths higher than 8.

Almost all Blu-ray, digital cable, DVD, HD DVD, console games, and satellite providers are 8-bit today.

So this year when looking at our CES coverage remember that HDMI 1.3 is not very important for the Home Theater display, but is vitally important for receivers and processors because of the lip sync and new lossless audio formats. That is where you will get the most bang for your buck this year.

Also, remember you shouldn’t need to upgrade your cable to get HDMI 1.3 compliance. Those you have today should work just fine. So save your pennies, and if you must buy a cable look to someone like monoprice. Monster cables will just make you bend over and grab your ankles.

Connecting systems to displays with DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort: What we got here is failure to communicate

Why today’s best HDTVs aren’t worth buying

So, I saw this video last week of a guy claiming to have cracked the AACS encryption on HD DVD. It was grainy as all these movies are, but it looked convincing. Now yesterday the hacker listed more of how he cracked the key.

Essentially there are 3 (maybe more) keys used. There is a device key a volume key and a title (video) key. The hacker went for the volume key since it seemed a weak link and possibly the hardest to revoke.

So now just like science every hacker is trying to reproduce the results, and once that happens the floodgates should open up. One interesting thing that I found interesting was that both HD DVD and Blu-Ray only made 1MB of space for a revocation table. Hackers, just for spite, could just start publishing keys left and right to fill up the revocation area. Of course with a limited size such as this, couldn’t someone just come up with a large revocation list on an ISO and essentially wipe out the revocation list?

This is just getting better by the day. Now we can finally backup our movies just like the law allows us to. I guess we don’t need managed copy now. ;>

HD DVD Encryption Cracked? - Brian’s Brain - Blog on EDN - 400000040

Digital TV Design Line has an in-depth article about laser light sources in projection TV’s. Like the one Mitsubishi will be introducing. If you’re interested in the technology, you might like to read it.

Why do we care about laser light sources? Well, they have a wider colour gamut, for one. Plus they’re brighter than traditional light sources as well, and will perform evenly over their lifetimes, instead of getting dimmer or changing their colour characteristics. Plus rear-projection displays will be able to be made much thinner than traditional ones, thanks to their “narrow composite beam angle”.

Exciting times indeed. I can’t wait see these HDTV’s.

Trends in laser light sources for projection displays

Blue laser diodes, those little things that go in HD DVD and BD players, have been in short supply. So much so that Sony had to scale back the launch of the PS3 because they didn’t have enough blue laser diodes to go around.

There have only been two suppliers of blue laser diodes up until now, but that’s changing. Sharp is getting into the business too.

Sharp started mass-producing the diodes this month, at a rate of 150,000 per month. I have to wonder if any of those Sharp diodes will make their way into PS3’s …

Sharp starts blue laser diode production

So HDMI is starting to be seen everywhere. The funny thing is that 99% of the stuff out there with HDMI does not have version 1.3 and most likely will not be upgradeable to 1.3. The biggest thing in 1.3 I think would be important to people is the lip syncing whereby the audio and video are synced up so it doesn’t look like a Japanese film with English voice over.

So is HDMI better? Maybe, maybe not. Why? As a display medium DVI can do most anything that HDMI can do. The one big advantage HDMI has is that it can carry audio also which can be important if you are connecting from a source to a receiver to preprocessor.

The problems I’ve seen with HDMI have had to do with the plug. I’ve bent my share of HDMI plugs, but have had no problems with the DVI plug.

What I haven’t heard is since HDMI and DVI cables can be interchanged is: will DVI support HDMI 1.3? I think it should as long as the electronics can decode the signal.

HDMI heading for sustained growth as DVI begins decline in 2007, In-Stat says

Here’s one of the coolest little things I’ve seen to do with HDTV in a long time. It’s a resolution chart that shows at what seating distance different resolutions start to make a difference. Just click on the thumbnail to see the full size image.

So if you’re thinking about buying a 1080p LCD display, and want to sit at 10′ away, does it matter that it’s 1080p versus 720p? This chart would indicate no.

It’s obvious that 1080p can be a benefit. My sitting distance is 10 feet. So that means that I need a display at least 60″ or so before I’ll see the benefit of a 1080p display. That’s my magic number. Your magic number may be different. Check it out.

1080p Does Matter - Here’s When (Screen Size vs. Viewing Distance vs. Resolution)

I can see the benefits of wireless. I’m typing this right now on my laptop which is connected wirelessly to the internet. I use my PSP to check e-mail wirelessly, and to connect to the net in other ways.

But you know, I still haven’t heard of a good use for HD over wireless. It’s not like I shlep my HDTV around with me wherever I go. Plop it down in the bathroom for some good HDTV action.

But, well. Maybe if you have a plasma you want to hang on the wall, and you have a power socket there but no HDMI socket on the wall. I guess. Or if I want to send my PVR’s HD signals from my PVR to my TV upstairs without running cables. I grudgingly admit.

The WirelessHD standard would allow audio and video to be sent wirelessly (duh) between devices in the home. LG, Matsushita, NEC, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and SiBeam are behind the effort. They plan to have the specifications ready in the spring of 2007.

Wireless HD specification due in 2007

Now here is something interesting. Home Theater Mag took a look at 61 HDTV’s from the 2006 model year and tested them for proper deinterlacing of 1080i signals, proper 3:2 cadence detection, and sufficient 1080p bandwidth. And the results are rather bad.

54% of the sets failed the deinterlacing test.
80% failed the 3:2 cadence detection test.
100% of the sets passed the bandwidth test, though all but one attenuated the signal some.

And these results are from big-name manufacturers like Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba. Yikes.

What’s the solution? Well, I think tests like this should be distributed widely! Manufacturers should know that consumers care about these kinds of things. Then hopefully they’ll change their ways.

But what if you already have one of these sets? I’m guessing, but if you have a direct-input mode, and and outboard video processor that does all those things correctly, you might be able to bypass these problems. Other than that, I can’t think of a solution.

Are You Getting All of the HDTV Resolution You Expected? Round 2

Say you have yourself a video at low-resolution, and want to upconvert it to a higher resolution for display on a higher-resolution television or monitor. That’s not hypothetical at all - it happens all the time when you display anything except HD on your HDTV. When you watch regular SD cable programming on your HDTV, your television (or maybe some processor between the cable feed and the television) has to take the incoming signal and convert it up to the resolution that your HDTV supports. Same thing goes for all those DVD movies collecting dust on your shelf (”I’ll watch them one day!”). Right now most processors just double up the pixels to make the image displayable in HD. Or quadruple. Or more, depending on the source and destination. That’s all well and good, but there’s got to be a better way.

Hitachi is working on that better way. They’ve done two things. The first is to look at subsequent frames in the video to interpolate some data that can be used in the image upconversion process to make it look better. The second thing they’re doing is to do with 3:2 pulldown. Processors have to take a 24 frames-per-second video and convert that to 60 frames per second. Typically by duplicating frames. Actually, duplicating some and tripling others. But Hitachi is working on a method to interpolate those frame instead. Kinda like the same thing as the other method, but on a whole-frame basis in stead of on a pixel basis.

The article doesn’t discuss a timeframe for these new features, but I think they sound promising. I don’t know if other companies are doing the same thing or not (like Sony with their “Digital Reality Creation” wizardry). But Hitachi’s stuff sounds cool. I’d like to see it. Unlike some people, but like most people, I still watch a lot of SD on my HDTV.

‘Higher Resolution View,’ ‘Smoother Motion,’ Hitachi Demonstrates Signal Processing Technologies for Next Generation TVs

It is true. With all these ports coming out such as DVI, HDMI, UDI, DisplayPort, and component it seems we have a lot of choices when it comes to hooking up our HDTV and monitors.

The only problem is that some of these are weighted down with content protection like HDCP and DPCP and with the large choice comes pain. Can you see what a receiver will look like next year if it has to be able to receive these signals and switch to any other? How about if you have HDMI/HDCP coming in and you are outputting to a Displayport with DPCP. Guaranteed it won’t happen. Change is good, but growning pains till there are single standards can be a real kick in the wallet.

HDTV UK: DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, UDI: Too many standards spoil the HD broth?