Audio Video News

If only you could take your TiVo with you...

Sharp is finally ready to begin selling - in Japan, at first, and then in the U.S. later in the year - the LC-65GE1, a jumbo 65V-inch¹ LCD flat-panel HDTV, touted by Sharp as "the world's largest LCD model". The new giant HDTV uses a full-spec high-definition low reflection Advanced Super View LCD panel with 1,920 by 1,080 pixels (1080i). Sharp says that high-speed full-motion video artifacts are significantly reduced as a result of Sharp's QS (Quick Shoot) technology. In the new model, crimson has been added to the standard red, green, and blue backlighting in order to recreate previously unreproduceable colors such as "the deep red of aged wine". (No mention was made of the set's ability to accurately reproduce the color of the $3.99 bottle of cheap rose I bought last week, but I guess that's to be expected.) The TV's audio package includes Sharp's 1-Bit Digital Amplifier and bottom-mounted High-Aperture Speaker System.

TAW

As I mention in <A href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/scottwilkinson/505sw/">my current column</A>, streaming high-quality A/V content in real time over the Internet is not practical due in part to bandwidth limitations. Currently, DSL and cable modems top out at about 3 megabits per second downstream (into the home), while DVDs typically consume 4-7Mbps of bandwidth, and standard MPEG-2 HDTV requires over 19Mbps.

Despite the ongoing rumors of back-room talks aimed at averting a format war over the next generation of blue-laser optical discs, each camp is continuing to develop its own standard. In our <A href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/051605HDDVD/">last report</A> on this game, Toshiba had announced a 3-layer HD DVD with 45GB of storage capacity. Now, TDK has upped the ante again by announcing that they've developed a 4-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) prototype with a total capacity of 100GB; each layer holds 25GB, just as in single- and dual-layer BDs.

Long trips over endless blacktop, uncomfortably cramped accommodations in the air, and endless meetings around the corporate bored-room tables - these are the times when watching a movie is darned difficult to do. Archos and palmOne, among others, would love to change that; they've recently announced new gadgets aimed at making movie watching more convenient and much more portable.

At the Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 International Symposium, Seminar, and Exhibition this week in Boston, MA, Samsung is highlighting a number of important developments. Their 82-inch LCD panel, the largest in the world, is being exhibited for the first time in the Americas. The prototype is said to have a horizontal and vertical viewing angle of 180&#186;, reproduce 92% of the NTSC color gamut, and exhibit a response time of 8ms or less.