Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in HD

I watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in HD last night on CBS (1080i). I've seen this Christmas special many times in my childhood but I was in complete awe seeing it again in high definition. The picture quality and detail was amazing. The fuzz on Rudolph's fur, every hair on the Abominable Snowman, and the fabric texture of Burl Ives plaid vest was clearly visible. Rudolph's glowing nose looked like one of those old style red film covered light bulbs. I could even tell that the Christmas trees were made of felt! You could clearly see how everything was constructed. The amount of detail almost takes the magic away from this Christmas classic.

The aspect ratio of the picture was 4:3 which is expected for a made-for-TV special from 1964. Back then everything was recorded directly to film which explains the high level of fine detail. I wonder what other old TV shows will pop up on HD with incredible looking pictures? Frosty the Snowman in HD will be broadcast Friday December 12th on CBS.

Mitsubishi LaserVue L65-A90

The Mitsubishi LaserVue L65-A90 is a 65" DLP rear projection television (RPTV) that uses a laser for illumination instead of the traditional incandescent bulb or LED. The L65-A90 has a 1920x1080p native resolution, 4 HDMI 1.3a jacks, a 120 Hz smooth display mode, 24fps source, ATSC/QAM tuner, 3D capability with special shutter glasses, and all the other standard features that you'd expect in a high end HDTV. The L65-A90 is 10" deep, weighs 136 pounds, and has a $7000 MSRP. An optional wall mount that adds 2" of depth is available for $200. I can't imagine hanging something this big that protrudes a whole foot from a wall. A 73" version is planned for 2009.

Laser
Instead of a projection lamp and a spinning color wheel, the L65-A90 uses red, green, and blue (RGB) laser that can quickly be pulsed on and off. The red, green, and blue lasers have a very narrow spectrum which is a common trait for lasers. So spectral analysis of the RGB color mixing will have 3 very sharp lines. This is very different than the colors produced by sunlight and a prism. It is also very different than the light produced by an LCD's CCFL and the phosphors in CRT and plasma displays. Additive mixing of strong green and red spectral lines will produce the color yellow but the basic components will still be red and green. This color mixing works because our eyes have red, green, and blue cones but a tetrachromat may disagree.

DLP
The L65-A90 uses the Texas Instruments .65” Dark Chip 4 DLP imager. Like other DLP chips is utilizes a pixel shifting technique create a 1920 x 1080 image. The quick on/off pulsed nature of the RGB lasers replace the spinning color wheel. This reduces the rainbow color wheel effect that is common with DLP's. The L65-A90 has a fresnel lens screen like traditional DLP displays so off-axis brightness shift should still be an issue.

Black Level
This display has a very good black level, some say it even rivals the Kuro's. Black level performance is partly due to the ability of the individual lasers to turn off during parts of the refresh when they are not in uses. The low beam divergence nature of the laser also reduces the pixel spot size and mirror scatter which helps the black level.

Color
The L65-A90 has a "natural" color mode which matches the HDTV standard Rec. 709 closely. The "brilliant" color modes has a color space that exceeds Rec. 709 and it extremely wide. The "brilliant" color mode produces a visible wow effect with all of the RGB primary colors and especially red. The value of this extended color space is questionable since it doesn't match what calibrated studio camera and monitors use.

Torch Mode
The L65-A90 is an incredibly bright display with a max 111 foot-lamberts (fL) measurement. Calibration took this down to 66 fL for the brilliant mode and 50 fL for the natural mode. This extreme level of brightness should prove beneficial in stores where torch mode tends to sell more HDTVs.

Performance
The HDguru measured an overscan of 2.5% and a motion resolution of 320 lines in 60 Hz mode and 610 lines in 120 Hz mode. Power consumption usage is about 95W which is extremely low for a display of this size. The HDguru said that brilliant mode "provided a more satisfying viewing experience than the Rec.709 constricted color of the natural mode setting" and gave the L65-A90 his highest 4-heart rating.

Conclusion
Amazing picture. The extended brilliant color space, good black level, and extreme torch mode brightness should prove very successful on the showroom floor. The higher brightness of LCD displays is a main reason for their popularity over plasmas.

The high MSRP of $7000 will definitely limit the popularity of the L65-A90. Current traditional bulb Mitsubishi DLP's of the 65" size list for $2500. Except for the light drive mechanism and the 3X price increase, the two Mitsubishi DLP's are basically the same. Mitsubishi is definitely targeting the high-end with the L65-A90 and maybe they can be successful there but if they can build a 73" model and lower the price to the levels of the previous DLP generation then they will have a definite winner. The chances of such a dramatic price drop are low though so this may signal the end of the RPTV era.

The laser DLP technology of the L65-A90 would also be very interesting in a front projection model. The high brightness and low beam divergent nature of laser light would make it very well suited to long throws such as at a movie theater.

References

• http://hdguru.com/mitsubishi-laservue-l65-a90-first-tech-review-hd-guru-exclusive/310/
• http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/laser.html
  
• http://health.howstuffworks.com/eye3.htm
  

Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP)

The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP), also known as A/65, describes specific channel and program event information in terrestrial and cable transport streams. The current time, channel name (station ID), virtual major-minor channel mappings, parental ratings, and program schedule are some of the information that PSIP carries.

PSIP tables:

• System Time Table (SST) - GPS time, UTC leap second offset, daylight savings time info
• Master Guide Table (MGT) - general information about the other tables; PID mapping
• Virtual Channel Table (VCT) - channel name, major-minor channel numbers, other stream components
• Rating Region Table (RRT) - static codes for geographical ratings such as MPAA in the U.S.
• Event Information Table (EIT) - event times and program names like a TV guide
• Extended Text Table (ETT) - optional text messages (channel info, program descriptions, ...)
• Directed Channel Change Table (DCCT) - optional perform an automated channel retune
  
• Directed Channel Change Selection Code Table (DCCSCT) - optional genre codes and criteria for DCCT
  

The STT uses a system time is a 32-bit unsigned integer number of GPS seconds since 00:00:00 UTC, January 6th 1980. The UTC leap second offset is a correction to the GPS time. The daylight savings time structure contains information of the current status and when the next transition is to occur.

The VCT comes in both Terrestrial (TVCT) and Cable (CVCT) versions. CVCT uses two parameters that TVCT doesn't have; Path Select and Out of Band (OOB). The Path Select is for the rare case of having two physical cables. The Out of Band channel is a cable-operator supplied data channel that requires a dedicated OOB tuner. The OOB channel has supplemental PSIP information such as program guides and a navigation map. Also, depending on the carrier, the CVCT modulation field data may be in error and 8-VSB, 64-QAM, and 256-QAM may be encountered. Note that CVCT (cable) is not required by the FCC to carry the first 4 EITs which contain the next 12 hours of program guides.

The PSIP text strings use Huffman data compression to reduce the size which lowers the transmission bandwidth requirements.

An automatic scan can go through all the possible channels retrieving and storing the appropriate channel name and major-minor channel identification data. A standard 6 MHz analog channel can have between 19.4 Mbps (8-VSB) to 38.8 Mbps (256-QAM) of bandwidth which is enough for several HD and SD channels. PSIP helps the digital TV and the consumer manage all of this channel information.

Source

• http://www.atsc.org/standards/a65.php

Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8

CNET gives a score of 9 to the 55" Sony XBR8 LED-backlit LCD HTDV which is the highest ever for any LCD display. The Pioneer Elite Kuro 9G plasma still scores a higher perfect 10 as the current HD display champ. The MSRP of the 55" Sony XBR8 is $7000 which is more expensive than the MSRP of the 60" Pioneer Kuro Elite. Bigger screen, better picture quality, lower price. The Kuro plasma is still king.

Sony's Triluminos RGB LED backlight technology differs than the white LED implementation used by the Samsung LN46A950. Sony uses an array of 128 red, green, and blue LEDs that are individually controlled for regional contrast control. If uniform LED regions are used than that works out to about 16 x 8 = 128 LEDs for a 16:9 aspect ratio display. While this backlight technology offers an amazing black level and is an improvement over the CCFL backlights it still has some display issues such as off-axis viewing and region blooming.

Highlights:

• excellent black levels (almost as good as the Kuro)
• off-axis viewing has black level and picture quality degradation
  
• LED array regions produce slight blooming
• Ethernet DLNA supports only pictures (no music, no video)
• USB memory port supports music and pictures (no video)
• they thought the XMB (Crossbar Media Bar) interface was a bit cumbersome
• 120 Hz refresh rate (for dejudder and 24 fps 5:5 pulldown modes)
• advanced color temperature controls (RGB gain/bias)
• "funky" Digital Reality Creation (DRC) video processing for Reality vs. Clarity?
• game mode that reduces video processing lag
• single ATSC/QAM tuner means lack of true PIP
• TV Guide onscreen electronic programming guide (Ethernet or PSIP?)
• Energy Star 3.0 compliance for a calibrated 140W (0.11 W/sq. inch)
• 4 HDMI ports, 3 composite, 1 S-Video Y/C, 2 component YCbCr
• 1920x1080 VGA, 10/100 Ethernet, USB 2.0 port, optical Toslink output,
  
• plus a couple propriety Sony ports for Bravia-link and iPods
  
• very close to D65 performance out of the box
• on completely dark screen: Sony 0.001 cd/m2 vs. Pioneer 0.002 cd/m2
• excellent color accuracy
• LED Motion Plus dejudder
  
• created slight motion artifacts
• Clear mode: 1000 lines of motion resolution
• Smooth / Standard mode: 600 - 700 lines of motion resolution
• Off mode: 300 - 400 lines of motion resolution
• matte screen, excellent ambient light and reflection performance
• average SD performance
  

I feel that the the poor off-axis picture quality is an issue. The CNET reviewer said "Sony's black level performance and color saturation fell off noticeably when we moved off-angle by just one seat cushion on our test couch, while the plasmas stayed consistent." A one seat sweet spot is just not acceptable. I also feel that motion lines of resolution is a major issue. The Sony XBR8 with the LED Motion Plus at maximum has an excellent 1000 lines of motion resolution but it creates slight video artifacts. When disable LED Motion Plus the artifacts go away but the motion resolution drops to 300 lines. So it is a choice, you can't have 1000 lines of motion resolution and be artifact free at the same time. So both the off-axis PQ and motion resolution issues are deal breakers in my book.

The MSRP of the 55" Sony XBR8 is $7000 which is more expensive than the MSRP of the 60" Pioneer Kuro Elite. Bigger screen, better picture quality, lower price. The Kuro 9G plasma is still king.

Review

• http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sony-bravia-kdl-55xbr8/4505-6482_7-33060615.html

Channel Change Speeds

A French monitoring solutions company did a worldwide survey of the amount of time it takes to change a television channel using the +/- buttons. They found that the average channel change time was 1.9 seconds. Satellite services were about twice as slow. Systems that used Microsoft Mediaroom such as U-verse were the fastest at around 0.6 seconds.

My experience with the ATSC and QAM tuners of HDTV's is that channel changes are in the one to two second range. This makes for some painfully slow channel surfing that actually have changed my channel surfing habits completely. I do miss the analog NTSC days when my old Sony XBR RPTV could rapidly surf through about 5 channels a second (0.2 seconds). Digital, and HD especially, offer a far superior picture quality but there were a few nice things about analog. For example; few HD devices today have dual tuners for true PIP operation which used to be a standard feature on mid-end NTSC TV's.

Source

• http://www.iptv-news.com/content/view/2418/64/

Presidential Debate #3 in HD

Tonight is the last of the three presidential debates and like the previous debates it is being broadcast in glorious HD. The candidates for this debate will be sitting at a table facing each other which should provide the opportunity for some good HD closeups.

HD Makeup
High definition is all about looking good on camera and there are actually companies that specialize in HD makeup. It was thought that because of the age difference that HD would play a big factor in the Obama, 47 vs. McCain, 72 presidential debates. Surprisingly McCain looked good in the previous debates. I'd say he looked 15 years younger thanks to the hard work of his SFX crew. With enough high resolution zoom though excessive use of HD makeup could become visible, so keep your eyes open tonight.

Perspiration
For tonight's debate, both sides have requested that air-conditioning vents be placed above their candidate in order to prevent sweating. Excessive perspiration played a role in the televised 1960 Nixon-Kennedy presidential debate. With HD, beads of sweat will easily be visible and this time around they strangely may even add a human element. The American public may be a little wary if one of the candidates comes across as a cyborg. HD makeup plus perspiration may equal smudges, runs, and/or blistering. So again, keep your eyes open tonight.

Resolution
The previous debates were simulcast in HD on all of the major networks (FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS). This provided the opportunity to compare the picture quality of the different networks since it appeared that they all were fed the same official audio/visual HD feed. So I switched between the Bay Area HDTV channels carrying the debate to see who had the best quality. Both KTVU-FOX and KGO-ABC are broadcast at 720p and they were noticeably softer than the other 1080i stations. The picture quality of both KPIX-CBS and KNTV-NBC looked about the same but the KPIX-CBS station banner was obnoxiously large and bright. KQED-PBS has a slightly sharper picture, an extremely minimal station logo in the corner, but unfortunately it suffered from a lip-sync problem which I found annoying. The only explanation for KQED's signal quality was that they were accidentally adding a small time delay to the audio and either artificially sharpening the picture or the other 1080i stations were doing some mild filtering.

So after determining that KNTV-NBC's picture quality, small banner, and correct lip-sync made it the winner I decided to stop surfing, be a maverick, pop open a cold one, and just watch the debate.

Post Debate Update
Just finished watching the debate. This update section will have a lack of political commentary as if I watched the debate with the sound turned off. The focus will be on the HD aspects only.

The air conditioning seemed to be working correctly. No sweat beads or perspiration were visible on either candidate and no HD makeup accidents occurred. Actually neither candidate appeared to be wearing that much HD makeup.

McCain was very brightly illuminated with a cool color temperature which made his skin appear translucent. I was fascinated by the red and blue textures of the veins and arteries beneath the surface. Something seemed wrong with McCain's face; parts of it didn't move as if over-Botoxed and a large bulge on his lower left check occasionally throbbed. It could of been the bright lights but McCain at one point was blinking five times a second. He probably blinked 10,000 times during the whole debate, it was that distracting.

Thanks to NBC's split screen presentation of the HD broadcast McCain could be seen furiously scribbling down notes and making contorted faces of disbelief while Obama was speaking. Obama's behavior during the debate was very cool, calm, and collected while McCain's behavior appeared neurotic.

HD made all these little nuances that much bigger but will any of it make a difference when it comes election day? I doubt it.

FCC Digital Must Carry

The FCC Digital Must Carry rule clarifies how cable companies must carry digital over-the-air broadcast signals for its basic tier subscribers. If a TV station returns its analog spectrum and converts to digital operations then it must be carried by local cable systems. Basic tier service costs about $14/month in most areas. The following are excerpts from the FCC document and an analysis of what they mean and how this is good for consumers:

"The Report and Order finds that the signal strength level necessary to provide a good quality digital signal at a cable system’s principal headend is –61 dBm."

This prevents the cable companies from transmitting a digital signal that to too weak to be demodulated error-free by the QAM tuners in HDTVs.

"Primary Video. The Report and Order finds that the “primary video” entitled to mandatory carriage includes a single programming stream and other program-related content. The television station chooses which one of its unrelated multiplexed signals gets carried under the Act. The Further Notice seeks comment on how to define “program-related” in the context of primary video."

The TV station and not the cable company get to decide which two streams (1 primary and 1 multiplex) will be carried. The HD stream will usually be the primary stream, so the TV station gets to decide which of its sub channels also get to be carried. Some stations have multiple SD streams (> 2) instead a larger HD + SD sub channel configuration, so in that case the TV station gets to decide which two will be carried.

"Program-related. A cable operator would be required to carry the following material carried on a digital television signal because it could be considered program-related under the WGN factors: (1) closed captioning, (2) V-chip data, (3) Nielsen ratings data, and (4) channel mapping and tuning protocols (“PSIP”)."

Requiring that the channel mapping PSIP data be carried without damage is important because this allows a method for consumers and HDTVs to be able to find the channels. Many cable companies place the must carry stations at random locations across the dial which makes them difficult for the user to find. Some cable companies routinely move these stations in a further attempt to frustrate consumers who don't use a cable company supplied set-top box. The PSIP data makes the stations easier to find and some HDTVs will map them automatically.

"The Report and Order finds that a cable operator would not necessarily be materially degrading a digital television signal if it carries less than the full 19.4 mbps transmitted by a broadcaster."

This allows the cable company to utilize QAM modulation which is more bandwidth efficient than the over-the-air ATSC VSB modulation.

"The Report and Order finds that a cable operator may not carry a digital television signal in a lesser format or lower resolution than that afforded to a non-broadcast digital programmer carried on the cable system.

This means that a cable company cannot degrade the video resolution, MPEG-2 bitrate, or audio AC3 bitrate to a level that is lower than any of the extended or premiere channels that is also carries. Since almost all cable companies will broadcast a high quality HBO, Showtime, or VOD stream in high bitrate 1080i with 5.1 384kbps AC3, this means they cannot degrade the must carry channels to a level less than this. They are basically prohibited from transcoding the must carry channel to unencrypted standard def (SD) while charging for the encrypted high def (HD) version.

"However, a digital-only television station may demand that a cable operator carry its digital signal in an analog format without the prohibition against material degradation being violated. If a television station chooses to be carried in this manner, it is treated in the same manner as an analog signal."

This gives the TV station the option to also be broadcast in analog NTSC for non digital-ready viewers. I believe this rule expires sometime in 2010. (TBD, find the exact date with a link to the relevant FCC doc)

"Cable operators are permitted to remodulate digital broadcast signals from 8 VSB to 64 or 256 QAM. Cable operators are not required to pass-through 8 VSB."

This allows cable companies to use QAM which is more bandwidth efficient than VSB modulation and will allow more channels to be broadcast on the cable. This also allows cable company set-top boxes to only have QAM tuners which should reduce costs.

"The Report and Order finds that there is no need to implement channel positioning requirements for digital television signals like those that exist for analog signals."

This allows the cable company to place the must carry station at any digital channel location it wants. It is unfortunate that this exception exists because when there are 100+ digital channels this becomes a game of find the needle in the haystack for the consumer. Fortunately PSIP alleviates some of this pain.

"The Report and Order finds that channel mapping protocols contained in the PSIP datastream adequately address a television station’s channel positioning concerns."

See above. Unfortunately the first generation of digital HDTVs don't support PSIP that well.

"The Report and Order finds that a cable operator must notify its subscribers whenever a digital television signal is added to the cable system channel line-up."

This allows a consumer to know when to perform an auto-scan and find the new channels. Unfortunately the cable company is not required to notify subscribers when they randomly move channel numbers around.

"The Report and Order finds that digital television signals must be available to subscribers on a basic service tier. The Further Notice seeks comment on voluntary carriage of digital signals on a tier other than the basic tier."

This just restates the requirement that basic tier subscribers be able to receive digital channels without any extra charge.


Summary

The basic tier subscriber cannot be charged extra for the ability to view local HD stations in their original quality. Transmission options are clear-QAM, VSB, or issuing free set-top boxes to all subscribers. For technical and economic reasons the cable companies will choose the clear-QAM option.

Comcast HD channel lineup

With Comcast's $14/month Limited Basic service in the California Bay Area (Silicon Valley region) the following high definition (HD) clear-QAM channels can be received:

station   channel   affiliate   resolution
KTVU-HD   2.001     FOX         720p
KRON-HD   4.002     myTV        720p
KPIX-DT   5.001     CBS         1080i
KGO-DT    7.001     ABC         720p
KQED-HD   9.001     PBS         1080i
KNTV-HD   11.001    NBC         1080i
KICU-DT   36.001                720p
KBCW-HD   44.001    CW          1080i

These channels are not encrypted and they can be decoded with any HDTV that has a built-in QAM tuner. Note that the required over-the-air ATSC tuner is different than a QAM tuner. So if your HDTV has a built-in QAM tuner, most new models do, then you are good to go. A separate set-top box, cableCARD, or extra digital cable service fee is not required thanks to the FCC's digital must carry rule.

To find these clear-QAM signals the HDTV's automatic channel scan will need to be performed. These HD channels may be randomly placed across the dial so you may need to hunt for them. Using the televisions "favorites" feature will make it easier to quickly surf only the HD channels. The station identification info will automatically be extracted with an HDTV that supports the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP). Comcast may also choose to move the station numbers around from time-to-time so you may need to occasionally rescan for them. The cable companies don't tell you this and they don't make it easy but these "clear-QAM" signals are available for free with a "basic cable" subscription service.