Meet the 4th D, the sense of smell. SmellIt is a miniature gadget meant to connect to your PC and bring a “fourth dimension” to video and gaming.

French company Olf-action will be demoed at Lisbon Design Show, from 11 to 16 October 2011. This would form  the fourth dimension on movie and game entertainment, the smell dimension. Pure smell, pure movie and game experience.

SMELLIT can make you drool, like when you see that Chef taking a hot and crispy pizza from the oven. Or make you turn your head and wish you can take that “putrefaction” cartridge out of the smell board.

How SmellIt 4D works

SMELLIT works just like your printer, but instead of ink cartridges, it works with smell cartridges. As your DVD player reads the video and sound information from your favourite DVD disc, SMELLIT processes the same DVD, but the ”smell CARD” decodes all the smell information from 10 to 20 seconds ahead of the actual scene so the odours have time to reach the spectators. After decoding the smell information, the cartridge vaporizes a very small amount off concentrated “smell gel”, and the central fan distributes equally the smell in all directions. It can be loaded with 118 cartridges, each one with a different concentrated “smell gel”. All the cartridges can be easily changed and last 3 times more than a regular ink cartridge.

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Better the cable, less the cross-talk, less the noise, better signal you get. But is it the same for digital cables like HDMI? Short answer, you DON’T need an expensive cable. Long answer: read on.
Signal Quality & Factors

HDMI & DVI use Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS).

Transition Minimized: The binary data  (1s and 0s) at the source of a Bluray or HD box is not exactly the 1s and 0s your TV uses to create a picture. Before sending the signal out via the HDMI output, the 1s and 0s are optimized to minimize how many transitions there are. So instead of 10101010, the transmission may look like 11110000. Even though you might think the whole data is changed, its not hard to re-contruct the data at receiving end.

Differential Signaling: Each HDMI cable is actually multiple, small copper wires. Two versions of the data are sent over different wires. One of these is out of phase with the “real” signal. The TV receives all the data, puts the out-of-phase signal back in phase, then compares it to the “real” signal. Any noise picked up along the way will now be out of phase, and as such it is effectively negated and ignored.
This is exactly how Twisted pair in LAN networking works, there is no affect of external noise.

In digital world, either its all right or all wrong, no change of something in between.  With HDMI signal, you either get everything and it’s perfect, or it isn’t perfect and you get nothing.

When there can be a problem

But there are scenarios where you’ve a long hdmi cable and you can have trouble in signal quality. If HDMI cable is faulty (this means one of the wires inside cable is broken) you would get white pixels.This a very rare scenario & is called Sparkles more like snow or sometimes static white pixels: image credit: cnet

Sparkles are not noise. They are failures that denote something is broken and you need a new HDMI cable.

No difference in Quality, whatsoever

But the thing to remember is  that there is NO way that one HDMI cable would have “better picture quality” than another.
All the claims about differences in picture quality are remnants of the analog days, which were barely valid then and not at all valid now.

This is true for both Video & Audio, in fact audio has even better error correction, no way one cable is better than another.
Types of HDMI Cable

There are only 4 types of HDMI cables:
High Speed (also called Category 2) 1080p with or without Ethernet, and Standard Speed (Category 1) 1080i with or without Ethernet.

There is no difference in 100hz, 120hz, 200hz, 240hz cable. Its only 4 types of cables that we already mentioned. Everything else is a marketing gimmick. You don’t need a new HDMI cable for 3d, its all fake.

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4k Video Downloader is a cross-platform, open source video downloading application to grab videos from YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo and Facebook.

4K displays are ideal for 100” screens:

What’s more is the options to chose video quality, portability. You can easily chose to download SD videos compatible with your iPod on Windows, Mac and Linux based operating systems.

To download video from any of the Video providers: Youtube, dailymotion, Facebook, simply copy the video URL and click Paste URL. Immediately,  app would display thumbnail preview of the video, you can then select and download the video.

4K downloader

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LG has invented a new Technology called FPR or Film Patterned Retarder. FPR is said to be most superior 3D liquid crystal display (LCD) systems.

What’s different in FPR

The current generation system uses a frame sequential method and the display is viewed using liquid crystal shutter glasses (SG). The new technology uses a polarized film substrate in the panel and is viewed using polarized film glasses. FPR reduces the vertical resolution to half that of a panel and produces a near-4K resolution full high definition 3D picture that is extremely sharp and bright. The system was demoed on an 84-inch display, playing a 4x times 1080p HD video.

It argues that the current generation of Shutter Glasses (SG) 3D panels have problems with the weight of the shutter glasses, power consumption and reduced brightness. By contrast, LG Display’s new FPR technology has no flickering, produces minimal cross talk (the blurry ghosting image) and delivers a brighter screen. This allows for 3D glasses to be lighter, polarized and more curved like regular glasses.

The polarized film glasses eliminate the flicker and crosstalk problems and neither do they require power from batteries or USB charge and hence are more comfortable. This would also remove synchronization errors, and occasional interruptions.

The step is evolutionary, and not by any means revolutionary. 3D TVs without Glasses would be the revolution. But achieving 4K resolution in 3D is the next big thing.

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Google may seem to have solved the problem by taking a step ahead in Online HighDef videos promoting videos upto 4096p or 4K (a reference resolution of 4096 x 3072) Isn’t that 3072p ?



Youtube added FullHD 1080p videos a year back an today youtube supports videos from resolution 360p all the way up to 4096p.

4K resolution is freaking awesome for nextgen Highdef. To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors, so Youtube videos would be twice as good, 4x times resolution of 1080p (1920×1080)  At 4096 x 3072 pixels.

Experience 4096p Videos:

At this point of time, only high-end professionals own camera capable of doing 4096p, but Youtube has made available a playlist that let you experience the ultimate HD.

4K cameras cost in 100,000s of dollars and so are the projectors which are the size of a small refrigerator. Soon things should start entering consumer market.

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It was said that iPhone 3GS had 720p too, but in order to save on the battery juice, they had to do it.

Xda developer’s user CharnSingh has unveiled a mod/update that lets you raise the limtis of the video recording to something that looks good on the eyes: 720p HD. The update (unfortunately) is currently limited to Android 2.1 eclair and would not work for Froyo, but the update should be coming some time soon. The mod works only on Rooted Nexus One phones. To get the mod to work you’ll need to be running Cyanogen’s CM5.0.8test3 and up.

Download the Mod

Works with intersect kernel. Here is a 720p video Demo:

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As June approaches, it makes alot more sense for Cupertino company to unveil the iPhone HD. After the release of Android 4G (HTC EVO), it’s quiet possible that we would see and 4g version on iPhone later this year, if not in june, on Verizon.

The next iPhone is being manufactured by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry. It’s also stated that the world’s first CDMA iPhone will be manufactured by Pegatron Technology. If all goes well, Pegatron could begin mass production of the CDMA iPhone (exact model not disclosed) this September, and this could be powered by Verizon’s LTE, that has been undergoing testing for a while.
Apple has seen enough pain with AT&T complaints, its time for them to get a “quality” mobile operator.  It’s highly probable that within 2010 the AT&T exclusivity of iPhone would drop and we would see home long asked demands met with Verizon.

iPhone HD Specs?

The Current Android market has started to beat iPhone on the hardware specs. A High resolution screen, front facing camera, HD video recording, 4G connectivity is minimum Apple has to incorporate to have their edge on the market.

John Gruber, the polite guy who is mostly right with Apple predictions, expects to see A4-class SoC (just like iPad), a 960 x 640 display, a front-facing camera, and that iPhone OS 4.0 will enable third-party multitasking.

It was a month back when Steve Jobs said ” Google wants to kill iPhone, and we won’t let them”. Smells like something is coming and it’s BIG.

When is iPhone HD Coming?
The rumors and experience from the past intersect on June 22nd (tuesday). The first launch is signalled to be  iPhone HD, a model with higher resolution screen, camera, multitasking, then later in the year comes 4G/LTE version which would appear on Verizon.

Rumors look better than before, but only time will  show us the hits and the misses.

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The Reason I stress on this detail is because a properly planned home theater room will give you improvements of sound, and visuals that will be 100% more noticeable difference. And not to forget, years of trouble free entertainment.

You don’t have to be an expert in electronics or home building to achieve the best home theater. One important detail, though, is whether or not you plan to use an already existing room or if you plan to add an addition to your home specifically for the home theater.

How to setup a Home Theater

Let’s get started, The first step is to:

1. Plan The Home Theater Installation Stage:

There are some things to consider before you go ahead and purchase your equipment. Have you planned where your home theater set up is going to be or exactly how you want everything laid out. Believe me, do this now and you won’t regret it. Here’s a few tips in the planning stage:

- Draw a map? You’ll need a rough draft of your home theater down on paper. Look at your room and picture in your mind where everything is going to sit.

- Your map should not just include the equipment placement but also doors and windows. Important to determine if their are going to be obstruction issues.

- Will you be putting in a projection unit? or HDTV ? How much sunlight comes into the room? If it’s a lot then window coverings become an issue.

- How many power outlets do you have in the room?

- Is wiring going to be an issue? Give this serious thought. You want your wiring out of the way. It should be neatly planned to run along the wall boundaries and not across the room.

2. Planning the Room

A Home theater with all the “bells and whistles” is going to use up more power than your average room in the house. Will your power supply be able to handle the load? Ask a professional for advice but most homes will be able to handle the extra power. Power outlets…do you have enough? Again, very important to make sure you have more than you need. Believe me, you’ll need them at some stage.

Circuit boards and safety breakers are also necessary. Power boards with safety breakers in case of power surge and overload are desirable, particularly during thunderstorms.

3. Using A Professional Designer to change Room acoustics
You may very well be a movie nut or a sporting fan and love nothing better than to sit back in the comfort of your own home, watching it in your own special cinema style set up. And in case you are not very geeky on acoustics, not to worry. Home theater installation can be done by professionals. They’ll design the layout from equipment placement to acoustics and even suggest what equipment will suit your home theater. Remember, it’s going to stand the test of time so plan it properly.

While building an entirely new room will allow you to design your theater exactly as you would like it, it is also by far the more expensive option. Using an already existing room can help you save money but it also means you have to work with what you’ve got.

There are many different types of home theater interiors that you can draw inspiration from. Plus, if you’ve hired a professional to help with the home theater designs or setup, then using pictures can help give them a clear idea of what you want.

Once you have the general idea of what you’d like to do down on paper, then it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty details. Doing more specific sketches of certain areas and features of the room will be necessary. These drawings will deal with things like your home theater seating, the home theater speakers (you can’t just rely on the television speaker when you’re building a home theater), the wiring, the home theater lighting, any cabinets you may be putting in and so on. Now that you’ve got your room picked out (or have given yourself the freedom to build a new one), it’s time to do a home theater room design.

4. Home Theater Furniture
One of the first and most essential decisions you will need to make is about the seating in your home theater. What type of chair do you plan to install? A couch? A recliner? A high-backed seat? Where do you want the seats to go? Do you plan to have decked seating? These are important decisions as they will affect all the other areas of your home theater design.

The number of seats you plan to install will dictate how much available floor space you have. The location of the seats will determine just where all your home theater equipment has to go as well as the sightlines to the screen.

Many home theater experts advise against the use of high-backed seating because the added height serves to absorb some of the sound. Additionally, recliners are also not the ideal type of home theater furniture because they allow a viewer’s head position to change. Both of these factors can subtract from your listening pleasure. However, because of the exquisite comfort these seats provide, many home theater owners and builders are willing to overlook this detail.

5. The length of your walls can work with or against you when it comes to the acoustics in your room. Parallel walls are the main reason of trouble. If you’re building the room, then the easiest way to resolve this problem is by building a room with walls of different lengths. However, this might look odd and the worst part, you will have hard-time selling the house (in case you plan to do that). That’s why we would go with an do-able option — Cover your walls and floor with some absorbing material — Decorative curtains,  carpeting, even foam can help keep the sound from bouncing all over your room, and you achieve the purpose quiet well.

6. Home theaters usually have a lot of electronics associated with them. and so are the wires. No one likes to see those wires floating around from one side to the other end. though in market you would find several HT audio systems which are wireless, I won’t recommend any. Wires are good, with wireless audio you lose fidelity. And we love fidelity: Fidelity eXtreme (Remember FX in Taranfx?).

If you’re building the room from scratch, then you have easier solutions by placing some of the wiring in the new walls or even under the floor. In office spaces, even ceiling are used, that’s totally upto you.  Using pvc/plastic pipes or tubing is also a handy way to keep wires and cords neat while also camouflaging them. Try to match the colors so taht they are virtually invisible with your walls, corners. Running the wire clutter under carpet is another nifty option. Cut out small sections of the padding to place the cords in, so tthat you don’t endup making the floor humpy.

7. Theaters are not known for being well-lit areas, so when it comes time to pick the lighting, resist bright light sources. Use indirect lighting, always. Using few CFLs distributed over the room’s ceiling is a good option. Also, when you pick or design a room, go with one that has few windows. Basements are great for home theaters because they usually have small windows or even no windows at all, but it’s often hard to get if you live up in flats.

8. Whatever room you choose, try to pick one that has a minimal amount of exterior noises. Overall, there should be good sound-proofing bothways — What’s inside shouldn’t go out, what’s outside shouldn’t come in. I always missed this one and my dad used to say one day my neighbours are going to kick me out, don’t let that happen

9. Consider putting in cabinets or shelves that have space for each piece of equipment you plan to install. While many people do it, it is a bad idea to stack your home theater accessories on top of each other. The electronics can build up heat, which can hinder their performance.

10. The Final Speaker Layout

Depending on the room you built so far, try to match your audio setup as in the diagram. By the way, that is from Official Dolby Guide for 5.1 audio. They recommend optimum angles for better and more clear sound.

Try to keep your center channel below your video source. this helps in getting cleaner audio Vocal and Dialogues.

Your front speakers go 24 degrees to 35 degrees from your place of viewing. Make sure they are tilted slightly so that they focus on you. The purpose bean when movie plays those gunshots, they should target you!

Rear speaker good for ambiance and surround effects, go slightly behind your earsmaking a 10 degree difference from the perpendicular.

And last but not the least your Woofer! HTs would be all crap without a good woofer. Best place for a woofer is in the corner. It doesnt matter which corner it is, but keeping the woofer near the walls raises the BOOM effect as much as 100% compared to when kept at center of the room. Don’t keep too near to your sitting area, it may damp other audible frequencies.

So, you should be all set to Rock the room! Plugin your BluRay and watch Transformers transforming your HT experience.

If you dont already own a Audio system, Stay tuned for article on  ”Choosing your Audio”.

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Credits to Repair-home, Dolby, CNET, HTMag, HTGuide.

Keeping up to the speed, Acer has shown us some great 3D displays and now releases the H5360, a $900 ’3D Ready’ digital projector.  The projector is certified by Nvidia’s 3D Vision (which means it has refresh rate high enough to interpolate stereoscopic image side-by-side), which gives it the name “3D”

Finally, I got a chance for Hands-on with this device with one of my friend. I used it over a span of 4-5 days and was more than impressed.

Overall Hardware

The H5360 comes in a  great form-factor, the whole thing is bundled nicely into a, relatively, small package  (26.8×19.2×8.0 cm) and weighs decent 2.2kg. Shiny white poly-carbon casing looks fabulous, fits smart-Rooms pretty-well.

Specifications:

• Display Type: DLP (digital light processor)
• Resolution: 720p (1280×720) Native, Compressed upto 1080p HD
• Refresh rates: >120Hz
• Colors: 1.07 billion
• Brightness 2500 Lumens
• Contrast Ratio: 3200:1
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Native and 4:3 compatible
• Power usage: 224 watts. Idle usage <1watt

The specs clearly mention that it runs 720p HD resolution natively and can interpolate 1080p, when forced. I must say at 720p it does a great job but 1080p, I was rather unhappy.

Features

H5360 has a good lens that can be adjusted for a zoom using a dial lever and  Focus is adjusted using a notched ring. elevating the projector to the right angle and height is easy with rubberized stands,  and there’s proper provision for wall, ceiling mounting as well.

All the connectors are placed conveniently at the back of the case: Analog RGB/Component, RCA, S-Video,3 RCA, HDMI, PC Audio stereo jack, Serial RS232 (Mini DIN). There’s a good inbuilt speaker too, that powers a 2watt RMS audio through it. with movies, Dialogues were loud and very clear.

The remote control that ships with it is pretty basic and easy to use. Usage angle extends practically to 130degrees, but real values depend upon positioning and size of the room.

Picture quality

When it comes to the real thing, it does it all brilliantly. the output was bright even in a well lit room. My test room had 4 CFLs powered from indirect sources(Havel’s 22watts). The projector managed to project a sharp and vibrant image during 720p video playback.

As far as 3D video is concerned, the device is fully certified by Nvidia for 3D vision. With 3D vision equipment connected, and original glasses put-on the experience was real-life. I was amazed to see IMAX level 3D effects at the convenience of home. I wish I could take a video in 3d to share the experience.

Taranfx Verdict

If you are a movie addict or a heavy gamer, waiting to explore the 3D space at an affordable price, this projector will satisfy all your senses. But yeah, you will need Nvidia Vision and supported graphics card before you can get “3d”. And if you would rather prefer a 2D FullHD projector on Cheap, check our DIY.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for more. More on Gadgets, Android, iPhone and Tech news via @taranfx on Twitter or:

The Proof of Concept comes when one tries to play a 1080p High-Def video in VLC vs. using other Codecs. Our previous post talks about superior contenders in Codecs: CoreAVC, that lets you play 1080p smoothly, even on low-end machines (1.5Ghz Dual core, low-end GPU).

Well, the things are about to change for this open-player. The next VLC version i.e. 1.1 will come with a lot of new features. Here are the key features:

GPU-Based Decoding
This is the most coolest one. Technologies like CUDA are closed and limited to NVIDIA only, but VLC opens up the gateway to General Purpose processing using GPU with DxVA (DirectX Video Acceleration API) on Windows Vista and Windows 7, and VAAPI on Linux.

It works for few GPUs and reduces CPU usage pretty well, but on others might not. You can check the GPU compatibility list here. This should improve as we get near to the final version.

Extensions
Starting with version 1.1, users will be able to write their own plugins for VLC, codenamed Extensions. The difference with other VLC modules consists in the language used to write these Extensions: Lua, a simple a lightweight scripting language, embedded inside VLC media player.

How to use Extensions:
Download the VLC (Nightly build link available at the bottom) and Lua scripts and copy them to your VLC scripts folder:

• Linux: ~/.local/share/vlc/lua/extensions/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\VLC\lua\extensions

Open the Plugins & Extensions dialog to reload the list of extensions.

New Media library
Till now, VLC was just a player with no library. This is going to change with v1.1. It will now have a searchable music/video database (based on SqlLite) for easy access and management.

New Playlists, MIDI Support
VLC will add support for WPL (WMP playlist), ZPL playlists and MIDI sequences.

Windows 7 Integration
Starting from VLC 1.0.0.3, VLC started to feature Windows 7 Integration. VLC 1.1 plans to bring all the cool stuff that is available to Windows Media Player: Preview Thumbnails, recent media, jump lists, etc.

All New User Interface
The New UI will become a lot more prettier and intuitive.

New Visualizations
Milkdrop visualizations come to VLC using Opensource project projectM.

Desktop Wallpaper Overlay
Remember the cool Feature of WinAMP that enabled you to put videos on the desktop behind icons? Same thing is now coming to VLC.

Possible Mobile Support
From what I heard, it is getting Nokia N900 port and may be few more smartphones.

I took the GIT build a few days back to try out all the new stuff and decided to upload it for enthusiasts. You can download the nightly build of the VLC 1.1 from the link provided below.

IMPORTANT: Just to warn you, VLC 1.1 is BETA, Most of the features are available but can be buggy.

Download VLC 1.1 [Windows] [Mac OS x] [Linux, Others]

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Yes, you heard it right. We would see 3D HD channels coming to home within 2010, so HDMI 1.4 brings all that using a new Spec. Why? Logically, the bandwidth is now doubled by adding dual-stream video inputs (for 3D) each of 1080p images.

”As a leading global standard for HD connectivity, the HDMI Consortium takes the market’s needs very seriously,” says Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, LLC. “3D is a nascent market and thus continues to evolve quickly. We have taken input from leading industry associations and this announcement reflects the HDMI Founders’ commitment to continuously and proactively set the foundation for innovations that will deliver the next generation of content. The addition of the new format will secure the application of 3D for broadcasting, in addition to the existing applications for Blu-ray and gaming.”

However, there is an alternate too, broadcasters have requested to support backward compatibility using “Top/Bottom” 3D transmissions. What this will do is sacrifice resolution while saving bandwidth by shoving left/right images into a single frame. That can add a new spec: “HDLite” (get ready for 3DLite). Using this, all existing Blu-Ray, PS3 users will get a software upgrade to 3D till the new FullHD 1080p HDMI 1.4 goes mainstream.

[source: VirtualPressOffice]

Who Should buy one – Are you a movie freak? You love HD content or you are a hardcore gamer? You may be a passionate laptop guy that needs a bigger rich screen, LCD HDTVs are for you.

When buying a LCD/LED HD TV, there are few things you should look for in the Specs:

1. Contrast Ratio: Contrast ratio, by definition,  is a measure of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black) that the system is capable of producing. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display, but with the various methods of measurement for a system or its part, remarkably different measured values can sometimes produce similar results.

The problem lies in the fact that most manufacturers mention the Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast can come out to be much higher than actual contrast. For good contrast, a value of 60,000 or above is what you should look for.

2. Screen resolution: There are large no. of TVs in the market with different resolutions. the most common names you will hear are HD Ready and FullHD. In simple words, HD ready says i can play 720p video. FullHD says I can play 1080p. Infact, FullHD is the highest you will get in the market. Knowing the fact that most TV channels and movie content from BluRay DVDs will be 1080p, go for FullHD TV sets.

3. Response time: Response time refers to the time that it takes to change the state of on an individual LCD pixel. Response times can specify the time it takes a pixel to change state from black-to-white-to-black or from one gray level to the next gray level. There is no real industry standard on how or what to report as response time, so take this number with a grain of salt (unless you know the measurement specifies of this value). Typical older LCD response times had been around 4 ms. Many of the newer LCD TVs now incorporate faster 2 ms pixels. Response times also affect motion blur and jitter. Don’t buy a TV with response time >5ms.

4. Refresh rates: It refers to the number of times per second a TV screen is updated with a new image. The typical refresh rate for US TVs has been 60 times per second (60 Hz) and for Europe and India is 50Hz. LCD TVs suffer from motion blur. One technique used to help reduce motion blur is to increase the refresh rate to 120 times per second (120 Hz) or 100 times (100Hz). Look for a TV that has TruMotion or equivalent technology running @ 100Hz or 120Hz or above.

5. Look for Features: Some TVs gives you good no. of features like plugging in your USB and playing DIVX video, audio, photos. Also, LG provides Bluetooth for 2 way streaming of the audio., etc.

6. Inputs & ouput ports: This is important consideration before you decide upon a LCD. If you want to hookup your LCD HDTV with home audio and video sources/outputs you need to consider them. Here is what you should look for:

- Multiple HDMI ports (3 preferred)

- RGB (also called VGA port, used to conenct to PC)

- Audio video ports

- Component ports

7. Power saving/consumption: Most LCDs in market are NOT energy efficient, as we move to a more greener world, we need gadgets which are more energy efficient. Look for a panel which consumes peak power not more than  200Watts. some of the decent nes consume 150watts during normal usage.

Some of the good brands even have power saving technicques embedded like auto dimming and switching off when not being used actively just like your notebook LCD. These were some of the things you should look.

Now Here is the list what you should NOT look for in LCD TV:

1. Screen Brightness & Illuminance: When you visit a showroom, you will often see people choosing the display which the most vibrant. Stop right there. Its not about illuminance and brightness of the display, rather its about the crispness and the detail of the picture you get on the screen. Look for the panel which displays colors naturally rather then saturating them. Try to adjust screen contrast/brightness to bring them down to a level that you will use in your daily life. And then compare the detail and clarity.

2. Audio: You must be wandering I’m talkin about LCD TV for home entertainment and i didnt even mention about Audio? That’s true. you don’t need to consider this. Don’t be surprised but when you are buying a LCD TV, dont look for TV which has better audio. Most LHDTVs that i see in market are labelled 10 +10 Watts RMS., which is sufficient for them. The reason being, you can always extend the audio to the levels you expect by adding good home audio solutions. But if you sacrifice of image quality once, You are stuck!

3. Contrast ratio: Contrast ratio is one point which you should look for and Not look for. Sounds confusing? Earlier, I explained why contrast ratio can be a misnomer for choosing “better quality” of picture. The rule of the game is that “Trust your eyes” rather than the quoted ratio by the manufacturer. Play some good vibrant FullHD content on the displays and try to figure out the difference between the contrasts. Figure out which screen has better darkness for showing Black color. which pscreen shows better red, which screen has better vibrance, etc.

All in all, if you follow these guidelines, I’m sure you will come home with a decent  LCD HDTV! Happy shopping

With the latest offering, they target the 3D entertainment space.

The TV features 55-inch 1080p panel with a true 240Hz refresh rate. 240Hz, though doubted to be any advantage over 100Hz, is the highest one can find i the market. To enjoy the 3D content, you will have to use a set of “shutter” glasses, which rapidly alternate between blocking out the left and right eye, thereby creating 3D effect.

Of course, the value or otherwise of a TV like this is going to be found only by experiencing its output in person. If you by chance put-up near Seoul this week, head on down to the IMID 2009 conference get eyes-on this product.

At the moment, there’s far more content available on good old Blu-Ray HD than there will be in either 3D format and that’s not going to change very fast. Unless you’re a really big fan of a particular title that’s available in 3D, you’re likely to sit this out for a while.

[via engadget]

Method 1. Right Codec (Software)

Earlier we made a comprehensive post on how you can get 1080p fullHD Video Playback on any PC. Follow the guide, it will help you do it with software upgrade.

Method 2. Video Decoder accelearator (Hardware)

Most Light and portable Netbooks will even cry while playing 720p because of limited Intel Atom CPU Power and onboard Intel GMA chipset. In such cases, it’s better to give your hardware an upgrade using external video accelerators.

These hardware are capable of H.264 and VC-1 video compression algorithms to netbook and nettop applications like the playback of streaming media and downloaded media as well as Blu-ray discs. The chipset is capable of full HD real-time decoding. The high performance and low power consumption of the solution allow reduced CPU utilization and support for mobile platform designs. A typical such chipset supports any compliant resolution from QVGA up to 1920 x 1088.

Broadcom BCM 70012

Here are the Popular Choices:

Broadcom BCM 70012

It connects to your Laptop via Mini PCI-e interface.

You can buy them from eBay for approximately $20.

How to install: Open your laptop and look for PCI-e slot. Get it done from a hardware expert, in case you find it difficult. Aldo, there are pci-e to USB adaptors too.

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For complete HD Home Theater Experience, do checkout Suggested Reading below-

Can a PC with 1.6Ghz Dual core and Intel Extreme Graphics Play 1080p ?: Yes, read-on to find-out.

Minimum Requirements for Running 1080p on PC:

A. The minimum requirements to play FullHD content on PC are pretty high, with a standard Codec.

Processor: 2.4Ghz (dual core) or 3.5Ghz (single Core) processor.

Graphics: Nvidia/ATi having bare minimum 256MB Video RAM and core clock 600Mhz.

When you try to play it in a lower config PC, the video plays but is often jerky.

In most PCs, today, this will be hard to achieve since either of the two minimum requirement is not met and in some cases both. But the problem is not limited by the Hardware, but it’s with the codec that you use.

Codecs:

Popular codecs like FFDShow, Klite pack, CCCP, and the one inbuilt in the popular VLC media player, do not make the optimal usage of the Hardware. The best one I know of, that will let you play FullHD 1080p on a basic config, is  CoreAVC.

CoreAVC (which actually includes Haali as part of its setup) is a multi-core aware AVC video decoder. It is a proven high performing Codec (in absence of GPU) that  let’s you play 1080p on:

Minimum Requirements (using CoreAVC):

Processor: 1.5 Ghz (Dual core), 2.6Ghz (single core)

Graphics: Modern Intel Extreme Graphics or Nvidia or ATi with 128MB video RAM, core clock 300Mhz.

That’s like almost every PC can do it. On average, this means even a 4 year old PC can play it.

How to Run it on any PC:

You can Purchase the CoreAVC or request a trial and download Media Player Classic to accompany it. With Both installed, Open your HD files in Media player Classic, and all your 720p, 1080p Video files will be smoother than ever.

CoreAVC costs $14.95, but it’s worth spending for a HT PC. Though, it’s available over torrents too, but I won’t encourage piracy.

The latest version supports Nvidia CUDA. CUDA is a Nvidia’s proprietary technology that let’s your GPU (graphics card) do the work that normally CPU does. With this feature enabled in CoreAVC, you can watch 1080p with low CPU utilization. e.g. for 8400GM, CPU utilization goes down to 20-30% for 1080p as compared to 60-80% without the feature being turned ON.

You can get the Full list of CUDA enabled cards here.

I hope this had been some help to you. Post your questions, I`ll be happy to answer them.

A California based startup, HDI, has introduced what it calls the world’s first laser-based 3D HDTV. This is a 1080p 3D that you’ve never seen before,  production is smoother than RealD, Dolby, film and pretty much every other 3D solution.

It’s all being driven by new technology that has replaced the old red-blue glasses with stylish models designed for digital.

The secret is in the speed. This display is so fast that the image “no longer needs to flash from one eye to the other,” and no flashing should equate to no headaches.

“This device is unique in the fact that it’s extremely fast,” says Chief Technical Officer Edmund Sandberg. “It will do over a thousand frames a second. That allows you to integrate all the color and everything into one device.”

For the laser light source, HDI has developed a laser module that contains a red, green and blue laser, each having an output of 1 Watt. The Laser-Television system had a diagonal of 100 inches and an aspect ratio of 16:9. With a power consumption of 150 Watts, 300 nits were presented on the screen. The contrast ratio was stated to be about 1000:1

The colors are richer than anything else, because they come from lasers. The lasers are cheap. They’re low power, consuming just 1W each. Try that with your plasma. And it’s true HD. Not just 1080p, but 1080 Hertz.

The company faces many challenges. Others are experimenting with lasers, and 3D capable televisions already exist. But no one has quite managed to combine everything in a package with 3D flash without all the flashing.

There’s no release date but we are hopeful to have a a sneak peek at CES 2010.

via engadget

Specs: This sleek device has a remarkable 5-inch touchscreen and Ultra Wideband HDMI (with receiver) to connect to your HDTV.

The Eee Keyboard’s netbook-like specs also include a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16- or 32GB solid-state hard disk, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, Wireless HDMI, a USB 2.0 and ofcourse battery (of unknown capacity). And of course standard stuff – Ethernet, audio, etc.

It would be priced bit on the higher side – $400-$500. And with Windows 7 debuting on October 22, hopefully the Eee Keyboard will ditch XP altogether or may be Linux to cut costs ont hat front.

A PC in a Keyboard?

The idea is new and will prevail for a new segment in the market. A segment which would go mainly with the multimedia and Internet freeks. Playing a HD movie wireless from your keyboard(oops PC) to HDTV, streaming online content, browsing the web would be a new experience altogether.

The built in screen is good, features full 16bit colors, though resolution is still unknown. It shouldn’t be less than that of iPhone (320×480). Though you can’t do much over the 5″ touch display, Asus has still smartly added a Cellphone like interface which runs apps like Doc, Facebook, browser just like your iPhone. I’m not sure how much will that be of utility, since it’s not a phone-like gadget. But still, it will primarily serve as Info and Media controller.

Fair deal. The only thing that remains in question is How far will battery’s juice last when you are streaming HD movies to your TV? If Asus does well over this, we are sure, they got it all.

The October launch is set for U.S and Europe. Meanwhile, get the feel by watching this Hands-on Video (via netbooknews.com)

Let us know what you think.

Now the company is taking the Graphics capability of the device to the next level. Creative announced that it is collaborating with Adobe to optimise and enable Adobe Flash Player  to enhance the Web experience across a wide range of mobile and digital home devices.

This implementations of Adobe Flash Player will enable users to experience uncompromised Web browsing, full H.264 HD video playback and rich Flash technology based content on any platform based on its ZMS media-rich applications processors and recently announced handheld Zii EGG StemCell Computer.

“Users want the same rich Web experience on all their devices, be it their internet tablet, mobile device or high-definition TV and like Adobe, we are dedicated to deliver the best visual experience on all these platforms” said Tim Lewis, Director of Marketing and Partner Relations, ZiiLABS. “Our long heritage implementing OpenGL, 3D graphics and multi-format video acceleration put us in a great position to work with Adobe to provide a no-compromise implementation of Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR™ on ZMS processors”

The initiative is called Open Screen Project. And Adobe is enlightened about this:

“We are excited to welcome ZiiLABS as a new participant to the Open Screen Project” said Anthony Haag, Director of Business Development, Open Screen Project, Adobe. “As a provider of innovative application processors, hardware platforms and middleware, ZiiLABS’ support for Flash Player 10 and AIR will help deliver much richer and more immersive user experiences across a broad range of new devices and consumer electronics”

More than this, The device is equipped with Creative’s X-Fi based sound engine that promises to peek out audio quality that would be much better than iPod. Anyways, here are the specs of the device:

Panasonic’s first two models, the DMC-G1 and DMC-GH1, address the latter group pretty well, but don’t really appeal to the compact-minded folks. Plus, the GH1 is fairly expensive, thanks to the pricey bundled lens designed for optimal video capture performance. On the flip side, Olympus nailed the compact market with the E-P1′s design; however, without a built-in flash or viewfinder, a low-resolution LCD screen, and performance that doesn’t necessarily best the typical point-and-shoot, it doesn’t provide mass appeal for the snapshot upgraders. But with the DMC-GF1, it looks as if Panasonic might have produced the first model that hits all the right notes.

The GF1 essentially crams most of the capabilities of the GH1 into a smaller, more affordable camera–and price was one of my main complaints with the GH1.
Unlike the typical optical add-on viewfinders we occasionally see in these types of compacts, the Panasonic offers an electronic viewfinder that plugs in to a connector above the LCD and intercepts the live feed from the sensor. While I’m not a big fan of EVFs, this scheme does have a couple of advantages. First, it delivers a relatively accurate display of the scene framing. And second, Panasonic’s EVF can tilt for off-angle shooting.

via Engadget

Additionally, the GF1 introduces a new scene mode called Peripheral Defocus that automatically opens the aperture as wide as possible given the exposure constraints, plus a mode that lets you adjust depth of field while shooting video. Panasonic also takes a leaf out of Olympus’ Art Filters book with a My Color mode that provides effects presets such as Expressive, Retro, and Silhouette; unlike Olympus’ implementation, however, Panasonic lets you control color, brightness and saturation.

The GF1′s body is closer than ever in size and weight to the enthusiast compacts it will compete with as well.

The GF1 is a lot more expensive than these types of competitors, and even with one of the pancake fixed-focal length lenses it will still be pretty large in comparison. It does pack that HD video recording, though, and many people would consider the flexiblity of interchangeable lenses worth the extra money.

As for the GF1′s third competitive option, dSLRs, the smaller size may be quite attractive to many people, a lot of whom might be willing to sacrifice the burst shooting speed (and continuous shooting is always easier with an optical viewfinder, regardless of frame rate) and high ISO sensitivity performance; I expect the GF1′s noise profile to look very much like the GH1′s, which was inferior to that of the $900 dSLRs the GF1 faces.

Ultimately, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 makes some promises I can’t wait to see if it can fulfill. It’s slated to ship in early October, though we expect to have an evaluation unit before then.

Review

The camera is certainly a bit larger and heavier than it looks from a distance, but housed within the slightly oversized shell are some pretty good optics and some snappy performance. You can’t replicate the satisfying “kerklunk” of a real DSLR shutter, but the GF1 is responsive and clicky enough to give off a much better vibe than the standard camera in this size range. The few shots we took on auto looked quite vibrant in a variety of lighting conditions, though the close-ups showed a disturbingly shallow depth of field — though that could obviously be tweaked. Being the filthy non-purists that we are, we’re most excited by the camera’s 720p video mode, which offers decently fast autofocus with a half press of the shutter button, and zero jelly vision to worry about. The downsides of no line-in and a higher pricetag than the comparable E-P1 aren’t insignificant, but the GF1 will certainly put up a fight. Stick around for some in-camera test footage later on, test stills are below and there’s a hands-on video after the break.

Sample footage is now posted. It was ripped from an AVCHD file to H.264, so there’s been some generational quality loss, but you’ll get an idea of the colors and the motion. We also just got word that the camera is up for pre-order at Amazon. (via engaget)

It comes Loaded with Windows 7 with a brilliant multitouch screen, Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, Nvidia GT240M graphics (pretty good for gaming, and 4GB of RAM.

The Blu-ray drive, Fully functional remote control, wireless keyboard with mouse trackpad promises the Complete Home entertainment.

There’s even a second Sideshow monitor. But it’s the system’s glossy, touch-button and fingerprint-friendly design that would make it an aesthetically welcome addition to one’s typical array of home theater equipment.

Screen supports FullHD 1080p, so there’s nothing that is missing in this one.
Have a Look:

Announced for Europe only at the moment, the X9613 is priced between $2,100 to $2,700.

via New Gadgets

Today Betanews reported that BluRay will not reach end-user PCs till 2015, practically. There are strong reasons to dis-agree.

DVD (4.3GB)and Dual Layer DVD (8 GB) are no longer sufficient to handle the growing demands of the industry. Seven years back, we used to be  happy with a 700mb CD and 10GB HDD. And today CD has a capacity of a joke and you have more space in your cellphones or thumb drives than a CD.

Growth of Data has risen exponentially. Starting from Operating System – Windows 95, for example, used to be <400mb after installation and grew to 13GB in windows 7, Games - NFS 2 was 350mb and NFS Undercover is 8GB. Movies used to be VCDs 700 MB, today they go upto 25GB and above in BluRay, the standard HD 1080p disc.

Thanks to the HD craze in everything we do -Movies, Music, Gaming; DVD fails to satisfy most of our daily needs. We need a standard like BluRay to meet all our hunger for data. A normal Bluray can go upto 110GB – Fair enough for the next 5years of portable data discs.

Blu-ray player sales are on a rapid climb, and Sony’s new PS3 Slim and cheaper PlayStation 3 are expected to cause an explosion in Blu-ray penetration. Next is what? PCs. It’s the same thing that happened with DVDs. They eneterd the Movies market, and PCs started having it.

Most of the High-end Notebooks and all Sony VAIO ship with BluRay RAM or ROM. A typical 50GB BluRay blank disc costs $2.5. that’s the cheapest we have ever seen per GB. Roughly 2cents for a GB. Who can stop this Evolution?

They eventually will find success, but during the next 1 year, that success will be rising exponentially in the PC segment.

According to the Blu-ray team: “Because Blu-ray utilizes a lens with a greater numerical aperture than HD-DVD or any other DVD, the laser spot can be focused with greater precision to fit more data on the same size disc. This allows Blu-ray to hold 25GB per layer (50GB and beyond on a dual-layer disc), whereas HD-DVD can only hold 15GB per layer (30GB on a dual-layer disc). Blu-ray has also adopted a higher data transfer rate for video and audio (54Mbps vs 36.55Mbps).”

On the Movies side of things, studios are rolling out more Blu-ray content every week, there doesn’t seem to be a long way from when every movie will appear on BluRay.

Some analysts predict by 2010, that BD drives will be installed in 50% of the new PCs – Desktop or Notebooks. No word on Netbooks though.

Last 20 years —  The 3.5″ floppy was eventually replaced by the CD-ROM because of the dramatic increase in storage, and the precipitously low price of distributing software on that format  I remember the stacks of floppies  I used to use when installing Microsoft Office. Windows NT 3.1, for example, took up 22 diskettes could be put on a single CD-ROM.

As per CNET, there are 9Reasons why BluRay is a go!-

1. Digital downloads will not eliminate the need for discs anytime soon.
2. Having one clear standard is a big advantage.
3. Blu-ray isn’t going to be replaced by another disc format anytime soon.
4. Prices for large-screen HDTVs will continue to drop.
5. Prices for Blu-ray players will continue to drop.
6. Prices for Blu-ray discs will drop to near DVD price levels.
7. Sony will sell lots of PlayStation 3 game consoles.
8. Sony can’t afford to have Blu-ray fail.
9. Sony and its partners will figure out a way to have Blu-ray resonate with the public — They already Have.

What’s More? Blu-Ray discs are scratch proof. No longer will you pile up old ones in your trash.

Lower production costs were the principal driver for CD-ROM (CD-R, CD-RW) to be replaced by DVD . But now, as most software can’t  fit in DVDs, like  certain Games, Software-SAP (100GB+), BluRay needs to evolve. Production costs have yet to  lower for the higher-capacity Blu-ray formats and for the Hardware, but blank BluRay discs already are affordable.

Storage is on the Rise. And we need Higher capacity and cheaper per GB space.

Evolution is on the edge. It’s coming. Believe it or Not!

As things turn out this is an arbitrary limit set by Apple possibly to conserve battery life or to simply match previous models.

A user of chinese site WeiPhone did a lot of testing with the iPhone 3GS and discovered it can smoothly play back HD video at 30 Mbps in 1980×1080 resolution. The test was done by uploading various HD movies to the iPhone 3GS using the program FileAid and then running them via the iPhones built-in video player.

Not that this has any real usage in everyday life since HD video doesn’t have much of a point on the small iPhone screen. You could however pick up one of those Apple Composite AV cables and run some high-def from iPhone to TV if you REALLY needed to.

Talking about the Hardware, Samsung-branded system-on-a-chip (SoC) featuring a multi-format codec with untapped HD video playback and capture capabilities.

“The S5PC100 enables the integration of various functionalities, such as, wireless communication, personal navigation, camera, portable gaming, portable music/video player, mobile TV and PDA into one device,” the South Korea-based electronic maker says in a PDF published to its website. “The S5PC100 adopts a 32-bit ARM Cortex A8 RISC microprocessor and a 64/32-bit internal bus architecture, and operates up to 833MHz.”

Apple appears to have chosen run the chip, which is rebranded with the following markings, below its maximum clock speed for optimal power consumption. But the additional 233MHz aren’t the only capabilities of the S5PC100 that Apple has chosen to forgo in the iPhone 3G S.

Samsung also notes that its chip sports a high definition multi format codec enabling higher resolution multimedia functions at low power consumption. Specifically, it states that the S5PC100 “features a built-in, 720p multi format codec (MFC) video Engine which ensures smooth 30fps video encoding and playblack at low power consumption, and supports three types of TV out interface (NTSC/PAL/HDMI).”

Apple has thus far decided not to take advantage of these HD capabilities for video recording, as the iPhone 3G S video camera will only capture clips in VGA-quality. Early reviews of handset were mixed in their assessment of the resulting video quality, with some saying it pales in comparison to that from the popular $229 Flip pocket camcorder, while others called it “quiet decent” and said the quality was “impressively smooth and natural.”

Zune HD features new type of music player’s media playback controls that we have ever seen.
Watchout the video.

And an older Review -