Any reviews of the Sony?

[Anonymous]

have wasted a few minutes on Google and it seems that nobady has actually tried out the Sony bluray recorder which was reputedly released in Japan back in April. Was this actually released on time? Does it work? Is bluray all an elaborate web hoax ??

[Blu-Wave]

It’s old (from last year) and it’s not very detailed, but it is a review of the BDZ-S77 that involves actually looking at the quality of its recordings on a display which is capable of displaying them… I’m looking forward to a serious head to head review of Panasonic’s DMR-E700BD 50GB machine against Sony’s first 50GB machine (due later this month) and a D-Theater D-VHS tape-based machine, with both 1080p24 and 720p24 material…

Anyway, until that review arrives this one might have to do:

http://www.digitalhomemag.com/review...bsectionid=955

[Rob]

Are there any plasmas/lcds available in Japan that are able to display 1080p. Also, is that at 24 frames per sec prog scan? how does that work. are the frames repeated to 60p!? :? 3:2 pulldown or something..

[Blu-Wave]

There are a few 1920 by 1080 progressive-scan capable displays around, and now that software is on its way quite a few maufacturers are developing them, but they're still not cheap - LG have 54" and 57" 1080p60 capable LCD panels which currently cost around £15,000, but they are planning to bring out a cheaper 42" model later this year - 'though I can't see it in high street chains for a while as potential customers might as questions such as "why is it more expensive than your other "high definition" screens?" :?

With a CRT, each phosphor dot fades between refreshes - causing the flicker we all know and love and, before framestores, etc., the need for interlacing. If each frame of 24fps material was repeated five times (giving a refresh rate of 120Hz) 60fps material could also be displayed at the same rate by repeating each frame twice. Of course, if it can be achieved without making the picture look "artificial," motion vector estimation algorithms (from the codecs, for example) could be used to generate new frames between the original ones and so provide smoother and more convincing motion, etc.. Similarly, HD IMAX material (recorded at 48fps) might be displayed at 96Hz ...

In contrast, in an LCD display, flicker is not a problem, because each pixel remains at a fixed level between updates (a bit like a zero-order hold in sampling) and only switches when the display is updated. The achievable frame-rate depends upon how quickly the pixel can switch from one value to another, and until recently switching times were relatively slow - as a result, motion blur was a common problem in games and with video on PCs. The latest displays have switching speeds of less than 20ms, but they really need to get down to around 12ms or less to rival high quality CRTs. LG's 57" 1080p60 display has a quoted switching speed of <8ms, and this kind of speed is required for an LCD display to work well at 60fps.

Fortunately, virtually all 35mm films are currently recorded at 24fps, so an LCD display that can only handle 1080p24, or up to 1080p30, would cover most material. The point is that each frame of a 24fps film is displayed progressively with no pull-downtricks, etc. required and hence with none of the associated artefacts. If this is combined with a pne to one pixel mapping between the recording and the display, the only significant artefacts left should be those from the codec - which is another reason why we should be careful not to push the codecs down to very low bitrates - any codec artefacts will, in general, not be ameliorated by diffusing them with others within the playback chain. :?

[vick vega]

My friend has a JVC 1080p dlp from hhgregg hdila

[Psiweaver]

Yeah there should be more reviews coming out now that more and more 1080p displays are arriving on the market.

[dognosh]

LCD speed is not an issue anymore,my viewsonic has a true switching speed of 2mS (VX-922)
roll on huge fast widescreen displays/TVs

[Psiweaver]

Yeah but I can't imagine the color or black level holds a candle to a good crt of plasma or some of the newer front and rear digital projection devices.