World Cup on HD - IT ROCKS

As an IT journalist, I have seen many IT hypes come and go. But wathing World Cup right now in HD on my 32 inch loaned Bravia, I can tell you HD is definitely here to stay. People WILL pay premium dollars for HD content. It's really between night and day. It really is as influential as the advent of colour television in the B&W era.

Here, the HD transmission came on at channel 300 at about 11.30, the sound came on at about 11.45. I'm ecstatic

No. 1 on Google Search

I did a check on Google Search under the terms - hdtv hdcp singapore - and this blog comes up first! I tried on my friend's blog - hdcp lcdtv - and his blog ranked first too! That's really encouraging since we both started our blogs like not long ago

Running on HDCP content on component won't degrade quality?

I am reproducing a comment from a reader in response to my post that running HDCP-enabled HD content via analogue component output is likely to downgrade picture quality to DVD only:

HDCP is mainly for the purpose of preventing digital distribution on the Internet. It can be a matters of seconds after telecast. As such when HDCP is enabled and there is no reciprocal handshaking from the display device the digital signals. It should not affect the analogue ouput as there is a barrier to distribution on to the Internet. That is why HD Ready specifications (notably from Europe)has two outputs HDMI and Analogue Component. The picture quality from the Analsogue output is not noticeable.In the case of HDVD the jury is still out there. Some manufacturers degrade the component output some don't. Will have to keep monitoring the situation. Consumers and some industry members do not like degradation of the component output--sort short changing the consumer and will affect sales.

This opinion is consistent with some experts that I spoke with from MediaCorp and MDA. What they are saying is that even if your TV is not HDCP compliant, you can still run the HDCP-enabled HD stream thru the component cables, and you won't get any or significant degradation in picture quality. Then why bother to have HDMI if you can still get the same quality via component? The experts say that this is because it is hard to distribute analog recordings but easy to distribute digital recordings. This is an issue that I will study in greater detail.

Product reviews of HDTVs

Hi, if you are a TV vendor and would like your product featured here, do let me know. I will review all HDTVs that I can come across here complete with pictures. I will endeavour to be brutally honest. I am already on StarHub's HDTV trial and am trying to get on MediaCorp's trial as well.

The only way to really understand the complexities of HDTV is to use it. I hope to share my experiences with everyone.

Hitachi responds on its 1080 HD

Here's the official response from Hitachi. I am reproducing in full in original answer

Following answers to your enquiry:
Hitachi's 42PD8900TA is currently the plasma panel with the highest number of horizontal lines (1080).
This 1080 horizontal lines enables the display of 1080 horizontal lines in HD broadcast (1080i) without pixel alteration.
The result is the world's highest definition for a 42-inch Plasma TV, enabling the reproduction of detailed images.

To enjoy full spec of HD, the panel should have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for the 16:9 screen aspect ratio.
For Hitachi's 42PD8900TA with resolution of 1024 x 1080, the vertical lines is actually slightly scaled to get the 16:9 aspect ratio.
But, for other XGA plasma with resolution of 1024 x768 or XGA LCD with resolution of 1366x768, these products need to do both horizontal & vertical scaling to display 1080i HD signal.

Hitachi's 42 1080HD Plasma - Don't buy first

I have been seeing the ad campaign by Hitachi on its new 42 inch plasma which it calls the world's first 1080HD Plasma TV (model number 42PD8900TA). I am very very concerned. My recommendation is not to buy this until there is more research has been done about this product. Why?

Because the resolution is 1,024 x 1080. The number 1080i or 1080p refers to the second number in the resolution description. Now, normally, with a 16:9 aspect ration, the correct resolution should be 1,920 x 1,080 and this is what you find in high end LCD TVs. 1,024 x 1,080 is weired because it seems that although there are enough pixels to cover the width of the TV, there aren't enouhg to cover the length. This could mean that the picture quality will be downscaled with likely degradation by almost 2 times. (1920 vs 1024). My other concern is that 1,024 x 1,080 is like a 1:1 aspect ratio which does not fit the 16:9 ratio that content are created for. This can only mean more rescaling.

I reserve my verdict since I have not tested the screen, but I am very concerned right now. Here's the brochure.