[opendtv] Re: The HD Plebo Effect
- From: "Stessen, Jeroen" <jeroen.stessen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 09:18:28 +0200
Hello,
Mark Schubin wrote:
> We did something like this accidentally at the Technology Retreat in 1996.
> http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/07/hd-tv-and-the-placeb.html
(I assume you meant to write: "placebo effect" ?)
Almost 12 years ago we had (the) Joe Kane visiting us, and I wrote this in my
summary report:
More recently, Joe has also been involved with DVD (Digital Versatile/Video
Disc). Toshiba has
asked for his help for showing their first DVD player in January 1996. Joe
insisted that they
provide him with a player with components output. They provided one prototype
player. Joe
connected the player to a Faroudja line quadrupler and aRunco CRT projector
with EM-focused
guns. The picture was projected on a 6' wide screen,with 11-12 foot.lambert
brightness. There
was one DVD by Warner Bros. being shown on all the DVD booths, but only in the
Toshiba
booth the picture looked very good and Joe had to prove that he hadn't cheated.
The difference
between YUV and Y/C connections is clearly visible. Even the people from Warner
Bros. were
most impressed, and they had seen the original before MPEG-2 encoding and
decoding (but on
their 19" computer monitors...).
On the next CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Joe has used a Snell & Wilcox
interpolator to
display 1280x1024 (the DVD format for NTSC is 704 x 480, no-square pixels). The
picture was
shown to ATSC-committee members, who actually believed they were watching HDTV
(!).
Instead, they were watching a 525/60/2:1 system ! DVD is now setting new
standards for display
quality. The components format is superior to CVBS and the signal-to-noise
ratio is better than
average. It really deserves a better TV system. Joe predicts that next year we
will see the
appearance of players with a progressive scan output.
This confirms Mark's point that in 1996 it was easy enough to show an optimal
DVD movie
and make people, even experts, believe that they were watching HDTV.
Even today, when I watch DVD on my 56" TV, I find it hard to believe that it's
not HDTV.
The difference is barely visible at 3 m distance. This may also have to do with
high quality
up-conversion (like PixelPlus3 HD). A major benefit of HD is the near-perfect
motion
portrayal, i.e. without the jitter that comes from spatial aliasing artefacts.
With a 24-25 Hz
movie in the DVD player perfect de-interlacing is not an issue anymore, and the
motion
portrayal will be almost as good as HDTV. DVB-S at 720p looks slightly better
(than 576p),
and 1080p from BRD should be better yet, but I don't care anymore. I need a
bigger TV...
Amazing that we're still talking of differences between 0.4, 1 or 2 megapixels,
where photo
cameras have already gone to 10-20 megapixels (or so they say). Enough is
enough.
Hey Mark, tomorrow my wife and I will be going to the digital cinema (Pathé
Eindhoven) to
watch your opera "Tosca". A very big screen in a relatively small theater, and
"only" 2
megapixels. I know that it is going to be beautiful. Good luck tomorrow !
Groeten,
-- Jeroen
Jeroen H. Stessen
Specialist Picture Quality
Philips Consumer Lifestyle
Advanced Technology (Eindhoven)
High Tech Campus 37 - room 8.042
5656 AE Eindhoven - Nederland
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