My cable box went on the fritz last weekend, conveniently while I was out of town. Apparently, it could output sound or video, but not both at the same time. Our box (with dual HDTV tuners) was several years old, and I knew was being replaced by a newer, modern unit. So I wasn’t totally surprised that it was malfunctioning. My wife called the cable company, which promised to send a truck out with a replacement box.

I got the call while driving up Interstate 5. My wife said that the cable guy was confused about how to hook up the interconnects, because the replacement box didn’t have an HDMI port. Uh, what? I got on the phone with the technician, and ran it down. My existing cable box (the broken one), which did have an HDMI port, had been in my home at least two years, and was not a new box when I got it. If the “replacement” box didn’t even have an HDMI port (it was DVI), then that meant that the box was at least two generations older than the newest box. And likely was on its last legs before it too failed, which would require yet another trip.

So I politely told him no thanks, we’d stop by the cable office and pick up a new box. It wasn’t his fault; he could only offer us what he had on the truck. But it made me wonder what a less knowledgeable customer would have done in the same situation.

At my brother’s urging I picked up La Vie end Rose this weekend on DVD….and could barely watch it.

Not the movie itself mind you, which is a very interesting biopic piece, but rather it was the way the DVD was formatted.

Whoever the genius was at the DVD authoring workstation, they decided to encode the film as letterbox-in-4:3-frame.

That alone should be an unforgivable sin this late in the game, but the wrench in the mechanism was the non-negotiable subtitles.

Now I grant that if you have what should now be considered an antiquated 4:3 display system, all of this is of no consequence. But with any conventional widescreen TV setup, the first thing we run into is a loss of potential resolution. We have to force a “zoom” mode in the display system which cuts the top and bottom of the 4:3 frame, usually an inconsequential move from a content point of view since the top and bottom of such letterbox presentations contain encoded nothingness, but ultimatley it yields a picture with 33% less detail compared to if it had been encoded within a 16×9 frame (like virtually every other DVD out there with widescreen content on it).

Now I have a few DVDs like this in my collection, all of which date back to the dawn of DVD I’d like to note, so I can deal with that much. But what made La Vie en Rose impossible to watch was the subtitles. Zooming the frame for best picture-fit on the 16×9 screen causes the subtitles to be cropped.

This blue frame shows the actual content of the DVD, and is exactly how it would appear on a 4:3 TV.	Shown here in green are the extents of a widescreeen TV with the content “zoomed”, preserving the image aspect but cropping the subtitles.

There were only two ways for me to watch the movie and still see the subtitles: Either treat it as if it were 4:3 where we get a so called “window box” presentation with substantial unused screen real estate ALL ARROUND the image, or stretched horizontally such that it appears as nothing more than a distorted “slot” of a film.

“Window box” presentation	Distorted “Slot Vision” presentation

At this point in the life of DVD we are well, WELL past being able to excuse these sorts of things.

Its worth noting that a few of the very high end video processors/scallers have the facility to vertically offset the frame, which particularly speaks to this scenario of letterbox-in-4:3-with-subtitles: they zoom the frame and then shift it up so that the image is still best-fit yet with subtitles still visible. The reason such processors offer this mode is for old DVDs, very old ones, made at a time when the industry was still working out the kinks. Having to employ it for a new release is simply ridiculous.

Now, there is one possible explanation as to why someone would author this DVD the way it was:  the subtitles appear to have been “burned-in” (they are part of the image as oppose to being generated by the DVD player) which might mean they were there before the DVD author even got a hold of the material.  If so, it is plausible that they HAD to do it the way they did it (space wise, the subtitles need to overlap an image which is vertically centered inside a 16×9 workspace), but if that were the case, I would say they should have instead put pressure on the studio to supply a clean video transfer so that they could have done the subtitles using the DVD system as well as author it in the better 16×9 workspace.

Whether streaming music or video from a bedroom media server or watching a Blu Ray disc on our expensive home theater system, we are seeing more and more of our entertainment being shifted to a centralized location in the home. 

It`s not just entertainment though.  In the future, we will see more products that give information about our homes integrated into the primary display.  Checking on energy usage or room temperature will all be at the touch of a button.  Right now, Panasonic is displaying their new plasma displays that integrate with their remote security cameras.  How would you like to check on a strange noise, or check on baby`s sleep by pulling up a picture in picture window while watching a movie.

You can expect everything from internet information, to all things home automation and security to start to appear as regular features on displays.  The amount of features available is also going to grow fast.

On June 18, I attended the product debut of Meridian Audio’s new 810 projector, held at Definitive Audio, in Bellevue, Washington, which is very near Seattle. It has three D-ILA panels, 4,000 lumen output (maximum), and a native resolution of 4,000 x 2,500.  Yes, you read that right, 4,000 x 2,500, and it is a consumer product too, not a projector for a commercial theater.

It is priced at $175,000, and the light engine is made for Meridian by JVC. The projector itself is assembled at Meridian’s factory in the U.K. It takes 4 days just to do the alignment, which is accomplished with a computer. Each 4×4 pixel area on the D-ILA panels can be individually calibrated to produce even illumination across the entire image. The detailed precise calibration is part of what you are paying for with this projector.

Here is a photo:

It is a really big projector and weighs about 130 pounds.

On the front you can see two lenses. The one on the left is anamorphic and a motorized control is used to move it in front of the main lens (seen on the right) when you want to watch 2.35:1 movies using the entire 16:9 chip area.

Here is a close-up of the two lenses.

On the rear are the connections, including four single-link DVI cables (at the left end of the projector) that are needed to carry the very high bitrate signal.

The processor which goes with the projector (included in the price) is shown below. It converts regular DVD video signals (480i) as well as 1,920×1,080 Blu-ray video signals to 4,000×2,500. To keep this in perspective, a 1,080p signal is 2 megapixels for each frame, and the processor converts it to 10 megapixels. That is a lot of horsepower.

Here is the equipment rack for the entire setup which included Meridian’s DVD player and SSP.

There was a full set of Meridian digital speakers, including some new ones that have upsampling capabilities built-in. Remember, Meridian speakers receive a digital signal from the SSP and the DACs in the speakers then convert it to analog signals for the amplifiers, and each driver has its own amplifier. Because the sound from a woofer is slower to get transmitted into the room, the power to the high frequency drivers can be delayed so that the sound from all the drivers goes into the room at the same time.

The subwoofers consisted of two JL Audio F113’s.

The image quality from the Meridian 810 was the best I have ever seen, in any theater, anywhere. Movies that were used included Patton and Cars. Patton was shown because it was shot in 70mm and the color depth was spectacular. As an animated feature, Cars had never gone through a lens until projection, so the detail there was just beyond belief. I got up close to the screen and could not see any pixels at all, in part because of the panel resolution, but also because Meridian uses a new process that involves an analog back plane behind the digital panel.

I also recorded a full high def video (1,920×1,080) of Bob Stuart - President of Meridian Audio - describing the projector system. Click on his photo below to see the video, encoded as a Windows Media Video file (*.wmv). Because the video is high resolution, it will take about two minutes for your player to buffer before the video starts to play, so be patient.

This was my first time attending the Definitive Audio event, which displayed a wide variety of new products. I stayed at the Woodmark Hotel in Kirkland (near Bellevue), right on the water. The entire affair was extremely enjoyable.

We’re starting a series of front projector reviews, including systems that can be used in non-dedicated environments (such as family rooms) without requiring custom installation. I’m guessing that, given the current state of the economy, projectors that can deliver the goods in a multi-use space will become increasingly popular.

As I’ve mentioned before, my home doesn’t have a dedicated theater room, so it is a perfect guinea pig space for these systems. Last Saturday night, I sat the family down on the couch with Transformers (HD DVD), a 1080p projector, 84” screen, and many bowls of popcorn. My six year-old (who has encyclopedic knowledge about Optimus Prime) giggled with delight every time the autobots appeared, while my teenage son stared open-jawed at a larger-than-life Meagan Fox (not that I noticed, of course). Even the wife approved of the movie theater ambience.

Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

We’re on the brink of analogue OTA finally getting flipped to digital, and hopefully we’ll finally see HD penetration where it should be, yet HDTV still seems to lack critical appeal.

A relative of mine got all setup last Christmas with a nice new LCD HDTV and HD Cable service in their cosy upstairs living area. I helped him set it up and it looks great.

While I was visiting him on the weekend he fired up the baseball game … on his 15 year old 20” tube TV in the downstairs living room.  “Is this game not on in HD upstairs?” I asked.  “Yea…but to tell you the truth, I still watch a lot of TV down here…”  he answered.

That says alot about the state of HDTV.

Do you remember the movie The Perfect Storm released back in 2000?

I had never heard that term before until I saw the movie. It means everything bad that can possibly happen just comes together at the same time.

So, what about the situation in the US today?

(1) Horrific weather patterns across the country that are flooding thousands of homes.

(2) Thousands more homes lost in the mortgage crisis.

(3) A war that is costing us about half a trillion tax dollars.

(4) Price of oil and gas going through the roof because rapidly growing new economies have huge demands for it.

(5) Price of food going up because we started using corn to make fuel, and the cost of fuel makes it more expensive to move the food where it needs to go.

(6) Airlines going bankrupt because they can’t afford the cost of fuel.

(7) Auto manufacturers in trouble because no one is buying the big cars.

(8) Weather patterns changing and California is headed into a drought and maximum fire hazard. So, Iowa, where a lot of America’s food is grown, has too much water causing floods, and California, where a lot of America’s food is grown too, will not have enough water.

(9) US dollar weak and all those goods we make overseas will now be more expensive to import.

But, we are still going to the movies and watching Blu-ray at home. It is a great escape. I am very curious to see how the entertainment industry changes as we get deeper into an experience we have not had since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

The bad US economy is definitely changing things in the hi-fi business.

One of these is an upswing with local stores hosting new product debuts, usually on an evening from 6 to 9 PM. This gets potential customers into the store where they can mingle with the factory people, register for a door prize, listen to some music, and munch on some goodies. Sales of audio equipment are down - like everything else these days - so this is one way to get things moving.

I attended one of these a few days ago at Magnolia Hi-Fi in Palo Alto, California, about 20 minutes from my house.

There were two new products being shown, a pair of speakers from Vienna Acoustics and some 300 watt monoblock power amplifiers from McIntosh.

Ron Cornelius, of McIntosh, demonstrated the monoblocks with a McIntosh preamplifier and a turntable. They were connected to the new Vienna Acoustics speakers.

The sound of course was fantastic, but the real enjoyment came from meeting more audiophiles who live nearby. The whole thing was really a lot of fun.

I am going to another one in Seattle next week for the debut of a Meridian projector, and one of our staff will be attending an event in Southern California for MartinLogan about the same time.

So, check with your local stores. They are likely having product debuts coming up that you will enjoy immensely. New toys, new friends, great music.

If you’ve been following JJ’s vinyl vs. CD series, or read Piero’s new review of the Marantz turntable, then you know that vinyl is “in,” again. Putting aside the technical merits of the debate, I was fascinated by the discussion about the aesthetic pleasure of listening to an album all the way through.

We’ve become adjusted to listening in the digital world, which means shuffling through a songlist or creating our own track lists. Even if I’m listening to a CD, skipping a track involves nothing more than a light twitch of the finger on the remote.

But vinyl is a difference experience, isn’t it? You are basically committed to 20-some minutes of whatever the artist decided was going to fit on the side of that LP. I can remember listening to albums where I didn’t care for track 3 of a side, but sat through it anyway because it was too much hassle to get up, walk to the turntable, lift the tonearm, and (most importantly) gently lower the tonearm in the leader space between tracks. Instead, I ended up sitting through that track 3 and quite often, the track would grow on me.

So I think it’s great that vinyl is making a comeback, especially for the generations that were never exposed to the Zen of sitting through the entire side of an album. Now if only I can find that old lava lamp!

If you read our Movie Renter’s Guide commenting section, you are aware of a discussion about the movie Patton, which was recently released on Blu-ray. There is a lot of discussion about how the high def version looks too “clean”, implying that it was “scrubbed” more than for other movies.

Patton was shot on 70mm film back in the days when 70mm was a buzzword instead of surround sound and computer graphics. Most movies are shot within a very small film space that fits on 35mm film when the film is run vertically. Because the film space is so small, film grain is really quite visible now that we can watch them in 1920×1080 resolution. 70mm films were also called “Roadshow Films”. They usually had seven channels recorded on a magnetic strip alongside the film frames.

There are some other classics that were shot in 70mm too, such as Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur. Although Ben-Hur was filmed with a slightly anamorphic lens, both Lawrence of Arabia and Patton were not, so the image is razor sharp. Also, since the 70mm film space has four times the area of the standard 35mm film space, film grain is barely evident, and in my opinion, probably not even resolvable at 1920×1080, depending on the type of film used.

Lastly, back in the old days, there were not many shadows in the movies (except for the film noir movies in the 1940’s). So, the image just leapt off the screen. Such was the case for Patton. Even when George C. Scott was standing out in the full sun, one can see the slight shadows on his face coming from another direction, indicative of the strong overhead lighting.

So, Patton, in my opinion, is not “scrubbed”. It is not “super clean” due to image processing. It is simply a superb film source from which to create an incredible high def movie disc. When 4k high def arrives, this movie will look even better, while regular 35mm movies (not including CGI-based movies that can be generated at any chosen resolution) will probably not look much different than they do now because I think the limits of picture sharpness extracted from the standard 35mm movie film space have just about maxed out at 1920×1080, and I am speaking of movies shot on film and then digitally extracted from that film for mastering to a Blu-ray disc.

Bottom line is that the film size of the master is very, very important to the final image quality. That is why Ansel Adams shot his pictures with a 4×5 film camera.