AV Integrations

Please comment

Hi, just a reminder that I would encourage anyone to feel free to comment on any section written here, or any comments in general, as your questions will help everyone.

The hierarchy of available video signals

Ok I am going to try to sum up a few things that seem to have everyone confused. there are many different ways to transmit video signal to your TV and just as many ways for your TV to display them.

I will start with transmission starting with the lowest quality currently being used by some cable companies.Coax cable may provide as low as 240i lines of resolution(basic cable) the old screw on connection.Composite video output from Cable box, or satellite box may provide up to 330i lines (old cable boxes, VCR) Yellow jack.S-video output from Cable box or satellite may provide up to 425i lines. Small round connection with four holes in it.Component video output from Cable box or Satellite will transmit a user selectable 480i, 480p,720p, or even 1080i depending upon what your TV can handle. (Digital Cable boxes, HD Satellite)Red, Green, and Blue connectionsHDMI output from Cable box, Satellite, or Blu-ray DVD player may provide all of the above plus the holy grail of High definition 1080p(HD Cable boxes, HD Satellite) Small flat plug about a half inch across.

Next important piece of information needed would be what the TV is able to display. Most old tube style TVs will use Coax cable for their inputSome step up models will include Composite and S-video maybe even component, however not many will allow the use of progressive scanning or “P” behind the resolution. Almost all flat screens LCD, Plasma, and DLP will use all inputs except 1080p this is reserved for only the models sold in the last couple of years and at a great increase in price.

Now within all these available resolutions there is a very important factor to consider and that is designated by either the letter “i” or the letter “p” behind the lines of resolution eg. 1080i or 1080p.I will use the resolution of 480 to explain the difference here.First “i” stands for interlaced which is the way we have all been watching our TV broadcasts since day one when the black and white TV was invented. It means that we watch two frames of image sandwiched together, each providing either odd or even lines of image. So frame one has 1,3,5,7,9 etc. and frame Two has 2,4,6,8 etc. when these frames are put together quickly we create the illusion of movement on the screen, all this is done 60 times a second. So most broad-casted that were recorded on tape before the mid 1990’s are recorded interlaced.

Then along came HDTV, it uses a progressive “p” scanning rate witch means that every line of the screen is scanned, leaving no unused lines of image, but can create a choppy sense of movement with old broadcasts, until the high rate of resolution and very fast refresh rates(the rate at which the screen empties and refills with image) came along. Now we are able to leave the old 500i lines of resolution limit from the old NTSC TVs in the dust and use up to a 1080p rate of image viewing.

So great now we have a new TV with 1080p resolution capabilities, now what? If you use standard cable then the picture you will see will not look as good as the old TV because the TV is only receiving 300-500 lines of interlaced image so it has to make up the rest of the image to fill a screen that displays 1080 lines. How does it do that, well it interpolates, or looks at line 1 and 3 then averages it out to make line 2…… To make a long story short, half of your picture is fake so it looks fuzzy. So you need to match the source to the TV that you are using. If you buy a 1080p TV the best way to get full usage of the set would be a blu-ray player, and High Definition programming from Cable or satellite.

This is why for years I have said that a 720p or 1080i TV is fine, because the majority of the broadcasts available have a maximum resolution of 720p or 1080i.Now with Dish Network and Direct TV promising 1080p on some channels the game is changing again, but that is for another discussion. As always if you are interested in a better explanation of this and how it may fit into your TV plans, please feel free to call me, I would be happy to help, I love this stuff!

Here is a link to a great Utube explanation of progressive vrs interlaced provided by a client of mine, thanks Ron for the link.

720p versus 1080i? click here for the video

Take care for now,Stefan

Dish goes 1080p

Well I thought it would never happen! Dish Network has announced that they will be transmitting a full 1080p signal via satellite. As far as I can tell its only on their PPV or “on Demand” services for now. This is a huge jump forward for high definition TV. I have stated many times before that there was no need to purchase a 1080p TV for now as the only broadcast available to take advantage of this was Blu-ray DVD’s. Looks like I am eating my words again, sort of…. ¬† I still believe that the majority of high definition broadcasts will remain in 720p(1080i) as they have been for years because this allows them to provide more programming options in HD. At this point “Cable” and “Direct TV” is still only 720p(1080i) so no need to rush out and replace that new TV for a while yet, however if you are in the market for a new one this may be the time to consider a 1080p model……Gulp! Please keep in mind that even if you do get a new satellite receiver a new 1080p TV, and the correct HDMI cable you may only be able to watch PPV in this new format, so as always consider your TV viewing before making the leap.¬†¬†Here is a link to a Rocky Mountain News article on the subject to analyze for yourself.¬†¬†http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/30/directv-dish-fire-high-def-salvos/¬†

May Blog New exciting products released

Pioneer, Matsushita Formalize PDP Plans¬†By Greg Tarr — TWICE, 4/24/2008 1:35:00 PMTokyo ‚Äî Pioneer and Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) revealed at a press conference here Thursday that they have reached a basic agreement on a comprehensive partnership for the development and production of plasma display panels, according to a Nikkei Business Daily report.Details of the agreement are to be determined in an official agreement expected next month, but the companies said they will combine their expertise to develop next-generation plasma display panels, the report said.Matsushita will manufacture the jointly developed panels for both companies in time for both to begin selling televisions using the component parts by the fall of 2009.According to the report, the deal calls for Matsushita taking on all of Pioneer‚Äôs approximately 200 PDP engineers beginning in June to help accelerate development of next-generation PDPs, while enabling Pioneer to reduce costs.

¬†Quote taken from Twice magazine…….

Hello again and welcome to May….

As quoted above, looks like Pioneer, who just quit making their own panels for Plasma TVs will be buying them from Panasonic from here on out. My opinion is that the Panasonic units are a better value than ever now, if a large well respected company like Pioneer is willing to use their parts. More to come as the product starts to roll out.

My favorite multi room audio system company…Nuvo has just released the “Grand Essentia” product. This is a great day for the bargain multi-room shopper as the whole system is about half the price of the full size “Grand Concerto” system that has been so popular, and also happens to be the system that is on display in my show home. By the way if anyone has not had a demo yet and would like one, please call me to schedule a time to meet, I love showing it off.

The “Grand Essentia” system consists of six zones of sound and includes six single gang touchscreen panels, as well as full meta data compatibility with the Ipod dock, and Media server. What does that mean you say? Well basically each room or zone(up to six)¬†will display song information like title and artist while the song is playing,¬†as well as¬†search and use play-lists from any Ipod that is¬†docked to the system. For those of you with standard multi-room systems you can see how that would be a great feature, no longer do you have to go back to the source to change songs, or play-lists. I think we will be using quite a few of these systems in future jobs.

Logitech has released the “Squeezebox Duet” this month as well, this may be the best thing since multi-room sound was invented. If you have a basic style multi room system, just volume controls with a centrally located stereo system, then the Squeezebox is made just for you.

This add on allows you to access stored music files from any computer via a hand held remote control, and play them on your multi-room system from anywhere in the home. The remote will also display the for-mentioned meta data(song tiltles as well as artist) information right on the remote. Imagine being out on the back deck and changing songs, play-lists or even just skipping a unwanted song from the palm of your hand, its as easy as thumbing through album art on the remote, touch the screen and instantly hear your favorite song or play-list. Again I would be happy to demo this new product for you, just call to schedule your time.

 Thanks again for tuning in and please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have,

Stefan

Special offer from Mitsubishi!

Quick update guys…..We now have Mitsubishi TV’s and they are offering a special financing promotion for new customers. 18 months no down, no payment and no interest. Please call me for details the application process is very simple and a great way to use someone elses money for¬† a while.

This extraordinary promotion began April 1 and runs until May 19, 2008. Just in time for the opening of Baseball Season and the NHL and NBA Playoffs, this promotion promises to be a very big event, dont miss out.

Stefan

April AV Blog

Wow almost April already, website is finally up and running now, still many updates to post as time goes on I will get all the pictures up as promised.

¬†I have posted most of the home theater pictures, but the quality of the photos was so bad(camera phone) on some that I decided not to waste anyone’s time and just take new ones next time I am out on those locations.

In A/V news; Pioneer has decided to no longer produce their own glass for plasma TVs, kind of interesting as they have always banked quality on not out sourcing product?? I would think that this might and I stress might, be the beginnings of the ends for plasma TVs……of course just my opinion, time will tell. Now that LCD has a higher refresh rate, and sizes are growing larger everyday the competition is getting fierce. Someday soon we will start to see something called large LED displays that have a huge potential in this industry, I cant wait for those to start to show up. In other news HDMI 1.3 is here to stay, and hopefully any non compatible product will soon weed itself out as there are still a few handshake issues with HDMI right now, especially cable boxes and stereo receivers. The new format change did not help that issue, but hopefully in the near future we can all enjoy some of the promised benefits oh HDMI.

 More to come soon,

Stefan

My First Blog

OK here it is…My first blog for AV Integrations.¬†I will be updating this weekly so be sure to check back for the latest news….

Big news this year for us is that we finally changed our name to something more suitable for what we do. We are now AV Integrations. As much as I will miss Rocky Mountain Broadband, the name did not suit the product, so time for a change. Same service based business, new name.

Now for the good stuff;

Something of great interest to everyone is the inevitable downfall of HD-DVD and congratulations to Blue-Ray the winner in the high definition DVD wars. I thought it may last longer, but it seems after Walmart decided to carry Blue Ray only, and¬†Warner Bros.¬†jumped on the bandwagon as well, we now have a clear winner and as of Febuary HD-DVD is no longer, so feel free to buy into the new disc based High Definition format “Blue-Ray”.

In other industry related news, Pioneer will no longer produce Plasma diplays, instead they opted to purchase their displays from someone else.

More to follow as I have a ton of things to accomplish getting the new website up and running smoothly.

Stefan