A New DVD Format War
Just when you thought it was safe to buy a nice new all-singing all dancing DVD player/recorder, along comes a new format war to add to an already confusing marketplace.Once the original DVD standard settled down, DVD players quickly became one of the most successful consumer items of all time. The new format revitalised the home entertainment market, and hardware manufacturers benefited both directly and indirectly, as enthusiasts clamoured to buy bigger and better televisions and sound equipment to get the best from their new DVD players.Then came recordable DVD, but the problem, as is so often the case, was that there were a number of different recording standards, all of them incompatible. It was just like Betamax versus VHS all over again. Now low-cost multi-format recorders supporting all the standards are hitting the streets, the recording problem is becoming less of an issue, and so one could be forgiven for thinking that's the end of the format wars.But technology has a habit of advancing at a relentless pace, and now a new battle is set to commence. The hi-tech companies are fighting it out to establish the standard for next-generation "high capacity" DVDs.
Higher capacities will allow for even better picture and sound quality than the existing standard, and will become more popular as high definition televisions really start to take off.There are two competing high capacity DVD technologies, HD-DVD (High Definition DVD) and Blu-Ray. HD-DVD works by using multiple layers on a single disk, and its main advantage is its low production costs. Blu-Ray is technically superior ? it uses blue laser light instead of the red light used by existing players. This blue light has a smaller wavelength, and so the pits that it creates on the surface of the DVD to encode the data, are smaller. Smaller pits means more pits in the same space, which means higher capacity.
Blu-Ray can store more information than HD-DVD, but presently is more expensive to implement. When Blu-Ray is combined with the multi-layering technology behind the competing format, it will see capacities rise to as much as 200 Gigabytes. Existing DVDs hold only 4.7 Gigabytes.The battle will most likely be won by the format that gets the most support from the big Hollywood studios ? nobody is going to opt for a DVD standard with a small catalogue of titles. With Blu-Ray being backed by the likes of Hitachi, HP, and Sony (who own MGM studios), it would appear to have the edge. Hollywood however, is remaining non-committal, afraid of backing a losing horse.
For now then at least, the formats are caught in something of a chicken-and-egg situation. As has been the case so many times in the past, only time will tell which format will come out on top..
Roger Faraway is the Technical Director at http://www.dvdgopher.co.uk - a popular site offering more than 25,000 DVD titles and a large selection of DVD hardware.roger@dvdgopher.co.ukTelevisions
One of the best inventions in the world of digital media, television is a telecommunicating system that transmits images, accompanied with sounds and special effects, over a long distance. The word television is derived from two words ? tele (which means "far" in Greek) and visio (which means "vision" or "sight" in Latin).
Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a German student, proposed the first electromechanical television system in 1885. The discovery of cathode ray tubes in 1897, by K. F. Braun was a major landmark.
Later in 1927, Philo Taylor Farnsworth envisioned the first fully electronic system. He conducted the world's premier public demonstration of an all-electronic television system on August 25, 1934, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
Besides Farnsworth, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin is also sometimes called the Father of the television because of his invention of iconoscope in 1923 and kinescope in 1929. On July 3, 1928, John Logie Baird demonstrated...
Televisions > Televisions
LCD TVs
LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. Originally designed for electronic display devices,now this technology is widely used to manufacture high-resolution televisions. Liquid crystal televisions work on Thin Film Transistor (TFT) technology. Their screen consists of a liquid crystal layer
sandwiched between two transparent layers. A bulb placed behind the screen illuminates the TFT panel.
Upon receiving the data, the liquid crystals align themselves in various degrees. The alignment of the crystals blocks unwanted light and only required light gets transmitted. The degree of alignment decides what color and contrast will be filtered
through the panel.
When LCD TVs were first introduced, their major competition was the plasma TV. LCD and plasma televisions coexist and compete even today.
Each has its own merits and demerits. LCD TVs cannot produce as much color or contrast as plasma TVs, but their overall picture quality remains better than...
LCD TVs
Televisions > LCD TVs
LCD TVs
LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. Originally designed for electronic display devices,now this technology is widely used to manufacture high-resolution televisions. Liquid crystal televisions work on Thin Film Transistor (TFT) technology. Their screen consists of a liquid crystal layer
sandwiched between two transparent layers. A bulb placed behind the screen illuminates the TFT panel.
Upon receiving the data, the liquid crystals align themselves in various degrees. The alignment of the crystals blocks unwanted light and only required light gets transmitted. The degree of alignment decides what color and contrast will be filtered
through the panel.
When LCD TVs were first introduced, their major competition was the plasma TV. LCD and plasma televisions coexist and compete even today.
Each has its own merits and demerits. LCD TVs cannot produce as much color or contrast as plasma TVs, but their overall picture quality remains better than...
LCD TVs
Televisions > LCD TVs
Electronic Recycling Association of Alberta Opens a First of its Kind Computers and Electronics Depot, Where They will Accept Computers and Electronics for Reuse or Recycling Year Round
Calgary, Alberta, Canada (ContentDesk) May 3, 2004 -- Located in the City of Calgary at 1301 34th Avenue S.E. (off Ogden Road and Blackfoot Trail) this new facility will serve as a place where companies and individuals can drop off their unwanted electronic items for reuse or recycling. Items that are accepted include such things as computers, monitors, peripherals, televisions, stereo equipment, and other electronic items. The province wide programs is expected to bring in large amounts of electronic items to be refurbished, reused, or finally sent off to the recyclers. This will act as a collection and sorting depot for old electronic equipment in the City of Calgary and province of Alberta, Canada.Such items are currently being dumped into our landfills and are creating a toxic cocktail of heavy metals in the land they are buried in, potentially contaminating the land for years to come.
The Computers and Electronics Depot is the alternative to the expensive electronic recycling...
Electronic Recycling Association of Alberta Opens a First of its Kind Computers and Electronics Depot, Where They will Accept Computers and Electronics for Reuse or Recycling Year Round
Televisions > Electronic Recycling Association of Alberta Opens a First of its Kind Computers and Electronics Depot, Where They will Accept Computers and Electronics for Reuse or Recycling Year Round
Plasma compared to dlp television and lcd
When you think of comparing plasma to dlp technology you should really compare the main aspect: picture quality.The contrast by definition is the measurement of black depending of the white amount. The plasma is a step ahead this time. The boast of this in the plasma technology is truly remarkable and it's possible to heard about ratios like 4000 to 1.But not all the manufactures can accomplish this level of quality and the main ration is only 1000 to 1.The dlp is a relative new technology on the market so it's not really fair to compare with plasma but some of the big manufacturers came close to the standard ration 1000:1.The clarity is the measured by the amount of lines and looking at the clean edge around the picture. So again dlp television compared to plasma is very difficult on this topic because both technologies have great reviews regarding the clarity. The plasma achieves this by conversion and processing and the dlp have made this possible using the best clean mirror technology.The...
Plasma compared to dlp television and lcd
Televisions > Plasma compared to dlp television and lcd
Conclave: Electing a New Pope
Upon the death of the Pope, a monumental sequence of events unfolds, culminating in a process known as the conclave whereby a new Pope is elected to lead the Roman Catholic faith.Beneath Michelangelo's revered ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, the College of Cardinals, led by the Cardinal Camerlegno (Cardinal Chamberlain), Eduardo Martinez Somalo, begins the arduous process of selecting the pope's successor. The Cardinalate currently consists of 117 cardinals from all over the world.
In the conclave, an event enduring little change since the thirteenth century, the cardinals take an oath of secrecy, that if broken renders the offender automatically excommunicated from the church. There are no televisions, radios, or newspapers allowed inside the conclave.The Cardinal Electors, almost all of whom were appointed by Pope John Paul II, will vote in a very thorough process of secret balloting where a two-thirds majority is needed to elect a new Pope. The College may vote up to four...
Televisions > Conclave: Electing a New Pope
Plasma Televisions
Now a status symbol among the rich and wealthy, a plasma TV is a high-definition (HDTV) alternative to the standard cathode-ray televisions sold today. It gives viewers sharp images and vibrant colors, particularly when used in conjunction with high-definition broadcasts. A quality plasma TV, however, does not come cheap. Its price ranges from $4,000 to $15,000 plus.
One of the main attractions of a plasma TV is a flat screen, which can be mounted directly on a wall. Manufacturers often employ surround-sound theater speakers and high-end receivers to complete the feeling of luxury.
No wonder plasma TVs are such a craze these days.
In terms of science, 'plasma' refers to inert gases like neon and xenon that glow when in contact with an electrical field. Televisions usually rely on thousands of small 'picture elements', abbreviated as pixels. A bundle of three distinct colors, usually red, green and yellow, constitute one pixel in a color TV. Properly...
Televisions > Plasma Televisions