| Getting the best picture on your new HDTV
Here are a handful of pointers on getting the best picture on your new HDTV, be it a flat-panel LCD television, plasma or rear-projection unit. Is it really HDTV? First, make sure it's truly a high-definition television, capable of displaying up to 1,080 lines of resolution. Don't assume a widescreen LCD or plasma television is an HDTV set just because it's flat, as it may only be an EDTV ("enhanced digital television"). EDTVs can display only 480 or 576 lines of resolution, so be sure you read the television's specs before you buy. HD programming Depending on where you live, you might receive some free over-the-air HDTV broadcasts (if your television has a built-in ATSC tuner), but most of us will need to buy or rent an HDTV receiver box from our cable or satellite TV provider.
CableLabs names 15Mbps as "safe harbor bitrate" for MPEG2 HD VOD
We already know how fond CableLabs is of HD VOD content, so it makes perfect sense that the gurus behind the scenes are aiming to provide media that satisfies the discerning eye of the HD viewer. Considering that nearly every HDTV owner has a sneaking suspicion that they're not getting the bandwidth they're paying for at times, CableLabs new specifications hope to ensure that HD VOD viewers don't get the "HD Lite" experience. While the recommended SD VOD rate remained steady at just 3.75Mbps, CableLabs has named 15Mbps the "safe harbor bitrate" to allow all forms of HD VOD content (including talking heads and fast-moving action films) to be seen at a quality that represents what HDTV should be about, including 5.1 audio and an absence of pixelation. Of course, these latest suggestions are entirely based on MPEG2 transfers, and could very well change if MPEG4 starts running the show, but at the very least it's good to see someone making sure we get our due bandwidth.
PDP TV Shipments Surge, Outperform CRT TVs in Year-End Sales
Japan's domestic shipments of consumer electronics grew 4.0% year-on-year (YoY) to ¥365.3 billion in December 2006, according to statistics announced by Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). Although November 2006 shipments came under last year's value, year-end sales performance was favorable. Shipments of visual equipment rose 8.2% YoY to ¥274.7 billion. Thin-panel TV shipments grew solidly. LCD TV shipments increased 37.8% YoY to 920,000 units, while PDP TV shipments soared 53.8% YoY to 137,000 units. PDP TVs prevailed against CRT TVs for the first time by winning a larger ratio in overall TV shipments. Meanwhile, shipments of audio equipment dropped 23.4% YoY to ¥30 billion. JEITA considers this is a reaction to the rapid growth of portable music players with a built-in HDD or flash memory in the preceding year.
Cost and Features: What Should I Look For?
There are probably factors to consider when buying an HDTV that you're not even aware of and wouldn't care about if you were. But there are a couple of important technical things you really need to understand before investing in one of these high-end sets. .
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