4K or High Frame Rate?

2012 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention last week, 4K was everywhere—in cameras, displays, and workflow devices—at rapidly falling prices. Many professionals contend that 4K approaches the inherent spatial resolution of film, and it can be displayed on very large screens with no visible pixel structure.
However, in a pre-recorded demo in the Christie booth, James Cameron made a compelling argument that increasing the frame rate at which movies are shot and displayed from 24 to 48 or even 60 frames per second does more to sharpen perceived detail—especially in moving objects—than increasing the spatial resolution. In fact, all the demo material was 1920x1080 on a 15-foot-wide screen.

As the demo clearly illustrated, shooting and displaying movies at higher frame rates dramatically sharpens motion detail—so much so that it no longer looks like film, but more like video, which many people object to. So my question to you is, what's more important, the higher spatial resolution of 4K at film's traditional 24fps or the greater temporal resolution of higher frame rates at 2K.by scott wilkinson

LG OLED TV

When LG announced the EM9600 55-inch OLED flat panel at CES last January, its price and availability were not included in the press release, leading to unbridled speculation. Well, it seems that speculation can now be put to rest. According to an article from Korean outlet MK Business News, LG plans to stage a big launch event at the Cannes Film Festival in May, moving its timetable up from the second half of the year to take advantage of the demand that will surely accompany the 2012 Olympics this summer. And the price? Approximately 9 million Korean won, which is right around $8000.
Thanks to reader johnnyd for sending me the link to the story on techbargains.com, which led to the primary source at MK Business News.

Latest Video On Demand Technology

Stagnate is certainly not a word that applies to the streaming video-on-demand industry. We could probably do a VOD-related news post every week, as the major players are constantly making moves to gain a competitive advantage and distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace. It can be difficult to keep up, but here's a quick rundown of recent, noteworthy goings-on from the big names in the business:

Apple
On the hardware side, the biggest VOD announcement in recent days is the release of the third-generation Apple TV, which supports 1080p output, uses a new single-core A5 chip, ups the RAM from 256 to 512MB, and offers a revamped user interface. The new box carries the same $99 price tag as its predecessor. In conjunction with a 1080p-capable player comes the iTunes 10.6 software upgrade that allows you to rent/purchase 1080p content from the iTunes Store. ARS Technica recently did a head-to-head comparison of 1080p content from iTunes and Blu-ray, and the results are definitely worth a read. Older Apple TVs have also received a software update that delivers the new interface (it does not add 1080p capability). I just performed this update last week, and I like the new interface. General navigation and functionality are the same, but the redesigned Home Page provides quicker access to the top VOD titles in iTunes, as well as quicker access to Web-based services like Netflix, Flickr, Vimeo, and YouTube.
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Roku
In early January, Roku announced its latest streaming media player, the Streaming Stick. About the size of a USB flash drive, the Streaming Stick plugs directly into an HDMI port on your TV, so you don't have to add another component to your equipment rack. It has built-in WiFi and delivers all the Web services offered in the company's standalone boxes. The catch is, your TV's HDMI input must be compatible with Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL), a new standard that delivers power and other elements to the streaming device. Samsung, Toshiba, and LG offer MHL-enabled TVs, and more are sure to follow. The Streaming Stick will be available later this year, both as a standalone device (likely priced between $50 and $100) and as part of a TV bundle (Best Buy has announced that some Insignia TVs will include a Streaming Stick).

Netflix
After a rocky 2011, Netflix seems to be back on track. The company announced back in January that it added 610,000 new subscribers in Q4 2011, and its stock is rebounding. Following the path of HBO, Netflix has begun to develop its own original programming, with plans to add five original shows by 2013. On the downside, Starz's contract with Netflix recently expired, causing over 1,000 titles to be removed from the catalog. Netflix reportedly has been meeting with major cable companies to discuss bundling the streaming service with cable packages. At least one major provider, Comcast, has said no to that option, probably because ...

Comcast
Comcast has launched its own online video service, called Xfinity Streampix. At least for now, the service is only available to Comcast customers, as a free perk for subscribers to Comcast's top packages or as a $4.99/month add-on for lower-tier subscribers. Content partners include Disney/ABC Television Group, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, and Cookie Jar Entertainment.

Verizon/Redbox  Verizon has partnered with Coinstar (operator of the Redbox rental kiosks) to develop its own streaming service. Details are currently limited; but, according to The Wall Street Journal, the subscription service will combine online streaming with the ability to rent disks from Redbox kiosks, and it's expected to arrive in the second half of 2012.

Hulu
Hulu is also developing original programming. Morgan Spurlock's "A Day in the Life" is entering its second season, and Hulu debuted the new series "Battleground" in mid-February. Filmmaker Richard Linklater's docu-series "Up to Speed" will arrive this summer. All three shows are available on the free Hulu site, as well as through the Hulu Plus subscription service. Hulu Plus is now available on the Nintendo Wii platform and is coming to Nintendo 3DS later this year.

Amazon
Amazon has struck deals with Viacom and Discovery Communications to add shows from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science, and Military Channel to the Amazon Prime streaming service. Amazon Prime already includes content from Fox, Disney, Warner Brothers, and CBS; the new deals should take the total number of titles to over 17,000.

Wal-Mart/VUDU
Wal-Mart using the UltraViolet system. Consumers can purchase a cloud-based version of their DVD titles to access through Web-connected devices via the VUDU platform. Bring your DVD to a Wal-Mart store and, for a $2 fee, Wal-Mart will register the disc through the UltraViolet proof-of-purchase system so that you can access a streamed SD version of the film (for $5, you can upgrade to a streamed HD version)--provided the title is available through the disc-to-digital program (they are not ripping your physical discs but instead are accessing a digital library). Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, and Fox are all onboard at launch, which is expected to occur on April 16th. The service will not support Blu-ray at launch, but that is expected in the future.
by adrienne maxwell

You Usng Digital Copy?

When you buy a Blu-ray/DVD bundle these days, chances are it also comes with something called Digital Copy. This is just what the name says—a digital copy of the movie to put on your computer's hard drive or NAS (network-attached storage) so you can watch it on other authorized devices in your entertainment ecosystem, subject to the copy's DRM (digital-rights management) provisions and compatibility with various platforms.
Have you used Digital Copy with titles you've purchased? If so, do you find it to be a useful feature?by scott wilkinson

THX Bringing Every Seat In The House To The Sweat Spot

THX Steerable Line ArrayGraham Murdoch

An audiophile can spend thousands of dollars on one speaker—a multi-driver tower that can produce a broad range of frequencies clearly at high decibel levels. But even the best speaker, or an entire home theater full of them, will typically sound its best in only one spot: the sweet spot. THX has designed a speaker, the Steerable Line Array, that produces up to eight sweet spots. No matter where a person sits, he’ll hear near-perfect audio. THX expects to sell the Array as part of custom installations soon and will eventually license it for other companies to use in their own TVs and audio systems.
Housing: The Array can fit inside a long cabinet, and a six-foot-long, 1.4-inch-tall gap in a wall or TV stand is all that’s visible. Forcing sound waves through a narrow slot channels them into a stronger, more direct path, the same way water sprays more powerfully out of a slotted nozzle than an open one.
Speakers: THX packs more speaker drivers into the Array than any equivalent system. In the cabinet, 92 speaker drivers generate sound. Two rows of 30 low- and midrange drivers fire sound into the gap from above and below, while 32 outward-firing tweeters handle high frequencies.
Amplifiers: To fit so many speakers into the Array, THX developed a new kind of amplifier. A 100-watt amp aligns with each driver; each powers up only when its driver needs to fire and uses just one tenth of a watt when inactive. Less power means less heat, allowing THX to cut bulky heat sinks.
User Interface: During setup, viewers use a smartphone or a computer app connected wirelessly to the Array to map their home theater. Seats are tagged as sweet spots for the Array to target. In future iterations, the speaker system will be able to locate people on its own using infrared sensors.
Signal Processor: A dual-core processor decodes audio signals. Based on the predefined sweet spots, the processor determines when drivers will fire. To hit the leftmost of three sweet spots, for instance, the processor will fire the leftmost drivers, delay, fire the ones farther in, and so on. The delay bends the sound toward the target.by bryan gardiner
Cabinet length 6 feet
Price Not set

Future Looks Bright If Headphone Users Can Convert To Full Systems

HomeTheaterReview.com is the leading specialty audio/video publication in terms of fans on Facebook, but we recently got a lesson on how to increase our reach using the all-powerful social media tool. Part of the program included friending more and more of the top audiophile and home theater manufacturers to our fan page. Other than the time it took (which was most of a Sunday in February), it was a pretty compelling project. In looking at over 250 Facebook fan pages, there were two camps of companies: ones who have Facebook fan pages because they think they need them and others who have jumped in with both feet. Often, you could find both types of Facebook presences from companies that directly compete with one another, which is something of a head scratcher, as Facebook is best at linking people of common likes (think home theater, audio, music, movies, Blu-ray, etc.) even more so than the mightier Google, which is better at delivering people who are in the "buy it now" mode when on their computers.

Digging deeper into my Facebook project, I saw that one category of audio company was booming in ways that were notable. The culprit: headphones. While you might not consider Beats by Dre to be audiophile-grade headphones, their 2,400,000 Facebook fans suggest that Noel Lee and Jimmy Iovine have drilled into a nerve with mainstream consumers via their hip-hop-tastic headphones. Klipsch has an impressive page that also includes their headphone products, which has about 50,000 fans. Professional grade in-ear monitors Ultimate Ears are packing nearly 100,000 fans. A personal favorite of mine, Etymotic Research, is weighing in at about 5,000 fans. Paradigm's brand-new Shift headphones are rocking 2,500 fans, and that's a debut fan page for the speaker company. More traditional headphone companies are booming, too, with Sennheiser encompasses over 12,000 fans. Often clunky but always good-sounding Grado Labs has 2,300 fans.

With hundreds upon hundreds of millions of iPods, iPhones, iPads and iProducts, headphones are the least expensive ways to upgrade your audio for the masses. I am sorry to tell Apple that their ear buds are both uncomfortable and sound like crap, but I don't think they care, as they sell everything from Bowers & Wilkins to Beats to Focals and many other brands. They likely make more profit dollars selling high-end headphones to go with iProducts than they do selling the iPhone/iPad/iPod itself.

What's most encouraging is the idea that men and women alike are starting to look to upgraded audio. Generation Y (aka Millennials) represent the largest demographic since the Baby Boomers. While they have come out of college to a brutal job market and a "correcting" economy, they still love themselves some music. This is an incredibly important sign. Student loans can weigh a kid down, but not forever, and when that burden is lifted, homes are bought and promotions and raises are given at work, they might just start looking for a better audio experience. That's how the Baby Boomers did it in the 1970s, which gave birth to the audiophile hobby. Music and audio were luxury goods and could become so again. Today, there are more music lovers with more access to music, movies and media than ever before. Moreover, the love of audio might not have to be the swordfight, one-gender hobby that it has been previously. In modern pop culture, headphones are quickly becoming the same type of fashion statement that up-market basketball shoes were for men in the 1980s and "sex on a stick" shoes were for women in the late 1990s. Unlike traditional audiophile components, a hip new audiophile might have a collection of headphones that match his or her wardrobe, ranging from colored Beats to edgy-looking Bowers & Wilkins to reggae-influenced House of Marley headphones and more. Compact travel headphones like Paradigm Shifts or my reference Etymotic Research ER-4s (with custom ear molds) that roll up might be stashed in a purse or briefcase, while comfy over-the-ear headphones like the new Focals might be plugged into an audio rig, game console, computer or HDTV at home. That's a lot of ways to sell audio to a large demographic.

A lot has been said about the death of brick and mortar audiophile stores. In many ways, a good number of them needed to die. Some are even suggesting that Best Buy might go the way of Circuit City, The Good Guys, Tweeter and others. But even with change in the air, there is a new grassroots movement towards music and media that has some serious mainstream pull. If I owned an audio boutique, a stereo store or even a custom integrator, I would definitely be looking at how to sell to this booming market of consumers now, as well as how I could build a reasonable upgrade path for future audiophiles in the coming years, decades and generations, because selling pricey tube amps and tone arms to 68-year-olds isn't your future. The future is much brighter than that and Facebook shows us the proof.by jerry del colliano