Jul 8 Podcast #486: Smell-o-Vision and Streaming Movies
For TV manufacturers, the HDTV transition was a huge success. We all went out and bought new televisions, some of us even bought more than one. So far, the push for 3D televisions hasn't been quite as successful. Most of us have decided to sit this one out. So what would it take to get us all to run out and buy a new TV? What if your TV could actually produce the smells you see on screen? That might be a more immersive experience than 3D. Of course, that's a power you don't want falling into the wrong hands...
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Smell-o-Vision
HD! 3D! Now it's smell-o-vision Smell-o-vision TV in our future
Someday in the future, your TV set will smell.
Now it turns out that day is not that far away.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego, in collaboration with Samsung, have developed a compact device capable of generating on command thousands of aromas, according to a paper published this week in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.
The device is small enough to attach directly to the back of any TV set or to mobile phones, the article says.
Full article
Streaming Service Round-up
HD in the Clouds: A Streaming State of the Union
By Michael S. Palmer
Let it be said that, as of the summer of 2011, there is no greater home theater medium to watch high definition film and television content than Blu-ray. And yes, I'm especially serious about the television part. Anyone who has fired up 'Lost' or 'Breaking Bad' or 'Sons of Anarchy' in true 1080p HD with lossless or uncompressed sound knows the limitations of broadcast/satellite/cable television make for some pretty meager "HD." Blu-ray remains the King of Bandwidth and the holy grail of home entertainment quality.
All of that aside, Blu-ray won't be king forever. Gone are the days where the masses would migrate from one format to the next (VHS to Laserdics to DVD to Blu-ray); we live in a world where platform and format are secondary to Content. And our HD content of the future, if we trust in Steve Jobs and this guy, will likely live in "The Cloud."
Reader Comments (6)
I like the question you asked "what would be the next big thing in to make you want to run out and buy a new TV?" My answer is more pixels simply put. "Super Hi-Vision format" = 7680 X 4320. and more big TVs almost all makers stop at 75" for consumer TVs unless you go with Mitsubishi which now their smallest TV is 75". I just want to go beyond 1080P already. here is a site that talks about the new format they are working on.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/english/aboutstrl/annual2009/en/r1-1-1.html
Awesome show btw
There will never be a reason to adopt anything like 7680 x 4320. Most movie theaters with digital projectors are still running them at 2048 x 1080. Even IMAX and the high quality theaters are only doing 4096 x 2160. The human eye just can't see the difference in higher quality unless you get so close to the screen that you can't even see the entire thing. It's likely that we will eventually see 3840 x 2160 on home screens. It won't be because you can see the extra resolution (To see an improvement over 1080p you'd be sitting 7' away from a 75" TV, and an improvement over 1440p would require sitting about 5' away). The benefit that moving to the higher resolution gives you is the ability to do passive 3D without losing any resolution.
There's also not likely to be any content available in the higher resolution. My guess is that simply increasing the data rate of the 1080p video so that the file size is equivalent to the 2160p video would actually look better due to less artifacting.
oh I know that resolution is too high for consumers I was just taking it to the extreme. I just meant I would like it to go beyond 1080P just gave that as an extreme example :P
What would get me to buy a new TV would be a model that actually performs the way I want! I have a 60" Kuro plasma. It's almost perfect except for three big flaws:
1) it buzzes. With no second layer of glass on the front, the PDP's operational buzz is clearly audible.
2) it washes out. In anything brighter than dim lighting, those lovely Kuro blacks turn grey.
3) it gets image retention. I play games for many hours in a row. HUDs leave "ghost" images that scare me too much to use this $4000 monitor for gaming!
That 3rd flaw led me to get a 55" local-dimming LED LCD, the LG 55LH90. It's pretty great, but it also has flaws:
a) off-angle viewing is pretty bad. Move a few feet to either side of center and the colours shift, the brightness drops and the screen illumination becomes uneven with the farthest edge being lighter than the closest edge.
b) "halos" around small, bright objects. The local-dimming is impressive, but there is definitely "blooming" and for 2.35:1 movies, the black bars definitely show the local-dimming "pumping" as the scene brightness changes.
c) it's just not as "smooth", "film-like" or colour accurate as the Kuro. For gaming though, and for a bright room, it's great. Blacks stay really black even under sunlight, and the matte screen is wonderful (God how I miss matte screens!)
So, what would get me to buy a new TV would be a model that has none of these flaws and all of the strength of both my displays! Right now, the only potential option is the Panasonic VT30.
I am so 100% with you on the 4K. Along the same lines, once you get the 4K display, it will be much easier to add Passove 3D capabilities without compromising the 1080p resolution and without getting headaches and nausea. I noticed that my source of headaches is because my right eye is weaker than the left and my brain (little) is having to compensate for the poor quality of the image it is receiving from my right eye and merge it with the left eye image. Once I started wearing my glasses at the movies (IMAX or Real) headaches are gone.
Let's face it 3D is here to stay and will become a standard feature as 1080p became standard and we were forced to buy any new sets with it even if we are sitting 12ft from them and we cannot notice the difference. So I welcome a 4K SAMSUNG LCD/LED set (similar to the 8000 series LCD TVs) with passive 3D as my next must have TV.
I find it funny that several people are excited about 4K resolution while things like uneven screen illumination, glossy screen surfaces and poor off-angle viewing still abound. I don't doubt that higher resolutions, higher "refresh" rates and 3D will come to market and get some people excited enough to buy a new TV. But I'd MUCH rather see manufacturers attempt to improve or fix the existing issues with today's displays! Glossy screens especially. That one's an easy fix.