OLED monitors needed to break-in technology

It’s been over eight months since Sony showed off its amazing OLED TVs at CES 2008, including the prototype 27-inch model, yet nothing has been heard about this “breakthrough” technology since that time.

I, for one, was blown away by what I saw (let Wil Wheaton explain it), but have been disappointed by the lack of any further movement. It seems like Sony’s strategy for the OLED screens may be focused in the wrong direction.

The price and size of the first generation OLED TVs is certainly a drawback — $2,500 for an 11-inch screen. It’s also literally impossible to see the vividness of the picture on any normal TV or monitor, so Sony’s decision to sell them only online or in a Sony store means most people would have to actively search one out, or buy sight unseen. Sony should at least put a display model in the home theater departments of electronics chains, just to generate awareness, and so people can see what it looks like.

Sony has also been emphasizing the thinness of the TV screen, even though the large base it sits on renders that feature almost pointless. The real draw (which, again, can only be seen in person) is the million to one contrast and blazing fast refresh speed.

What Sony should be doing is making and marketing OLED screens as monitors, not TVs. Here’s just a few reasons:

Without the TV base, the thin OLED screen could be sit much flatter on top of a much smaller base for a PC connection.

Monitors are a lot smaller than TVs, so an 11-inch screen would be a decent size, and they wouldn’t have to struggle to keep up with TV sizes, just go up a little to 15- and 17-inch models.

Hardcore gamers and PC users are already used to spending thousands of dollars for the latest graphic cards, memory, motherboards, etc. to keep their machines on the cutting edge.  The frame-rate watching, number-spewing crowd would be the perfect market for OLED monitors.

Of course, we are in a bit of a recession right now, so price might still be an issue no matter what. But we won’t see vibrant OLED screens really enter the market until the early adopters start things off, and that’s more the realm of computer enthusiasts than tiny-TV watchers. Granted, I’m sure you can hook an OLED TV up to a computer if you wanted to, but it’s still got the extra TV bulk. The bottom line is that Sony is selling this new technology on the wrong features and to the wrong crowd; many people will never buy one or even see one in person if the marketing isn’t fixed, which means the price will never go down. And I really want to have one.

-Aaron Burkhart

Product Review: Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick (801e)

By Aaron Burkhart

The Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick (801e) is a small TV tuner (about the size of a thumb) that allows TV viewing by plugging into a USB 2.0 port on either a laptop or desktop. It’s pretty versatile, whether you want to watch analog or digital broadcast signals, FM radio, or unencrypted digital cable.

Since the portabilityof the Pro Stick is its main advantage, I tested it out on a laptop; the recommended minimum specs are a Pentium M 1.8 Ghz, with a 64MB graphics card and at least 1GB of RAM for a smooth HD experience. I tested it out on a Toshiba Satellite with an AMD Turion 64×2 1.9 Ghz, with an ATI Radeon X1200 and 2GB RAM (running Vista).

In short, my system made the minimum specs, but not by much.

The first step is to decide what type of connection to use: It comes with an antenna for broadcast reception, an S-Video and stereo audio adapter that plugs into the side of the Pro Stick, or a coaxial cable can be connected to the end of the Pro Stick for unscrambled cable. Since, again, portability was my main focus, I connected the antenna to the Pro Stick and placed it on a nearby windowsill (the cable is about 3 feet).

The set up takes 20 minutes or more, depending on if you want to install the included VideoSpin editing software. If you already have a good editing program it’s probably unnecessary, as VideoSpin doesn’t have any directly integrated features with the Pro Stick software. After installing the main TVCenter Pro software is the step to scan for available channels. BY default it will scan for every available signal, but if you want to save time and know that you won’t be wanting FM radio capabilities or analog broadcasts or whatever signal type, you could just have it scan for the signal type you want. I had it scan for everything, and after five minutes or so it came up with a dozen analog channels, two digital channels, and more radio stations than I knew we had.

Since analog broadcasts are terrible where I live (Anchorage, AK) I wasn’t expecting much from those stations, as huge antenna arrays are needed to get a clear picture on a television set, and the Pro Stick antenna understandably couldn’t get a clear picture. If you have a rooftop antenna setup, you can connect that to the Pro Stick. I was pleasantly surprised, though, to see that the two digital channels came in almost as clear as cable. Since the DTV transition is still pending here, I would only expect that more channels will be picked up once all the stations here switch over.

Of course, the Pinnacle Pro Stick does more than just pick up TV, it also acts as a digital video recorder, allowing live TV to be paused, rewound, saved, etc. for as much as your hard drive can hold. Its output format is also adjustable, so recordings of programs can be scheduled and recorded in PSP or iPod ready formats, and are easily transferred to those devices from a laptop. Even TiVo’s program transfer options can’t compete with the simplicity of the Pro Stick’s functionality.

However, there is a caveat: a system has to have more than minimum specs to use all the features. As it was, just watching a digital broadcast maxed out my system RAM; trying to convert the video at the same time was too much to handle and the picture became garbled, although just capturing a recording in the native MPEG format worked fine. Screen grabs also take just a click , so it’s great for sharing a choice moment from a favorite show on a message board or forum. The TVCenter interface was also less than intuitive, and it took a while to find out how to switch between analog and digital channels, since there’s no way to do it using the incuded remote control.

Just to be complete, I switched the TVCenter to radio and found it to be as clear as it should be and just as easy to record whatever was on, although it didn’t offer a choice of formats, only a Windows Media Player .MPA extension, which I found odd.

Those with cable TV and DVRs, or who watch TV shows over broadband WI-FI won’t likely find the most use out of the Pro Stick, but with a powerful enough system it would still offer some convienences. But anyone still watching TV over rabbit ears or without wireless internet will find a lot of functionality in this little device.

For doing what it says it does, I’d give the Pinnacle Pro Stick (801e) good marks, but the higher-end laptop requirements and interface issues (besides clunkiness, there’s a pay subscription service in order to have on-screen TV listings) leave it with a 7 out of 10 score.

 

Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD at CES 2008: Sometimes a picture can speak volumes

Today is airport travel day, so this post will be short and let the images do the talking. With the high-def wars heating up with Warner Bros.’ Blu-Ray exclusivity news, one only has to look to the show floor to guage industry interest. The booths were close by each other, and it was like this every day:

Maybe it was just better booth placement, but everyone who saw the Blu-Ray display had to stop and just watch for a while.

New displays at CES 2008: A thousand words will have to do…

… because no pictures can possibly do justice to the visual display products shown on the CES show floor. It would be like showing the pictures of the first color televisions, but taken with black and white cameras and shown on black and white TV sets; it has to be seen to be understood.

Three different areas took TVs and displays beyond the current level: the higher contrast in the new OLEDs, the smoother 120+ Hz refresh rates, and good ol’ 3D imaging.

Sony’s OLED TV display had the now-on-sale 11-inch models and the prototype 27-inch model. While the thinness of the screens (only 3mm on the 11-inch models) were what first caught my attention in the press release, even more impressive in person is the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, meaning the absolute deepest blacks (OLEDs aren’t backlit, unlike LCDs, so black pixels are simply turned off) and brighter vibrant colors that stay that way from any viewing angle. The refresh rate was also remarkable, with no blur of any kind. The 11-inch model sells for around $2,500 but many videophiles will be willing to pay for quality over size. There were also a lot of100-inch or larger TVs being showcased, by a wide range of companies, so size apparently matters somewhat, but when OLEDs go down in price they’ll definitely have my attention.

TVs with refresh rates of 120Hz (and Texas Instrument’s 240Hz) are another area that can’t be seen on normal screens, since 60Hz is the standard. Higher rates mean smoother pictures and less blur, although for now upconverting methods would have to be used to even see a difference from normal programs. Quite frankly, I didn’t really see that much of a difference (the human eye can only process information so fast) but if the cost isn’t much more than standard, it would be worth looking for higher refresh rates before buying an HDTV for those who haven’t upgraded yet.

While 3D has been around for awhile, the new polarizing method (replacing the less-focused and headache-inducing blue and red method) is being incorporated into more monitors (including some of the wearable models previewed yesterday), but the catch is that movies and player have to contain and transmit the extra information correctly, so going fully 3D will be some years down the road. However, more movies, like Superman Returns and the latest Harry Potter, are now being shown in IMAX 3D, which means it will be easier to convert these movies to a good-quality home 3D experience. Also, at Zalman’s 3D convertible LCD monitor booth, they showed that computer games like World of Warcraft (which automatically contain 3D information) can be quickly made into 3D. So games that use 2D textures to simulate depth will still be flat in those areas, but all the objects themselves will look like they’re at the proper depth.

These displays must be seen in person to be truly appreciated, so I’m sure high-end retailers will be showing them off soon.

-By Aaron Burkhart