Why HD?

With the increasing size and affordability of big screen televisions, it’s become pretty obvious that standard definition formats just don’t cut the visual mustard on these new AV behemoths invading our living rooms. What looked perfectly acceptable on your old 28” CRT set can look awful when the limitations of SDTV (Standard Definition TV) are amplified by a monster flat panel.

Whilst the introduction of upsampling technology and fancy software engines like Sony’s Bravia EX system have gone some way towards making SDTV watchable on the new generation of flatscreens, the superiority of HD broadcasts is unquestionable.

The different HD formats: 720p vs 1080i vs 1080p

The different video formats are perhaps the most confusing part of the HD age and when you see the labels ‘HD Ready’ and ‘Full HD’ slapped across your potential TV purchase, it’s important that you know what they mean-

High Definition video can be broadcast in three main formats: 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The first two are used for broadcasting TV content, whilst 1080p is a higher quality format reserved for both HD DVD and Blu-ray, assuming of course you have the right equipment to play it (more on that below).

The numbers 720 and 1080 refer to the number of horizontal lines in the image, with 1080 obviously being the higher quality, or ‘resolution’. The ‘i’ and ‘p’ at the end of the number indicate whether the video is interlaced or progressive. An interlaced effectively paints an image onto your TV screen by flickering between the odd lines of the image in one pass and even lines of the image in a second pass. In contrast, a progressive scan image is painted in one pass. The benefit of this is that a progressively scanned image appears more solid and detailed than an interlaced one, even if both have theoretically the same display resolution.

This leads us onto the subject of ‘Full HD’ vs ‘HD Ready’ televisions and projectors. The difference between these products is basically that Full HD sets have a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 allowing them to display 1080p video in pixel-per-pixel quality.  HD Ready TVs are incapable of displaying true 1080p due to their lower resolution i.e. number of pixels.

Broadcast TV is currently not available in the higher quality 1080p format due to the massive amount of bandwidth it consumes, but as mentioned earlier, both HD DVD and Blu-ray are capable of outputting 1080p video. Therefore if you intend on getting the most out of your next gen DVDs, Full HD is required. But remember that you will need a 1080p TV, 1080p player and a compatible HDMI lead (most older leads do not support 1080p video) to experience high definition at its finest.

LCD, Plasma or Projector?

The decision to opt for either LCD or Plasma is not as clear cut as it used to be as recent manufacturing and design breakthroughs have successfully tackled problems associated with both technologies. Both offer similar life spans (no, plasma screens do not have to be refilled with gas LOL), power consumption and general visual quality. Plasma screen burn has also ceased to be a major issue. However, it’s generally agreed that plasma, aside from the best LCD sets, produces better blacks whilst LCD is preferable for clarity if you intend to hook up a PC or Mac. Whichever you choose, ensure that you know the difference between HD Ready and Full HD (see section above) and that your TV has ample connectivity. If you aren’t using an AV amp you should look for at least two HDMI sockets and component sockets for a third HD source.

Flatscreens might look cool on the wall, but for the real home cinematic experience you’ll need a projector. Now is absolutely the right time to invest too, as the kind of performance levels you’d expect from a $20k product a few years ago can now be delivered to your living room for a tenth of that price. Advances in DLP (Digital Light Processing ) technology have enabled modestly priced units to to produce deep black levels, pure whites, and subtle grayscale details with spectacular brightness levels. The very latest generation also offer Full HD performance, which is important when you could be throwing a 100” diagonal image against your wall.

A few points to consider before buying your projector: The size of the projected image depends on how far back the projector is positioned in your room and how large your screen is. Projectors operate best in darkened rooms, preferably with blacked-out windows and it’s best to paint the walls and ceilings with dark, non-reflective paint. You also need to budget for a sound system because unlike most modern TVs, projectors do not have built-in amplification and speakers.

So now that you have your HD capable TV or projector you’ll need a high definition source to run through it.

HD DVD or Blu-Ray?

The failure of a true successor to DVD to get a significant foothold in the marketplace is the direct result of a bitterly contested format war between Sony’s Blu-Ray solution and Toshiba’s HD DVD. Both formats offer near identical level of performance, with HD DVD’s early advantage in online functionality being offset by Blu-Ray’s higher storage capacity (50Gb vs 30Gb).

Although early Toshiba HD DVD players earned praise for their value, going to market at half of the price of Sony’s standalone players, the latter’s decision to include Blu-ray playback in their Playstation 3 games console seems to have paid off. This was a huge gamble on Sony’s part as the inclusion of playback hardware in each unit meant they were selling their product at a considerable loss, but even though the console has lost out to the Xbox 360 and Wii as a games machine, the numbers sold now represent a sizeable installed userbase for Blu-ray.   It should be noted that most professional reviewers acknowledge the output of the PS3 Blu-ray player to be excellent,  matching all but the most expensive stand-alone players.  In contrast,  the performance of the HD DVD add-on drive for the XBox 360, although good, seems to fall a little short of the Toshiba players currently on sale.

With studio support flagging for HD DVD (only Universal Studios and Paramount Picture are left onboard) it seems that the format war is over. Even an aggressive marketing campaign that includes five free disks mail-in offer with every new player and a series of price cuts, it seems that the final nails are being hammered into HD DVD’s coffin.

So for now it seems that the Blu-ray format is the logical way to go for anyone wanting to replace their DVD player with a high definition unit. It should be noted though that ultimately both formats are likely to become redundant as manufacturers and studios lead consumers towards downloads and streaming media. Music download sales seem to indicate that the age of physical media is coming to an end.

Home Cinema Sound

To complete your HD home cinema setup you will need to invest in a surround sound amplifier/receiver, speakers and cables. A few years ago when digital home cinema was in its infancy, building a home theatre was an expensive exercise. There was very much an overlap with the audiophile world with system builders opting to invest in hi-fi separates combined with dedicated effects speakers to create a surround sound system. Decent amps that supported the emerging audio standards like Dolby Digital and DTS were nudging $2000 and a good set of speakers would probably set you back around double that.

Thankfully now that the market is more mature, prices have tumbled and very capable complete systems including amp and speakers can be bought for as little as $1000. Having said this I would personally recommend that you set a budget of $2000 at the least to build a basic 5.1 surround sound system with an additional 10-20% set aside for cables.

Surround sound systems are built in varying configurations, with different numbers of speakers dependent upon the type of sound being fed into it.  A Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1. system is made up of two front speakers, two rear effects speakers, a centre or dialogue speaker and an LFE (Low Frequency Effects) speaker or subwoofer (that’s what the .1 refers to). The centre speaker is used mainly for voice localisation, stereo speakers for music and effects and the rear speakers for movement, reverberation and effects. The LFE unit provides the low frequency stuff.  More sophisticated 6.1 formats like Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES require an additional rear centre speaker whilst 7.1 systems like Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD drop the rear centre in favour of two additional surround speakers.

With the arrival of HD visuals, Blu-ray and HD DVD are also set to deliver high definition sound in the form of lossless digital audio formats. What this means is that movie soundtracks don’t have to be compressed to fit on a DVD and are preserved in their original 24-bit/96 kHz format, bit-for-bit identical to the master recording. This is possible due to the huge storage capacity of Blu-ray and HD DVD. Most notable amongst the new formats is Dolby® TrueHD, which has been developed for high-definition disk-based media and supports up to eight full-range sound channels, although it should be noted that not all disks offer TrueHD at the moment.

All of this sound is delivered from your HD DVD/Blu-ray player into your digital amplifier via an HDMI cable (or optical/coaxial cable if have an older amp) and then out to your speakers via conventional speaker cable. I cannot stress just how important it is to but the best leads that you can afford as poor connectivity will break a system. Dolby® TrueHD and similar formats required a HDMI 1.3 cable which has been designed to offer greater bandwidth and lossless audio support. Look to buy as shorter run as possible that also supports 1080p video. All of your cables should be kept clear of power leads to prevent leakage/interference.

With the exception of your subwoofer, loudspeakers should be connected with high quality speaker cable (starting at around $15 per metre) and terminated with banana plugs, preferably soldered on either end. For front speakers with four terminals (an extra set of connecting posts on the rear), bi-wiring - that is using four runs of cable for each speaker, can create a more transparent sound. If you want to wire conventionally, take off the jumper plates (flat pieces of metal between the posts) and replace it with short runs of the same cable that you are using for your speakers terminated by spade connectors).

By far the most expensive element of your speaker set will be your LFE/subwoofer which will probably comprise over half the total cost of your complete speaker set. If you have a good quality active sub (one with its own amplification) you can get away with using small, even bookshelf-sized front and rear speakers. A good LFE should be musical as well as dynamic and as a rule should only be noticed when it’s been switched off.

Front floor standing speakers should be positioned at least 200mm from the the rear wall and 700mm from the side wall, facing slightly inwards. Spiked feet will minimise vibration and give you the most stable base on carpeted floors.  Bookshelf-sized models can be either mounted on stands, fixed to a wall or placed upon on a rigid shelf. Bass extension will improve if speakers are positioned closer to the rear walls. The centre speaker should be located centrally between your front loudspeakers either above or below the screen and in a 5.1 system,  rear effect speakers should be located on either a rear or a side wall – slightly behind the listening position.

Tweaking your system

Now that your system has been built you’ll need to tweak it to achieve the best results. Most televisions are delivered with the default factory settings which means they’re set up to impress passing customers in an electronics showroom, not deliver cinematic visuals. Turn off all the crap like black correction, edge enhancement etc. and if you’re using a digital source you absolutely *must* disable noise reduction as this is responsible for a lot of the smearing/blurring seen on flat panel sets. If you haven’t got a reference disk or one of those THX utilities,  try searching online for the make and model of your TV – you’ll probably find that somebody has posted the optimal settings online.

Similarly, you should invest some time in configuring your sound system. If you have a matched system everything will pretty much work out of the box, but if you’re putting together a rig with kit from different manufacturers you’ll need to pay attention to your subwoofer crossover settings. Most modern amps will allow you to set the distance of your speakers from the viewing position to get optimal results.

Summary

By investing in good components it is quite possible to build a home cinema setup that with the exception of screen size, can potentially offer a higher quality viewing experience than you can get in your local multiplex. With the price of consumer electronics still falling these kind of systems are becoming more and more affordable all the time opening up a whole new world of home cinema to AV enthusiasts and movie fans alike.

Posted by Elgar in Blu-ray & HD DVD, Commentary, Sci-Tech & Video Games • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg