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Editor's HDTV Pick

HP 47 inch MediaSmart 1080p LCD HDTV "Out of the box" digital media platform. Enjoy videos, pictures and music from home network + digital media delivered over your broadband Internet connection + 3 x HDMI

SMART Board announced the 600i interactive whiteboard in June 2006. It combines a SMART™ Board interactive whiteboard and the new Unifi™ projector with built-in audio – a complete package. There are two models; the 77 inch 680i and 64 inch 660i.

Instead of placing the projector in a separate mounting frame or on a convenient surface, both the interactive whiteboard and the cantilevered projector are wall mounted.

Interactive Whiteboard Features

No propriety tools are required to operate the SMART Board 600i. You can even use your fingers to replicate mouse gestures such as “right-click”. Tools are kept in the pen tray and the 600i automatically detects which tool has been selected – eg. eraser vs pen.

SMART Board software 9.5 provides functionalities for the creation, presentation and management of digital content. The software is compatible with Microsoft® Windows® or Mac OS X operating systems. Other versions of SMART Board software are available for UNIX, Linux and earlier Windows and Mac OS operating systems. Notable software features are:

• On screen images (including any annotations) can be captured as a screen shot that can be edited,
• Existing software can be used with the 600i,
• Work done on the interactive whiteboard can be saved directly to software applications, including Windows versions of Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel, or into AutoCAD software,
• Access thousands of free images and templates, interactive and educational content, advanced drawing tools and many other features from an easy-to-use interface,
• Take-home privileges allow staff and students use of the software at at home,
• Free SMART Board software upgrades,
• Available in 34 languages ,

Located in the pen tray, the help button provides quick access to a screen orientation feature and SMART’s online training and support material.

A Projector control module also built into the pen tray has three buttons; a simultaneous start up of the whiteboard and projector, volume adjustment and on-screen interface access.

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The dnp Supernova Optical Front Projection Screen was designed for use in high ambient light environments. It is advertised as delivering up to ten times higher contrast and two times brighter images than conventional front projection screens.

Based on some groundbreaking technology, the dnp Supernova projection screen has won technology awards and favourable mention at both InfoComm 2005 and CES 2006. DNP (Dai Nippon Printing) developed Supernova in Japan and the screens are manufactured at DNP facilities in Denmark.

An optical front projection screen, the dnp Supernova incorporates advanced brightness and contrast enhancing technology.

Optical System

The optical system functions two ways:

• Projected images pass through an optical lens system, which focuses and concentrates the light before it is reflected back towards the viewers perpendicular to the screen surface.
• A patented contrast enhancement filter, covering some 60% of the screen, absorbs diffuse light from sources such as windows and lighting.

The DNP Supernova screen is not a traditional projection screen rather an advanced optical lens system. Instead of reflecting light in all directions the DNP Supernova enhance the image for optimum viewing by combining the focusing abilities of a Fresnel lens with the distributive properties of lenticular lenses (diffuse the illumination in a single direction).

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Samsungs HL-S5679W won the CNET Best of 2006 Award’s TV category at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The 56 inch, HL-S5679W 1080p HDTV rear projection television (RPTV) is Samsungs first LED backlighting technology offering on the market.

Light emitting diode (LED) backlighting technology is set to revolutionize RPTV and LCD products over the next few years. Firing rapidly in sequence, the red, green and blue LEDs produce a smooth, stable color output.

The headline benefits of the new technology are:

• Elimination of the DLP rainbow effect (brief color trails visible to some viewers)
• A much wider color gamut - greater than 100% NTSC vs 72% -92% for traditional CCFLs
• Quicker turn on time - 7 seconds
• Longer backlight life - 20,000 hours or more compared with typical 3,000 -5,000 for CCFL backlights
• No brightness degradation over bulb life as with conventional CCFL backlights
• Quieter operation
• Mercury free - environmentally friendly
• Lower electricity consumption than conventional backlighting

The LED backlighting behind the Samsung HL-S5679W is the commercially available, solid state, PhlatLight chipset from Luminus Devices. The Phlatlight, based on Luminis’s photonic lattice technology, was designed specifically for microdisplay (such the Texas Instruments DarkChip3 DMD powering the HL-S5679W) illumination. The photonic lattices are microstructures arranged in complex arrays to push reluctant photons out of the diode’s semiconductor medium - boosting light output of the LEDs. As well as boosting the light output, the microstructures produce a more unidirectional (directed) and useful light stream. PhlatLight chipsets are the first with sufficiently high power levels to produce the brightness required for RPTVs.

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Onfinity CM2 is a portable interactive whiteboard system which will allow any road warrior to give interactive software demonstrations or make presentations more engaging.

It’s a plug and play solution suitable for education, sales or professional use. The system is flexible being suitable for use with rear projection, LCD or plasma display. Additionally, when teamed with a digital projector, it can convert any soft or hard projection screen (or suitable surface) into an interactive whiteboard. The Onfinity CM2 can handle screen sizes up to 150 inches. The heaviest component is the signal receiver at only about 0.5lb.The Onfinity CM2 system consists of a special ePen, an optical receiver unit which is connected to a PC. The connection is USB which eliminates the requirement for a battery for the optical receiver. The PC is also connected to the display device. The Optical Position Dectection Technology (infrared signalling) used by Onfinity doesn’t require any attachments to the screen such as with other similar products such as eBeam.

Setting up the ONfinity CM2’s is simple process as follows:

• Load CD onto computer (first time only),
• Connect the ONfinity signal receiver to PC’s USB port,
• Connect the PC to a projector, plasma or LCD screen,
• Position the ONfinity signal receiver so that the two red dots shine below the bottom corners of the projected image,
• Calibrate the screen by touching the green dots with the E-pen.

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Following quickly on the heels of Presentation Technology Reviews news article on Philips Lumileds LED luminance record setting, comes news from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) that researchers have developed an LED that is seven times brighter than conventional LEDs (souce: Applied Physics Letters. July 17, 2006).

These recent technology breakthroughs give further credibility to Strategy Analytics recent report, “Now Showing on a Television Near You: LEDs are the Ones to Watch,” which predicts that LED-based backlighting will account for almost 25 percent of the total LCD TV market in 2010. LED backlighting offers advantages including increased color gamut, longer life and greater inherent environmental friendliness. Cost and power consumption negatives are being worked on.

The NIST team fabricated their gallium arsenide LEDs to be seven times brighter by etching ten nanoscale concentric rings around emitting area of the diode to create a unidirectional light source. An alumina mirror backing was used to reflect the emitted light upwards. The approach used resulted in about 41% of the total light generated being perpendicular to the LED as compared to the 2% without any surface treatment.

Lead Physical Review paper author Mark Su says the design principles are transferable to other LED materials and emission wavelengths, as well as other processing techniques, such as commercial photolithography.

It should be noted that the Physical Review paper is reporting on research. In comparison, Luminus Devices is currently shipping their PhlatLight PT85 and PhlatLight PT180 chipsets for high definition rear projection televisions. The chipsets are based on Luminus Devices photonic lattice light emitting diode (LED) technology.

M. Y. Su and R. P. Mirin, Enhanced light extraction from circular Bragg grating coupled microcavities, Applied Physics Letters. July 17, 2006.

You’ve just got your new television installed and it doesn’t look as good as in the shop. What’s wrong? It’s probably because the manufacturer calibrated your set for bold colors to attract attention under the bright lights of a store like the one you bought it in. So how does the non expert get their expensive new television set calibrated? The only options have been to muddle through by ones self or call in a professional calibrator. However, there is now another option.

Datacolor have released the first all-in-one automated display calibration package. SpyderTV PRO is a combined software and hardware solution. It can calibrate front projectors, plasma, RPTV, DLP, LCD, LCoS and CRT TVs.

Setting up for calibration involves attaching the included SpyderTV colorimeter to the test display and connecting it by a USB cable to a PC you have installed the calibration software on. The Datacolor calibration system comes with both SpyderTV PRO and Spyder2 PRO software with both capable of running on a Windows system and Spyder2 capable of running on an Apple Mac also. The included software is a calibration wizard which guides the user through the entire optimization process.

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According to TeamBoard, their TeamBoard 8060 is the largest interactive whiteboard in the world. The TeamBoard 8060 is large at 100 inches diagonal – certainly useful for large venues. Teamboard’s interactive whiteboards are also available in other sizes:

• TMWM6048CL - 60 inch (w) x 48 inch (h)
• TMWM4836CL - 48 inch (w) x 36 inch (h)
• TMDEMO - 31 inch (w) X 25 inch (h)

With projectors available with up to 3,000 ANSI Lumens the TeamBoard interactive whiteboards are suitable for even rooms with bright ambient light.

As with their other interactive whiteboards, there are a number of ways the Teamboard 8060 can be utilized.

As a Whiteboard.

At the most basic level the 8060 can be used with no projected images as a whiteboard water-soluble, dry-erase markers Teamboard guarantee the surface for 5 years.

As an Electronic Whiteboard

In “Electronic Whiteboard” mode any drawings made on the whiteboard surface (without the projector running) can be saved. Diagrams, sketches and notes can be captured to the controlling PC in a variety of popular file formats including PDF and JPEG. Files can be shared, emailed, or printed.

As an Interactive Whiteboard

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The Toshiba TLP-XC2500U is new LCD projector with and integrated document camera. It doesn’t have high end specifications but, if does offer presenters the extra flexibility to display photo samples, specimens, printed documents, microscopic images, transparencies and all manner of material samples along with a slide presentation.

At 8.8lbs the unit is reasonably portable. With native XGA 1024×768 resolution, 2,500 ANSI lumens brightness and a 400:1 contrast ratio the Toshiba TLP-XC2500U should provide a professional display in conference room like situations. Digital vertical keystone correction is available to cope with mounting surfaces above or below the optimum projecting position for the screen. Presenters who take advantage of the monitor output to connect their PC or other display screen (active monitor-loop through), will be able to face their audience at all times while keeping track of what is currently on the projection screen.

The integrated document camera is a advanced CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) document camera with 3-mega pixel resolution mounted on an articulated swing arm. The camera has a built-in LED light and can provide up to 16X digital zoom. Being integrated the camera cannot be left behind!

Some other noteworthy features are:

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On July 31 Light Blue Optics of Cambridge, UK announced the closing of a $2.5 million seed funding round.

Light Blue Optics, founded in 2004, is developing it’s PVPro laser projection technology to, “power a new generation of miniature digital video projectors, which are smaller, more power-efficient and more robust than ever before, and will enable a new class of projection-enabled products to be created.” The novel, patented laser projection technology, PVPro, uses laser light sources and diffractive techniques. Presentation Technology Reviews introduced Light Blue Optics in the article Matchbox Size Projector

PVPro offers a unique combination of features and benefits including compact size, focus free operation, low power consumption, robust design, with no moving parts, and simple low cost manufacture.

The market for miniature projectors capable of displaying large, high resolution video images is expected to explode in the next five years as mobile device manufacturers seek to overcome the limitations of current small screens and unleash the vast and growing quantity of rich multimedia content trapped inside.

PVPro has enormous potential in a wide range of business and consumer applications such as stand alone projectors, games consoles, mobile phones, media players and head up displays.

The seed funding will enable Light Blue Optics to accelerate its product development plans by expanding its internal engineering team and building relationships with its strategic customers and development partners.

This post was adapted from the July 31 Light Blue Optics Press Release.

Most interesting of this new offering from Hitachi is the introduction of two new technologies:

• In-plane Switching (IPS) providing a 178 degrees field-of-view and
• An integrated digital video recorder utilizing twin tuners

Integrated ViXS XCode Digital Video Recorder

The new Hitachi LCD allows extended recording of High Definition video to an internal 250GB hard drive via XCodeHD while keeping the resolution intact. The high-definition transrating technology allows hours of recording HD content while maintaining the original high quality picture.

It was only on April 17 that the 2001 startup, XiXS Systems, announced its newest breed of video processors featuring support for high definition (HD) broadcast content. The XCode 2121 and 2111 processor’s are based on ViXS’ powerful XCodeHD Engine which provides encoding and reprocessing technology to reduce video bit rates while maintaining the same quality as the original content. The reduced bit rate allows content to be stored using only half the space required by other video encoders. The XCodeHD Engine can also provide HD-to-SD downscaling.

Founded in January 2001, ViXS Systems Inc headquartered in Toronto, Ontario and has filed over 100 patents to date.

In-plane Switching (IPS)

Hitachi’s W37L-H9000 LCD panel features in-plane switching (IPS) mode LCD from IPS Alpha Technology, Ltd. IPS Alpha Technology, Ltd is a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., and wholly owned Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Displays, Ltd.

IPS is a type of TFT-LCD display technology which is advertised as offering a wide 170-degree viewing angle, both horizontally and vertically, along with minimal gray-scale inversion. This is made possible by the liquid crystal molecules rotating while remaining parallel to the substrate when a voltage is applied, yielding perfect orientation of the crystals - according to the companies who have developed it. Read more about this technology at Hitachi Displays.

Hitachi’s W37L-H9000 LCD HDTV has an advertised resolution of 1366 x 768 and brightness of 500cd/m2.

The W37L-H9000 is expected to retail at approximately $3,050 from this September.