Researchers Craft HDTV's Successor
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Japanese engineers show their work on Super Hi-Vision, which could replace today's HDTV.
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The picture is grainy and the technology won't last, but TV programming is here to stay.
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Neosonik has come up with a way to beam HDTV pictures and surround-sound audio to a set 120 feet away.
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(InfoWorld) - It's an interesting contrast: consumers are fast ditching videotape for DVDs and hard disks, but the people who make TV shows are sticking to tape for some cutting edge applications. When it comes to recording broadcast-quality HDTV, today's optical disc systems just can't spin fast enough to keep up with the video -- but that may be about to change. Current optical disc systems are speed-capped at about 10,000 rpm (revolutions per minute.) Spin them any faster and there's a danger the discs will physically disintegrate in the drive leaving nothing but a pile of sharp plastic splinters and data that is gone forever. And even if they don't break apart the disc can begin to wobble making reliable recording a problem. Engineers at the Science and Technical Research Laboratories (STRL) of Japan's public broadcaster, NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), are working on an optical disc recording system based on consumer Blu-ray Disc technology that can spin as fast as 15,000 rpm without these problems and demonstrated it last week. It's needed because broadcast quality HDTV signals of the type NHK records stream at 250MbpsÂ making a fast-spinning optical disc a necessity. A 1X Blu-ray Disc records at 36Mbps so the new system is equivalent to 7X speed. NHK has gotten around the stress problem by making a flexible disc that is just 0.1 millimeters thick. The disc, which was co-developed with Ricoh, is essentially the recording layer from a Blu-ray Disc without the 1.1 millimeter plastic substrate that is used to give the disc rigidity. It won't break apart at higher speeds but is not rigid enough to be useful in a drive at any speed. To solve this second problem a thick stabilizing plate has been added into the drive. When spun, the disc is kept steady by the stabilizer and can be used up to 15,000 rpm, said Daiichi Koide, an engineer at NHK STRL. The set-up is similar to Hitachi Maxell's Stacked Volumetric Optical Disc (SVOD) that wasÂ introduced in prototype formÂ at last year's Ceatec exhibition in Japan and shown again at Cebit in Germany this year. SVOD packs several 0.1 millimeter thick optical discs into a cartridge and holds them against a stabilizer in the drive to keep them steady while in use. However there is a key difference between the two, said Koide. In the NHK drive the stabilizer doesn't rotate. If it did it would be susceptible to the same stresses that as the discs. The result is that NHK can spin the disc up to 15,000 rpm without any mechanical problems. The system is still under development and there's no word on when it will literally be ready for prime time. NHK envisages cartridges stuffed with a number of the thin discs that can replace videotapes. Â
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By Chris Flores, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.  Dec. 16--Consumers buying flat-panel high-definition televisions are facing a curious little feature that they aren't quite sure about.
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New Windows-based computer doubles as a TV and a digital video recorder.
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A breakthrough in the way scientists make crystals could lead to a replacement for silicon in chips for devices.
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A video projector the size of a sugar cube is developed by researchers in Germany.
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The Universal Home Application Programmer Interface Forum is working on a specification for analog and digital television designed to enable the creation of middleware and application software
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An intelligent system that can recognise the content in photos and videos is being developed by researchers.
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Receiver will allow your TV to display HD content that's stored on your PC.
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Digital photo frames expand beyond standalone frames into home appliances.
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Latest in HDTV technology is on the floor at DisplaySearch's HDTV: The Future of Television conference.
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HDTV manufacturers are trying to make the task of buying an HDTV set much more difficult than just choosing between LCD and plasma, 42 inches or 46 inches.
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What comes after television? That's a question I've been asking at every Consumer Electronics Show. The answer, of course, is not just &quot;more TV&quot; but bigger and better TV, with better sound and higher resolutions, made possible by digital sources, processing and displays. In other words, computing and networking. \
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A new type of premium DVD player has emerged, converting a disc's images to greater resolution to take advantage of high-definition TV sets. A comparison of offerings from five makers.
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Cutting-edge game units, TVs, satellite receivers, camcorders and more are introduced.