Home Theater View

E3 Wrap-Up

I'm in charge of Consumer Devices at Current Analysis, which is actually composed of two separate groups: Mobile Devices and Digital Home. I've been in charge of the devices portion of our Digital Home service since the beginning of this year, and while I intend to continue posting here about home theater, I thought I'd plug noteworthy Digital Home reports on this blog as well. This year's E3 (the electronic gaming show) crossed over both of my coverage areas. I stayed home this year - I'm on the road a lot as it is - but Bruce McGregor, our Senior Analyst, Digital Home was there live. This isn't a new console year, but there were multiple announcements around new services, and Bruce wrote up announcements from Microsoft and Sony, while I covered the PSPgo.

(The report links require paid access to Current Analysis' syndicated research service; journalists who need free access should contact me and we'll get an account set up for you.)

	E3 2009: Sony PSPgo Doesn't go Far Enough
	E3 2009: Sony Offers More Movie and TV Show Downloads for Its PS3 and PSP Devices
	E3 2009: Microsoft Shows Off Several Xbox 360 Upgrades to Embolden Its Place in the Living Room

Happy New Year

Everyone else is doing retrospectives at the end of the year...

Ten years ago, I was single, living in an apartment, and my home theater consisted of a 27" CRT TV, Dolby Pro Logic receiver, HiFi VHS VCR, and a cobbled-together surround speaker system from Acoustic Research, Yamaha, and an AudioSource subwoofer.  Despite non-discrete surround sound and letterboxed VHS -- probably the lowest resolution format for movies of all time -- it rocked!  Other than the lack of a laserdisc player, it was reasonably cutting edge. DVD, digital front projectors, HDTV, home THX, Dolby Digital EX, automatic room callibration, DLP and LCOS... none of that existed ten years ago.

Still, I suspect if you played a video on that system with a bunch of today's kids they'd eat popcorn and enjoy the flick.  Apparently, the same can't be said for video games (despite nostalgia and my long-held assumption that game play was better back when designers couldn't rely on graphics to carry the game).  Electronic Games Monthly did their own retrospective on gaming by gathering a group of today's kids, having them play classic video games, and recording their comments. This year's version (Part II) is here; incredibly funny stuff.  If possible, the original (Part I) is even funnier, if only because they had the kids try out Pong and ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

Happy New Year,

-avi

DLP Ideal Display for Gamers

Joe Wilcox saw Samsung's DLP promotional tie-in with Halo2 for XBox and liked the notion but asks whether it could be more than just marketing.  Samsung does note that their sets offer easy A/V hookup for video game consoles (like nearly every TV on the market today) and digital image processing. But Samsung and TI, the makers of DLP technology, have really dropped the ball here, because it turns out that DLPs may be the ideal display technology for videogames, and I've yet to see any marketing pushing that message.

Here's what they should be saying:

• DLP sets are big -- the smallest DLP is in the 40" range -- providing an immersive experience.  You haven't played Halo2 until you've lived Halo2, and for that you need a display that occupies your peripheral vision.  A 25" set just isn't going to cut it.
• Even compared to CRT (tube) -based HDTV sets, DLP provides extremely sharp, well defined images.  For movies, some videophiles prefer slightly softer, more filmlike images you get from CRT or LCOS (aka JVC D-ILA and Sony SXRD).  But for video games, it's perfect.
• Unlike plasmas and CRTs, DLP sets do not suffer from static image burn in.  Playing a video game with a static image on screen (life meter, corporate logo, outlines of a car or spaceship "window") is the surest way to ruin that multi-thousand dollar plasma. 
• The other way to burn in a CRT set is to turn the brightness way up.  However, many games seem to demand insanely high brightness levels (try playing Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on a properly calibrated TV - the TIE fighters blend right into the Death Star background). DLP sets are blazingly bright with no fear of overdriving the set.
• Unlike LCD sets - which aren't currently as big as DLP sets - DLP has no problems displaying fast motion.  However, DLP "rainbows" are worse/more visible on video games than standard video programming.  Rainbows are where you see color fringes around fast moving objects due to the way DLP creates persistence of vision. Innovations in color wheel technology have helped alleviate the issue considerably, but TI can and should do more.   

People definitely make big $ hardware buying decisions based on gaming opportunities.  I remember dropping $3,500 on an early PC system back in college just to play the first version of Wing Commander (and that was almost 15 years ago).  VooDoo and AlienWare (and Dell's XPS division) sell gaming PCs in that price range today.  It doesn't seem too far fetched to pitch a $3,500 HDTV as a gaming display - or at least as a secondary reason behind watching DVDs or HDTV.  DLP may be the perfect display technology for video gamers, but somebody needs to get the word out. TI?  Samsung?  Anyone?

-avi