Recent Comments:
BCS Championship Game in 3D: A Review {Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog}
Jan 9th 2009 9:45PM I saw the 3D broadcast in Viera, Florida. It was a technical disaster. To start with, they had the left and right projectors swapped, so the whole theater had to wear their 3D glasses upside down to see the 3D effect properly. It went down from there. The broadcast suffered from focus problems, perspective problems (varying strength of the 3d effect), dirty lenses, poor camera angles, glare, dim image, muddy sound and a low refresh rate. Also the directors loved to change camera angles right before the snap, which is very distracting. Definitely not ready for prime time. Sony, Fox, Cinedigm, the Rave Theater and anyone else involved in this should be ashamed.
Our view of many plays were blocked by people's heads, either players standing on the sidelines, or photographers, or just people wandering around. We left at halftime, and went home and watched the rest of the game on TV.
On the plus side: The 3D effect was good and during some of the better moments, the 3D, plus the large screen gave a great sense of presence to events on the field.
I agree that it was great to have the video of the game presented with absolutely NO graphics overlaid on the screen. They had the capability which they used occasionally, but during plays they didn't have a logo, clock, yards-to-go or any of that other junk the networks clutter up our screens with. This part they got right.
Anyway, great game, and go Gators! Another Championship.
The quest for an HDTV this holiday season {Engadget HD}
Dec 19th 2006 6:19AM I've been shopping for a smaller TV/DVD combo for the kitchen. It's surprisingly hard to find a small TV with an ATSC tuner. I use antennas for reception, and I know that the clock is counting down toward the end of analog broadcasting. So, where are all the digital tuners? There's a lot of deceptive wording in the ads, but when you finally get to the specifications, no digital tuner. This is going to be an unpleasant surprise for a lot of folks.
Engadget HD giveaways: win another Philips 42PF9631D 42-inch plasma! {Engadget HD}
Oct 13th 2006 3:25PM My set has a cablecard slot, but I'm just using off-the-air reception right now.
HDBeat Podcast 025 - Interview with Andy Parsons {Engadget HD}
Aug 26th 2006 11:11AM The format wars are very boring to me. I decided long ago that I won't buy a Hi-Def DVD player until there is clearly only one format. I don't care how it gets resolved -- whether one side gives up, or players are eventually released that are compatible with all disks. I like Hi-def, and I watch a lot of movies, however, and this is probably heresy here, but Hi-Def isn't *that* much better than a good regular DVD to be compelling for me. It's not like CD Audio, which was subjectively, maybe 5 times as good as vinyl records. Plus, there was only one, unified, format. In comparison, Hi-Def is only (totally subjectively), about 1.5 times better. Your mileage may vary. As far as the podcast goes, you could limit the format-wars coverage to an announcement at the end letting us know who won. Or, maybe, a sports-score style report once in a while, you know, "Blu-Ray is leading HD-DVD, 43 movies to 17 at the end of month 7". (totally made-up numbers)
Ask HDBeat: What are some good HDTV antennas? {Engadget HD}
Aug 26th 2006 10:46AM I just ordered a Channel Master 4228. I live about 40 miles from most of the stations I want, but over flat ground in Florida. I got good reception from an old VHF/UHF TV antenna - roof mounted. I'm replacing it primarily because it is old, beat-up and ugly, (veteran of hurricanes and tree-snaping thunderstorms) but it was still working remarkably well. Don't believe the hype, there's little difference between HD and analog signals as far as the antenna is concerned. Height and clear line-of-sight are key.
Why HD DVD will prevail: my opinion {Engadget HD}
Jun 6th 2006 7:27AM For the big Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD race, you might find this interesting. Google keeps track of how often terms are searched for, and from what region, city, etc. So, trying this out...
http://www.google.com/trends?q=HD+DVD%2C+Blu-Ray&ctab=1&geo=all&date=all
We see that HD DVD is consistently getting more searchs. Now, look at the graphs for "DIVX, Blu-Ray, HD DVD". Why don't you guys talk more about DIVX on the podcast?
