Recent Comments:
ARE offers Ambilight for all {Engadget}
Sep 5th 2006 12:34PM There is some actual color science behind the gimickry of these lights. Our perception of color is affected by the surrounding color field. Two identical colors will be percieved as totally different hues if they are placed within different color fields. However, Philips is pretty dumb about how they implement the Ambilight technology. Perhaps ARE has a better algorithm? If so, you could mess with the surrounding color fields to really pop out the colors that you want on the TV. In general, that's getting green fields to look _really_ green, blue skies _really_ blue, and flesh tones just right. Manipulating the surrounding color field is one tool to modify our perception of color on the screen. It is a very underutilized tool, since it generally comes across as a gimmick. Philips hasn't done much to alleviate this.
Engadget's Cleaning Out Our Closet Contest {Engadget}
Aug 16th 2006 2:16PM Put me down for the Olympic Soundbug. I am a total recording junkie. I carry my Archos GMini 402 Camcorder with me at all times. I love taking videos and recordings, but I never have speakers to play them back with. Busting out the soundbug and connecting it to the nearest flat surface would be Geek-Tacular! Or I could hook it into my HTC Wizard for instant speaker phone. Please help me fulfill my dreams of true gadgetiness.
--Brad
Ask HDBeat: How can I tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p {Engadget HD}
Jul 25th 2006 2:39PM Its in the source!
I can tell you that lots depends on what source your 1080i or 1080p is made out of. Specifically, are the fields/frames temporally unique? Much 1080i/1080p content is pretty crappy. Its already been through at least one upsampling step in its life. No wonder you can say that 1080i and 1080p looks equally bad. But really good 1080i that takes advantage of 1080i will look worse on a 1080p output. And really good 1080p content will look better than 1080i. Much 1080i content is broken in one way or another. Perhaps it is not truly 60 fields per second. Perhaps it was 480i upscaled. Maybe it is decimated 1080p source?
Some of the best source material we use for testing deinterlacing is computer generated. Scrolling or spinning text, swinging pendulums, bouncing balls and the like. White on black, with each field temporally unique. These are really tough problems to take on for 1080p output. You _will_ see problems instantly in deinterlacing with this sort of content. Problems that are also present but less obvious in more traditional content.
--Harperbrad
