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High Defintion Plasma TH-58PX600U

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Blu-ray Disc Player
DMP-BD10

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data.

The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

 The Great Technology War: LCD vs. DLP If you are new to the world of digital projectors, you won't have to shop around the market very long before discovering that "LCD" and "DLP" somehow refers to two different kinds of projectors. You might not even know what LCD and DLP are before asking the obvious question "which one is better?"
Want a really BIG SCREEN...then use a LCD/DLP projector and connect your computer or even an VHS player/recorder (used as a TV tuner) and project pictures or presentations up to 15 feet by 20 feet.  (can go larger)
Projector Models for rent.

The top 5 reasons to go 1080p

Why all the hoopla about 1080p? Most early adopters saw no improvement from their "up-converting" DVD players, even after going digital with HDMI™. Why? Because all they were really seeing was enhanced 480p on a 1080i display. The early hype about 1080p made us think it was the next big thing. Is it? New HDTVs that are "full HD 1080p" are shipping now so let's take a look at the top 5 reasons to go 1080p.
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Sharpening your image with that new HDTV
A few tips on how to make the picture on your HDTV look a little more like it did in the showroom Marc Saltzman, The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 Article tools

You spent weeks researching which television technology to invest in and an even longer time looking for the right price by scouring flyers and checking websites. Finally, you buy your dream HDTV, bring it home, plug it in, and sit back to bask in its magnificence.

But somehow the picture doesn't look quite as good as you had anticipated. Why does the hockey game look better on the same TV at your electronics store and at John's house across the street?

More Technology news

This scenario is a familiar one to many Canadians who recently purchased a high-definition television.

Chances are there's nothing wrong with your set. You just need a little help setting it up for optimum performance.

With some advice from La Boutique Electronique (www.laboutiqueelectronique.com), here are a handful of pointers on getting the best picture on your new HDTV, be it a flat-panel LCD television, plasma or rear-projection unit.

Is it really HDTV?

First, make sure it's truly a high-definition television, capable of displaying up to 1,080 lines of resolution. Don't assume a widescreen LCD or plasma television is an HDTV set just because it's flat, as it may only be an EDTV ("enhanced digital television").

EDTVs can display only 480 or 576 lines of resolution, so be sure you read the television's specs before you buy.

HD programming

Depending on where you live, you might receive some free over-the-air HDTV broadcasts (if your television has a built-in ATSC tuner), but most of us will need to buy or rent an HDTV receiver box from our cable or satellite TV provider.

Be aware that you will likely have to pay a few extra dollars per month for access to the HDTV programming, too (but it's worth it).

Cable guy

To view HDTV programming, you also need the right cables. In the past, you've probably used the red, yellow and white composite (RCA) cords or a round-ended S-Video cable, but high-definition programming requires component cables (red, blue and green), a digital visual interface (DVI) cable or the high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable, the latter of which is the preferred pick for the ultimate in audio and video quality.

Take a look at the back of your new television and you'll see a few options; you might have to buy these cables separately.

Contrast up, brightness down

"A quick and easy way to vastly improve picture quality - right off the bat - is to crank up the contrast on your television almost to full and reduce the brightness down to below half," advises Chris Porteous, president of La Boutique Electronique.

"It makes blacks blacker, colours richer, and gets rid of the washed-out look many HDTVs have." Most TVs are too bright to begin with anyway, adds Porteous.

Widescreen tip

Though many of his customers tend to do the opposite, says Porteous, leave the television's video setting on full-screen but change your receiver box's video output setting to 1080i, and you'll end up with a much clearer and sharper picture.

"Many HDTV owners zoom in on their television to remove the black vertical bars on the edges of the screen but this can result in a more blurry or pixilated image."
 

The truth about Plasma screen burn-in and gas recharging

Plasma screen TVs have had some bad publicity thanks to the ignorance of some salespeople at national retail stores. This page is dedicated to giving you the true facts about plasma burn, so you can make your own choice about buying a plasma TV screen.

About plasma screen pixel burn-in and dead pixels?
A lot of people worry about pixel burn-in when researching Plasma screen TVs. Screen burn-in is when an image stays on the screen for a long period of time, and appears to get permanently burned into the screen itself. Screen burn-in can potentially happen, when running a computer presentation that has fixed blocks of solid color.

However, for most plasma owners, screen burn-in will never be an issue, and you are much more likely to upgrade your Plasma TV before anything goes wrong. To put your mind at rest, most newer plasma TVs have a feature called white flash·that provides correction if screen burn-in ever occurs. There is also a calibration tool called PixelProtector that makes sure your plasma TV is always set up to combat screen burn.

Very occasionally LCD and plasma TVs suffer from dead pixels when a pixel is either always on (lit up when the screen is black, for example), or the pixel is always off (black when it should have color or be white). A few dead pixels here and there are not noticeable, and manufacturers normally state that a small percentage of dead pixels are allowed.

The best way to avoid any problems with dead pixels is buy a plasma screen made by a reputable manufacturer (such as Sony, Panasonic, NEC and Sharp), as the build quality of the plasma panels is higher you are less likely to have problems, and if you do, the screens will have a guarantee/warrantee enabling you to get the problem repaired or the screen exchanged.

Do you have to "re-gas" Plasma TV screens?
This is one of the most common, and the most wrong myths about Plasma TVs. All plasma screens are completely, permanently sealed when manufactured. Each individual pixel in a plasma panel is sealed, and therefore cannot, and does not ever require any refilling, or recharging.

Next time some salesperson tells you about "re-filling" the gas in a plasma TV, ask them how long it takes to manually insert three different types of gas into every single pixel in the screen.

Someone told me that Plasma TVs don't have a very long life-span, is this true?
If you buy your Plasma screen from a quality brand you will get a TV with a rated lifetime of around 30,000 hours. What this means is if you watch TV for five hours, every single day it will last over 16 years. I'm guessing that you'll be looking to replace your plasma TV long before that happens, and on average most people buy a new home TV every eight years anyway! The lifetime of a plasma TV is measured by something called it's "half life" (this is the industry term for the period of time it takes for the display to appear half as bright as the day it was first used). All different types of TV screens, including LCD lose their brightness over time, but because it's so gradual, it's practically impossible to notice.