OTHER TECH

A 4K transfer gives the best possible image quality, right? Not so fast. Resolution is important, but it's not the only factor. Try watching a high-def movie on a 1080p display bathed in bright sunlight and you'll catch my drift. No matter how good the resolution, a washed-out image will still look pretty lousy, even if it boasts millions of pixels. That's why Lowry thinks that NHK's work on Ultra HD, while impressive, is an example of engineers barking up the wrong bit.

Many things contribute to the impression of picture quality. For example, better sound creates the sense of a better picture. And improved dynamic range - a TV's ability to display a wide luminance range from dead black to peak white - makes the image appear sharper. New display technologies, such as Toshiba's SED system (see "The Future of Flat,"), can yield dramatically improved contrast that imbues a high-def image with a sense of richness not otherwise obtainable.

That's why Tomlinson Holman, president of TMH Corporation andinventor of the THX cinema standard, calls the traditional concept of high-def "irrelevant." The point isn't to just use the most pixels, but to create a combination of improved resolution, widescreen imagery, and surround sound that changes the nature of the viewing experience. "HDTV was the wrong pitch," Holman believes. "It should have been called 'high-impact television.'"

As for the near future, the bottleneck to better picture quality will remain where it's always been: with video's gatekeepers, the cable and satellite companies. They won't talk about it, but to squeeze more channels into their available bandwidth, both industries regularly compress their channels to the point where both standard- and high-def picture quality often suffer - no matter how good the source material is. But that's a whole other story ...

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