Just to clarify a point made by the Sharp questioner; modern-day color printing has always used four basic colors - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - to reproduce the color gamut, and none of these are redundant the way pure yellow light would be in an RGB system.Given the essentially unnecessary processing that must be required to fire up these yellow subpixels in Quattron TVs, and the potential artifacts that the processing could create, the Quattron system is more a marketing gimmick than an engineering breakthrough. Great ads, though.
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Sharp Quattron, Hard of Hearing, Kuro Spoilage
I was listening to Leo Laporte's recent "Tech Guy" podcast on which you discussed Sharp televisions and their new Quattron technology, which uses four colors (red, green, blue, and yellow). I agree with your comments that the goal should be to accurately reproduce the original colors. Is this technology akin to inkjet printers using more than three inks to more accurately reproduce colors? Do you know if Sharp is trying to create "extra" color or using a new technique to reproduce color content that isn't being properly generated?
Alan Goldstein
According to Sharp's website, "For the very first time, yellow has been added to the conventional red, green, and blue color filter, enabling more colors to be displayed. Introducing never-before-seen colors...Sharp is redefining the way we see LED LCD TV." This sounds like they're trying to increase the color gamut, which is not desirable in my book.
As you point out, the goal is to reproduce the colors of the source material as accurately as possible, which means that the display should use the same range of colors that was used to create the content. Our display reviews clearly reveal that it's entirely possible to accurately reproduce the standard color gamut with red, green, and blue, so there is no need to introduce yellow into the system, as long as the display combines red and green to produce the correct yellow.
What?!
I am looking for a way to help my 82-year-old father, who has trouble hearing TV dialog. Connecting Bose noise-canceling headphones to his Samsung LCD TV works better than all other solutions he has tried so far, but any background noise and music in the soundtrack still distracts him from the dialog. Unlike most of us who enjoy the surround-sound experience (including my mom), he would be thrilled just to hear a show's dialog.
The only thing I can think of is to somehow route the center channel from an A/V receiver to his headphones. However, I am not sure if or how this could be done. Can you suggest a solution?
Steve Albright
The most obvious solution is to boost the center-channel level in the A/V receiver and/or cut the levels of the other channels. However, this only affects the speakers, not the AVR's headphone output, so others listening to the speakers (including your mom) would hear an unbalanced sound.
I recently found the perfect solution to your problem—the Smyth Realiser A8, which I profile in my Ultimate Gear blog on UltimateAVmag.com. The Realiser simulates surround sound in regular headphones, and it offers independent level controls for each channel. Using this device, your father could boost the level of the center channel and/or cut the level of the other channels in the headphones without affecting the balance of sound in the speakers. The Realiser has only analog inputs, so your AVR needs multichannel analog outputs to work with it, but this is very common.
The only problem is cost—the Realiser goes for $3360, which includes an excellent set of headphones. However, I know of no other solution to your problem that also allows others to listen to the speakers without unbalancing the sound.
Expiration Date
The Pioneer Kuro seems to be the standard that many in the media use for comparison. On a whim, I went looking for one to purchase, and they're still out there! Brand new, apparently, and from dealers I know. Of course, they've been sitting in a warehouse somewhere for years, which brings my question: Are there any concerns with purchasing one of these Kuros that have been stored so long, or can I expect the same longevity and performance as if it were fresh off the line? I'd like my first HDTV purchase to be an intelligent one. I'd like to know if you'd recommend purchasing a Kuro, or would a more-recently manufactured HDTV be a better investment?
Straum Yorton
Plasma TVs have no expiration date like milk! And in most cases, I doubt the Kuros you've found have been sitting around for years, since Pioneer officially discontinued selling them only in March of this year. Of course, they could be older than 9G (the last generation), but even so, it shouldn't be a problem.
Having said that, I would be a bit careful. Kuros are no longer in production, so if there is a defect, it might not be easily repaired or exchanged. Also, if it's been stored in a very high-temperature environment for a long time, there could be some discoloration in the casing or one of the screen laminates. Maybe it's been shipped around a lot, in which case, something might have jostled loose during transport. If you can buy one from a dealer you know, have them take the unit you intend to buy out of the box at the store, turn it on, and show something on it to make sure it works and looks okay. If so, I would have no hesitation in buying a Kuro at this point—at least a 9G model, which, in my opinion, still produces the best flat-panel picture money can buy.
If you have a home-theater question, please send it to scott.wilkinson@sorc.com.
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COMMENTS
Submitted by Scott (not verified) on August 12, 2010 - 7:10am
Regarding Steve Albright's question:Assuming the receiver/processor has multi-channel, line level analog outputs, would it be possible to tap the center channel output to a headphone amp. If he uses the digital output, the receiver would need to have simultaneous analog outputs. Some receivers/processors may allow simultaneous, active connections. If he is currently using analog outputs, he would need an RCA splitter. One half of the splitter would go to the headphone amp and the other would need to go to the center channel amp. This would be easier with a processor. With a receiver, he would need analog amp inputs on the receiver or need to purchase an amp for the center channel and level match the output. If he has the connections, I believe this would give his father center channel only, via the headphones and not affect the speaker output. It won't provide the adjustability of the Realiser, but should be significantly less expensive; albeit, a bit of a kludge.
Submitted by Chris Heinonen (not verified) on August 12, 2010 - 9:28am
Printers use CMYK, which is a subtractive processes (add them all and you get black, or no light), and displays use RBG, an additive process (add them all and you get white, or all colors of light), so you can't really compare the Quatron to the printer world.Additionally, whereas a display can modulate the intensity of a color while still providing full saturation, printers can't adjust the intensity, and so they have to reduce the saturation to provide that effect. Many new printers add extra inks (such as light cyan, light magenta, and shades of gray) to allow for the adjustment of intensity without having to reduce saturation, which allows for better gradients in pictures. They aren't expanding the color spectrum as Quatron does, but trying to more accurately display the existing spectrum by reducing the use of halftoning to display certain colors.
Submitted by Ron W (not verified) on August 14, 2010 - 11:42am
I wonder as well about the Sharp "Quattron" system and what is the point of it? Since the spectrum already contains the three primary RGB colors PLUS the secondary colors of yellow, cyan and magenta, if you had a color management system in your set-up, why couldn't you just boost the yellow to achieve the same effect? Of course, color levels would no longer be accurate.
Submitted by Dave Martin (not verified) on August 16, 2010 - 3:26pm
Ron -- you can't boost the secondary colors directly in an RGB system. To boost the yellow, you'd have to boost the red and green primaries, which would, as you surmise, throw everything off. Yes, the Quattron allows you to boost the yellow directly, but is it worth the additional cost and processing complexity (considering the TV has to extrapolate a fourth color from a three-color signal)? I tend to think not, especially when RGB already produces all the colors in Rec. 709.
Submitted by Mike Malia (not verified) on August 17, 2010 - 9:09am
Regarding the center channel and hearing impairment my Pioneer (VSX 1015 TX) has an option called "dialogue enhancement" that boosts the center considerably. I don't know if newer Pioneer receivers have this feature though. I use this feature for movies when the center channel mix is poor, and my center channel speaker is a Def Tech ($800) - so it's not the speaker. Center channel dialog is at the whim of whoever creates it.
Submitted by RedS (not verified) on August 17, 2010 - 9:16am
Scott,I would like your advice about which plasma to purchase, I am looking at the samsung pn50c6500 or the panasonic tcp50g25 mainly because I do not feel it neccessary to get 3D technology at this point given that I would either lose or break the 3D glasses required. I currently have a samsung blu-ray player which I run through my sony 5300es. I have heard alot about the samsung buzzing but also the black level issues with last year's panasonics. Also, I will be hooking a computer up to the TV so I was curious which model is more susceptible to burn in (supposedly you have to actively turn on the only burn-in prevention feature there is on the samsung). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am a huge fan of your blog and hometheatermag.com, spend way too much time on it while at work
Submitted by tomp (not verified) on August 17, 2010 - 5:24pm
On the Sharp added colors:TV RGB standards were set to reflect the capabilities of 50 year ago display phosphors. The world outside has a far greater color range than Rec 709. So does Sharp allow colors outside REC 709? Yes. Does Sharp allow colors to be displayed that are closer to the actual real world colrs? Yes.
Submitted by Dave Martin (not verified) on August 18, 2010 - 7:38am
Yes, Rec. 709 (the HD standard, by the way) has a limited color range. But it is a full system, from the originating video camera to the home TV, and changing the primaries' color coordinates or introducing a fourth primary (when all originating sources use only three primaries) at the TV to accommodate the wider spectrum can lead to inaccurate color reproduction (from the perspective of the original signal provider) or picture artifacts. That is the reason HT includes the chromaticity chart in each review -- so we can see just how accurately a given set can reproduce the colors of an incoming signal by comparing its color triangle with Rec. 709. Here's an old HT article on this subject: http://www.hometheatermag.com/gearworks/207gear/
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