There's a whole lot of stuff that makes up a digital TV signal. Here's a primer on how it works.
In the beginning, there was analog television. You aimed the antenna, tuned in the channel, and then sat back to watch as the amplitude-modulated pictures flashed on the TV screen and the frequency-modulated audio blared forth from the speakers. Some time later, analog TV added color by shoehorning in a small signal with the necessary information amongst those amplitude- and frequency-modulated pictures and sounds.
If you scoured all of the details on the recent HDMI 1.3 release (and who didn't?), you may have noticed the inclusion of xvYCC and Deep Color. These are two different things that together will theoretically make displays' color more realistic. The short version is this: Deep Color increases the available bit depth for each color component, while xvYCC expands the overall color gamut. Sure they do, but why?
Although Martin Scorsese has drawn some compelling performances out of his cast - particularly Mark Wahlberg, who rises to the challenge as never before - The Departed lacks the visual flair of the director's other works.
Could it be that Apple, Amazon and Netflix might face their toughest competition in the movie download space from a brick and mortar retail chain? Wal-Mart is entering the movie download business with deals in place with six of Hollywood's major studios, a claim no other download site can match currently. Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner have all signed on to sell movies and TV shows with the retailing giant.
What's remarkable about Wal-Mart's just-unveiled Video Downloads is not that America's number one retailer is venturing into online distribution of
movies and teevee. The real story is that Wal-Mart has convinced all six major motion picture studios and at least some of the networks to pour a
total of 3000 titles into the fledgling service. Wal-Mart tells
you how to enjoy its downloads on TV, PC, or portable player. Pricing ranges from $1.96 for a TV episode to $19.88 for a fresh movie title.
Shop around and you'll find movie titles well under the maximum. For example, Rugrats Go Wild for a mere $7.50. Still, even that's
not much of a bargain compared to your basic Blockbuster movie rental fee of less than $5--so much for the "always low prices" slogan. Moreover, there's no mention of HD, compatible portables do not
include iPods, and Wal-Mart's web developer is guilty, guilty, guilty of a major gaffe: The service seems to have been optimized for Internet
Explorer (I used version 7). In Firefox 1.5, it's an unusable mess. Any Safari or Opera users having trouble with this page? Let me know. In fairness, the service is in beta, and improvements may follow.
Thrusting you into the Normandy Breakout, the spectacular graphics and sound of this game make it one of the most immersive, movie-like World War II shooters yet. Details in the environments will astound you, including some of the most lifelike vegetation ever seen in a game - from individual blades of grass that sway in the breeze to lush trees that let rays of light filter through.
TOUCHES OF CLASS If you suspect those cheapie plasmas at Costco must be missing something, you're right . . . and it's all found in Pioneer's PRO-940HD set. An arsenal of technologies - including a crystal emissive layer, glare-reducing filter, and improved phosphors - gives you the deepest contrast possible.
