Thomas J. Norton

DisplaySearch is a company that produces technology assessments, surveys, studies, and analyses of the current state of video display technology. Every year for the past four years they organize a two-day HDTV event. This year's, the DisplaySearch 5th Annual HDTV Conference, was held at the Hilton hotel at Universal City, CA.

I could argue that the opening salvo of this report was delayed because I wanted the entire piece, which will appear in periodic postings over the next few weeks, to appear in 2010. Or that I figured no one would be watching during the holidays, tied up as they were with festooning the house with LEDs, pondering whether to send real cards or new e-cards (when you care enough to e-mail the very best), or spending hours lined up for <I>Avatar</I>.

The relatively limited brightness a projector offers becomes more significant as the size of the screen and the demands of the source material increase. Unlike in the past, where the desire for ever bigger screens could be satisfied (more or less) even by a less than wallet-choking projector, HDR demands far more peak brightness than standard dynamic range...Flat screen TVs in jumbo sizes have become increasingly common lately, at prices far less intimidating than before. A decent LCD/LED, 85-inch 4K set can be had for under $3500.

The first meeting of the new Blu-ray Disc Association, or BDA, a larger, more formally organized version of the original Blu-ray Disc Founders group, was held in Tokyo, Japan on October 4, 2004. It was formed to promote the Blu-ray format and finalize its technical standards.