Scott Wilkinson

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Ask S&V
Ambilight, Scaling, Subs
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 09, 2009
Ambilight Ambivalence
A buddy of mine had an older Philips plasma TV with Ambilight. The first time I saw it, I though it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen and decided I had to have a set of my own with Ambilight. However, the Philips sets seem to get pretty mixed reviews on Amazon. The availability and selection also seems to be a little scarce. Are the Philips plasmas and LCDs really to be avoided? And if so, is there an alternative you can suggest?
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The Big Picture
AMC ETX & 3D Rio
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 03, 2011
Tom Norton and I saw Rio in 3D last week at our local AMC multiplex, which offers something called Enhanced Theater Experience (ETX) with a larger screen, digital projection, and a beefier sound system. I guess this is somewhere between a conventional theater and Imax, and it was quite good overall.
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CES 2010
Amimon WHDI
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 09, 2009

Unlike WirelessHD, which I wrote about yesterday, Amimon's WHDI (Wireless HD Interface) is now included in several TVs, but they are only available in Japan. Sony's Bravia Wireless Link module and Belkin's FlyWire also use WHDI and are available in the US. WHDI uses the 5GHz band to transmit up to 1080p/60 with second-generation chips over a distance of up to 30 meters through walls with a latency of less than 1ms. Amimon's hotel suite has 10 streams going at once across three rooms in addition to WiFi in the same 5GHz band with impressive results. Pictured are two WHDI receiver modules—a major reduction is size from the suitcase-sized box I saw a couple of years ago. Members of the WHDI Consortium include LG, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi, and Samsung.

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Ask S&V
Amplifier Damage
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 31, 2011
Can an audio amplifier be damaged by running it without speakers connected? For example, a surround system without the rear speakers hooked up or one channel of a stereo amp not connected.

Craig Farraway

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HDTV Tech
An Eye for Color: Physics & Physiology
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 04, 2004
An eye-opening introduction to the physics and physiology of color and vision.
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Audio Video News
Analog Cutoff Debate Heats Up
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 09, 2005

A new study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reveals that only 33.6 million (12%) of the 285 million television sets in the United States are used to watch over-the-air (OTA) programming. CEA issued its data in a letter delivered to the leadership of the Senate and House Commerce Committees to assist them in "their deliberations on how to ensure the needs of all Americans are addressed when analog broadcasting ceases." The House Commerce Committee is preparing to consider legislation currently under development by Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) that will set a hard cutoff date for analog broadcasts. The Senate Commerce Committee is poised to release draft DTV legislation later this month.

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CEDIA 2010
Analog Devices 3D Sound Processor
Scott Wilkinson  |  Sep 24, 2010
As I was walking back from the Runco press conference, I passed a huge room occupied by chip maker Analog Devices, so I stopped in to see what it had cooking. I'm glad I did—among the demos was a new audio processor intended to give soundbars the ability to reproduce a true 3D soundfield, and it worked shockingly well.
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Analog Devices ADV 8002 Video Processor
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 08, 2011
Analog Devices is known mostly for I/O (input/output) chips, but the company is showing its new video processor at CES. The ADV 8002 includes two scalers, motion-adaptive deinterlacing, noise reduction, and video enhancement, and it can pass 3D without processing it. The production version will have at least two HDMI inputs and two outputs as well as all the standard analog-video inputs, and it will be able to process two different programs independently and simultaneously—for example, sending 1080p to an HDTV and 480p to an SD display in another room. This processor should be shipping in consumer products this spring, though the company rep would not reveal from whom.
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Analog Devices Electrooculogram
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 08, 2011
Chip maker Analog Devices has some interesting demos in its booth, such as this electrooculogram (EOG) system that tracks eye movement based on tiny voltages generated by the eye muscles. Other than medical applications, such as lazy-eye rehabilitation and quadriplegic assistance, such a system could be used to control game play or even an entire home theater. Of course, wearing those electrodes wouldn't fly with consumers, but a future version could incorporate them into a goggle headset.
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CES 2010
Analog Devices HDAnywhere
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 09, 2009

You may not have heard of Analog Devices, Inc. because the company makes integrated circuits and other components, not consumer products. But ADI is big into video. I saw a demo of a video-transmission system based on JPEG2000, the same compression technology used in digital cinema. Dubbed HDAnywhere, the system can be used to send video over any wired or wireless medium very efficiently. The demo included two TVs displaying the same content—one was receiving conventional HDMI over fiber-optic cable while the other got its signal wirelessly using UWB (ultra wideband) over a distance of 50 feet. There was a slight delay in the wireless image, but they were nearly identical otherwise. Hitachi is shipping a TV with an outboard input/processor box that uses HDAnywhere via UWB, which I'll take a close look at when I get over the Hitachi booth.

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