Tag: DLP
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 213 – Let there be DLP
The picture on our 6+ year old Samsung DLP HDTV recently got very dim and the solution was to replace the lamp inside. I had never done that before, as our much older Samsung DLP has surprisingly never needed a new bulb. But a few days ago I found some good instructions online on how to replace it, so I ordered one and it arrived today. Seven screws, two wires, and one swapped-out lamp later, the TV is now VERY bright. The old lamp must have been slowly dimming for quite a while as I don’t remember this TV ever being quite this bright. But now it looks great again. Easy fix.
TUESDAY TECH: Circuit City Memories
Rather than reviewing some new piece of technology, I thought I’d take a moment this week to remember some fine moments I have spent in the past inside the now defunct…
Circuit City
In case you haven’t heard, Circuit City is going out of business in the United States. Here’s what CircuitCity.com has to say about it:
Due to challenges to our business and the continued bleak economic environment, Circuit City is going out of business and the company’s assets will be liquidated to pay off creditors.
The process was extremely difficult and we were left with no other choice but to liquidate. Circuit City had a proud heritage of serving the public for 60 years and we deeply regret the impact this decision will have on our associates, our customers and the communities where we have operated stores and other facilities.
Remember this old logo? Simple, yet effective when combined with the giant red buildings that at one time signified one of the best places to buy stereos, televisions, appliances, and other electronic equipment. Even those red buildings represented something unique, as their TV commercials indicated, making them out to be the ends of giant power cords that were “plugged” into the ground:
In honor of their demise, here are a few of my fondest memories from within Circuit City:
My First Portable Audio Player
In elementary school sometime in the ’80s, I had the opportunity to get my first portable audio player. Being a young kid, I thought it would be cool to get the yellow Sony Sports Walkman, even though I didn’t play any sports. It was water resistant, which is always a neat feature even if you have no intentions of using it anywhere near the water, and it had a hinged door on the side with the buttons that prevented it from unnecessarily opening. I just liked it because the door was fun to play with. Anyway, I ended up getting it at Circuit City.
I used this cassette player for several years, mostly during long car rides. Over the years, it got pretty beat up. Remember, I was an elementary school-aged kid. The great thing about Circuit City was that if you had their replacement plan, you could bring in something that looked like it had been smashed to bits with a hammer and they’d replace it with hardly any questions asked. If the same model wasn’t available, they’d give you a new one. I think I went through at least three different Sony Walkmans this way.
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TUESDAY TECH: 3D at Home for Movies, Video Games, TV, and More
With now-regular releases of 3D feature-length movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Bolt, and the upcoming My Bloody Valentine 3-D, it’s only a matter of time before we’re all enjoying 3D content in the comfort of our living rooms…
3D at Home
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is right around the corner, beginning on Thursday, January 8, and I suspect that a large number of 3D displays and equipment will be shown off. As high-definition televisions work their way into the home environment, the next step is to take that crisp, clear 2-dimensional picture and bring it into 3D space.
Several companies have already begun the process of trying to make 3D technology common. I purchased a 56″ Samsung DLP HDTV around 1.5 years ago that I knew featured 3D capability of some sort, though I wasn’t entirely sure what it was. DLP.com’s somewhat vague Web site offers a little bit of information on how to hook up such a display to a computer for 3D gaming with a select number of games. Not exactly what I had in mind when I thought of 3D content.
However, when I visited the 2008 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) convention in Orlando, I stumbled across a company’s booth that was demoing 3D content on such a DLP television… but they weren’t showing off some silly game. Instead, using a pair of shutter glasses (electronic glasses that receive an infrared signal to quickly open and close shutters over each eye in sync with the picture), they were displaying clips from Journey to the Center of the Earth in full-color, full 3D. No headache-inducing red/blue anaglyph glasses here. It was true 3D content, in high-definition, on a consumer-level television set. I immediately recognized this as the future of home entertainment.
Recently, Disney has pushed 3D in theaters with their Disney Digital presentations of most of their animated feature-length films. Pixar will release all of its future films in 3D, including re-releasing the original Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to theaters. But when it came to 3D at home, Disney resorted distributing free red/blue anaglyph glasses to present Miley Cyrus’ Best of Both Worlds Concert, as almost no one currently has the necessary equipment to view either polarized or shutter-based 3D content at home.
In the upcoming Superbowl, a red/blue 3D commercial for the film Monsters vs Aliens will premiere. Here’s a trailer with information on where to pick up the glasses:
But this is still resorting to decades-old technology to deliver 3D content to the average home viewer. Fortunately, Dolby Laboratories Inc. is working to change all of that:
From reuters.com:
Dolby says it is currently talking with content providers about encoding its digital 3-D technology into Blu-ray movies. It declined to identify potential partners. The company is also working on getting its technology used in 3-D video games.
In its push into home 3-D, Dolby will face stiff competition in a nascent market. Many companies at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be showcasing various ways to bring 3-D into the living room.
[…]
Dolby’s home 3-D technology is designed so viewers would not be required to buy additional hardware, he said. It would work on any 3-D enabled TV — currently available from companies including Mitsubishi and Samsung — with a standard Blu-ray player.
Most 3-D entertainment requires the use of glasses, from simple polarized lens to costly pairs with extremely fast-moving shutters. Dolby said its technology would support whichever glasses the TV manufacturer specifies.
So the good news is that 3D content is definitely on its way home. The bad news is that its path is a long one. With the upcoming digital television transition still confusing many consumers and HDTV only in around one-third of American homes, high-definition 3D content is still several technology leaps away.
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