Re: False or Misleading advertising

"Matthew L. Martin" <nothere@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:11goshcjpace2ce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> There are legal definitions, in the form of FCC regulations, that defined
> the geomtry, type and frame rate for DTV broadcast. There is no equivalent
> regulation that defines the geometry, type and frame rate of displays.
>
> In the absence of any regulations the manufacturers are free to call
> anything they want HD

On the other hand, I haven't really seen CE manufacturers violating the same
guidelines used for broadcast.

While HDTV signals are indended to have essentially square pixels, so a
1080i signal would have 1920 resolution horizontally, there doesn't seem to
be a particular requirement that a broadcast actually resolves this full
resolution, and indeed in many cases it cannot, due to limitations in
cameras and other parts of the signal chain.

In addition, since there are two different primary "HD" standards, HD sets
are intended to interoperate to display each signal type, and the FCC etc.
did extensive testing to determine quality reductions during cross-format
display (1080i on a 720p display and vice versa), I think it goes without
saying that ATSC/FCC consider HD signals displayed on non-optimum displays
to be acceptable examples of "HD". So it's clear that displaying an
interlaced 1080i signal on a set that only resolves 1280 horizontal
resolution is acceptable, for instance.

I would be surprised if all 1080i sets can actually effectively resolve full
1920 resolution across, but nobody seems too concerned with this, and it
isn't making these sets unwatchable. Similarly, there doesn't seem to be a
significant issue with various flat panels with approximately (but slightly
more than) 1280x720 resolution displaying scaled images, rather than using
only a fraction of the area unscaled. I believe that if the scaling caused
significant problems with visual quality, these sets would not be
competitive in the marketplace.

On top of that, I have not seen a flat-panel set advertised as HD that had
LESS than 1280x720 resolution (other than the occasional mis-labeling of an
ED set, which I have always taken to be the usual sort of incompetent error
rather than purposeful deception). (1024x1024 is the one exception since the
horizontal resolution doesn't even match that intended for 720p, but it's
still far better than NTSC or even ED. I could possibly see a case for
action to prevent these sets from being called true HD, but I'm not
convinced the actual on-screen picture suffers enough to justify the
effort.)

So all the HD sets I'm aware of have resolution that equal or exceed
1280x720 (except the 1024x1024 format) and can display a progressive-scan
signal, or are interlaced and have 1080 scanlines. Since displaying one of
the HD standards on a set intended for the other is acceptable, I do not see
how any of these TVs, whether 1365x768 or whatever, should not be considered
true "HD" TVs.

The exception for 4:3 sets that can't attain full resolution for a 16:9
image is more troubling, but I'm again not too concerned. For one thing,
ultimately people will end up with 16:9 sets, and most 4:3 HD sets aren't
all that big anyway (they're almost all direct-view CRTs, that I know of),
and it's clear that the 16:9 image isn't using the full surface of the
screen (and that it still ends up with resolution greater than ED, let alone
NTSC).

On top of all this, resolution is only one part of the quality equation, and
these are just setting reasonable standards for TV that looks significantly
better than NTSC. There does not appear to have been any intention to
guarantee the best possible visual quality for every show broadcast to every
viewer on every possible display. Just a "good enough" result that, again,
is much better than the TV we had before.





.

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