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While the sound can't be heard by the human ear, nearby tablets and smartphones can detect it.

First of all, other than ethics, this is awesome technology... Truly, ad- and porn-sellers are at the forefront of it all.

But is this really true? I mean, speakers and microphones are both designed to produce/recognized sound useful to humans (except some exotic devices meant for dolphins, I suppose). Making them do a reasonably good job on the entire human-audible spectrum is a non-trivial task already and different devices do better/worse on different parts of the spectrum.

Why would a designer of a mobile phone bother with the frequencies, which a human can neither produce nor hear anyway? It certainly increases the costs of both the design and each individual device... Unless, of course, it is to enable exactly the kind of things discussed in TFA...

So, if we really do carry such hardware in our pockets — and neither TFA nor links from it list specific brands/models — then our fingers of blame are to be pointed at the hardware-makers.

A case of Google abusing their patent repetoir. Though it is not a lawsuit involving a search patent, it does demonstrate the GP's point.

You're making the assumption digital is somehow better. In data communications and certain types of telephony, you'd be right. However, there is no signaling between the TV and DVD player. So what are you left with? Just a means of transmitting Green Red and Blue information between two devices. If anything, you're now at the mercy of your HDTV's digital to digital conversion.

Don't believe the hype. My HD DVD with quality component cables at 1080p will look identical on my 46" LCD as the HDMI cable. The only people who will tell you there is a definate difference are the people trying to sell you HDMI.

I currently have an XBOX 360 that uses a Monster component-out to connect to my 65" Sony SXRD. It's beautiful at 1080i. My understanding is that HDMI has no performance improvement over the display of component though. Is that correct?

I'm not an audio-visual geek necessarily, so I may be confused. However, as I understood things HDMI's real contribution is not that of performance or quality, but of increased capability for content creators to control the data being carried over the signal. Is that true? I would have no problem buying this new 360 when it comes out if HDMI is a significant improvement over component, but it seems the best information I can find is itself indifferent and says that "neither is necessarily better than the other although particular devices may present a better experience with one over the other" (see quote below).

So, the question is - with a high end television and an Xbox 360 - which of the two is going to be preferable? It sounds to me like they're just releasing it with "HDMI" so that people will be suckered into buying the console all over again under a false believe that HDMI is going to provide them a significantly better result.

So, which is better, DVI or component? HDMI or component? The answer--unsatisfying, perhaps, but true--is that it depends. It depends upon your source and display devices, and there's no good way, in principle, to say in advance whether the digital or the analog connection will render a better picture. You may even find, say, that your DVD player looks better through its DVI or HDMI output, while your satellite or cable box looks better through its component output, on the same display. In this case, there's no real substitute for simply plugging it in and giving it a try both ways.
Source: DVI vs. HDMI vs. Component Video -- Which is Better?

Actually, it takes more than a cheap pc http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/8829/24991 7.html to make it nice looking. I could barely run it on minimum resolution on my 2.4ghz p4, 1gig ddr, geforce 4 ti42000. I tried out a $100 radeon 9600 card and it looked alright, but the 360 can run it hd no problem. Try to get a pc to do that out of the box for $500. Also, COD 2 is a great game. Some games are not fun online, but COD2 is made for it. I don't know why the 360 isn't doing very well, but it is definitely not because it is a lesser system. PSII was eclipsed almost immediately by the x-box as far as graphics, controller, and games. Maybe there are not enough Japanese games for the x-box? At any rate I have found Sony dissapointing in every way. http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/4/8567.htm l

Actually, it takes more than a cheap pc http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/8829/24991 7.html to make it nice looking. I could barely run it on minimum resolution on my 2.4ghz p4, 1gig ddr, geforce 4 ti42000. I tried out a $100 radeon 9600 card and it looked alright, but the 360 can run it hd no problem. Try to get a pc to do that out of the box for $500. Also, COD 2 is a great game. Some games are not fun online, but COD2 is made for it. I don't know why the 360 isn't doing very well, but it is definitely not because it is a lesser system. PSII was eclipsed almost immediately by the x-box as far as graphics, controller, and games. Maybe there are not enough Japanese games for the x-box? At any rate I have found Sony dissapointing in every way. http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/4/8567.htm l

Now, I'm sure that its a lower quality product, but we are talking digital right? Either it gets there or it doesn't, its not like the $7 cable sometimes sends 2s and 3s instead of 0s and 1s.

It's a digital signal. It gets there... or it doesn't. That's it. You don't need a $300 Monster Cable to do that!

$999.99

You're right, you can't do that. However, you CAN take a jpeg which has lost some data, apply some intelligent filters to it and clean out the blockiness / random and color shifts in what should have been a solid color, and the interesting aliasing artifacts around what used to be straight lines, and smooth those over (for the color abruptness) and straighten out / dealias the lines (I don't want to say antialias).

It's not impossible, just difficult. Compare the ATI TV Wonder Elite (it's not the only one, but it's the one I'm familiar with) with devices that don't have comb filters, etc: http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/2351.

Disclaimer: I actually have no idea what the hell i'm talking about. I just read that review recently and was amazed, so I'm trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Now all we need is some real evidence that the PS3's component output can also do 1080p, on the low-end model.

I agree that's a little fuzzy, I'd like to see some real specs on these things...

Here's another pretty interesting article on HDMI vs. DVI vs. Component, and why the "digitalness" of HDMI may not be entirely superior to component for some uses (mainly cable length). Read comments to the end because there are some people there who also think component can't handle 1080 - i or p.

Google for samsung hd841 and the first page you get is a forum full of complaints. You might not want one anyway...

Or maybe HDTV is just overrated by TV manufacturers who want to scam people out of thousands of pounds for unwanted technologies. My TV is 14", I doubt I'd get much of a better viewing experience with a slightly higher resolution. We're not all dot-com millionaires with 50" plasma screens on the walls of our penthouse apartments.

Either you forgot your sarcasm flag, or you don't know wtf you're talking about. Obviously you've never seen an HD broadcast, a video game in high-definition, or anything else. FYI - I paid $1000 for a 52" HDTV with DVI input (to connect my computer) *3 years ago*!!! And I watch programming in high-definition beyond anything else. You don't have to be a millionaire - hell the 50" plasmas are going for $1500 bucks this season. Jesus... I remember when basic TVs cost that much!

The technologies are not UNWanted. In Japan, they are standard delivery. It's not a slightly higher resolution: http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/1180 03.html. This is not something that TV manufacturers would just DO without demand from their customers. And let me tell you, as someone who has been legally blind since I was 7, to see television in HighDefinition is to see like I never thought I could. And that right there is more than worth the $14/month extra to pay for HD programming and the box.

Not to even mention watching football in High Def. I can actually watch Soccer and Hockey games now and TELL what's going on! YAY! Please, before you go spouting about what you don't know about, have some experience and knowledge first.

Jho

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000943061481/ http://news.techwhack.com/2182/041013-toshiba-unve ils-a-laptop-with-hd-dvd-drive-to-showcase-technol ogy/

So... a 1x read-only HD DVD drive vs. Pioneer's BDR-101A which reads and writes and is faster than 1x. Oh, and it's only just been shown in the past 2-3 weeks. Bravo!

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2005_06/pr080 1.htm

Fair enough, you got me. They talk about mass production, but they don't put any timetable out for when they'll ramp up production. For a press release directly from Toshiba, it's sorely lacking in details you'd think they'd want to tell the whole world about.

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/ne xt-gen-dvd.ars/2 http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/1451 10.html

An Ars Technica article written by someone who failed economics, and a press release touting HD DVD replication hardware by a Swedish firm. Not exactly what I was hoping for...

How is there aren't sites like blu-ray.com that have pictures of tons of HD DVD hardware and media? Why is this stuff so hard to come across? It's almost like... it doesn't exist.

Public demos of a *laptop* HD DVD drive enough for you?

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000943061481/
http://news.techwhack.com/2182/041013-toshiba-unve ils-a-laptop-with-hd-dvd-drive-to-showcase-technol ogy/

And for HD DVD-R media:

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2005_06/pr080 1.htm

On replication issues:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/ne xt-gen-dvd.ars/2
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/1451 10.html

Broadcasters have expressed concerns that those without subscription television services will see blank screens unless they buy new units.

More accurately, "After the impending end-of-2006 deadline for cutover to all-digital broadcasting impels broadcasters to pressure legislators to let them continue business as usual for an additional three years before they have to actually do anything, continue to repeat their whine that over-the-air viewers (12% of all households with TVs, according to a CEA study) will be unreasonably impacted by the change." This despite the fact that a process for conversion to digital broadcasting by 2006 had been established back in 1997 (obviously, nine years isn't enough time to prepare), and that as of January 22, 2001, there were 177 stations transmitting DTV signals in 61 markets (serving nearly 67 percent of U.S. TV households), according to an NAB survey -- every day a broadcaster can avoid replacing their analog equipment with digital is one more day that they don't have to take a hit against their profits.

HD-DVD is backwards compatible with current DVD players while Blu-Ray is not.

That's basically it. The Movie people don't want to have to stock two different discs, one for Blu-Ray and one for current DVD owners. For more, see this article.

The whole reason they do signal encryption is because broadcasting is a technically efficient way to get video content to people BUT economically is hard to make work unless (like the BBC) society assumes everybody with a TV will want to watch it. Signal encryption is a good compromise between technical efficiency and economic reality. The people who feel they are owned something for nothing have to consider their actions in the following context: what would happen if everybody did this?

It then becomes pretty obvious that these people are not acting upon some superior moral reasoning, they are just hoping that the majority of people are honest and will pay for the service, as if they didn't there would be no satellite TV.

Interestingly, it appears that for now the DirecTV have beaten the pirates, check out this rather spiffy explanation of the technologies involved - basically the old "HU" cards had a weakness in that they couldn't monitor the external clock signal which let you disrupt its execution. The newer P4 cards check for things like this, and so they are currently "unhackable". How long they will remain this way I don't know, but it's obvious that DRM to some extents while always an arms race, can/does work to a great extent.

For a more home theater centric site check this linkage - ecoustics.com's Home Theater Section.