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HD DirecTiVo And Other CES Treats

Posted by timothy on from the more-will-roll-in dept.

Gadget Guy writes "The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) has announced their CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Innovations 2004 winners. Within is a shot of the new Hughes HD DirecTiVo with some new LED's on the front including "Temp" for those sure to be occurring overheats. The surprise winners were the Motorola IM Free with no backlight along with it's "left un-justified" keyboard and the color SideKick who's black and white cousin was debuted at the 2003 CES show. Plus check out this Samsung DLP TV! Stealth bomber cool!"

12 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. 720p Versus 1080i by Naffer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not meaning too get too offtopic, but I noticed that the order of formats in the picture goes [480i] [480p] [720p] [1080i]. Is that supposed to mean that 1080i is of higher picture quality then 720p? I assume that the number means lines of resolution, so 1080i would be higher res. Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't a 720 progressive image give you twice the effective framerate? 60 full frames per second versus 60 half frames per second?

    1. Re:720p Versus 1080i by Squid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually 24fps isn't all that smooth. I can think of a few shots in ALL the Lord of the Rings movies - usually vertical pans or other rapid tracking shots - that looked very choppy. Not a problem on DVD, but in the theater, the whole damn screen seems to flash, as essentially the whole frame changes 24 times a second.

      Fast-moving objects at 24fps don't always "move" fluidly across the cinema screen, all too often you get 24 flickery copies of the object, because your eyes are not quite tracking the motion, you're seeing the object blink out at one location and blink in at another. Now, in a rapid camera pan, especially a vertical one where you're trying to cover more "ground" with the narrow aspect of the frame, you get 24 flickery copies of the WHOLE FRAME stuttering up the screen. It looks unsteady or "blurry" to the eye, though every frame may be razor-sharp.

      We may only "see" at 22-30fps, but we are affected by problems well beyond that, whether it be fluorescent lights about to conk out, or monitors that "only" refesh at 75hz. For motion to appear smooth and comfortable we'd really have to get to the point of having 120fps video.

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      ~ radiographite: art by john shepard
    2. Re:720p Versus 1080i by Halo- · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is one other important element in how "fast" the human eye sees: Where you are looking. The receptors in the certer of the eye respond much more slowly than the receptors on the edges; however, the center of the eye has much greater resolution. The reason for this is that you need detail for subjects you are actually looking at, and you need speed in your peripheral vision to see things sneaking up or being throw at you.

      I've played with this effect when configuring monitors before. Set the vertical refresh to something painfully slow, then try looking at it out of the corner of your eye. Ouch...

      So, I would suspect that on really large screens (ie movie theaters) the refresh rate is more critical than on smaller screens.

      Me? I own a plain old low-def 24" TV, so this is all moot for me. :)

  2. Some of these are quite useful by SexyKellyOsbourne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Akosa PlugLan(TM) Network Jack -- imagine how much time, effort, and money stringing up CAT5 network cables could be saved if we simply just used these instead to use our existing electrical wires to transmit data.

    Motorola IMfree Personal Instant Messenger -- kick the middle school girls off of the computers, and give them these little keypads. $1500 machines being hogged for using AIM is ridiculous. Plus it's Linux-based.

    "Air Flo" Hand Cooling Controllers -- When playing Xbox for hours on end, your controllers will become slicker than a greased yoda, but these have air conditioning built in to prevent that. Now, if they could do this for mice, it would be great.

    Cool stuff. I look forward to it.

  3. Why include a link to a picture? by flyboy974 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a Sony DirecTivo unit that I've loved for many a years now. I love it more now that I am a beta user and got dual tuners before most of the public. (About two years of Beta's now)

    But, what is so special about the new Hughes DirecTivo? I checked the CES website and the link, and there is nothing about specs. Notta new, other than HDTV. Ooo.. A piture that the Sony Tivo still kicks ass over. I havn't looked into DirecTV's specs about their broadcast of HDTV, but, I'm guessing it's highly compressed, and if you were to freeze frame, you'll see the aweful MPEG compression more than the picture itself. How much more bandwidth can you get out of older comm. satelitte? HDTV has about 4x the number of pixels over normal broadcast. You can't support both without giving up something.

    About three months ago I added another 80GB drive to my Tivo. If it wasn't for the mother in law, I would still have 3 months worth of programming! (Either that, or it's the NHL Season package recording the Sharks Games...) Strangely, I've ran out of space due to the recent influx of some MTV over TiVo exlusive to DirecTV crap programming/previews.

    Oh well. I avoid live TV like the plague. I guess it's time to rebless my hda drive with something bigger.

  4. TiVo's dirty little secret by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    new LED's on the front including "Temp" for those sure to be occurring overheats.

    You aint kidding there - that's the dirty little secret about all TiVos. The drives all overheat, causing disk errors. Disk errors that would be of no consequence in a normal PC but that in a TiVo cause the famous "stuttering" problem.

    If you can manage to sequester the bad block by capturing it in a recording and then never deleting that recording, you stand a chance. Otherwise, might as well head on over to tivocommunity.com and look for a replacement kit.

    1. Re:TiVo's dirty little secret by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The article says that there is a Temp LCD but in the picture I don't see one.

  5. You'll be hearing more about the Lightglove by Bi()hazard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There are some pretty cool products up there. But one really stands out as having revolutionary potential-the lightglove. This is clearly going to be the input device of choice in the future.

    Just think of the applications for a wireless device that's perfectly ergonomic, customizable, and works with all major OS'es and a huge variety of electronic devices. Check out the website faq here-this thing is a universal remote control for your tv, game console, garage door, even microwave. It even works underwater! Ideal for scuba divers, and you don't have to take it off in the shower, you can even use it to control the water temperature! I'm sure we've all heard about how people have "creative" uses for those detachable shower heads that can spray directly onto any part of your body, imagine how much fun you could have with a robotically controlled showerhead with hand signals used as inputs to vary speed, direction, and temperature. mmmm...why not use this thing to control more traditional sex toys too? Perfect for those long distance relationships.

    Light is sterile; nobody can spread germs by using the same computer, so this also has potential in medical applications. This will be ubiquitous in hospitals. It's also a perfect robotics control device. Everyone from surgeons to manufacturers to the military will be using this thing to work robot hands. And of course, no gamer can go without-the precision control, ergonomics, and more input (3d motion and 15 buttons beats any mouse) are ideal. You can use two of these to simulate a keyboard, which is good news for laptops-the keyboard is the fattest, space-wastingest part. Lightgloves will come with every tablet PC. They also mention they've been testing virtual reality applictaions-"Mobile computing with head mounted display and mini CPU" as a VR platform is in beta. And the technology to use hand signals as input will add whole new meanings to giving the finger :P

    Did I mention it comes in all kinds of cute colors? From the website: "Marvelous choices of light color (or invisible infra-red light) will be available in fashionable wrist bands and cases to enhance any style preference. It's not just for us geeks." Ooh I want..any of you guys want to buy one for me? ;)

    Once the technology is perfected we'll all be using them. They already have 52 hour capacity rechargeable lithium batteries, wireless i/o following irDa, 802.15.4, 802.11g, and two-way radio standards, as well as adaptability for all standard remote-controlled home appliances. Plus, they're testing a satellite link configuration using similar transmitter technology as that in satellite phones, so you'll be able to use this thing from anywhere on the planet! Of course, it's expensive, but the site claims they hope to have it below $300 by mid 2005... I'm wetting my pants in anticipation!

  6. Ah, Tivo, the most hackable of all VCR substitutes by Channard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So hopefully someone will be able to modify TIVO in such a way it ignores the 'do not record' flag on HD programmes.

  7. Completely OT. by juuri · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of the reasons the dreamcast was able to hold its own in games against the PS2 was due to it being able to do motion blur in the chipset. This was used in a lot of games to great effect. Unfortunately it seems everyone else decided not to implement this so we are left with cold hard static images in things like driving and sports games.

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    --- I do not moderate.
  8. DLP is a superior technology anyway. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The only advantage to having plasma is that the sets are thin.
    It's certainly not a good idea to get plasma for its picture quality, because DLP beats it hands down (and the latest rear projection LCD screens do as well).

    In a nutshell, plasma screens are heavy, fragile, run hot, easily suffer from burn-in, suck a lot of power, and diminish noticeably in brightness within a couple years of use.

    Plasma's time has come and gone... and it never did get cheap.
    I think even the DLP and LCD sets will lose out to the LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) screens coming out later this year.

  9. DirecTivo's future by Scryber · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Like everyone else that has a DirecTivo, I am really looking forward to an HD DirecTivo.

    But, the recent approval of the sale of DirecTV to Rupert Murdoch and News Corp could portend some bad news for Tivo. Murdoch already owns a company that produces DVR units, and the industry speculation is that he will dump Tivo and replace it with his own DVR.

    This is the last thing I want to see, as I love the features of my Tivo and hate the idea of Tivo (the company) being squished by Murdoch's mega conglomerate. Stay tuned...