SHARP LED-LCD, Anticipation Thread! - Page 8

well a little ot for a sharp thread but...is this what you are talking about?


http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665532062

TVbc

Chris of Cleveland Plasma - When will you carry the Sharp XS sets?

They are talking about local dimming.....


sharpbandaid says the XBR3 has leds but no local dimming, unlike the XBR8 which has both....

Well, if that's how XS1 backlight really looks like, then it's better than even what Dolby Contrast offers as it clearly not only features IMLEDs, but adds color dimming on top of that. That would certainly justify the price Sharp is asking for this thing. Actually, it would be nice bargain.

However, color reproduction and contrast are not particular issues in the high-end LED sets. Both Sony and Samsung sets excel in this area. The problems in those sets are viewing angle and color blooming especially when viewing from an angle. If Sharp can improve on this, it will be the first ultimate quality LCD (provided it will not exhibit some other problems).

Blooming is caused by low zone count so sets with higher zone count will eliminate this problem. I also think static contrast and color reproduction have still a lot of improvement to do even with XBR8 and 950 on the market. Local dimming technology is still only in its infancy. Things will get a lot better in the coming years.

I agree with you. I think that's why I'm so hesitant to purchase the XS at such a high price.

First of all, w/ almost any video technology, if you wait, you never have to buy anything. Every yr. there is newer tech. Didn't they say Laser TV is better than LCD and will replace LCD, LED LCD in 5 yr.?

The other thing is, say if you already have a LCD, how much improve there is, in such a way that you can see a reasonable difference?

happy hopping - I'm of the mindset to purchase a non-top of the line set now because of the economy. I had my eye on the XBR8, 950 or the XS. But, given my finances I think it makes more sense to buy something at a lower cost. Yes, it won't have LED BL, but I need to replace the LCD RPTV in my Lounge Room soon. What I buy will not have the excellent picture qualities of these top of the line sets, but it should be ok to get me through the current economic downturn. I'm hoping that things will be better in a few years and I'll be able to purchase a new top of the line set in 2011 or 2012.

Thank you for your position statement but this is absolutely wrong thread to address it. People hanging here are speculating if the XS will offer ultimate PQ and if so then they may feel irresistible urge to swallow-it-no-matter-the-price.

This does not seem to be true in this year sets. Blooming is apparently more related to the viewing angle, that is straight-on it is not visible or negligible.
Also, there are no reported issues with the number of zones. Some people suggested zones are not hard anymore, they are soft.

Blooming happens whenever a zone is bigger than the portion of the screen the zone tries to illuminate. More, smaller zones = less blooming. Even with 170 zones, we're just barely at 10% of what that number should be. It's very good news that with so few zones these sets don't have many more issues than just blooming.

For those interested,
I called Sharp Support today and they confirmed that XS1 series is capable of accepting 1080p/24fps.

Did they give you a date when it will be available in the US?

He didnt give me an exact date but he said in a few days. I think it would take longer than just a few days.
I checked it with my local Bestbuy general manager and he could not find any mention of it in their system.

The reason for potential blooming is obvious. However, people report it is non-issue in the current sets in precise straight-on viewing and gets more serious only with off-line viewing (plus reduced black levels and wash-out colors). It thus seems logical to think that with the improved off-line blooming will be negligible issue. Increasing the number of zones within reasonable limits will not eliminate off-line blooming, that should be clear.

When is the official US release on these? In 90-something days as I saw on the website?

You always skip the argument that in the current sets blooming is tied with
off-angle viewing, people do not raise this as issue in front viewing. If so, smaller zones will not help too much.

BTW, how you get this 10%? Apparently thousands of zones would not be economical to make and maybe not necessary. Besides there are reports that current zones are not the hard zones known from last year Samsung sets so not much more than 170 is needed anyway.

After digging some more, it seem the XS1 will have Bluetooth remote control. Huge disappointment. The Sony ZX1 goes for RF remote, and now Sharp goes for Bluetooth. Why?? To me that's a big point against it, as one cannot use universal remote. I mean how difficult would it be to put an IR receiver somewhere (even on the tuner box)

Apart from that, not too much info. The only guy that claims exclusive hands-on preview didn't post anything new ( http://www.homecinemachoice.com/revi...lusive+preview ). That must be the lamest hands-on preview. He didn't even say whether it's glossy or mate, viewing angles, reflections, nothing

Thousands of zones are too expensive now, but they are necessary to realize full potential of local dimming technology. The only reason why XBR8 has only 170 zones is not because that's what it takes for Sony's flavor of local dimming to look best, but because that's how many zones Sony can afford now and still bring it to market. There's a reason why Dolby Contrast/Vision relies on 1836 zones and not 170. If Dolby could have achieved the same PQ with only 170 zones, they would definitely have installed no more than 170 zones. The suggestion that 170 zones might be enough to generate the best PQ local dimming can ever hope for is simply inaccurate.

Theoretically yes, the more zones the better. But, people do not report any zone problems in front viewing this year. They report blooming in offline viewing. Why is that? Why off-line blooming would go away with greater number of zones?

I don't know if blooming would go away completely, but more zones would definitely diminish blooming to a large extent. Just because blooming is less of an issue in front viewing than when viewing at an angle doesn't necessarily mean oversized zones are not to blame. They are. It's just when someone looks a the screen at an angle the blooming is more pronounced due to probably how LCs fail to block more light at that angle. After all, there's a reason why LCDs have always struggled with poor viewing angles even before LD tech came along. BTW, I don't care much about blooming. I'm hoping for more zones so that static contrast is improved.

Isn't October/November time frame when Sharp typically introduces new models? I know that at the begining of the thread that someone said production would be limited, but will we see these at a local BB by the end of the year, or will they only go to the REAL Magnolia stores?

TNG,
The SE94 went to the BB stores with built in Magnolias. Also was at many of the Fry's stores. I would expect the same thing for the XS1.

The price difference between the XS1 & SE94 is astronomical. I SERIOUSlY doubt Fry's or Best Buy will be carrying it any time soon.
Expect it only to be at specific higher end home theater stores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooming_(laser)#Blooming

From the above, they said blooming only occur w/ plasma, they didn't talk about LCD at all. So what's all these talk about blooming and zone?

Oh man, they're not talking Plasma TV and such, they're only talking about lasers
in general and how it affects plasma in the *AIR*, causing that blooming effect.
If you look closely at a laser in the dark, then you'll see what they're talking about.

Bah... blooming is a term folks are using to describe the effect of slight bleeding
of light on Local-dimmed LED TVs where bright content immediately drops off
onto darker (or black) content. The black bars, for example, may glow a few
pixels near the edge where the bright content of the movie drops off. It's due
to the fact that there are less zones than actual pixels on the TV, so the zone
bleeds a bit onto a pixel that should be off. Meanwhile, the pixels farther away
from the edge (or on the completely turned off zones) are darker. Some describe
it as a halo effect or a glow. In fact, many old-school CRT computer monitors
would also have this blooming effect around text in the dark. Something like that.