I’ve been shopping around for a high-definition television now that prices seem to have fallen around 30 per cent in the past few months and there are bargains galore.

The consumer electronics experts say that 1080p (1,920 dots across the screen and 1,080 down, scanned progressively) or “Full HD” is the way to go if you want to “future-proof” your investment.

Imagine my surprise then to learn at a briefing by the folks at HDMI – the audio-video cable interface – that their latest version, 1.3, caters for 1440p (2560 x 1440) and that Apple and Dell have already brought out monitors featuring this resolution, known in the business as WQXGA (2560 x 1536).

Okay, so this is the PC world, but sooner or later this has to start showing up on HDTVs and what are they going to call it then – Fuller HD? I think we should be told.

Incidentally, the briefing took place at Dolby Labs in San Francisco – their folks were talking about Dolby TrueHD sound – inside their mini-movie theatre.

This was a story in itself: it’s detached from the rest of the building and sits on neoprene rubber pegs. The chairs resemble humans in the way they act as sound baffles – meaning Dolby can test its latest systems properly even if the theatre is empty.

The air conditioning is virtually silent, but when they want to simulate real movie theatre conditions, they actually pipe in just the sound of normal air conditioning.

This could be an industry-wide thing though - I’m sure we’ve all worked in offices where you can hear the air conditioning blasting away but can’t feel any effect.

Chris Nuttall, San Francisco

November 30th, 2006 in Media | Permalink