In This eNewsletter:
• Displays Explained by Thomas J. Norton
• A Bad Week, An Extended Crisis by Thomas J. Norton
• Ben-Hur Four-Disc Collector's Edition by Thomas J. Norton

By Thomas J. Norton

Comes the fall and with it new television shows in high definition, high definition football, high definition baseball playoffs, and the World Series in high definition. More new televisions are sold during this part of the year than at any other time.

Modern display technology has become ever more sophisticated and complex, so if you don't understand it all, you're not alone. Step into almost any large television store and you'll find four distinct categories of displays: direct-view, rear projection, hang-on-the-wall flat panel, and front projection. In each of these categories you'll find sets using one of five different technologies.

These technologies are CRT (Cathode Ray Tube, which has been around since Jonah was spat out of that whale), LCD (Liquid Crystal Diode), DLP (Digital Light Processing), PDP (Plasma Display Panel), and LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon).

Flat panel displays currently use LCD and PDP technology. Front- and rear-projection designs come in CRT, LCD, DLP, and LCoS flavors. Apart from CRTs, which use tubes, projection sets use lamps for a light source, which must be periodically replaced at a cost that can be several hundred dollars (manufacturers claim a life of 2000 hours or more—but it's rarely guaranteed). Lamp prices may come down as supply ramps up to meet increasing demand, but you might still want to check the price of a replacement before you sign the check. The lamp also requires a cooling fan, which isn't always whisper quiet (and can be difficult to judge in a noisy electronics store).

CRT rear-projection sets in larger screen sizes are big and heavy. They are also the least expensive televisions available for a given size. They aren't as bright or crisp-looking as the new digital displays (which include all of the display types discussed below), but they do excel at reproducing dark, rich blacks. Those blacks are more important than you might think. They form the foundation of the image—even a very bright one—and are largely responsible for a picture's depth, contrast, and punch.

You should look for these qualities in all displays when making in-store comparisons. Watch plenty of dark scenes if you can, in the dimmest lighting the store can manage. Stores love to demonstrate TVs using scenes of bright, cheery beaches on a sunny, July day—images that look great on almost any video display. It's those dark scenes that will help steer you to the best set.

A CRT display, by its nature, is an analog device. Its resolution (up to it limits) depends on the design of its drive circuits. All the technologies described below, however, are made up of physically discrete, unchanging arrays of pixels, or picture elements, and are often referred to as fixed-pixel displays.

LCDs are the weakest of all competing technologies in reproducing deep blacks. They are also most prone to the screen-door effect, which looks exactly like it sounds—looking through a screen—though it's usually a little more subtle than that description makes it appear. What you're seeing with this screen-door is the LCD's pixel structure, which has more "dead space" around each pixel than other fixed-pixel displays. The farther away you sit, the less obvious the individual pixels will be.

Many LCDs also look bad when you sit far off to the side, and have response times slow enough to cause blurring on fast motion. But manufacturers are working hard to solve these problems. LCDs are available in the widest range of prices and sizes of all the new display technologies, and can provide a very bright image with vivid colors. They are not subject to permanent burn-in—the after image that can sometimes appear in CRTs and PDPs and which, in the worst of cases on those displays, can be irreversible.

DLP displays can also be very bright, are not burn-in prone, and produce good color. They do, in general, produce noticeably deeper, richer blacks than LCDs. On the downside, they can only be used in rear- or front-projection displays and are not hang-on-the-wall flat (though a few very thin sets are available, and manufacturers are working hard to reduce the cabinet depth). They are also subject to a phenomenon called the rainbow effect (or color separation). The latter can produce brief flashes of rainbow-like color caused by the rotating color wheel used in all rear projection (and most front projection) DLP displays. It's also dependent on the characteristics of the eye; viewer sensitivity to this artifact varies widely, and many people don't see it at all.

PDPs, or plasmas, are invariably flat-panel displays. They can't be made in very small sizes (37 inches is about the minimum, with 42- and 50-inches the most common). While newer models are said to be less subject to burn-in than older designs, PDP owners should still use caution when dealing with still images.

PDPs provide, in my opinion, the best combination of brightness, color, and black level of all current flat panel displays, though as always there are wide variations from model to model.

There are still large numbers of PDPs out there with pixel counts that can't reproduce full high definition. The common term used for these limited resolution sets is EDTV, or Enhanced Definition TV. EDTV is not HDTV. While these sets are generally the least expensive PDPs, they are, in my opinion, a false economy since true HD PDPs are coming down rapidly in price.

LCoS technology also goes by the proprietary names D-ILA, HD-ILA, and SXRD—though the companies that use these terms will be quick to point out how their version of LCoS is unique. LCoS sets resemble LCDs in many ways, but they only work for front- or rear-projection designs, not flat panels. In general, they produce somewhat better blacks than LCDs, and a smoother, screen-door-free picture. Up to now, the blacks from LCoS designs have been inferior to those from DLPs, PDPs, and, of course, CRTs. New developments, like sophisticated irises, may well change that.

And how about those new, premium-priced 1080p sets just starting to show up? We haven't yet tested them, but before you fall for the sales pitch, compare them carefully to standard HD sets (most often, 1280x720) of the same size. Audition all sorts of program material (including HD, DVD, and broadcast TV, bright scenes and dark), not just the canned material the store is using. And, perhaps most important in determining the importance of a higher pixel density in your own situation, view the picture in the store from the same seat-to-screen distance you plan to use at home . If you like what you see, go for it.

By Thomas J. Norton

While natural disasters are not the usual subject of , we can hardly ignore the devastation that hurricane Katrina left in its wake along the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf coasts two weeks ago. Words can't fully convey our sympathies toward those affected. Many lost loved ones, but even those who did not must also now put the pieces of their lives back together. Americans have, however, responded with great generosity, and while recovery will be a long and painful process, there's no doubt that it will happen.

The following information, from a story on Business Wire, was brought to my attention by contributor Steven Stone.

The story featured a computer data recovery company called DriveSavers (800-440-1904, pr@drivesavers.com). There are other such companies in the data recovery business. DriveSavers noted that data is easier to recover if a wet hard drive is not allowed to air dry before delivery to the recovery facility; it should be removed from the computer, handled as little as possible, and sealed in a zip-lock plastic bag.

While it might seem trivial to bring up a subject like computer hard-drive recovery when so many more critical recovery efforts are still underway, computer data can include important personal information, from financial records to family photos. It can also mean the difference between a small business surviving or not. Businesses mean jobs, and jobs increase opportunities for a better future.

By Thomas J. Norton

Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe. Directed by William Wyler. Aspect ratio: 2.76:1. 222 minutes (film). 1959. 5.1 Dolby Digital (English, French). Warner Brothers Home Video 67535, G. $39.92.

Picture 3.5*
Sound 3.0*
Film 4.0*

Epic both in scope and, at nearly four hours, in length, MGM's 1959 production of Ben-Hur garnered 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Charlton Heston), Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith), and Best Director (William Wyler). Released at the peak of Hollywood's infatuation with swords, sand, and sandals, the film remains a rich combination of action-adventure, spectacle, intense human drama, and biblical epic.

The story takes place in the era of the early Caesars. Judah Ben-Hur is the young head of a rich, prominent Jewish family in the Roman province of Judea. A boyhood friend, Messala, now a Roman tribune, returns to command the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. He and Judah are initially elated to see each other again, but their friendship shatters after an incident with the Romans throws Ben-Hur's family into disarray. His mother and sister are imprisoned, while Judah himself is condemned to serve as a galley slave. Once freed, he begins to put his life back together, searches for his missing family, seeks revenge on Messala, and encounters Christ.

The biblical aspects of the film take up only a fraction of the movie's running time early on, though they occupy much of the third act. To me, however, this aspect of the story has always seemed tacked-on, as if it belonged in another film. Nevertheless, the movie as a whole is never less than compelling.

Ben-Hur is based on a novel by General Lew Wallace, a Civil War veteran and one-time governor of the Territory of New Mexico. It was subsequently made into a wildly popular play and, in 1925, a $4,000,000 silent film starring Ramon Navarro and Francis X. Bushman. This lavish Collector's Edition contains not only the 1959 film, spread out over the first two discs, but that 1926 version as well. The latter was fully restored by Thames Television in the U.K., and is accompanied by an excellent—and superbly-recorded—score by Carl Davis. It's well-worth your time. In fact, in some respects, particularly the sea battle, it outstrips the newer production.

There's also a commentary from film historian T. Gene Hatcher and (in certain scenes) Charlton Heston. A music-only track showcasing composer Miklos Rosza's classic score, is also included, plus two "making of" documentaries, screen tests, vintage newsreels, trailers, and highlights from the 1960 Academy Award ceremony.

As a youngster, I was fortunate to see the film during its initial New York run in its full 70mm, 2.76:1 aspect ratio glory. The film was shot on 65mm stock, a format that was often used for event films of the 1950s and 1960s but has been little used since then. While I recall being impressed by the film and its presentation, I can hardly claim to vividly remember the details of that first encounter.

But I do recall the 35mm print I saw a few years ago at a revival in Hollywood's Cinerama Dome. It was genuinely stunning; the film looked like it had been shot in 1999, not 1959. This anamorphic DVD doesn't look that good, but it is an excellent new transfer, with vivid and natural colors, solid blacks, and decent clarity and detail. Closeups are often sharply-defined, but medium and, in particular, long shots, often looked a little soft on my 78-inch wide screen.

But some loss of fine detail, always less obvious in closeups, is inevitable with standard definition DVD. It's even more visible with wider aspect ratios. Given the unusually wide image here, it's a miracle that the picture looks as good as it does, and that Warner resisted the temptation to use obvious edge enhancement in an attempt to compensate.

The soundtrack doesn't equal what you'll hear from most modern films. But while the frequency response is limited, the dynamic range is surprising for a film of this age. The music, in particular, though lacking sparkling highs and powerful bass (apart from one specific scene), does have an overall coherence that suggests a more purist recording technique than we usually get in today's multi-miked world. The brass, especially (and there are lots of trumpet fanfares!) has a palpable, snarly quality and evenly distributed weight that aren't often as satisfying even in modern recordings. The high strings are sometimes a little wiry, but the recording never sounds strident or edgy. They did know how to make great recordings back in 1959, as any fan of early Decca/London and Mercury stereo LPs will be happy to tell you. I wouldn't put this soundtrack up against the best of those classics, but it sounds far better than I expected.

This DVD boxed-set is a first-class effort for a first-rate film. If you've only seen Ben-Hur chopped-up and panned-and-scanned on television, you haven't really seen it at all. Pull up in front of the biggest screen you can find, with a very big tub of popcorn, and enjoy.