Dezvăluirea misterelor din spatele tehnologiei 4K (ro)

Publicul este încă sceptic în privinţa televizoarelor 4K şi acest lucru este de înţeles. Tehnologia 4K este relativ nouă şi puţină lume ştie modul în care funcţionează de fapt. Mulţi oameni se gândesc că nu va trece prea mult timp şi o nouă tehnologie va apărea pe piaţă.
Pentru aceia dintre dvs. care gândesc astfel am scris acest blog: pentru a vă răspunde la întrebări şi a vă linişti temerile. Am selectat cele mai frecvente întrebări despre tehnologia 4K şi vă vom răspunde la ele clar şi fără ocolişuri, explicându-vă de ce tehnologia 4K va rămâne în prim-plan încă mult timp de-acum încolo.
Am deja un televizor Full HD excelent. De ce este mai bună tehnologia 4K?
Tehnologia 4K nu este doar mai bună. Este de 4 ori mai bună. În termeni tehnici, un ecran Full HD are 1920 pixeli pe lăţime şi 1080 pixeli pe înălţime - de aici şi denumirea 1080p. Comparaţi aceste valori cu rezoluţia de 3840 x 2160 pixeli a unui ecran 4K şi veţi înţelege cât de multe detalii, ce definiţie şi ce claritate poate avea o imagine 4K.
Această rezoluţie ridicată înseamnă şi o profunzime mai mare a imaginii, nuanţe de culoare mai multe şi mai fine şi o experienţă de vizionare mult mai captivantă. Cinematografele proiectează filme 4K încă din 2011. Acum vă puteţi bucura de aceeaşi calitate şi în sufrageria proprie.
Nu am nevoie de un ecran mai mare pentru a putea sesiza în mod real o diferenţă între 4K şi Full HD?
Pentru a putea răspunde la această întrebare, am discutat cu Mark Whiteman, care lucrează în grupul de marketing pentru produse TV al Sony Europe. „Tehnologia 4K oferă în primul rând o rezoluţie mult mai bună. Diferenţa de calitate dintre 4K şi Full HD este vizibilă începând cu ecranele de 43"”, spune el. „Totuşi, cu cât este mai mare ecranul, cu atât vă va fi mai evidentă calitatea superioară a imaginii 4K.”
„Noua noastră gamă de televizoare oferă ecrane cu dimensiuni de la 43" la 85", fiind astfel destinată tuturor categoriilor de clienţi.”
De fapt, pentru a observa calitatea superioară a ecranelor 4K trebuie să staţi mai aproape de ecran decât aţi sta faţă de un televizor normal. Aşa veţi putea aprecia la adevărata valoare nivelul de detaliere şi profunzimea imaginii 4K, iar vederea periferică va capta la rândul ei detalii suplimentare, pentru o experienţă de vizionare şi mai intensă.
Cât de sigur pot fi că tehnologia 4K nu va fi depăşită peste câţiva ani?
Atunci când tehnologia Full HD a fost introdusă pentru prima dată pe piaţă, a existat o perioadă de scepticism de câţiva ani faţă de succesul acesteia. Şi totuşi, acum tehnologia Full HD a devenit standard industrial, iar publicul refuză să se mulţumească cu mai puţin.

Ne aşteptăm ca acelaşi lucru să se întâmple şi cu tehnologia 4K. Emisiunile TV şi filmele sunt filmate şi realizate pentru 4K. Servicii precum Netflix emit deja seriale cunoscute, precum House of Cards în standardul 4K (cu condiţia să aveţi o conexiune la Internet suficient de rapidă) şi se pare că în curând vor apărea şi primele posturi TV care vor emite 4K.
Dat fiind că posturile TV adoptă deja tehnologia 4K, ne vom bucura de conţinut 4K pentru mult timp de-acum încolo.
Recent, am auzit vorbindu-se despre tehnologia 8K. Nu cumva această tehnologie va înlocui în curând tehnologia 4K?
Nu - dacă nu cumva aveţi loc în casă pentru un televizor cu adevărat uriaş. Tehnologia 8K a fost într-adevăr testată în cinematografe şi de către unele posturi TV de nişă, dar din cauza rezoluţiei extreme (tehnologia 8K are 33 de milioane de pixeli - o rezoluţie de 16 ori mai mare decât a unui ecran Full HD), ochiul uman nu ar putea să observe diferenţa decât pe un ecran cu diagonala de cel puţin 84".
Ce anume diferenţiază televizoarele 4K de la Sony de cele ale concurenţei?
Am dezvoltat tehnologii care ne permit să evidenţiem chiar şi cele mai neînsemnate detalii de pe ecran. Arma secretă din interiorul televizoarelor BRAVIA® 4K este procesorul 4K X1, care optimizează 3 aspecte cheie - culoarea, contrastul şi claritatea creând astfel o imagine absolut incredibilă.

Tehnologia Triluminos generează culori veridice, autentice, dând viaţă imaginilor, iar tehnologia 4K X-Reality Pro realizează un upscaling inteligent al imaginii de pe ecran, astfel încât orice imagine să poată fi redată la rezoluţia maximă posibilă.
Mark a adăugat: „Pe lângă calitatea imaginii, toate televizoarele Sony 4K din 2015 sunt dotate cu platforma Android TV, cu ajutorul căreia vom putea aduce pe ecranul televizorului posibilităţile de personalizare, inteligenţa şi aplicaţiile de divertisment de pe smartphone.”
Sperăm că toate acestea v-au clarificat nelămuririle şi v-au făcut să fiţi mai optimişti în privinţa viitorului tehnologiei 4K. Şi, în acest caz, ce-ar fi să faceţi următorul pas logic şi să faceţi cunoştinţă cu noua noastră gamă de televizoare 4K BRAVIA®?

sursa: community.sony.ro

From Swimming Pool to Home Theater: The Most Motorized Home Automation System Ever? (eng)

   By definition, a “multipurpose room” should be a space where many different types of activities happen. Often, this is a great room that serves both as a casual relaxation spot and a high-end home theater, or a room that doubles as a library and a media space.

   This 4,900-square-foot area in the lower level of a London estate does this, plus a whole lot more. Conceived by the clever minds at London-based home systems integration firm James + Giles, and controlled by a specially programmed automation system by Control4, the palatial escape shifts effortlessly from one amazing entertainment environment to the next, and the next, and the next.

    “I’ve never known a space to have as many uses as this one does,” says James + Giles managing director Giles Sutton. “It made the project extremely complicated to design and implement.”

    To create the room—which can easily hold 200 people—the home’s existing basement had to first be excavated to extend the smallish square footage into a vast entertainment space. The homeowners envisioned using every square inch of it, and for a wide variety of activities.

    In addition to a squash court, incorporated into the space is a 50-foot-long swimming pool, a well-heeled home theater, a 2,400-square-foot dance floor, a business presentation area, a fitness suite and spa, and a formal dining area. Only the squash court and the fitness area, however, are completely self-contained. The rest—home theater, dining room furnishings, swimming pool, dance floor, and business presentation setup—occupy the same general vicinity. The challenge presented to James + Giles, therefore, was to incorporate technology that could alter the room environment effortlessly from one venue to the next.

    The solution would involve physically changing the design and layout of the room. For instance, when the homeowners are hosting a charity event, the entire swimming pool can “disappear” and be replaced with a dance floor. Heavy-duty motors lift the stone and mosaic tile base of the pool into dance-floor position as the water from the pool flows into cisterns underground.

When movie viewing is on the docket, a 9-foot-wide (diagonally) Da-Lite screen slowly lowers from the ceiling and a hidden Sanyo video projector fires up. When it’s time to conduct a PowerPoint presentation, the room changes into its business attire, leaving plenty of space for chairs, while pulling down the screen and cueing up the projector and a microphone to play its audio through two Paradigm speakers positioned at the front of the venue.

A Mirror Image

   Hiding a video projector above the ceiling and motorizing it to drop into place only when it’s time to watch a movie is a common setup for many rooms that function both as a living room and a home theater. Although home theater is one of the many purposes of this award-winning space, its video projector goes largely unnoticed, staying completely above the ceiling, during movie (and business) presentations.

   The homeowners requested specifically that the projector remain out of sight at all times, so the home systems integrators at James + Giles, London, England, devised a creative solution. By incorporating a mirror into the ceiling and positioning it appropriately, images from the projector reflect off the glass and onto the 9-foot-wide (diagonally) Da-Lite projection screen.

Another advantage of this setup is that the noise generated by the projector stays contained within the ceiling. The result: an entertainment space free of visual and audible distractions.

   The physical transformations—which required the installation of many different types of motorized equipment—are orchestrated by a Control4 home automation system. As the space shifts, so do the settings of the lights, thermostats, and loudspeakers.

   “By using the Control4 software we were able to alter every aspect of the environment to suit the chosen purpose of the room,” Sutton explains.

For example, when the homeowners tap the Night Swim button on the Control4 app on an iPad, iPhone, or a Control4 touchpanel (a few of which are built flush into the walls), colored LED lighting washes in and around the swimming pool, the HVAC system raises the temperature and humidity level, and the audio system calibrates itself so that all of the room’s 12 speakers play at a consistent volume level. This is just one of 16 different “scenes” created by the designers at James + Giles.

   One of the most dramatic of transformations occurs when the Rave scene is engaged. In perfectly choreographed sequence, the dance floor appears, fiber-optic lights start to twinkle, and the sound system adjusts automatically to provide heavier bass.

   Explains Sutton, “We incorporated processing equipment that would allow the audio characteristics of the sound system to change depending on how the room is being used.”

   While bass plays heavily through all speakers when the room is functioning as a disco, it tapers considerably and only two speakers are active at the front of the room when the owners are using the space for a business presentation. Naturally, the lights are also more subdued and the temperature shifts from a cool setting, which is good for dancing, to warm.

   Although the transformations are elaborate, involving every element of the room environment, initiating the changes is remarkably simple. The owners never need to think about tweaking the settings of the thermostats or dimming the lights. They never fret over the audio system being too loud or not loud enough. And they never worry about their guests feeling cramped or crowded. The Control4 system handles all of the particulars for them. They just choose what they want to do—be it take a dip in the pool, watch a movie, perfect their dance moves, or host a dinner party for 100—and the custom-programmed Control4 system arranges the space and the environment perfectly.

sursa: cepro.com

SHARP RELEASES NEW SLATE OF ANDROID-POWERED UHD TVS (eng)

   Absolutely one of the coolest things I saw at this year’s CES in Las Vegas was Sharp’s dual position TV stands, which allow you to position the feet of select 2015 models toward the center of the display if it’s positioned on a small credenza, or all the way at the left and right extremes if you have more space and want a more stable (and more visually striking, IMHO) setup. There was some question at the time as to exactly which models would support this dual configuration stand setup, but now we know that Sharp’s new UH30 and UE30 series UHD TVs will—but only on the 70- and 80-inch class displays.

   Still, even if you’re looking for something a little smaller, the UH30 and UE30 series have a lot going for them. Both series feature Android TV—the smart TV platform that is quickly overtaking proprietary platforms due to its slick interface, Google Cast capabilities, and wealth of gaming options. With Android TV, you can stream native apps like Google Play, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, PBS Kids and more, or cast apps like HBO Go, Pandora, ESPN, and others via screen mirroring.

   The UH30 and UE30 series displays also of course feature Sharp-exclusive technologies like AquoMotion 480 (UE30) and AquoMotion 960 (UH30) to reduce motion blur and create a more lifelike image. These numbers don’t represent actual refresh rates, mind you, but through different processing and image technologies, they do represent a sort of refresh-rate-equivalent. Both series also feature AquoDimming, which is Sharp’s term of its own local dimming feature—designed to ensure that the image is deep and richly contrasted, with good detail in dark areas of the screen.

   Both series also feature Revelation Upscaler technology designed to bring HD content up to near-4K quality, and support for all of the latest Ultra High Definition specs, including HEVC/h.265 and VP9 decoding, as well as HDCP 2.2 copy protection compatibility. Both also boast four HDMI inputs, along with WiFi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity built in.

   There are, it should go without saying, some differences between the two series. UH30 displays benefit from Sharp’s SPECTROS Rich Color Display technology, which delivers a 21 percent wider color spectrum than traditional LED/LCD displays. SPECTROS is effectively being positioned as Sharp’s quantum dots equivalent, although the technology doesn’t work in quite the same way on a technical level. Still, the company promises “realistic landscapes, lush nature scenes and natural skin tones.” UH30 displays also come with a fancier touchpad remote, and what’s more, the 70-inch class UH30 (model LC-70UH30U) passed more than 400 picture quality tests required to earn THX’s 4K certification.

   All five models in the UH30 and UE30 series are available now from your local authorized Sharp dealer. Suggested retail pricing (and actual current pricing) for the UE30 models breaks down as follows:

• 60″ (diagonal) Class LC-60UE30U: $2,099.99 MSRP. (Currently $1,699.99.)
• 70″ (69.5″ diagonal) Class LC-70UE30U: $2,899.99 MSRP. (Currently $2,099.00.)
• 80″ (diagonal) Class LC-80UE30U: $5,599.99 MSRP. (Currently $4,499.99.)

And for the step-up UH30 series:

• 70″ (69.5″ diagonal) Class LC-70UH30U: $3,299.99 MSRP. (Currently $2,599.99.)
• 80″ (diagonal) Class LC-80UH30U: $6,299.99 MSRP. (Currently $4,999.99.)

sursa: hdliving.com