News from Here & There

Consumer Reports on 3D TVs; don't buy one yet
Consumer Reports took a look at two Samsung LCD sets and a Panasonic plasma TV with 3D capability and were impressed. They say that the 3D images had excellent depth, color, and high-def details, creating a compelling 3D picture as good as a movie theater.
However, for consumers who are satisfied with their current HDTV and aren't burning to have the latest technology, Consumer Reports recommends waiting to buy. The price of 3DTVs and Blu-ray players is likely to drop, and there should be more 3D content to watch in time.
Panasonic's set performed better than the Samsung:
The Samsung LCD TVs displayed subtle ghosting of 3D images to varying degrees in different scenes. Such ghosting, technically called "crosstalk," indicates that the images for each eye aren't being kept completely separate, as they should be.

On the Samsung 7000 model, testers also noticed some cloudiness caused by uneven backlighting in darker scenes, which was a bit distracting. [...] both sets have a fairly narrow viewing angle, so picture quality degraded as the viewer moved off center.
The Panasonic had a virtually unlimited viewing angle, and might have the best motion resolution of any flat-panel TV CR has ever tested. However, they did think that Samsung's glasses were lighter and more comfortable to wear than Panasonic's. [And it turns out that Samsung glasses may work with Panasonic's sets; if you wear them upside down!]

Full results are published in the June issue on newsstands May 4 and online at www.ConsumerReports.org.



DVD-ripper roundup
MacWorld takes a look at DVD rippers for the Mac, and makes a stand on commercial DVD ripping:
We (and others) think that, if you own a DVD, you should be able to override its copy protection to make a backup copy or to convert its content for viewing on other devices


The print and web media time scales collide
Canonrumors.com got all excited a week or so ago because the magazine PopPhoto made reference to a "Great New DSLR" that would be featured in their next issue. Except that now it turns out that the "new" camera is the Canon T2i. Canonrumors.com frostily notes:
the T2i isn’t considered “new” in the photography world
What they really meant was:
the T2i isn’t “new” in the internet world



Blackmagic announces support for Adobe CS 5
Blackmagic Design has announced immediate support for Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5) for its entire range of capture and playback products. A new software installer supporting Windows systems is available now for download from the Blackmagic Design web site, while the Mac OS X public beta version will be available later this week. These updates are provided free of charge for all Blackmagic Design customers using DeckLink, Intensity and Multibridge products.



New tougher HDTV energy standards take effect
PC World reports that on the new Energy Star 4.0 standard for televisions that took effect on May 1st. The maximum amount of power an Energy Star TV can consume will drop by about 40 percent.

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