HD Waveform

This is an exciting time for home theater and one for which I have been waiting; the ability to properly display CinemaScope content in its native aspect ratio, duplicating the experience of your local film theater where CinemaScope content is larger, growing left to right as the side curtains are pulled back to reveal more screen for a larger image.

Check the A/V and videophile magazines for this year. Odds are quite high that they had advertising for cinemascope screens, lenses or compatible projectors. A new term has appeared in front projection reviews and specs called "Panamorph lens compatible/capable", which was also supported by...

Over the last 3 years manufacturers have been busy improving their marketing specs to the mass market for contrast ratios by using an iris and gamma technique since better numbers creates the illusion of purchasing better performance. The purpose of this article is to put that into perspective so that the performance enthusiast will understand why this feature degrades overall image performance, why it sells product and why, for some technologies, it may be needed to be competitive.

Iris
One way to improve dynamic range and measured contrast ratio is to employ an iris. An iris typically decreases...