Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



[to search, use Blogger search in top bar]

Dell W2600 Digital Photo Card Reader gig limitation

The card reader doesn't appear to support 1GB or 2GB SD cards. It says "Capacity of the storage media exceeds the supported limit."



(Err, the W2600 is my 26" LCD TV, in case you're wondering.)

Previously:
August 18, 2005 W2600 TV and card reader

Labels: lcd tv, w2600

posted by Richard at 17:15 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

a word about LCD TVs, high definition, upconverting and such

I can't claim to be an expert, other than I have an LCD TV (Dell 26" W2600) and I know a guy who has a different one (Panasonic Viera 32" TC32LC50).

The sum is this: 480i regular old-fashioned TV, as delivered by analogue or digital cable, does not look good on an LCD TV. Make sure you are able to check this (either in store, or try at home with an option to return the TV). If you are expecting your expensive LCD TV to do wonders with regular TV signals, you may be disappointed.

This is not something I have really heard mentioned, but it is my experience with both TVs: the image is noticeably grainy, and may appear to have MPEG-like artifacts. The fact of the matter is 480i regular TV is a crummy image and the LCD brings out all its flaws. You're used to watching TV on CRTs that have decades worth of optimization engineering to present this image as well as possible.

LCDs are engineered to display digital images well. 480p progressive from DVD players, and in particular 720p high-definition TV (HDTV). They also should do a good job of displaying images from a computer, or gaming console.

Also, a few words about "widescreen":
- first, regular TV is 4:3, which means you either
a) watch it as 4:3, which means big vertical black bars on either side on a 16:9 widescreen LCD
b) use some digital stretching voodoo which displays it as 16:9 - I don't like this digital fakery myself

- some shows e.g. Galactica are broadcast 480i 16:9, so you can view them full-screen in "zoom" mode, at least I think this looks fine (my friend is dubious)

- there's widescreen, and then there's widescreen, and then there's WIDEscreen
not all widescreen is 16:9. anamorphic 2.35:1 is also popular, e.g. Serenity DVD widescreen is in this format which means... you paid all that money for your widescreen TV and there are still &%#%^%* black bars along the top and bottom of the image. There is also crazy wide widescreen, I don't know how common this is, anyway Great Escape (original DVD release) is in non-anamorphic, so it's like this tiny strip in the middle of the TV screen.

(And no, I don't actually follow the details of this whole "anamorphic" thing, but it's fun to say.)

The connectors available, in order of increasing quality, are:

composite (the yellow RCA) - analog
s-video (the small round one with lots of pins) - analog
component (three RCA plugs marked red, green, blue, although the signals aren't sent as RGB) - analog

component supports 480i, 480p (progressive scan), 720p and 1080i

(VGA computer connection - analog)

DVI-D (large with many pins) - digital
HDMI (small connector) - digital, same signalling as DVI (so you can get a converter to change one to the other), also carries audio in the same cable

both DVI-D and HDMI support the industry's wonderful HDCP High-Definition Content/Copy Protection. No digital copying for you, you naughty pirate! You thought you owned your own content and equipment within your house? Harr harr harr.

Older DVD players just output 480i. This may or may not be the native DVD format, anyway even cheapie DVD players now offer 480p progressive out, over component. 480p, according to the net, is also called EDTV, just to add more confusion.

You can also get "upconverting" DVD players with component and HDMI outputs, they will artificially interpolate the 480 up to 720p or 1080i. I don't know how good of a job they do. You're basically asking a machine to guess what all those extra pixels should be. Anyway, while technically they could send the upconverted signal over both component and HDMI, in practice they only upconvert over HDMI, because it supports the precious precious HDCP content protection bullsh*t.

A number of DVD players now also play Divx, which is cool.

Beyond those DVD players is coming High Definition DVD.
However, the industry is busily scr3wing itself.
There are two competing formats: HD-DVD and BluRay, and no signs of a shakeout yet.

Plus which, there is the "enough extra benefit" problem.
CDs. You can get Super Audio CD (SACD). And DVD-Audio. With extra bonus copy protection, avast ye scurvy pirate dogs. So people say:
- I need new player
- I get some slightly better audio I maybe can't even hear
- I can't copy the CD

So SACD and DVD-Audio are dead.
Plus which, there is a replacement for CD: it's called digital music download.

High definition DVD comes with even more ridiculously intrusive copy protection, e.g. the player calls home over the Internet every time you play the DVD, just to make sure you're not Blackbeard, yarr. Who needs that? Plus which, regular DVD looks pretty good to most people anyway. So high-def DVD may quite well die.

Plus which, there is a replacement for DVD: it's called digital video download.

I think this ends my tale of technology.
You can research plasma vs. LCD yourself. Personally my reading of it is that plasma is over-rated: runs hotter, uses more power, has lower resolution (typically 1024x768 for plasma vs 1366x768 for LCD; 720p native is 1280x720). Anyway I've never compared them side-by-side so YMMV.

Also, if you do want to try the giant screen experience for movies only, I highly recommend a projector. I have been very pleased with my projector and I think the 5' wide image looks great. I don't think you would want to use it for regular TV, I haven't tried it, plus which the project bulb life is short (3000 hours?) and bulbs are expensive, so it's probably not a good choice if you're a regular TV watcher.

UPDATE 2006-01-03: There is a good article on AVS forum

A Primer on DVD in a High-Def world; or How Much is that Scaler in the Window?

I like both AVS forums and Digital Home Canada forums for AV tech info.

For equipment reviews I usually check Amazon.com and CircuitCity.com

UPDATE 2006-01-06: I found a previous posting about progressive-scan DVDs with a good link to more info

December 26, 2003 DVD players part 2 - progressive scan

Labels: lcd tv

posted by Richard at 23:00 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

new Dell LCD TVs

TVs at Dell.ca

Compared with my W2600 the new Dell 26" W2606c has slightly higher resolution (1366 x768) and slightly higher refresh rate (16ms) at something like half the price. BUT it has no picture-in-picture (PIP) whatsoever. No dual tuners. Nada. Since the dual-tuner PIP was the main reason I got the TV, I think I did ok out of the deal. They don't even have dual-tuner in the 32", it can only do PIP if you have a 2nd external tuner.

UPDATE 2006-02-11: The website now says the W2606c response time is 12ms. Also, as far as I can tell the W2606c doesn't support a built-in card reader. I added the card reader to my W2600 and I use it a lot for showing photo slideshows. So I definitely think I got the better TV for my needs. The W2606c seems to be a better LCD display with many fewer features than the W2600.

Previously:
2005-08-18 Dell W2600 LCD TV review

Labels: lcd tv

posted by Richard at 11:53 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

W2600 TV and card reader

The Dell 26" W2600 LCD TV has a digital photo option:

Dell W2600 Digital Photo Card Reader (Can$110)

This is not an external reader, it's a module that integrates directly into an expansion slot on the side of the TV. It's completely integrated as well with the TV menu system - it shows up in the list of possible video sources, and you control the slideshow etc. through the on-screen menus.

The Picture-in-Picture / Picture-outside-Picture / Picture-beside-Picture can combine any two video sources, including the two built-in TV tuners (they both tune from the single cable input). There are many, many inputs: composite, s-video, VGA, DVI, composite (there are multiples of some of these).

The dual-picture modes work well for avoiding commercials, e.g. you can channel surf in the main picture while checking the 2nd to see if the show you are watching is back on. The main drawback is that there is no quick way to escape dual-picture mode. You can't just exit to a single screen (as far as I can tell). You have to cycle through the different picture modes before it goes to single screen.

The display is ok, but not fantastic. It has a bit of a processed look. CSI on Spike actually had some problems, maybe because of the low light levels. There were serious display artifacts.

UPDATE 2005-08-20: I'm not convinced this is a good TV if you just have an analog signal or a 480i DVD player. This surprises me, because the Dell 2000FP monitor I was using as a TV (via VCR composite connection) displayed fine. Now the 2000FP monitor is higher resolution (1600x1200 vs the 1280x768 of the W2600), but I would have expected the W2600, being an actual TV, to have all sorts of fancy image processing to improve the image.

From what I read on the net, it's great if you have digital input (digital cable or 480p - progressive from your DVD player). And it will do HDTV 720p natively, including the ridiculous HDCP content protection. For HDTV 1080i, it will have to scale the image down to fit the screen resolution (1080i is 1920x1080).

But for good old basic analog cable, which is what I have, the image really looks quite processed to me. The 480i from the DVD player looks fine, but I gather it would be better if it was 480p.

In analog it is watchable, but there are visible effects just watching a regular show, basically there is a grainyness to the images. You know the kind of stepping effects you can see on a screen that doesn't have enough colours to display a smooth shading gradient? That's kind of like what I see sometimes.

Basically, where I would expect smooth tones, I can actually see some grainyness or colour transition.

You're probably safest going to a store and asking to see the display from ANALOG cable. Unfortunately of course with Dell there are no stores where you can go in the area.

UPDATE 2005-Oct-23:
There is also strong vertical banding when I use it as a monitor, and sometimes I see a horizontal band when I use it as a TV.

I found it quite challenging to find some actuall Dell W2600 reviews amongst the Internet sales noise,

I had the best luck searching

26 lcd review

I find if you search on any kind of brand name or model number you get ten bazillion sales hits and no review hits.

The conclusion from the reviews appears to be that you have to run the signal through a computer to get a good DVI input for the TV. It may be a good TV for digital inputs. Given the state of the LCD TV industry, I can't recommend that you buy sight unseen.

Some other annoyances: It has great viewing modes, but no way to set them and jump in and out. If I want to get to PIP mode 3, I have to cycle through mode 1 and 2 every time.

Also the manual is not that useful. It doesn't tell me what the difference between "wide", "full screen" and "standard" viewing modes are (they all look the same to me).

Here are some reviews I found useful:

CNet 5.8/10

Tom's Hardware: 26" LCD TVs

Video Quality

Unfortunately, things became a little less idyllic here. The video quality of Dell's LCD TV was acceptable, but no better. The picture sometimes showed an unpleasant line effect when screening DVDs via the S-Video interface, a problem we didn't encounter on any of the other models tested. It's a shame, because there was very little sparkling. On the other hand, a lot of jaggedness showed up on images from DVD sources. What that means is that if you choose this model, you'll really need HDTV content to get the most out of it. A little latency was visible in movies, but the viewing angles were good.

Interpolation And PC Mode

The poor quality of the interpolation we'd observed with movies got worse with Xbox games. They were playable, but only in 4:3 mode - as soon as we extended the image, the result was disastrous.

Using a PC as the image source eliminated the jaggedness we'd noticed in movies, and the Dell proved to be a very good screen.

CNet UK Dell W2600 review

Performance
While the design of the W2600 punches above its weight, the video performance is more indicative of its budget roots. The torture test for any LCD is giving it a plain old analogue TV signal and then finishing it off with some Freeview programming, and with these odds Dell's effort didn't fare too well. The 25ms response time just isn't fast enough to deal with swift camera pans and moving images, and the 500:1 contrast ratio can't reproduce any detail when you're viewing a dimly lit movie. These sort of problems will affect the viewing pleasure of even the most undemanding viewer, so if you've got your heart set on an LCD, you'll have to spend up to £1,000 more to bag something comparable to a CRT from low-quality sources. However, there are ways to get round this, albeit expensive ones. If you use a Media Center PC with a Freeview card, the results are much more polished, with less of that horrible MPEG artefacting that results from the analogue conversion process.

It's ironic that after it nailed AV connectivity so well, we have to advise you to use a PC with the Dell W2600 to get the best out of it. However, the W2600 is still a solid starting point for the company. It impresses in design but delivers exactly what you should expect for the price on performance.

The rest of these reviews are fairly positive:

tv.about.com

PC Magazine

Trusted Reviews

Infosyncworld


BIOS Magazine


Tom's Hardware: LCD TV Fall 2005 Preview (does not cover the W2600)

Labels: lcd tv, w2600

posted by Richard at 22:15 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)