OLED Screens will Replace LCD for Production Monitors. Here’s why.

I remember reading about OLED screens in some tiny nook of the web, a research arm of Kodak working with Cambridge University if I recall correctly, and they showed this little 3″ screen which was the total fruit of their labors at the time. It used a tenth the power of LCD, it needed no backlight, it was as thin as a dime, and it was viewable in sunlight. I really looked forward to seeing these screens used in production.

Well, Kodak sold off their OLED research to LG in the end of 1999, but that hasn’t stopped the rest of the electronics world from licensing technology and starting to build new, exciting products, Sony’s PVM-740 is set to replace all those crappy (even if expensive) LCD location monitors and I’ll tell you why.

iPhone 4’s 960×640 pixel screen as camcorder monitor?

A lot has been said about the iPhone 4 screen’s incredible resolution.

Packing a 960×640 (o.6 MP) resolution into a screen that small means it is 326 pixels per inch. Unless you have perfect vision, reviewers have said that you’ll just not be able to make out individual pixels. This is a very high resolution for any portable LCD screen, and when shooting HD video, a high resolution monitor is critical. 

Panny take Plasma to 150″ . . . Doing!

I had opportunity to see Panasonic’s “world’s largest” 103″ plasma screen at the GV Expo… and now I feel like I’d been had. You can’t really claim the 103″ is the “world’s largest” if you, yourself have already tested and are boxing up a 150″ plasma to be shown at CES.

Engadget has a small gallery of photos of the incredibly impressive screen. It could well do with some better anti-glare glass on the front of it…

Red rolling shutter redux

There’s been a bit of discussion about the image distortion caused by the scanning (rolling) shutter used by CMOS chips which are starting to proliferate in the prosumer and professional video camera world. The key problem, as I have mentioned previously, is that the scanning imaging device is no longer sending the image solely to scanning displays- i.e. tube televisions. Today’s displays include plasma, LCD, DLP, OLED, etc. Most are progressive, but some include circuitry to display the image as if it were a scanning device.

Confused yet?

Mike Curtis, of HD For Indies, is very heavy into RED usage and promotion on his web site. RED is the video camera that I will agree is changing, or will change, the hardware business in the video industry. I checked in with Mike about the “rolling shutter” issue…

Firestore versus Archos.

Riddle me this, caped crusader…

If I want to capture video
direct to hard drive
in a pocketable recorder

I could pay a lot or a little,
then get a little or a lot.
So which do I order?

.

Rolling shutter? – Pick the right tool for the job.

At DVXuser, there’s a detailed article called Sensor Artifacts and CMOS Rolling Shutter by Barry Green. He discusses, and does a very good job at showing a phenomenon whereby the image captured by a camcorder’s imaging chip is not gathered all at once (what I’ll call “progressive” like a frame of film behind a shutter) but may end up being collected across the chip like a farmer collecting corn from his field. This can create footage that has unique problems. He says:

While CMOS and CCD sensors do the same basic job (gathering light and turning it into a video image), they go about it in different ways, and the differences can have very significant impact on your footage… CMOS sensors (equipped with “rolling shutters”) can exhibit skew, wobble, and partial exposure; CCD sensors are immune to those effects. And a CMOS sensor with a “global shutter” would also be immune to them, but since no current CMOS camcorders are equipped with global shutters, a camcorder buyer needs to be aware of what the implications of a rolling shutter would be.

As I read through his article, I thought back to using tube video cameras.

HD-101, a reference for your friends and family.

For the most part, readers of this blog are tech savvy folks that can actually recite the two different ATSC HD frame sizes off the top of their heads.

This is something mere mortals (i.e. usually everyone else in our families) simply cannot, or care not to do.

But then, when any of those folks need camcorder advice, or computer help, or digital camera assistance, they turn to us. As if knowledge about how to shoot and edit professional video equals a complete encyclopediac knowledge of every consumer camcorder, computer, software problem & how to fix it.

But there’s now help from a retail friend…

Sony’s HD1000u & Panasonic’s DVC-60 – Seperated at birth?

This post has moved:

http://techthoughts.org/2007/10/03/sonys-hd1000u-panasonics-dvc-60-seperated-at-birth/

Sony’s HD1000u & Panasonic’s DVC-60 – Seperated at birth?

Looking at Sony’s latest HD1000u on-shoulder camcorder and comparing it to Panasonic’s long-time AG-DVC60 and DVC20 on-shoulder prosumer camcorders, it’s clear where Sony’s inspiration came from. Both shoot on MiniDV tape. Both look more professional than they are. Both offer a stereo microphone, integrated lens, XLR audio input and plenty of space to stick on wireless microphones and other important production gear. Both only have one ring on the lens. But even though the panasonic clearly offers more direct access to control the capabilities of the camcorder, the key difference here is that Sony has taken the design and updated it for HD.

Come and follow me for my hands-on with the HD1000u at the recent Sony event in NYC,
complete with a slew of original photos from all angles…