Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!good From: good@pixar.uucp (Veni, Vidi, Visa.) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: I don't need HDTV! Message-ID: <9662@pixar.UUCP> Date: 19 Mar 90 01:14:16 GMT References: Sender: news@pixar.UUCP Reply-To: good@pixar.uucp (Veni, Vidi, Visa.) Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California Lines: 50 In article bas+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bruce Sherwood) writes: : :Some of this discussion of HDTV implies that there will always be a need :for another generation of standards with even higher resolution. That :isn't necessarily the case. The human eye has limited resolution, and :higher resolution than that in the picture is literally useless... : :The analogy with audio is that a CD with frequency response out to 10 :MHz would not sound better than one with frequency response out to 20 :KHz, because the human ear can't hear the higher frequencies. Ooh! I'll take this one, in two parts: 1) There will *always* be room for improvement in anything. 2) Your analogy with CD's is the right analogy for the wrong argument. An audio system with a 10MHz bandwith *will* sound better than one with a 20KHz bandwidth, because your ears *can* hear out there! This old 20KHz nonsense is a figure for steady-state, sinusoidal response and was generated using WWII-era equipment. Later experiments show some people with 40KHz or better response to sine waves. But even that isn't the biggie. Human hearing is very sensitive to the rise time on transients. The wider the bandwidth, the steeper the slope. The steeper the slope, the more like the real sound. A MegaHertz is adequate for mid-fi, but not for the good stuff. Can you tell that I'm a DC-to-daylight freak? Just remember that *real* music isn't bandwidth limited at all! (Ok, except by the air between the source and your ear -- ditto for your stereo!) The biggest bill of goods sold to the audio world in the last decade is that CD's represent the state of the art in sound reproduction. They don't. Not even close. Practically an also-ran. They *are* the state of the art in marketing, and provide a wonderfully convenient bang for the buck for low to mid-fi. They're a good value, not the cat's meow in fidelity. I agree that there is a theoretical limit to our eyes' resolution, but you must take into account things like frame rate (see ShowScan) and image size (see Imax), not to mention the near limitless need for better audio, which current HDTV just barely addresses. CD's can't touch a good analog master tape, and video of any kind is way behind big, fast motion picture projection. That doesn't mean I don't *want* HDTV! Bring it on! I'll be happier, but never satisfied. --Craig ...{ucbvax,sun}!pixar!good Gun control yields tyranny.