We've described the latest Yamaha DXP-1300 in a previous article, and didn't forget to mention the role, used as a marketing argument, of the so-called HQV technology that equips this new device. But what is this intriguing HQV? What does it have to do with a sales team? Judging from Silicon Optix's website, the Teranex/SIlicon Optix Realta HQV -which means "Hollywood Quality Video"- chip seems to make a smash hit: Yamaha, but also Runco, NEC, Lumagen, Denon, Syntax, Calibre, Digital Projection and you can bet others will follow soon... Explanation? Thanks to a very clearly written "tutorial" from Teranex/Silicon Optix, we can -try to- summarize the problematics encountered that have justified the development of such a nice process.
HDTV... So what?
So we're headed to HDTV, that's for sure. A couple of years from now and the boom will be there and well alive. How great to replace an old 37" CRT for the splendour of pristine images. Yet, when you're watching non HD old westerns, speckled, almost disfigured images appear. All the noise is not gone... It is accentuated instead! And many will argue that it's LESS good than before --Gasp!
There's obviously an explanation to this annoyance. The vast majority of TV programmes are still shot and conveyed as standard Def (SD) 480-line interlaced video. To do this, on uses composite, S-video, component connection from set-top boxes, VCRs, DVD players etc. Since the image must be enlarged to fill your beautiful HDTV screen, you're in trouble, because an enlarged image brings its own load of enlarged flaws as well...
HDTV beautifully demonstrated (source: Sony Bravia Ad campaign)
Fixed-pixel displays are today's almost standard displays (see the boom on flat panel screens world-wide). Technologies compete in this new world; they are Plasma Displays (PDP), liquid crystal (LCD), Digital Light Processing (DLP) or even Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS); I guess all these acronyms have become familiar now or else you must be living in a very remote, phone and TV free area --sounds good to me sometimes! They all have one thing in common: a fixed number -or matrix- of pixels sets the resolution of the display; it is commonly dubbed "native" resolution.
Video Processing...
TV manufacturers must convert the incoming video signal , that's whichever the source, to the "native" resolution of any fixed pixel display. It means incorporating a "video-processing" chip inside their display. In addition to what, the said video processing chip is supposed to enhance the image, sweep noises and speckles and any other disagreement caused by the conversion itself. The video processor is unquestionably providing results on all programs, High-Def programmes included.
Sadly, video processors range from a cheap $10.- (with VAT) junk chip to, as Teranex/Silicon Optix describe them, "$70000 refrigerator-sized sized boxes used in Hollywood production houses". No way that you can use these at home, only maybe if you're investing so much...
Come the Pentagon... Oh yes, the military, more precisely Lockheed Martin looking for some new military imaging and video processing technology... Probably not to watch Rambo but then, who knows with these people? After all, the DARPA research programmes brought.. the Internet and the GPS. LM invested more than $100 million into this, and founded Teranex in 1998 to make some money out of it.
Final release of the HQV chip
From the box to the chip
It came to the mind of Hollywood's video specialists that they were in great need of such technology, which is now spreading among many leading leading broadcasters -NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and WB, along with others in Japan, Australia, China, and South Korea. The Teranex video processor can process any source: video, film animation, satellite feeds, camera feeds, etc. Today, only prime-time programmes are true HD programmes and the rest of the time must be up-scaled to HD standards. To do this, one uses the Teranex Xantus box.
Evolution from HQV boxes to HQV chip
The HQV is also widely used in post-production, since its allows to much better convert between so many formats encountered in the Video and Cinema sphere; it is especially true for the telecine -the film to video transfer- where the removal of dirt and scratches is essential. Plus, this process is fully automatic. In 2002 Teranex took advantage of progresses achieved in the semiconductor industry, and reduced (as pictured above) the Realta HQV box into a single processor. It is that piece (pictured above) that is critically integrated into top-notch devices such as Yamaha's DXP-1300 or Denon's flagship DVD 5910.
So don't hesitate to check if your next device is actually equiped with the tiny chip; for the time being it is probably limited to high-end machines but then, air condition in cars was also lmited to very select models only a decade ago...