New TV technologies crop up almost as often as new reality-TV shows, but among all the Celebrity Fear Factors, Obnoxious Bosses, and Strange Loves, there's only one American Idol — the kind of show that can save a network and bury the competition. Fox could air it every night and still have a large audience, but that would kill the anticipation and turn the screaming-teen joy into a commodity.
Is SXRD (Silicon Crystal Reflective Display) Sony's American Idol? The Japanese giant is positioning its newest HDTV technology as the best yet. And so far, the SXRD logo appears only on a $30,000 front projector and this $13,000 rear-projection TV (RPTV), the 70-inch Qualia 006.
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SXRD is a variant of LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology that numerous manufacturers — most recently Intel — have abandoned. The problem has been “poor yield”: too many of the chips are flawed. Sony claims not only to have conquered this with SXRD but to have added a number of enhancements as well (for more on the technology, click to see “SXRD: Behind the Screen”). If it has indeed solved the yield problem, Sony should be able to begin producing chips cheaply enough to get the prices of SXRD sets in line with those using DLP (Digital Light Processing) and other technologies.
But until then, SXRD will command a serious premium. To put it in perspective, you can buy Sony's 70-inch KDF-70XBR950, an LCD rear-projection TV, for around $5,000. Whether SXRD is worth the price difference isn't the point. Shoppers in this bracket want something special, and the Qualia 006 definitely qualifies.
This much was obvious from the moment the 006 showed up at S&V 's test studio accompanied by a small entourage of Sony technical experts, who were there to brief us on the technology and bless the picture. Out of the box, the Qualia looked impressive. Every bit of the set's native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels — well above the minimum for high-definition — seemed to be evident in the picture. But lots of displays fall apart when you start running test patterns and spend time looking critically at DVDs and high-def material. Could the Qualia 006 possibly live up to its price tag and the inevitable Sony hype? In short: could this really be the world's best standalone HDTV?
Features Gone Wild
The massive 006 is one imposing TV, but it's almost all picture. The 70-inch screen is surrounded by a black frame — which helps make the picture pop — and is covered by a nonremovable, half-inch-thick pane of clear acrylic. While this tends to cause more room glare than you'll see on an RPTV without protective glass, S ony's e ngineers explained that it's an integral part of t he display and serves to protect the delicate lenticular s creen.
Most such screens are designed to increase the horizontal viewing angle — or how far you can move to either side and still get a bright, clear image. But Sony's screen also increases the vertical viewing angle, so you don't have to be sitting down to get a good picture. In fact, the Qualia's screen was both brighter and more uniform than those on other microdisplays I've seen whether I looked at it standing up or lying on the floor.
You get some serious user features for your 13 grand. Unfortunately, a backlit remote isn't one of them. The slim, metal wand that is included is a holdover from past high-end Sony TVs, and I'm not its biggest fan. Its high points include good looks, a large, friendly cursor control, and an economical button selection, but the similarity of the keys can make it hard to use.
I have no complaints about Sony's onscreen menu system. Despite a remarkable number of options, it also provides an uncommon degree of comfort. For instance, when you highlight an option, a brief text explanation appears. There is also an extensive array of picture adjustments, some of which are described below.
The Qualia's hefty 100-watt audio system uses a pair of attractive removable column speakers on either side of the screen and a built-in powered subwoofer. Still, it lacked sonic impact for such a large TV. You'll want to use a bona fide surround sound system for watching movies.
Tweak City
The Qualia 006 takes about 45 seconds to reach full brightness every time you turn it on. There are three picture presets, including an excellent Pro mode that comes amazingly close to ideal image quality. I can't begin to cover all of the picture tweaks, but a few are worth mentioning. Setting Color Space to Wide expands the image's color gamut, producing deeper hues. Cinema Black Pro controls a mechanical iris, and when this was on, it increased the depth of blacks, but at the expense of some brightness.
On the other hand, in my quest for image purity, I left a few controls turned off. These included Clear White, which gave whites a blue tinge; Detail Enhancer, which added artificial edge enhancement; Black Corrector, which limited detail in dark areas once brightness was calibrated; and Color Corrector, which threw off the color balance.
Setting up my inputs was a breeze, especially since the 006 has two HDMI inputs (I used one for our satellite receiver and one for D-VHS) and I could program the setup menu to skip unused jacks. The 006's digital tuner grabbed more stations than our Dish 921 satellite receiver, and the TV is also equipped with a CableCARD slot for direct connection of digital cable. Cycling through the various aspect ratio (screen-shape) selections, I really appreciated the ability to switch display modes with high-def material, but I'd have liked to see a 4:3 choice for viewing upconverted HDTV.
The Big View
I figured it would be appropriate to embrace as much of the Sony Entertainment universe as I could, so I evaluated the Qualia 006 using the Spider-Man 2 DVD from Sony-owned Columbia TriStar. This excellent DVD looked outstanding on the big screen.
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One of the first things I noticed during calibration (see “In the Lab,” at the end of this article, for more), and again during the movie, was the 006's vibrant colors. The set uses three SXRD chips for the red, green, and blue primary colors, thus avoiding distortions that can occur with a single-chip microdisplay that uses a color wheel to separate the primary colors. As noted earlier, selecting the Wide Color Space option b roadens the image's color gamut, especially in reds, which Sony says results in deeper colors and better overall saturation. I saw nothing in Spider-Man 2 to make me doubt that claim.
Early in the movie, there's a shot looking down on Columbia University's quad, and the green of the grass appeared lush yet perfectly natural in the sun. Tight close-ups of Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) not only accurately rendered her shock of orange hair but also revealed her delicate pinkish skin tones. While color depth was greater, the colors never seemed cartoonish — aside from Spidey's costume, of course — just more natural and lifelike.
Right after the opening credits, the camera zooms out from a white billboard. The large swath of white demonstrated the Sony's good uniformity compared with other LCD and LCoS sets, but the white tended to be a little dimmer toward the edges than in the center. The 006 had greater consistency than any LCD or LCoS display I've seen but wasn't as uniform as DLP. You'd be hard-pressed to see inconsistencies with movies or TV material, however.
Along with full HDTV resolution, Sony claims very fast screen response for moving images, and the 006 didn't miss a beat. The menacing silver hands at the ends of Doctor Octavius's shiny, segmented tentacles were rendered to the tiniest detail. I noticed no signs of image lag or slowness as the camera traced the tentacles' lightning-quick attacks. A typical LCD TV would have struggled with this scene.
Night scenes also looked very good. For example, when Peter stakes out the playhouse where Mary Jane is performing or when Spidey afterward soars through the New York streets to shake off his disappointment at seeing her with her boyfriend, the night sky and the shadows between buildings looked suitably dark. No, the Qualia 006 can't reproduce the inky black of a CRT, but its darkest areas appeared as close to black as I've seen on the best plasmas and rear-projection DLPs, and darker than on any LCD or LCoS set I've seen.
A weakness did appear when I compared the depth of black from two different shots of a night sky, one showing a brightly lit Empire State Building, and one without the skyscraper. With the building present, the sky appeared a little brighter, and the stars a little dimmer, than without it. I confirmed that this problem was in the TV and not the movie by looking at some half-white vs. fully dark test patterns. The dark areas became slightly brighter when part of the image was bright. This can obs cure some shadow detail when you're watching m ovies.
Toward the end of Spider-Man 2 , a streetlight fades smoothly into darkness as it illuminates the cop cars coming to investig ate the drowning of the fusion sun. It was o n this frame that I noticed some unusual ghosting in the picture. Running through a dark area at the bottom of the image was a faint patch of blue that exactly mirrored the size, shape, and relative position of a very bright strand of Spidey's web at the top of the frame. Test patterns confirmed that whenever a bright patch or object appeared anywhere, a faint, corresponding blue patch appeared in the opposite section of the screen.
After checking it out, Sony's engineers determined that the blue ghost was the fault of a damaged SXRD light engine. Sony shipped us another Qualia 006 that showed no evidence of this problem and noted that any customers who identify this issue within the three-year parts-and-labor warranty period can have it fixed.
High-Def Delights
To check out the 006's high-definition capabilities, I caught the NASCAR Bush Series race on Time Warner Cable. The 70-inch screen really put me in the driver's seat. The colors of the stock-car logos sparkled brilliantly under the Florida sun, and I particularly enjoyed the stop-motion shots of the cars passing out of pit row and over the start line, which let me look through the roll cages and into the interiors. The Sony was so big and revealing that it even disclosed occasional softness or blurring caused by compression in the high-def cable feed.
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When I looked at the same images (and test patterns) using a component-video connection, I noticed a slight drop in sharpness at 1080i. The Sony could still display eve ry pixel of a 1,920 x 1,080 image, but the most detailed parts looked slightly softer with slightly fainter lines. For that reason alone I recommend using the HDMI input for high-def and an HDMI-equipped DVD player.
It's hard to overstate just how good HDTV looks on the Qualia 006. The detail and hypersharpness in the computer-animated sections of Digital Video Essentials — from the bubbles to the waving grassy objects — was breathtaking, and the live-action sections looked real enough to dive into. This is how high-def was meant to be seen: larger-than life, and finally with all 2 million-plus pixels visible.
Picture Perfect
It's still anyone's guess whether a new generation of 1,920 x 1,080-pixel DLP projectors waiting just around the corner can give SXRD a run for its money. But in the meantime, Sony has made a powerful statement with SXRD, and the Qualia 006 takes a special place in the world. Is the image quality significantly better than any large-screen plasma, single-chip DLP, standard LCD, or LCoS microdisplay I've seen? Yes. Will subsequent, lower-priced SXRD products look as good? Maybe. But whether or not SXRD comes to dominate TVs the way American Idol rules the airwaves, deep-pocketed videophiles will scream in glee like teenage girls — on the inside, at least — when they see the Qualia 006 in person.
In the Lab
Color temperature (Warm color temperature and Pro mode before/after calibration)
Low window (20-IRE) ................. 6,780/6,487 K
High window (80-IRE) ................ 6,468/6,538 K
Brightness (100-IRE window before/after calibration) 53.3/33.8 ftL
Prior to calibration, the Qualia 006 came close to the standard color temperature of 6,500 K in its Warm preset and Pro picture mode, varying by an average of only 63 K from 20 to 100 IRE. Afterward I got it somewhat closer, using only the user-menu color-temperature controls, achieving an average variation of 22 K. That's the best grayscale tracking I've seen on any microdisplay.
Peak brightness was a bit high for a completely dark environment before calibration but should be fine for moderate ambient light. Viewing angle was better than on any other rear-projection TV I've seen.
Color decoding was excellent, showing no red push and only a 5% error in green with the Wide color space engaged. Edge enhancement was negligible with sharpness reduced to zero. Hotspotting was minor — the best I've seen in a rear-projection set — but still visible in the brighter middle and dimmer edges. Uniformity was slightly worse than DLP, with minor color variations across the screen on gray fields. Only minor geometry errors were visible. The 006 did a mediocre job of maintaining a consistent level of black; after calibration, the PLUGE stripe disappeared on half-gray patterns. Resolution was superior to any other microdisplay I've seen, measuring a full 1,080 lines with any HD feed.
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The SXRD chip's architecture isn't radically different from other LCoS devices we've seen. The two biggest achievements are Sony's refinements of that design and advances said to allow SXRD chips to be manufactured in quantity.
To date, TV manufacturers have made few attempts at consumer displays capable of full HDTV resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. That's about to change — several companies announced models at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (click to see “CES Showstoppers”). Among the three prominent microdisplay technologies, Texas Instruments' DLP has shown promise but has been limited to 1,280 x 720 pixels — about 33% less detail than the highest-quality HDTV signal. Only recently has TI released a chip for consumer TVs capable of full HD resolution, and we expect to evaluate HDTVs with that chip in future issues.
Between the remaining technologies, LCD and LCoS are both based on liquid crystals and have been used for 1,920 x 1,080 chips or panels. LCDs use backlighting that shines through transparent pixels to make the picture, but they require dark areas between the pixels, usually to hide each pixel's electrical connections. The wasted space requires a larger chip to achieve any given resolution compared with a typical DLP or LCoS device, and this in turn contributes to the “screen door” effect of a visible grid structure when the image is viewed close up. The required thickness of the liquid-crystal layer in a typical LCD TV also affects response time, creating the potential for blurring or for trails on fast-moving objects when the display can't keep up with changes in the signal.
By comparision, LCoS panels are reflective. Light passes through a liquid-crystal layer sandwiched between a pair of alignment layers before hitting a “backplane” that bounces it back through the same trio of layers and on toward the screen. Since no backlighting is required, electrical connections are hidden behind the backplane, and the pixels can be placed closer together. In fact, Sony claims to have reduced the dead space between pixels on its SXRD chips to 0.35 micrometer — one-tenth of the space on its own LCD displays. The pitch, or distance from the middle of one pixel to that of the next, measures just 9 micrometers (about 1 / 8 the width of a human hair).
Each SXRD chip has 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, for full 1080p resolution — something few TVs can claim. The chips themselves are tiny — about 3/4 of an inch across — and according to Sony the pixels are packed tighter than on any microdisplay to date. It's this high density, not just the number of pixels, that's unique and contributes to a more filmlike display.
Also, since the light in an LCoS chip passes through the same layers twice , the thickness of the liquid-crystal layer can be reduced compared with an LCD device. This allows faster r esponse time and less light loss, which improves contrast. Sony attributes SXRD's quick response time — claimed to be 5 milliseconds, much faster than other liquid-crystal technology — to a very thin liquid-crystal layer of just 2 micrometers. This is said to be even thinner than a traditional LCoS chip. The inherent boost in contrast is further enhanced by Sony's use o f Vertically Aligned, or untwisted, crystals, which naturally d isplay black and therefore make it easier to achieve deeper blacks onscreen. Most LCD displays use Twisted Nematic crystals, which begin in a twisted state and naturally display white.
Sony declined to explain the details behind its proprietary processes for getting the crystals so thin or for overcoming the manufacturing difficulties that plagued previous LCoS designs. But the result, the best rear-projection microdisplay image I've seen yet, is no secret. — D.K.