What Exactly is 4K Resolution?

Existing HDTVs max out at 1080p, with a resolution of 1920×1080 (2.1 million) pixels. 4k resolution doubles the number of horizontal and vertical pixels, giving approximately 4 thousand (4k) vertical lines. More specifically, the resolution is 3840×2160 (8.3 million) pixels. In tradition terms, 4k could be called 2160p.

Will I be Able to Notice the Additional Resolution?

To be able to detect the additional resolution of 4k, the screen must be large enough and you must sit close enough. So how do you know if your particular setup would benefit?  Here is your answer.

Based on the resolving ability of the human eye (with 20/20 vision it is possible to resolve 1/60th of a degree of an arc), it is possible to estimate when 4k resolution will become apparent for the average eyeball. Using the Home Theater Calculator spreadsheet as a base, I created a chart showing, for any given screen size, how close you need to sit to be able to detect some or all of the benefits of a higher resolution screen. (Click the picture below for a larger version.)

(For those of you not used to reading charts: screen size is on the horizontal axis; find your screen size and go straight up until you hit the 4k line.  Follow it to the left. That is your minimum seating distance to fully benefit from 4k resolution.)

What the chart shows is that, for a 84-inch screen, 4k resolution isn’t fully apparent until you are at least 5.5 feet or closer to the screen. For a “tiny” 55-inch screen, you’ll need to be 3.5 feet or closer. Needless to say, most consumers aren’t going to sit close enough to see any of extra resolution 4k offers.

1080p 3-D Content on Passive (polarized) Screens

There may still be one benefit these screens can offer and it’s when watching 3-D Blu-ray movies. There are two types of 3-D glasses: more expensive Active Shutter glasses and lower-cost Passive Polarized Lens glasses. Active Shutter glasses deliver the full screen resolution to each eye; Polarized Glasses deliver only half the screen resolution to each eye (540 instead of 1080 vertical lines)

4k allows all 1080 lines to be visible when using Passive Polarized glasses, so long as you are sitting close enough to view 1080p (see chart above.) You wouldn’t be able to get the full benefit from 4k 3-D, but 4k content doesn’t really exist anyway.

What about 4k Content?

So say you are in the rare few who has a giant screen and sits close enough to it to benefit from 4k resolution.  Will you still see much benefit? The answer is still “Probably not.” Regardless of screen resolution, the source material needs to have the same resolution as the display to see any real advantage. Video Processors will upscale any input to 4k resolution, but upscaling only offers a marginal improvement. Until true 4k content is widely available, which is a long way off, you are better off saving your cash and getting a 1080p HD TV.

As of this writing, the only readily available content source for 4k is the Sony PlayStation 3, and it can only display static pictures (not moving video!) using the HDMI connection. This may be worthwhile for photographers, but probably not for anyone else.

In conclusion

The benefits of 4k are marginal at best. You have to sit unrealistically close to see the full detail and you also need non-existent 4k source material, which is non-existent. If you want a 3D TV that uses Passive Polarized Glasses, you will be able to view 1080p content at full resolution. If you want to use a PS3 to view 4k photos, you could benefit from 4k. And if you use it as a computer monitor to view high resolution source material, you could benefit. Other than that, save your cash and purchase 1080p instead.

ISF states the the most important aspects of picture quality are (in order): 1) contrast ratio, 2) color saturation, 3) color accuracy, 4) resolution. Resolution is 4th on the list, so look at other factors first. Also, be sure to calibrate your display! I recommend the following for calibration.

Recommended Calibration Tools

• DVD: Digital Video Essentials
• Blu-ray: Spears & Munsil High-Def Benchmark Disc (my favorite)
• Blu-ray: Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics (most popular)
• Automatic Calibrator: Datacolor Spyder 3

“Just tell me what resolution HD TV to get”

If you don’t like reading charts and are looking for a quick answer, enter you screen size below to see how close you’ll need to sit to fully appreciate various screen resolutions.

What if the Enclosure Fails?

If you’ve enabled the hardware-based encryption, the data on the drive is completely inaccessible without the encryption chip in the Western Digital enclosure. So a simple failure of the USB or power connector can mean your data is gone. Even if the drive is removed from the enclosure and connected directly to a computer, it will be unreadable because the hardware encryption chip is missing.

I’ve read that the drive may be readable in an identical Western Digital enclosure, because the encryption key is stored on the drive itself and not within the chip. Buying a new MyBook Elite enclosure, removing the new drive, and installing your old drive may allow for data recovery.

If the USB connector or power supply connector fails and encryption is enabled, your best option may be to repair the USB connector on the enclosure/board. A local TV repair shop or technical school is where I would start looking for help. You probably just need the connector soldered back on to the board. See this article for instructions on how to open the case and remove the drive/circuit board.

If other components on the board itself fail, your only chance of recovering the data is to remove the encryption chip from the failed board and transplant it to the board from an identical working Western Digital enclosure – this is not a cheap or easy thing to do. it’s much more difficult to de-solder and re-solder chips than it is USB or Power connectors.

What if the Drive Itself Fails?

If the drive itself has failed, and not the enclosure/circuit board, you must perform data recovery on the drive and enclosure as a pair. You will first need to decrypt the drive using the Western Digital utility and then use something like Runtime.org GetDataBack data recovery software (free demo available.)  If you send the drive to a data recovery company, be sure to tell them the drive is hardware encrypted and send both the enclosure and the drive.

A Better Alternative to Hardware Encryption

I would never use hardware-based encryption with an external hard drive. Hardware Encryption is somewhat more secure than software-based encryption because both the password and the encryption chip are needed to decrypt the drive. But for external hard drives, the encryption chip and drive are in the same enclosure. If a thief steals it, they get both the chip and drive.

If you do want to encrypt your drive, I highly recommend a software encryption program such as TrueCrypt. For external hard drives, it’s every bit as secure as the hardware encryption and, if the circuit board or enclosure fails, you can remove the drive and attach it to a computer/different enclosure and still decrypt and access the data.

See this article for instructions on how to open the case and remove the drive.

Protect your data with offsite backups:

If you encrypt your drive, data recovery is even more difficult, so I strongly recommend using an online backup service.  So if your external drive fails, or in case of a catastrophic event (fire, theft), there is still a secure copy of your data.  I’ve had great experiences with Backblaze online backup, which give unlimited storage for $4/month.

First, you will need to install the following dBpoweramp files:

1. Install dBpoweramp CD Ripper and Music Converter.  You will need to use either The PowerPack Version ($24; 3-week free trial) or the Reference version ($36; 3-week free trail.) I use the PowerPack version.
2. Install the dBpoweramp FLAC codec (free)
3. Install the ReplayGain lossless volume normalization plugin (free)

Note: It is possible to achieve the same results using the free software Exact Audio Copy (see this post for configuration details), but I find that dBpoweramp is easier to configure, is easier to use, has a fantastic file format conversion utility, and it has access to 4 total metadata providers for accurate tag creation. If saving $24 is more important than ease-of-use and time spent retagging files, EAC may be for you. Otherwise, dBmc is the way to go.

Once you have the programs installed, follow these configuration instructions:

A Note on AccurateRip Confidence: After ripping a CD, you will see and AccurateRip confidence number. This number represents the number of people that extracted the exact rip as you just did. So the higher the number, the better, but a low number isn’t necessarily bad. Here are some examples:

• If all tracks on a CD give a confidence of 12, except 1 which has a confidence of 0, then there is probably a problem with that zero confidence track.
• If all tracks are 0, either the disc is heavily damaged or the CD isn’t in the AccurateRip database.

An overview of the jailbreak & tethering process:

• First, I used this guild to jailbreak my iPhone (with 3.1.2 firmware) and enable internet connection tethering. It took about 5 minutes total.  http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/11/03/tutorial-how-to-tether-on-an-iphone-3g-or-3gs-running-os-3-1-2/
• I then made a PayPal donation to blackra1n.com (the app that does the jailbreaking) because I couldn’t believe how easy the process was.
• I downloaded the Cydia app installer from within the Blackra1n app.

Essential Cydia Apps:

Here are the Cydia apps that I think are essential. I’d love to see Apple duplicate the functionality they provide. (In fact, Google Android phone already give most of this functionality.) Search for these apps by name within Cydia:

• SBSettings: Quickly turn Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, Airplane mode on or off. It’s accessed by swiping your finger along the top of the screen (from the carrier logo on the left to the battery icon on the right.)
• WinterBoard: This allows complete re-theming of the iPhone user interface. I happen to like the default look, but I wanted to display a weather icon in my status bar. This program is a prerequisite for any other apps that modify icons, so install it ASAP. (I found out the hard way and made my iPhone unbootable. I had to restore from backup using iTunes because I tried to use features that required Winterboard but it wasn’t installed.)
• Backgrounder:  Allows apps to run apps in the background so you can switch to other apps. This is especially useful for GPS applications. While the app you want to run in the background is running, hold the Home button for 2 seconds. A pop-up will confirm that it’s now enabled to continually run in the background. When you click the Home button, you can open other apps, and the backgrounded app keeps running.
• WeatherIcon: Displays the current temperature and icon in the top status bar and also on the application icon of your favorite weather app. I set it to update conditions every 30 minutes instead of every 1 minute to conserve battery. Note: By itself, the app gives the text for temperature. To get the icon, WinterBoard and the Klear Weather Icon Theme (or Katra-based Weather Icon Theme) are required – but be sure to install WinterBoard first!
• Lock Calendar: It turns the lock screen into something useful: a list of all upcoming calendar entries.
• GV Mobile: If you use Google Voice, this is currently the only way to get an application on your phone. I was available through the iTunes App Store but has been since removed.
• Other apps: AutoSilent to automatically silence the ringer during meetings based on calendar entries and time of day. InSpell for red underlining misspelled words in all applications. MyWi for tethering / 3G connection sharing.  Kirkae for switching between running/backgrounded programs.

Do you think Apple will add these features in the next iPhone update? Are there any essential Cydia apps I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments.

Update 11-Dec-2009: TheAppleBlog just posted a list of 10 must-have jailbreak apps and there are some that I’d missed. Check out their list of 10 must-have jailbreak apps.

Update 22-Jan-2010: Unfortunately, my iPhone 3Gs locked-up and went into a reboot loop.  I had to put it into recovery mode and restore from backup to get it working again. I feel that it’s related to jailbreaking, because the lockup happened as soon as I hit the button to turn on the screen. It froze before I could unlock it, but it displayed the “Searching…” for network status at the top left (which I frequently noticed after jailbreaking) and I was in an area with strong coverage. I’m convinced that the network dropouts, and also very poor EDGE network performance, were from jailbreaking. So I’m giving up on the modified carrier settings and on any apps that seem to “dig deep” into the iPhone operating system, like SBSettings, WinterBoard, and InSpell.

This demonstrates questionable ethics, by the web designer if not by the company itself.

Update: An employee of the business contacted me.  Their web designer used the photo without permission from the business owner, who didn’t monitor the site that closely. My photo has been removed.

The Album: For the past couple of weeks, I anticipated the arrival of the latest Dave Matthews Band album: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. For the first time since I was in college, I sat down in a dark room and listened to an entire album, start to finish, with no interruptions. For the first time in 11 years, I think Dave Matthews Band has released a great studio album.

The album starts off with a beautiful, haunting saxophone solo by LeRoi Moore. I was overcome with sadness, realizing at all that was lost musically and otherwise, when he passed away last year. But just as the sadness peaked, the album made a sudden and unexpected shift directly into the horn-heavy, hard-driving, and upbeat song Shake Me Like a Monkey. The song Alligator Pie has The mood, tempo, and instrumentation changes throughout that represent the best of everything that is Dave Matthews Band, both new and old. The album ended and I sat in the dark room, reflecting, and then the “hidden” track at the end started about 30 seconds later, with a saxophone feature, a dissimilar but none the less perfect bookend to the into to the album.

I think multiple listens are required to fully appreciate the musical complexity and lyrics of a song, much less an entire album. But you do know if you want to listen to it again, and I do.

I’ve been a fan of DMB for 16+ years, and I can’t help but reflect on all of the changes in my life and compare them to the current-at-the-time music of the band. From college to graduation to employment to marriage to fatherhood, there have been DMB songs/concerts/memories to help track the timeline in my mind. I’m glad there is something new and positive to echo my current chapter. And at the same time, I lament all that has  been lost along the way.

Why can’t they get “Dave Matthews Band” right? The first thing I did with the CD was to back it up to my server. I use dBpowerAmp Muisc Converter to do  bit-perfect backups of CDs. I’ve paid for the annual subscription to make sure I get the best meta data possible (description: PerfectMeta™ uses 4 providers: AMG, GD3, MusicBrainz and freedb simultaneously to get the most accurate album details.) So how does this quadruple-verified data get the band name wrong — twice?? The artist name is not “Matthews, Dave Band” — it’s “Dave Matthews Band”.  The album artist isn’t “Dave Matthews” — it’s “Dave Matthews Band”! The labels provide this data. Why can’t they get it right for a band that released dozens of albums under the same band name?

Anthem Audio Quality: As I mentioned earlier, this is the first time I sat down and listened to a complete album in years, and the first time ever since adding an Anthem Statement D2 to my home theater. I can’t believe how awesome the room sounded playing from a “low quality” 44.1 kHz 2-channel CD. At first I thought it sounded 3-D, but the more I listened the more I was convienced it was 4-D (and I don’t even know what that is, but it’s better than what I thought it was.)

I used the Anthem Logic Music mode, which subtly adds multi-channel resonance using 7.1 channels. It’s targeted at highly damped home theater rooms and recreates the effect of a 2-channel setup in a room with lots of sounds reflections.  (Rooms designed for 2-channel need low acoustic damping and lots of reflection; multi-channel setups need  high damping and minimal reflection. A room has to be setup for one or the other because both sound terrible if you target the middle ground.) In addition, the D2 is capable of the full-spectrum frequency correction for all 8 speakers. This combination makes this is the is by far the best sounding system I’ve even owned. Anthem really knows what they’re doing in terms analyzing a room and making it sound great. It brings 2-channel audio to life in a manner that is true to the original recording without gimmicky surround effects.

Bourbon: There’s no way I could listen to an album entitiled Big Whiskey without sipping a glass while doing so. My friend Bryan Willett introduced me to Blanton’s Single Barrle Bourbon Whiskey over the weekend and Nicole picked-up a bottle while in Lexington. It offers the smoothness that a Scotch can’t match but it has enough complexity to keep the flavor interesting. I sipped it uncut but on the rocks. Highly recommended.

I think the ideal demo scene is comprised of the following:

• lots of action
• some setup before the action so viewer isn’t lost or thrown-into the action too abruptly
• some humor
• and of course, great audio and video

Here are some of my favorite demo scenes. Most are edited clips taken from my Blu-ray disc backups, but some are (still) standard-def versions from DVD backups.

Serenity: Firefly takes on the fleet with help from the Reavers (but stop immediately after Wash says “I am a leaf on the wind. Watch me soar.” for the last time.)

Air Force One: The dogfight scene (MiG-29s attack Air Force One, F-15 counter-attack)

Iron Man: Suits up and flies to the desert, frees hostages, blows-up tank, attacked by F22s

Spider-man 2: Abduction of Mary Jane from coffee shop, fight with Doc Oc on the train, stops the train

Superman Returns: Superman saves the crashing plane.

The Matrix: Neo/Trinity gunfight in the lobby, infiltrate building and save Morpheus, helicopter crash.

Kill Bill: The final sword fight between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu, starting where Uma steps out on to the snow and the music starts playing.

Casino Royal: Opening chase scene.

Quantum of Solace: Opening chase scene.

Transformers: Scorpion fight in the desert; also the opening scene.

The Dark Knight: Joker/armored truck chase scene in the tunnel; also the opening scene.

Star Wars Episode 3: General Kenobi vs. General Grievous (unfortunately, there is a cut to another scene half-way through the fight. I created a demo version and edited the other scene out.)

Star Wars Episode 2: Jedi battle at the Geonosian execution arena; Yoda vs. Dooku light saber fight.

Toy Store 2: The opening sequence of Buzz Lightyear vs. Zurg.

1. Seamless multi-room experience: I want every TiVo in the house to display the exact same recording content even though it’s distributed across multiple boxes.
   1. Single Season Pass / To Do List: I don’t want to manage Season Passes on each TiVo, I want them to talk to each other and come up with one master Season Pass list.
   2. Coordinated Recording: I don’t want there to be recording conflicts when there is a free tuner available on another TiVo. Pool the tuners and record scheduled shows on any available tuner.
   3. Single Now Playing List: I shouldn’t have to browse my recorded shows based on which TiVo they are stored on. And I shouldn’t have to be sitting in front of a specific TiVo to delete shows from it. I don’t care which one a show is stored on. List all available shows in 1 list.  Stream the shows in real time if stored on a different TiVo so it doesn’t have to copy the entire thing locally.
2. Email/SMS Notification of Conflicts and Upcoming Auto-Deletions: I don’t want to go sit in front of my TiVo and specifically search for recording conflicts. Send me an email or SMS a few days in advance. The same goes for shows that are about to be deleted. And give me the option of which show to cancel instead of always dropping the lower-priority season pass.
3. Complete Online Management: Allow me to manage every aspect of my TiVo online. This includes Season Passes (and their priority), manage my channel listing, view upcoming showings, manage WishLists, etc.  This should include a feature that backs-up my season passes in case of hardware failure.
4. Record re-runs only if the first-run episode was missed: Sometimes TV services goes out, sometimes there is a conflict, there could even be an issue with TiVo that caused the recording not to happen.  Take note that this episode was missed and record that episode when it is rerun.
5. Text input: TiVo doesn’t have to redesign the peanut remote to give us text input capability.  Just release IR and TCP/IP commands for all letters of the alphabet and let third-party remote manufacturers create the hardware.  If they do decide to release their own keyboard TiVo remote, that would be a nice bonus. But creating additional codes takes almost zero times and resources.
6. An Official iPhone Application: There needs to be an official iPhone application that does everything. Remote control of any TiVo in your house. Season Pass management.  Remote scheduling. Steaming shows stored on your TiVo.  Copying shows over from your TiVo to your iPhone.  Everything that you do sitting in front of a TiVo, you should be able to do within an Official TiVo app for iPhone.
7. Clear QAM channel mapping: Even if this is manual, allow users to take advantage of the free/unencrypted HD channels that are available over cable without having to mess with cable cards.
8. HD Component Video Recording: Take advantage of the “analog hole” to record HD video from any device. This would allow a TiVo HD to work with pretty much any HD Cable or Satellite box.  If the analog encoding hardware can’t be incorporated inside of TiVo, make TiVo work with the Hauppauge HD PVR (via USB)
9. Pie-in-the-sky: Direct Steaming Playback of Video Files stored in a file share. This feature is a bigger stretch than any of the others, but I’d love to see it implemented. Let browse the shared folders on my Windows Home Server and steam the files directly to TiVo without having to use TiVo Desktop or a video transcoder. Even better, display the cover art and movie description (stored in XML files along with the movie) and replicated the features offered by the Media Browser plug-in for Windows Media Center.

Interested in seeing what suggestions others have? Here are some great posts with some different ideas:

• http://observationpoint.org/articles/2009/05/01/my-tivo-series-4-wishlist/
• http://www.tivoblog.com/archives/2009/05/07/series-4-tivo-wishlist-whats-on-your-list/
• http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/ten-years-of-tivo-how-far-we-havent-come/

Pros:

• Small Size: I knew this was going to be a tiny little PC, but I was still surprised by the diminutive size when I took it out of the box.  The Wind can be packed away in pretty much any bag and you don’t even know it’s there.
• Nice Appearance: The glossy black plastic looks quite nice for a PC in this price category. It does show fingerprints, but it is also very easy to clean. It’s also available in White.
• Screen Size: If you’re using 1 application at a time, the 10″ 1024 x 600 screen works surprisingly well.
• Battery Life: With the 6-Cell battery, battery life is fantastic.  I didn’t time it with a clock, but I’d estimate battery life to be at least 4 hours. And a 9-cell battery is available for about $60 on eBay.
• Integrated Peripherals: Integrated webcam, bluetooth, SD card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, 160 GB Hard Drive
• Upgradeable Memory: There’s an slot for a second 1 GB memory module, bringing the total memory up to 2GB. The 1 GB module cost me less than $10 shipped.
• Upgradeable Keyboard: Why would someone want to upgrade the keyboard on their laptop? Because they mistakenly purchased one with an International keyboard layout rather than a US layout. Luckily, replacement US layout keyboards can be purchased for less than $20 on eBay.
• Macintosh OS X Compatibility: If you want to install OS x on non-Apple hardware, this is the netbook to do it on. Much of the hardware works with existing drivers and there are third-party drivers for the missing features. I was going to try this out, but then Windows 7 Beta 1 was released and I saw no need to do so.
• Windows 7 Runs Great: I installed Windows 7 Beta 1 using a SD card in the in-built card slot. Installation took about 20 minutes. I did have to download a replacement touchpad driver from Synaptics to get scrolling working on the touchpad. Also, the internal microphone didn’t work and I had to replace that driver as well.  Otherwise, it was a flawless experience.

Cons

• International Keyboard Layout Sucks (make sure you buy US Kyeboard version): I unwittingly purchased a model with the International Keyboard layout. The Shift and Enter keys are smaller and moved over toward the outside edges of the keyboard, to make room for “international” keys. Luckily, a replacement US Keyboard install (and potential BIOS flash) resolve this problem.
• US Keyboard Layout:
• 
• Smallish Touchpad Size: The touchpad is perfectly usable, but I would prefer that it be a bit wider.
• Combined Mouse Buttons: The left and right mouse buttons are actually one big, single piece of plastic that rocks to the left or the right; the pivot point is in the middle. Two separate buttons that depress straight down would be easier to use.

Don’t Care:

• There is no optical drive: I store everything on my network and if I really need to get files onto the Wind, I’ll copy the files from the disc using a different PC.
• Will not play HD Video: The screen isn’t high-enough resolution for HD video, so I don’t care that it doesn’t have the processing power to play it. Give me the SD version instead.

If you’re looking for a netbook, the MSI Wind should be on your short list.

So two price increases (from $11.99 to $13.99/month) and one feature removal (no online steaming.) Is this enough to get me to leave Netflix? No. I’ve been a customer for almost 10 years. But it did get me to switch to a cheaper plan ($11.99 for 1-disc-at-a-time, unlimited discs, and unlimited online steaming.) It has also made me more likely to cancel in the future, when other, more convenient options emerge.

Automatic online delivery of true HD movies for a flat monthly fee is my ultimate goal. Netflix and Vudu are converging on this target from two different directions but neither is there yet, and probably won’t be for quite some time. So I’ll continue to wait and be ready to switch to who ever offers the best viewing experience for the lowest cost.