hdr News - Page 5 of 10 - CNX Software

December 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Dune HD Unveils 5 Entry Level to Premium 4K HDR Linux + Android Media Players & Set-Top Boxes

Dune HD is known to make high-end digital media players that often costs several hundred dollars such as Sigma Designs based Dune HD SOLO 4K or Dune HD Solo Lite. The company has now sent out an email announcing new models classified into three categories with most models based on Amlogic processors: Neo Series – Entry level Dune HD Neo 4K – 4Kp60 HDR media player + Android Smart TV box Amlogic S905X 1GB RAM, 8GB flash 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 100Mbit Ethernet, Bluetooth Dune HD Neo 4K T2 – 4Kp60 HDR media player + Android Smart TV box + DVB-T/T2/C receiver Amlogic S905D 1GB RAM, 8GB flash 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 100Mbit Ethernet, Bluetooth Dune HD Neo 4K T2 Plus – 4Kp60 HDR media player + Android Smart TV box + DVB-T/T2/C receiver Amlogic S905D 2GB RAM, 16GB flash 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 100Mbit Ethernet, Bluetooth Sky series – Models with satellite receiver Dune HD […]

December 13, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

VESA Introduces DisplayHDR Specifications for PC Monitors and Laptop Displays

HDR (High Dynamic Range) used to be a feature specific to cameras, but recently HDR got into phones and televisions with solutions like HLG, HDR10 or Dolby Vision. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has now announced DisplayHDR open standard specifying high dynamic range (HDR) quality for PC monitors and laptop displays that use liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. DisplayHDR version 1.0 specifies three levels of HDR system performance (DisplayHDR 400, 600 and 1,000) with different white luminance, black level, and bit-depth “performance”. An automated testing tool will be available for the users to perform their own testing if required. HDR display in PC will mostly be useful while watching movies, gaming, and creating photo and/or video content. The requirements for DisplayHDR 400, DisplayHDR 600, and DisplayHDR 1000 are listed in details in the table below from DisplayHDR.org website. Eventually DisplayHDR will also support the less common OLED display, and a list of […]

December 7, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Octa Core Kryo 385 SoC to Power Premium Smartphones, XR Headsets, Windows Laptops

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor was expected since May 2017 with four custom Cortex A75 cores, four Cortex A53 cores, Adreno 630 GPU, and X20 LTE modem. with the launch planned for Q1 2018. At least, that what the leaks said. Qualcomm has now formally launched Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform and rumors were mostly right, as the the octa-core processor comes with four Kryo 385 Gold cores (custom Cortex A75), four Kryo 385 Silver cores (custom Cortex A55) leveraging DynamIQ technology, an Adreno 630 “Visual Processing System”, and Snapdragon X20 modem supporting LTE Cat18/13. The processor is said to use more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) allowing what the company calls “extended reality (XR)” applications, and will soon be found in flagship smartphones, XR headsets, mobile PCs, and more. Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (SDM845) specifications: Processor 4x Kryo 385 Gold performance cores @ up to 2.80 GHz (custom ARM Cortex A75 cores) 4x […]

December 5, 2017December 5, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 41 Comments

Libre Computer Renegade SBC Features Rockchip RK3328 Processor with up to 4GB DDR4 RAM (Crowdfunding)

After Amlogic S905X based Le Potato board, and the on-going Kickstarter campaign for Tritium Allwinner H2+/H3 boards, Libre Computer has now launched an Indiegogo campaign for their Renegade SBC (Single Board Computer) powered by Rockchip RK3328 SoC. The board follows Raspberry Pi 3 form factor like the two previous models, and three versions of the board are offered with 1, 2 or 4GB RAM, making Renegade SBC a direct competitor to Pine64 ROCK64 board. Renegade SBC specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 1, 2, or 4 GB DDR4 Storage – eMMC 5.x flash module socket (8 to 128 GB) + micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and HLG support, 3.5mm AV port (composite video + stereo audio) Video Codec – 4K VP9, H.265 and H.264, 1080p […]

November 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

HDMI 2.1 Features Overview

HDMI 2.1 was announced last January with support for up to 10K @ 120 Hz while using Display Stream Compression (DSC) and new 48Gbps cables, as well as other improvements. The HDMI Forum has now released version 2.1 of the HDMI specifications. The detailed specifications are only available to HDMI adopters, but an overview of the specifications can be downloaded by simple mortals. From the table above, we can see HDMI 2.1 adds 7 new features compared to HDMI 2.0b: Dynamic HDR (HDR dynamic metadata) – HDR data (depth, detail, brightness, contrast, and color gamuts) can now be optimized on a scene-by-scene or even a frame-by-frame basis Enhanced audio return channel (eARC) – eARC supports high-bitrate home theater audio formats, object-based audio, uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1, and 32-channel uncompressed audio thanks to up to 37 Mbps audio bandwidth. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) – Syncs up source and display with continually […]

November 17, 2017January 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

BenQ W1700 4K HDR Video Projector to Sell for Less than $2,000

[Update: The project is now for sale on Amazon for $1,499 shipped] 4K UltraHD TVs have now become affordable, with prices not that far from HD television sets for a given size. But what about 4K projectors? We first find out about development in this space with a demo for Texas Instruments 4K DLP chip in January 2016 at CES. Close to the end of that year, I had another look while writing about a $70,000 Canon 4K projector based on laser technology, and found out the cheapest true 4K projector would sell for around $10,000. I did not pay to much attention to 4K projectors this year, but I’ve been informed that Benq has come up with an affordable 4K HDR projector: W1700 / HT2550 (US) that will start selling for 1,599 Euros including VAT (around $1,885 US) next January. This could well mean $1,600 once it is launched […]

November 8, 2017August 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

HiMedia Q10 Pro TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and 3.5″ SATA Bay

HiMedia Q10 Pro Android TV box was launched in March of last year, equipped with a HiSilicon Hi3798CV200 quad-core ARM Cortex A53 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, and a SATA bay for 3.5″ drives. When I wrote a post about the Best Android TV boxes, on commenter mentioned that while NVIDIA Android Shield was the best box for streaming, he felt HiMedia Q10 Pro offered the best quality for media playback. With now 18 months since launch, you may wonder why I would do a review now. That’s because Himedia keeps updating the firmware, and they asked me to check out and test their latest feature: 4K Blu-Ray navigation on Android 7.0 OS. As usual, I’ll start by checking out the hardware, and will publish a review focusing on Blu-ray playback in a few weeks. The package is more like a suitcase that your usual tiny box, but that’s common […]

November 1, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Arm Announces Mali-D71 for 4K/120 Hz Displays, Assertive Display 5 with HDR

Arm has just announced Mali-D71 display processor optimized for 4K120 displays used for virtual reality, Assertive Display 5 display management core which adds support for high dynamic range (HDR10 / HLG), as well as CoreLink MMU-600 system memory management unit to handle data feed to Mali-D71, with the integration leading to a 55% area saving for the combined solution and a 50% latency improvement. Mali-D71 Display Processor The main advantages of D71 display processor include: 30% system power savings by fully offloading GPU workloads before output such as composition, rotation, high-quality scaling, and other imaging processing in fixed function hardware. 2x area efficiency compared to Mali-DP650. When driving a single display, it can re-use the resources of a secondary display, doubling the performance. 4x latency tolerance – Mali-D71 can sustain up to 4x the delay on the system bus for the same throughput, helping maintaining high refresh rates up to […]