Content area
Abstract
"You can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse with signal processing," said Gary Merson, who has tested hundreds of HDTVs for his consumer-oriented website, hdguru.com. "You can't get data that's no longer there and have it come out. You can sharpen things, but you can't take something that's fuzzy and make it look like HD. It's just not done."
The demo mode does not work with the HDTV's Internet features, but viewing standard-definition cable channels offers a close substitute. On a split screen, half X-Reality processing and the other half unprocessed, the difference was startling. With the X-Reality processing, individual blades of grass were visible on the tee at the World Golf Championships where grass was rendered as muddy, splotchy green by the unprocessed signal. (A Sony spokesman insists it isn't a simulation, like some other TV brands' demo mode.)
"They don't like to call it price fix," Merson said, "because they think it implies both sides are cooperating. It's unilateral pricing. Basically, they tell the dealer, 'If you advertise or we get a sales receipt and the prices look lower, we will punish you.' I went into one store, and the system is locked out - they can't discount a penny."