News

Datacolor Launches SpyderTV, Innovative Home Theater Technology for Display Optimization (25/2/2005)

Datacolor, a world color technology leader, today announced SpyderTV(tm) at the International PMA trade show, which runs from February 20 - 23 in Orlando, Florida at Booth No. 1908. This dynamic new product represents a new line of display-improvement tools for TV's, including CRT, Plasma, RPTV, LCD or DLP display screens.

Through the ColorVision(r) brand, Datacolor has delivered award-winning Spyder products such as the ColorVision(r) Spyder2PRO(tm) and ColorVision(r) SpectroPRO2(tm), preferred by professional and amateur digital photographers around the world, to manage color on screen and in print. These tools have proven especially useful for digital camera owners using their computers as "digital darkrooms". Now, Datacolor has leveraged the ColorVision colorimetric technology to optimize television viewing.

"The overwhelming success of bringing our professional technology to the reseller market, as we have done with ColorVision(r) ColorPlusTM and the newly launched ColorVision(r) Spyder2 PlusTM products, has led us to this new digital/video product line," according to Datacolor vice-president, Brian Levey, "SpyderTV takes the guesswork out of improving the picture on a home theater display." Virtually all-home theater displays offer visual menu adjustment sliders:

Brightness, Contrast, Color, Tint, and Color Temperature Presets. "TV manufacturers have been including superb menu choices for more than a decade that improve TV performance in your home, confirms Joel Silver, founder of the Imaging Science Foundation. "Usually better pictures are designed to be only a few button presses away; figuring out the combination of buttons to press is the problem. The ISF 'Calibration Wizard' in Microsoft(r) Windows(r) Media Center Edition PCs also uses these functions."

But adjusting these controls can be complicating and confusing. Additionally, the effectiveness of such controls is dependent upon an instrument that is often fallible, the human eye. Generally found as four sliders that operate in a multi-variant manner, these adjustments depend on the human eye to make distinctions. Most humans have problems with two variants, making it extremely difficult to obtain the kind of superior adjustments preferred for these displays. The SpyderTV colorimeter takes advantage of the four adjustment sliders that are available on virtually all televisions and accurately measures brightness, contrast, color, tint, and color temperature presets to guide the user to the exact scientifically-based adjustment for each control.

According to the product's R & D gurus Mark Hunter and Heath Barber, who have joined Datacolor from the recently acquired professional home theater pioneer Milori, SpyderTV eliminates such troubling subjectivity with a hardware device that accurately measures targets on-screen and manages the process through a "wizard-driven" software package. In effect, they report, SpyderTV takes fine-tuning to another level with a process that is both accurate and easy to use. "The Datacolor SpyderTV is designed to help the end user make selections that will accurately improve the display on virtually any monitor, from the high-end video screen found in today's most sophisticated home entertainment center to the 36" TV in your living room," according to technical director of home theater products, Mark Hunter.

Levey further explains, "Owners will see a dramatic difference. The right adjustment to brightness and contrast alone results in a significant improvement in the display. Plus it's good that the process can easily be done at home, as display screens need to be periodically re-tuned."

Consumers whose prized holiday gift was a fabulous flat screen TV may have already learned that high-def doesn't necessarily mean that the color can keep up. 'On the flatiron' the blue on the [LW1]Lions' jerseys seems a lot more like the Dolphins' and the fullback himself looks green. For them, Levey adds final words of encouragement: "By the time the baseballs season begins, you'll have a terrific new tech tool to make sure the color display on your home theater system is as dynamic as the game in play."

System Requirements

DVD player; remote control and a portable computer such as a laptop or notebook with Windows 2000 or XP operating system; and a USB port.

www.datacolor.com