News Releases

May 29, 2001 15:14 PM

-- D3VirtualHD Digital Processing Circuitry Converts Standard Definition Signals to Match High Performance Display Capabilities --

NEW YORK, NY, http://www.hitachi.us/tv, May 29, 2001- The Home Electronics Division of Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), today announced its 2001 television line featuring UltraVision® and UltraVision Digital® television products. New for 2001 is Hitachi's proprietary digital signal processing technology that brings the highest quality picture possible to Hitachi's digital televisions.

"Hitachi's expanded 2001 product line includes both new 16:9 and 4:3 offerings to address the demands of today's digital television consumer," said Bill Whalen, Senior Product and Marketing Manager for Hitachi America, Ltd., Home Electronics Division. "Hitachi enjoys a unique advantage by producing the core elements of HDTV Monitors, including wide neck CRT's and 6 element lens systems. These core technologies allow us to present the consumer with an exceptional visual experience. The next step in product development is to introduce D3VirtualHD processing to convert today's conventional signals to match our HDTV Monitors high resolution display capability." Hitachi's D3VirtualHD processing is included in 5 new widescreen and 4 new standard aspect ratio HDTV Monitors for 2001.

Hitachi's new D3VirtualHD circuit offers the consumer a choice of different display resolutions to suit their individual preferences. The D3VirtualHD circuit offers the choice of 1080i or 540p display. "Conventional 480p line doubling left too much "real estate" untouched in our high resolution CRT's. By increasing the signal to 1080i or 540p, we are able to present an image that has more than twice as much information vertically. When combined with our horizontal oversampling, we can utilize more of the display's high resolution capability and produce an image that is crisp and clear" said Whalen. "Visible scan lines are the film fan's enemy, and with our new D3VirtualHD circuitry the image is both smooth and detailed."

Digging a little deeper into Hitachi's D3VirtualHD technology reveals two separate systems to match signals to the higher resolution display. One is designed specifically for video-based sources such as sports programming. With a video source, the D3VirtualHD circuit literally looks through space and time with 8-point motion detection to accurately determine the new "scaled" image. The second system addresses film sources by detecting the film frame sequence and creating the new image based on reconstructing the original film frame. "We are now able to incorporate a display processor that just a few short years ago cost in the 10's of thousands of dollars." Said Whalen.