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TECHNOLOGY BACKGROUNDER: Unlike regular VCRs, Sony's R2 feature uses a more sophisticated system that first detects the edge signal then breaks it down into several segments. The system can then create a new, corrected signal which is substituted during playback. This regenerated signal looks sharper and closer to reality. |
Contacts: Sony Electronics Inc. 201-930-7394 david_migdal@mail.sel.sony.com Stacy Calder |
Benefit:
Sony is integrating Reality Regenerator (R2), a new proprietary signal processing technology, into four of the company's new HiFi VCR models. Designed to enhance picture quality, the new feature provides consumers with sharper images when playing all videocassettes, regardless of source, brand or content. The result is a more natural, cleaner-looking picture.
Background:
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- Video signals are comprised of luminance (brightness of each pixel) and chrominance (color of each pixel).
- The human eye picks up greater detail in black and white than in color; therefore an increase in detail and/or "noise" in the luminance signal has a greater effect than the same increase in the chrominance signal.
- The VHS format tends to soften images, requiring VCRs to compensate by adding sharpness to the luminance signal.
The Issue:
In conventional VCRs, a sharpness corrector helps to adjust the "fuzzy’ images on a video tape. However, if the correction is imprecise, the viewed picture is sharper, but noisier. Conventional VCRs’ sharpness controls use a single-edge detection process, which tends to create an edge signal that "overshoots" the light to dark transition, which results in blemishes or "noisy" edges in the displayed image. While the processed image is sharper than the original, unnecessary "peaking" at the edges of a signal transition cause the visible noise.
Technology:
Unlike regular VCRs, Sony's R2 feature uses a more sophisticated system that first detects the edge signal then breaks it down into several segments. The system can then create a new, corrected signal which is substituted during playback. This regenerated signal looks sharper and closer to reality.
Specifically, to achieve a cleaner edge that more closely reflects the original source, R2 has the ability to divide the signal into three segments that can be processed individually. This allows the system to apply enhancement to the edge, but with less "overshoot" at the transition points, thus creating less added "noise" like a conventional system.
Since R2 works on playback, the benefits can be realized with all tape sources, such as rentals, tapes recorded on other VCRs, or purchased movies.
Products featuring R2 include: Sony’s SLV-M11HF, SLV-M91HF, SLV-789HF, and SLV-799HF VCRs. These models will be available this spring.
