The MHL Consortium has outdone itself with their latest technology mega specification, now perhaps setting the spec at a very future proof level (shall we say at least until 2020?), supporting up to 8K at 120fps, with up to 40W for power charge, delivering higher resolution, faster frame rates, support for the upcoming USB Type-C (dual side reversible) connector for up to 8K 60fps output from a phone (wow wow!). For the first time, MHL also introduces a new superMHL connector for 8K TVs (as in the first 8K TV from Samsung shown at CES). The SuperMHL spec is for mobile devices, set-top boxes (STBs), Blu-ray players, Audio/video recorders, HDMI sticks and other source devices to TVs and monitors, as SuperMHL should be included in most future FHD/4K/8K TVs, PC Monitors, MHL has shipped in over 750 Million devices thus far. The new SuperMHL spec is also offering wider color gamut, deeper colors (to reduce color banding), high dynamic range (HDR) supported through signaling and through higher bandwidth.
Category: Displays
superMHL 8K 120fps, USB Type-C, 40W, more bandwidth
Kent Displays electronic writing with digitizer ready to integrate to new devices
Dr Al Green, CEO of Kent Displays explains his company’s products and technology at CES. Their booth showcases a number of products including the popular Boogie Boards. Dr Green talks about the next generation of products using cholesteric LCD to ship this year, contrast is improved, the devices are designed for the consumer markets, new models at different sizes and features. The Boogie Board products can write and erase and they can also be made with digitizer technologies to capture the pen strokes to the built-in memory and bean using Bluetooth to any phone/tablet, which can be on the other side of the device. Kent Displays has shipped millions of units each year with volumes increasing rapidly. The display technology is cholesteric LCD, it is made in a roll to roll form and on plastic, its thin, light and sunlight readable. They also preview a new toy called Boogie Board Play and Trace which shows an almost transparent LCD which can be laid over a sheet of paper with pre-printed alphabets or drawings for kids to use as a learning tool. Kent is now shipping their products in retail stores via Costco, Walmart, Amazon and are in 30 countries and their technology is growing fast. Interested hardware makers can inquire about integrating CH-LCD to new innovative devices by contacting Kent Displays at http://kentdisplays.com/
Newest Konka 4K TVs, they make 8 million TVs per year
Konka shows their newest 4K TVs, glasses free TVs, they have luxury 4K 55″ for $1800, they also sell a much cheaper half-priced 4K TV. 65″ Curved 4K for $5000. Curved OLED. All of Konka’s 4K TVs now ship with HDMI 2.0, using an Mstar processor inside they run Android Smart TV UI.
E Ink booth tour at CES 2015, E Ink Prism, Electronic Shelf Tags, Digital Signage and New Concepts
E Ink shows Yotaphone 2 now mass produced Smartphone with curved flexible E Ink always-on back display, 32″ 2560×1440 color and black and white E Ink Pearl by GDS for Digital Signage for train stations, bus stops, stores, waterproof and break-proof, E Ink as Electronic Shelf Tags having sold over 30 million units thus far in the past 2 years (100% growth yr/yr) thus potentially selling over 40 million units in 2015 alone if the growth continues at the same rate! Also able to make extremely bright red electronic shelf tags, they also have 4″ and 6″ Shelf tag displays. Contept E Ink displays hanging on a backpack, Vikaura smart photo frame (now on Kickstarter), clocks, conferencing room system connected to Outlook or Google Calendar and the E Ink Prism moving into Architecture can be laminated on walls, on tables, such as hotel lobbies, transportation centers, public spaces to create different experiences in tile formations, architects and designers can now contact E Ink to design these uses for E Ink in Architecture.
Enplug Digital Signage Software
Enplug, winner of CES’s ShowStoppers Startup Competition, is the developer of the first public computing platform. Enplug’s software turns any display into a public computer, enabling businesses to seamlessly engage with their audience. Businesses with displays of all sizes use Enplug to show interactive and live social media feeds, news, games, and many other apps developed by third-parties. Enplug wants to partner with display and set-top box makers to have its software pre-loaded for free and revenue-share with the hardware maker. It is looking for other display and set-top box makers to work with you can contact them here by phone: +1-855-536-7584 or email: Hello@enplug.com
Cambrios talks to IDTechEx at Printed Electronics USA on ITO replacement
Silver nanowire company Cambrios talks to IDTechEx about the ramp up of this type of transparent conductive film versus the incumbent technology Indium Tin Oxide ITO which is brittle and resistive over large areas. Cambrios is a 12 year old company that is one of the first to market with an ITO replacement. For more information see www.IDTechEx.com.
Ateko Tablet Drawing Demo
Ateko shows drawing tablet 10.1″ tablet. Ateko also makes Android HDMI sticks and TV motherboards.
650 million MHL devices shipped. MHL 3 delivers 4K to tens of millions of consumers
More than 650 million MHL products have shipped worldwide since the first MHL products were released in 2011 (as I filmed my first MHL video in 2011). The global MHL ecosystem includes adapters, automotive accessories, A/V receivers, Blu-ray Disc players, cables, DTVs, monitors, projectors, smartphones, streaming media sticks, tablets and more. A steady stream of MHL 3.0 mobile devices that output 4K Ultra HD video have been released this year, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Sony Xperia Z2 and Z3, and ZTE nubia Z7, along with MHL 3.0 4K Ultra HD displays from Samsung and Sony. 4K is rapidly growing in popularity and, with these MHL 3.0 smartphones, consumers can capture brilliant photos and videos and then enjoy them in full 4K Ultra HD quality on their new big screen 4K TV. In part thanks to MHL and thanks to the newest ARM Processors from Qualcomm and others, already now there are tens of millions of consumers with 4K Camcorders and 4K video players directly within their smartphone in their pocket!
Why conglomerate group YFY is interested in Printed Electronics, from Felix Ho, CEO
Felix Ho, CEO of Taiwanese based YFY Group, a diversified conglomerate company owning companies such as E Ink, creating electrophoretic displays, and Arizon, creating RFID inlays, describes in this video their interest in printed electronics. Ho gave a keynote presentation at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA event in Santa Clara, Ca on November 19-20 2014, the world’s largest event on printed, flexible and organic electronics with around 3000 attendees and 200 exhibitors. Before the event, Ho reported, “YFY believes printed electronics will connect and empower everyday objects in ways we never imagined. We have eagerly followed the field for almost 2 decades, and never has the space been more active and relevant than now. We are anxious to see the field’s progress, and hope to draw inspiration from the participants at the industry’s leading event from IDTechEx.” For more information see www.IDTechEx.com
Interview with Guillaume, analyst at IDTechEx
Guillaume Chansin (@GChansin) is one of the analysts from IDTechEx. We meet him in Santa Clara where the company is holding their annual US event. We talk about what we will see during the conference and why printed electronics can help make better wearable devices. He also explains printed sensors, flexible displays, and why we will not see flexible LCD anytime soon.
Panasonic ProXStream EX decodes HEVC 60p4K at 40mbitps
Panasonic LSI shows their dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 based Set-top-box and in-TV solution decoding HEVC 4K at 60fps at 40mbitps, integating also advanced rendering algorithms for colors, shapes, vectors and more. You can watch my previous Panasonic ProXStream video here: http://138.2.152.197/2014/04/19/panasonic-ph1-pro4-arm-cortex-a9-with-proxstream1-4k-decoder-and-transcoder/
LG Booth Tour with my 12-year old cousin
LG G Watch R with Android Wear, Curved 4K OLED, 98″ 4K IPS, 5K 105″ 21:9, World’s First Flexible 77″ 4K OLED (you can change the display from flat to curved), harman kardon sound, web OS TVs (with Android apps support), DLP LED projectors, 3D TV wall, LG Smart micro-oven and the LG Smart fridge, curved 21:9 PC monitor, LG Smart washing machine and the LG G3 Smartphone (with 2560×1440 display), LG child tracker, LG G Pad 10.1″ 1280×800, LG G Pad 8″, LG G Pad 7″ 1280×800 and more.
Cholesteric LCD from Kent Displays for writing applications and accessories
When I was traveling in the USA last week, I had the chance to catch up with Sri who gave me a detailed description of what Kent Displays is doing with its latest Cholesteric LCD for writing applications. Kent Displays is famous for its Boogie Board which he said was being shipped in millions of units and they are now using the same technology to build mobile phone accessories where you can eWrite on the cover, this technology can be used to create electronic writing surfaces on laptops, tablets, appliances, educational toys etc. This LCD technology is well proven, they make them in a roll to roll coating factory in Ohio, the displays are very thin, flexible, light, very nicely visible in bright sunlight as you can see here filmed near the San Francisco bay (sorry about the wind), the writing is similar to paper, the 8” display with a small battery works for an impressive 7 years, means charging isn’t even required.
OnLive unlimited x86 gaming from cloud on ARM Powered Philips Android TVs
Philips’s new Android ARM powered TVs include OnLive remote cloud x86 gaming. The Philips TV is capable of using most game controllers. OnLive enables the streaming of PC games without having them locally, without the need to install anything, just have an active OnLive subscription at $11.95 per month with the first week trial being free, you can see OnLive’s full list of games here: https://games.onlive.com/games
Toshiba booth tour with my 12-year old cousin at IFA 2014
Henry walks around the Toshiba IFA 2014 booth and checks out their Chromebooks, their Intel Laptops, Intel Tablets, Sports camera, 4K TVs, smart mirrors, and experimental 4K TVs.
HDMI 2.0 is 4K 60fps at 18Gbit/s
HDMI is to be the standard for 4K, supporting 18Gbit/s bandwidth for uncompressed 4K at 60fps, every major 4K TV includes HDMI 2.0 support.
8K 120Hz demo by NHK Japan
Japanese NHK public broadcast R&D group shows their 120Hz 8K display and camera (at 144Gbit/s through optical) by Hitachi (red/blue/green prism sensors) and Astro (single image sensor) that I filmed here. Japan wants to just leapfrog 4K and go directly to 8K testing 8K broadcasts starting in 2016, with full massive deployments targetted for 2020 where everyone in Japan will maybe be able to receive 8K TV.
Silver Nanowire Transparent Conductors From Cambrios for Touch Screens, Solar Panels, Lighting and Flexible displays
Cambrios CEO John LeMoncheck at IFA 2014 gives an update on the great progress they are making with AgNW transparent conductors for touch screens, enabling flexible touch, thin and light form that is suitable for wearable devices. With the latest launch of thin iPhones and Apple Watch, the race for thin, light, curved, flexible electronic devices has begun and material such as Cambrios ClearOhm silver nano wires are key to enable these technologies. In this video you will see their latest, never shown before 7” single layer touch screen that is highly conductive, transparent, very thin and light and suitable for bezel-less device designs. Apart from touch screens they are also enabling transparent solar cells, OLEd lighting, flexible displays like ePaper and OLED.
faytech 10” Touchscreen-Monitor V2
Last year, I posted a 48-minute tour at the faytech touchscreen factory.
Here is the latest version (V.2) of faytech´s 7”-12″” Touchscreen Monitor Series has numerous detail improvements including lockable standard connections, a unique cable channelling back cover and mounting frames for machine and wall mount integration. Additionally each model has faster start up and reaction times because of an improved controller chipset.
The series retains its features including: LED backlights, 4-wire resistive touch panel, extra robust components, extended current input (8-36V), VGA+HDMI ports, three video inputs, wall mountable, a high-quality pedestal, and extended temperature range. Each Touchscreen Monitor comes with faytech’s 100% guarantee of no defective pixels, and is suitable for 24/7 operation.
The high resolution support (e.g. 1080p, 1920×1200 pixels) of these faytech touchscreens make them the perfect choice for a wide variety of applications. Some of these include: use as a surveillance monitor when combined with a HTPC or with security cameras; as control panels in the industrial area; in kiosk systems; as cash monitor or information terminals; for machine control; home automation; on farm machinery; on forklifts in distribution centers; wind turbine controls; telematics in transportation systems and in many other areas.
The integrated touch panel is reliable and accurate. The touch function is quickly established via the USB port of your PC, while industrial users can connect the touch function through the serial port. faytech includes touchscreen drivers for popular Microsoft (CE, WinXP, Vista), Mac and Linux operating systems. For Win7 and Win8 operating systems, no driver installation is needed because the MER4485 chipset used in faytech´s in-house designed touch controller supports Login using virtual keyboard and immediate use of windows gestures after Login. This makes starting and using Windows 8 incredibly easy. Embedded systems like e.g. the raspberry Pi are also supported.
Customization is available for project customers (e.g. higher brightness, brightness sensor, IP protection classes, webcam, scanners, printers, capacitive and SAW touch panels, etc.). See more information about faytech products at www.faytech.com
DivX 10 offers free HEVC 4K encoding and decoding
Rovi’s DivX presents a free encoding and decoding solution using High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265), the successor to H.264, the video compression standard that promises to deliver visual quality equivalent to H.264/AVC with up to 50% bitrate savings.
