Page 586 - Ultimate Visual Dictionary (DK)

THE MODERN WORLD
Home cinema

BLU-RAY PLAYER
HOME CINEMA REPLICATES a real “movie theater” using
Ventilated Display Open/close
pictures displayed on a high-quality widescreen television set,
case panel button
such as a plasma TV, and surround sound from strategically
sited loudspeakers. The source for sound and vision is a DVD
(Digital Versatile Disc). Its player uses standard CD (Compact
Disc) digital technology, but with a higher density of laser-
read microscopic pits—more than 20 billion such pits in
multilevel spiral tracks that, stretched out, would extend
nearly 25 miles (40km). Blu-ray is a high-quality DVD system
that fits much more data on its disc than standard DVDs, Play button
allowing High Definition video files to be stored. It is hard On/standby button Disc tray Stop button
for the human ear to discern the direction of low-pitched
sounds, so these emanate from a central bass DVD player Center sound
speaker, often built into or below the screen unit. under screen channel
HOW SURROUND SOUND WORKS
High-pitched sounds, the direction of which is
easier to detect, emanate from mid- and high- Subwoofer Plasma
(bass unit) screen
frequency speakers positioned around the viewer.
Plasma screens use fluorescent tube (“strip- Front left Front right
light”) technology. Tiny three-cell pixels, each sound sound
channel channel
about one millimeter across, contain red, green,
and blue phosphor chemicals and a gas mix. Region
of most
Where electric pulses coincide for a split second
Rear left realistic
in the crisscross matrix of wire electrodes, the sound
sound
gas energizes and emits ultraviolet light, which channel reception
in turn makes the phosphor glow.
Rear right
sound
channel
WIDE-SCREEN PLASMA DISPLAY Mid-gray bezel
HOW A PLASMA SCREEN WORKS
Rear panel
Rear dielectric
sandwich
Rear
Phosphor energized
lining cell
electrode
Front
dielectric Rear un-
sandwich energized
electrode
Red cell
Cell barrier
Green cell
Pixel
Blue cell boundary
(glowing)
Inert gas Front
in cell energized
electrode
Main
screen Front un-
Damped 16:9 (width:height) energized
antishock screen proportions fit Antiglare electrode
swivel base human field of vision screen surface

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