Is the 4th Yellow Pixel of Sharp Quattron Hype?

Nom du Keyboard writes "Sharp Aquos brand televisions are making a big deal about their Quattron technology of adding a 4th yellow pixel to their RGB sets. While you can read a glowing review of it here, the engineer in me is skeptical because of how all the source material for this set is produced in 3-color RGB. I also know how just making a picture brighter and saturating the colors a bit can make it more appealing to many viewers over a more accurate rendition – so much for side-by-side comparisons. And I laugh at how you are supposed to see the advantages of 4-color technology in ads on your 3-color sets at home as you watch their commercials. It sounds more like hype to extract a higher profit margin than the next great advance in home television. So is it real?"

Clearly missing a trick.

[queazocotal]

To get truly astonishing pictures, they should add a black pixel, to improve contrast.

Re:Yellow... yawn

[uglyduckling]

Like Octarine?

Re:Yes

[FatSean]

How do you decide which pixel to sacrifice for the colour gambit?

Review

[Concerned Onlooker]

"While you can read a glowing review of it here...."

Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?

Re:Yellow... yawn

[metamatic]

Or squant. The time is long overdue for squant support in televisions.

Yellow is the "gay" color?

[seanvaandering]

Right?

/obscure? Hopefully not for the /. crowd...

Re:Yellow... yawn

[$RANDOMLUSER]

And the commercials with George Takei (I'm sure there's a "yellow peril" joke in there somewhere) in a white lab coat and the caption reads "actor portrayal" LIKE WE DIDN'T KNOW - IT'S GEORGE FREAKIN' TAKEI YOU IDIOTS!!

Re:Yes

[LynnwoodRooster]

The red one, just like on Star Trek.

Re:Careful What You Laugh At

[Anonymous Coward]

And I laugh at how you are supposed to see the advantages of 4-color technology in ads on your 3-color sets at home as you watch their commercials.

Well, I'm not sure if you're correct to laugh at this or not.

Yes, you are. They make fun of it in the only such commercial I've seen, with George Takei.

Re:Yellow... yawn

[amRadioHed]

I didn't recognize George Takei at first. Sure he's famous, but he's not William Shatner famous.

Re:Clearly missing a trick.

[camperdave]

So when large parts of the scene are dirk, large parts of the backlighting is dimmed as well, thus increasing the contrast. It also saves a bit of power

That's good, because Dragon's Lair [gamesonsmash.com] consumes huge wads of power.

Re:RGB

[inKubus]

brick-shittingly amazing results

Damn, I'm going to use this again on Slashdot.

Re:Yellow... yawn

[LBt1st]

Oh My!

Re:Local dimming has a problem

[daeg]

Oh my god... it's not full of stars...

Re:RGB

[cthulu_mt]

Is that why Jersey Shore seems so bad?