Update: Hands-on With Sony’s Super Bit Mapping And HD Reality Enhancer Technology

There are always a ton of features found in Sony ES components and receivers, but at CEDIA EXPO 2009 Sony was showing off how exactly some of this technology works. I was very interested in hearing more about Super Bit Mapping and the HD Reality Enhancer technology because I had always found the terminology a little difficult to comprehend. I think Sony should show off some of the demo videos they had at CEDIA on Sonystyle. Super Bit Mapping smoothes out background shadow and color gradients, and HD Reality Enhancer sharpens moving edges to create the finest video output available from Sony.

Here is a video courtesy of Sony Electronics which explains this much better:

Let’s talk about Super Bit Mapping. These aren’t the most scientific pictures, but I can tell the difference. It really is an amazing technology that can totally solve the old problem of gradients not appearing smooth as they naturally should. I think that this would even impress someone who has seen Blu-ray without this technology. Here’s how you adjust it and here are the results. Can you tell the difference? Click to enlarge.

Here is Super Bit Mapping off:

Super Bit Mapping at Standard:

Super Bit Mapping at High:

Also, some ES units have the ability to do 14 bit picture processing through the HD Reality Enhancer. This entails smoothing of color gradients, enhancer (detail reproduction), and film grain reduction. What’s unique is that I’ve finally been able to get a picture (below) of what it looks like when you are adjusting this setting. It is pretty wild. It’s cool to see how the original 8-bit video signal can be transformed by the Pixel by Pixel Scene Analyzer, which results in a reproduced 14 bit video signal. Basically, it’s a type of upscaling that some would overlook but I think the difference is very noticeable. I could tell in certain demonstration sequences that when this setting was adjusted higher versus off that there was much more clarity, color equality and so forth and an overall more detailed experience.