Monthly Archives: July 2008

Ready for Some IPTV Football?

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This week, NBC and the NFL announced that Sunday Night Football will be streamed live on the Internet on NFL.com and NBCSports.com. Ironically, the first game will actually be on Thursday, September 4; if you’ve got a broadband connection, you’ll be able to watch the Redskins and Giants battle it out on the gridiron. (Does anybody actually say “gridiron” anymore?)

The remaining 16 games will be on Sunday nights, and the Web-based programming is slated to offer some interactive wrinkles. You will be able to choose different camera views, including the Madden-esque cable cam. Picture-in-picture will let you follow multiple angles at one time. You can also get live stats throughout the game and replay highlights on demand.

Football on TV is great. It’s arguably better than even being at the stadium (especially if you get stuck in third deck seats on the goal line). Adding interactive features will make it even better. And now that March Madness has demonstrated how successful live sports over the Internet can be, it’s about time that we get to try professional football in the Digital Age. My major concern is about the resolution of the streamed images; football was invented just to make HDTV look good, so anything less could be a disappointment. But if you’re stuck at a computer on a Sunday night, at least you’ll know that you won’t have to miss the big game.

DIRECTV Adds HD Channels

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The space race is now measured in number of high definition channels, and DIRECTV is continuing with its successful drive to stress HD coverage to attract subscribers. This week, the company announced that it will be adding more than 30 additional HD channels next month, which adds up to a total of more than 130 HD channels. This increase was made possible by the new DIRECTV 11 satellite, which was launched last March. DIRECTV 12 is slated for launch next year.

The company also announced that it will complete its transition to using MPEG-4 compression for its video, which allows for greater efficiency than the MPEG-2 compression used by many video services. DIRECTV also has plans to offer HD movies in 1080p resolution before the end of the year.

The race to offer the most HD channels is in danger of becoming a bit like adding more blades to a razor. At some point, it becomes just a statistic because you don’t have time to watch all those channels. However, if the additional channel happens to carry content that you care about, then the increase is likely to be more important to you. And DIRECTV clearly wants to give you more choices than any other service.

NYC Gets FiOS TV

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Residents of the Big Apple will now be able to get their daily dose of fiber — fiber optics, that is — thanks to FiOS TV. Verizon announced yesterday that the service is now available to residents in 108 neighborhoods, with a capacity of 300,000 subscribers. By the end of the year, the company plans to offer service to a half million homes.

Verizon also announced that they will offer 100 high definition channels to NYC subscribers. The company is offering a variety of subscription plans, including a triple play Internet/HDTV/phone service for under $100 a month. The company is also working to complete its build-out of fiber optic coverage throughout all five boroughs, planning to make the service available across the city by 2014. The company is also busy running flexible optic fiber through apartment buildings, and has completed at least 800 so far.

This is an important step for Verizon, as it will be the real test of whether the technology can be viable in areas other than “cherry-picked” suburban neighborhoods. This will also provide serious competition for cable and satellite services. It is not a true IPTV solution, but is a clear step in that direction compared with the more “broadcast” model used by competing services.

Tax Fairness Passes House Judiciary

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There are those who argue that any tax on subscription video service fees is unfair, but in many states, satellite services are taxed at a higher rate than the cable services. As a result, Michigan representative John Conyers introduced H.R. 3679 — known as the State Video Tax Fairness Act – which is wending it way through Congress. It passed a major hurdle last week when the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the bill.

It’s not a surprise that the cable companies oppose the bill, saying that they have to pay franchise fees on top of the taxes paid on subscriptions. On the other hand, if it were the satellite companies who were being charged at a lower tax rate for subscriptions, I suspect the cable company probably would not object to the bill.

Even the National Taxpayers Union has weighed in on the issue in favor of the new law. The bill states the following:

No State shall impose a discriminatory tax on any means of providing multichannel video programming distribution services, including Internet protocol (or any successor protocol), direct broadcast satellite delivery, and cable television services. For purposes of this Act, the term ‘discriminatory tax’ means any form of direct or indirect tax that results in different net State charges being imposed on substantially equivalent multichannel video programming services based on the means by which those services are delivered.

It is worth noting that this law will also apply to the telecos including Verizon who also deliver video programming. (It does not apply to free over-the-air broadcasts, because there is no subscription fee charged for that service.) It seems to me that it’s only fair to level the playing field, and while this is just one more example of the erosion of cable’s original deal, I think it’s a good idea.

Samsung TVs Go Online

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At Samsung’s annual “Christmas in July” press event in New York City on Wednesday, the company showed off cool stuff like their 3D-capable plasma and DLP rear projection televisions, but the item that caught my eye was the “touch of color” LCD HDTVs with Samsung’s “Infolink” feature. This function is built in as a standard feature in all Series 6 and higher models, and uses an RSS feed to display content from the Internet on your TV screen.

Samsung's new LCD HDTVs can put Internet content on the screen as overlays. (Thanks to Ken Werner for sharing this photo.)

You can put news, weather, financial information and more on your screen in translucent boxes that appear on top of the content behind. You can choose the arrangement and content of the boxes, and interact with them using the TV remote to get more detail if you want. A press of a button will make the overlay appear or disappear in an instant. And the best part of this is that it’s free. Infolink is a standard feature in these sets — unlike the extra cost option on some Sony sets — and if you have a home network that can access the Internet, all you have to do is connect your TV to the network.

For now, all the data is fed by a custom service from USA Today, so this is a “walled garden” service that does not let you browse everywhere on the Internet. However, a Samsung representative said that they are exploring other possible data partners.

So it’s quick, easy, and free. That’s enough for me. I certainly hope for more versatility in the future, but this is a great first step at bringing the wealth of the Internet to TV viewers.

Stores Recommend LCD HDTVs

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A press release from J.D. Power and Associates and Market Force Informaiton cites a new report, “2008 Television Retail Insights Report”, which was released last Monday. Based on the results gathered by more than 2,000 mystery shoppers at retail stores across the country over the past six months, the report measures the product knowledge of the salespeople. And at look at the results explains why I try to stay out of consumer electronics stores, in an effort to keep my blood pressure down.

For example, more than a third of the shoppers reported that they were told that LCD TVs “last longer” than plasma TVs. The fact is that both have similar rated lifespans, typically on the order of 50,000 to 60,000 hours. (And for typical home use, this translates to more than 17 years of 8 hours a day: far longer than most people keep their televisions.)

More than a third were told that images can be permanently burned into a plasma screen, which also is not exactly the case. Permanent damage is rare these days, but it is true that you can get a “persistant image” that can take hours to fade.

On the other hand, less than a quarter of the shoppers were informed of some of LCD TV’s advantages, including lighter weight or lower power consumption.

It’s no surprise that the shoppers received more complete and accurate information in a consumer electronics specialty store than at the big box stores. Information at mass merchants and warehouse stores was much harder to come by.

The bottom line remains that in order to make an informed decision about an HDTV purchase, you need to be informed. And as this latest study shows, the retail store may not be the most effective and reliable source of information for your choice.

Avoid an expensive mistake and get the right HDTV the first time with Professor Poor’s Guide to Buying HDTV, now available in paperback from Amazon or other fine booksellers.

Boob Tube Becomes Buy Box

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Unholy alliance or the greatest thing since the Home Shopping Network? You decide. According to many sources, TiVo announced a partnership with Amazon yesterday that will let TV viewers buy products right off their screen. If you have a broadband-connected Series2, Series3, or TiVo HD DVR, you can use the remote control to purchase an advertised product right away, or simply add it to your Amazon shopping cart so that you can complete the transaction later at your computer.

The possibilities are endless, but let’s start with Amazon’s strength: books. It’s no surprise that this new project will promote products related to shows like “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, since Oprah can single-handedly move a book from the back shelves to bestseller in an instant. But Amazon also plans to work with record labels to promote the CDs of artists whose music is use as part of the sound track of popular shows.

The big news, however, is that this is the start of something huge. This project finally delivers on the dream of truly interactive TV, and may even hold the key to how video content gets paid for in the future. By converting every television with a TiVo box into a point-of-sale terminal, retailers don’t have to guess at the impact of their video ads and product placements; they’ll get instant, real-time feedback in the form of actual sales with hard dollars. Eventually, we’ll have systems like this for Internet TV, where you just hit pause and click on a “buy” button to purchase products that are directly related to your focused, specific interests. This new project is likely to revolutionize the advertising and video program distribution industries. This is going to be bigger than the 1-800 toll free order lines.

CEA Gives Free Converters to Seniors

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Let’s review the facts. On February 17, 2009, full-power broadcast television stations will cease analog broadcasts. If you do not have a cable or satellite subscription, or you do not have a TV with a digital (ATSC) tuner, then you’ll need to get one or add a converter box that will received the digital signals and translate them to analog for your existing television. You can apply to the federal government for up to two $40 discout coupons to cover part of the costs of a converter box.

So far, so good. But the elderly make up a large portion of the population that is most likely to have an analog-only TV set and no cable or satelliate subscription. And here’s the Catch 22 on the converter rebate; you have to live at a residential address to get one. So individuals living in long-term care facilities are not eligible for a coupon, even though in many cases, these facilities do not provide television service to the residents. Yet these residents are among those most likely to rely heavily on TV for information and entertainment. By some estimates there are 1.5 to 2 million people residing in such facilities.

Wilmington, NC will face the digital broadcast transition the week after Labor Day in September, so residents there have just over a month to prepare. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) — hosts of the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas in January — is giving away “more than 100″ converter boxes to residents of long-term care facilities who have televisions and rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts. The boxes are donated by Best Buy (Insignia brand), EchoStar (DTVPal brand), and LG Electronics (Zenith brand).

I don’t have data on the number of qualifying residents in “Wilmington, North Carolina, and the surrounding counties” where the CEA donations will go, but I’m guessing that 100 boxes won’t go very far. The city population alone is around 100,000 of which 19% are over 60. I would not be at all surprised if more than half a percent of those seniors live in long-term care facilities and meet the rest of the CEA’s donation criteria. As a result, I expect that the program will have more impact on awareness than it will in aleviating the overall problem, but it still is a positive step.

This also suggests an opportunity for a random act of kindness; if there is a long-term care facility in your town where residents provide their own televisions, consider buying a $50 converter box and ask the facility administration to give it to resident who would need it the most. It’s a give that will keep on giving all day, every day.

Belkin Cuts the HDTV Wires

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One of my main themes from CES 2008 last January was how the HDTV manufacturers were looking to wireless connections to make it easier for consumers to install and connect their HDTVs to other home entertainment devices. Given the expense and hassle of running wires through walls and floors — or even through wire channels on walls and baseboards — a wireless HDTV sounds like a great idea. But what if you already have a traditional model that relies on wires?

Belkin is a company that is well known for its cables and networking devices. It too has embraced the wireless world, and has come out with a pair of FlyWire products that can transmit HDTV signals to televisions. The FlyWire R1 model is designed to transmit signals within a single room, so that you can place the signal source components wherever you choose. It is scheduled to ship in early 2009. The FlyWire model is intended to transmit the signal throughout the house, so you can put the source components in a closet or another room. It even provides a means to use infrared remote controls to send commands to the hidden devices, such as a cable box or DVD. It is scheduled to ship this October.

I believe that this is where all home entertainment equipment is headed. As long as you can get AC power to a device, you should be able to send video or sound to that device wirelessly. Though I have not tested them yet, these Belkin products look as though they’re a good step in the right direction.

880-Inch HD Display for Times Square

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The new Toshiba LED billboard lights up Times Square.

It’s not just the neon lights that they say are bright on Broadway. The Great White Way got a little brighter and more colorful this week when Toshiba unveiled its new LED billboard on top of One Times Square in New York City. The new display is 880″ diagonal, which is all the more impressive because it’s nearly square instead of wide format. The resolution is 1280 by 1248, giving enough room for a full 720p high definition image with space above and below for additional information.

The display uses Toshiba’s “TECHNOVIRTUAL” technology which shares adjacent sub-pixels to create the appearance of a finer resolution. The pixels on the Times Square display are about a half-inch wide. And the LED technology consumes less power than other display choices.

It’s not likely that you’ll be able to fit a 51 by 52 foot display in your home, so if you want to enjoy this giant screen, you’ll just have to go to New York City to see for yourself.