February, 2006 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: February 2006

Slow-Delivery HD Movie Rentals

February 28, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

With broadband and cable and satellite and digital terrestrial broadcast and IPTV making HD content available, who would think we need another method of transmission? Apparently, the Walt Disney Company does. They created MovieBeam, a new service that takes advantage of unused portions of analog television station transmissions. It's available in 29 major markets in the US. The system relies on a set-top box that stores the movies as they...

“I Want My IPTV!”

February 27, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

A number of news sources have reported the results from a new survey by Harris Interactive on the subject of IPTV. More than half of the Americans polled said that they had heard of IPTV, and nearly one in five said that they'd sign up for it right away if they could send the images to their TV. Not surprisingly, the most popular reason given for wanting to try IPTV...

SED Delayed

February 24, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

SED -- Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display -- is a new technology being jointly developed by Toshiba and Canon. The panels are thinner than an LCD because they create their own light and don't need a backlight. The light comes from phosphors at the front layer of the panel, so the picture looks a lot like a standard television, only better. When they demonstrated SED panels at CES 2006 in Las Vegas...

Olympic IPTV

February 23, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

According to a report on the NewYorkBusiness.com site, NBC reports that their NBCOlympics.com Web site has had 261.1 million pages hits since it opened. More importantly, it has delivered 6.4 million video streams totalling 72,000 hours of video. This is double the amount of video streamed during the Athens Olympics. At a time when Olympic broadcast ratings seem to be slumping, video delivered over the Internet is taking off. Why?...

New DTV Antenna

February 22, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Terrestrial Digital has released its new Lacrosse digital TV antenna. Designed for mid- to long-range reception -- up to 40 miles -- and available with an optional signal amplifier, the antenna is designed for multi-directional applications across a 135-degree range. The unit looks like a pair of books stacked one on the other, and is visually much less intrusive than most external digital TV antennas. The unit costs $179 without...

BluRay Delay?

February 21, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

I recently read a report from a Merrill Lynch analyst, who makes a strong case for suspicions that Sony may miss its target launch of the PlayStation 3 this summer. The Merril Lynch estimate for the bill of material costs this summer will total $900. Those are the component costs; it would have to sell for twice for everyone to make money on it. Meanwhile, Microsoft has its competing XBox...

Reader Question: HDTV Viewing Distances

February 20, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Q: I bought your book and read the section on how far to sit from an HDTV. According to your example, I should sit closer to a 53-inch HDTV than the distance recommended by another site suggests. I realize that you take the resolution of the HDTV into account and the others don't. Does that explain the difference between your recommendations and theirs? Mark R. A: First, let me say...

IPTV for Toons

February 17, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Our youngest child is almost a doctor, so it has been a long time since we've had Saturday morning cartoons playing at our house. Yet I confess that I've always had a fascination with animated programming. As they have progressed from Crusader Rabbit to Yogi Bear to Rug Rats to Digimon, there have been interesting developments in artistic style and content that I think reflect some broader changes in our...

Alfred Poor at TCF ’06

February 16, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

I'll be the Featured Technical Speaker at the Trenton Computer Festival on April 22, 2006, at the College of New Jersey in Ewing Township, New Jersey. The show started in 1976, making this the oldest computer show in the country. There are two days of programs and an enormous computer and electronic flea market that has to be seen to be believed. My topic is "Will Your Next Computer Be...

Dishing Out HDTV

February 15, 2006 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Dish Network customers in New York City and Los Angeles can now receive local station programming in HD from the service. The service plans to increase that to a total of 50 markets by the end of this year. HD programming packages start at about $50 per month. In order to increase the number of HD channels provided, Dish Network is turning to MPEG 4 encoding, which is more efficient...