January, 2007 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: January 2007

Olevia Plays in the Major Leagues

January 31, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

This morning, Syntax-Brillian announced a partnership with AEG to become a "Founding Partner" at a number of AEG venues across the country, including L.A. Live, STAPLES Center, Sprint Center, and Citizen's Bank Arena. The multimillion dollar sponsorship agreement will see Olevia-branded LCD and RPTV displays integrated throughout the venues, in digital signage and hospitality applications. And of course, the Olevia brand will be display all over the place. Syntax-Brillian has...

HDTV Prices: Going Down

January 30, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

A story in DigiTimes reports that the Photonics Industry Technology & Development Association (PIDA) has predicted that prices for 32" LCD HDTV panels will decline 7.6%. That's not their prediction for all of 2007; it's just for the first quarter. And 37" panel prices are expected to fall 6.1%. PIDA estimates that the average selling price for the 32" panels will be $300, and 42" panels will average less than...

Let HDTV Freedom Ring!

January 29, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

DRM: it stands for "digital rights management" but the definition is really "copy protection". We are currently coping with heavy-handed implementations of protection at a number of levels. Why can't your iTunes music play on an MP3 player that is not an iPod? DRM. Why will some high-definition DVD players produce a 1080p signal only over an HDMI connection, and not a component video connection? DRM. And there's something called...

Netflix Streams Movies, for Free!

January 26, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Netflix is a phenomenon; there's no other way to put it. More than 5 million people subscribe to the service that has done such a good job using your mailbox as a replacement for the video rental store, that Blockbuster has now been compelled to match the service. Netflix offers more than 70,000 titles on DVD with no late fees for a flat monthly fee, and they even pay the...

50″ Plasma Two-for-One on Aisle 3

January 25, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

I've written lately about the brave talk from manufacturers about how flat panel HDTV prices are not going to decline as fast in 2007 as they did in 2006, and how they are whistling in the dark. The market will determine the pricing, and if supplies exceed demand as it appears likely that they will, then prices will fall. We're not even through the first month of 2007, and already...

What I Saw at CES

January 24, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

As some of you may know, I'm co-host of a radio show that is broadcast on Wednesday nights at 8 PM Eastern, on WBAI-FM in New York City. The Personal Computer Show is the longest running computer show in the country, and I am honored that I get to be a part of it. The show is available over the air, live as streaming audio over the Web, and as...

HD SuperBowl on More Cable

January 23, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Last week, I mentioned the beef that some network affiliate station owners had with local cable services offering their HD programming without paying anything extra for it. And right now, if that station is affiliated with CBS, a lot of subscribers are very interested in a quick settlement to the problem... say, before February 4th. Not being able to get the SuperBowl in HD is a strongy motivating factor. Well,...

Blue Movies May Sink Blu-Ray

January 22, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Sony has announced that it will not let its Blu-Ray disc production subsidiary produce any "adult" titles. As it did with Betamax, it is not going to make it easy for pornography producers to publish on Blu-Ray. This comes on the heels of the announcement by many major porn publishers that they will be using the HD DVD format for their titles. Now, whether or not you're a customer of...

No Let Up in LCD Production

January 19, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

While the November and December retail wars were raging, the LCD manufacturers of the world saw orders decline. This is a normal seasonal fluctuation, as retailers scale back from the feeding frenzy of the holidays. But while orders are down, many manufacturers are looking to expand their production capacity even further for the coming years. For example, CMO is one of the major Taiwanese LCD producers. Their new Gen 7.5...

Sundance Online

January 18, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Lots of people have the same complaint about IPTV as they do about broadcast television and cable: "500 channels and nothing's on". Well, if you're looking for quality content for free on the Internet, you need look no further than the Sundance Film Festival's site. Starting today, the festival will post complete short films as they debut. You will have until June 2007 to watch them. This is an excellent...