August, 2008 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: August 2008

Would You Pay More for Less?

August 29, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Sony's betting that some HDTV buyers will be happy to shell out more and get less. According to a report by Reuters, the company announced yesterday that they will start shipping a new LCD HDTV that is just 9.9 mm thick. For those who may be metrics-challenged, that is just about 5/32 inch thick. The story does not include technical details, but the panel has to use an edge-lit LED...

Do We Need Another HDTV Brand?

August 28, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

According to a news report in TWICE yesterday, audio maker Sherwood is planning to release a pair of TVs at CEDIA next week. According to the article, the LCD HDTVs will be a 32" WXGA model and a 42" 1080p moodel. No prices or distribution information was available, though they are apparently scheduled to ship in December. Without the pricing or channel information, it's hard to analyze this move, but...

More Wireless HDTVs

August 27, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

AMIMON, an Israeli company, is one of the companies behind the WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) standard, along with Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sony. This technology is designed to send "uncompressed" high-definition content between devices in the home without wires. The "uncompressed" simply means that the system does not apply additional compression on top of that already used by the HD video stream. AMIMON has released word that Misubishi will...

Fair Use a Factor in Video Take-Down Orders

August 26, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Let me start by saying that I'm a bit hawkish about copyright protection; I've made my living for more than 25 years by creating copyrighted content. However, I'm also opposed to heavy-handed enforcement that gathers in innocents while trying to deter violators. One problem is that copyrights are frequently abused on online video sites, particularly YouTube. People think nothing of taping a segment of a TV show or movie and...

Small Cable Companies of the HD Hook

August 25, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

One of the most common misconceptions about the transition to digital broadcasts next February is that "everything will have to be HD". Another one is that cable companies will be forced to switch to HD. Both of those are false, mostly. First, the government is not requiring that all TV content be in high definition. It is only requiring that terrestrial TV broadcasters (and only the full-power stations at that)...

More Thoughts on Widgets

August 22, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

I reported a month ago about the Internet widgets on some of Samsung's new TVs. On Wednesday, Intel and Yahoo! announced the Widget Channel that will let viewers add Internet content to their screens. It is to work not just with televisions, but other consumer electronic devices as well. The goal is to have developers write applications for these devices that can then access the content from the Widget Channel....

What Has Blu-Ray Won?

August 21, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

To the victor go the spoils. Blu-ray Disc (BD) conquered HD DVD to become the industry's high definition video disc format, and now that it's had the market to itself for six months, how has it fared? One measure of its success can be found in a market report released on Tuesday by Futuresource. The decidedly upbeat overview included a chart that predicts that Blu-ray will top standard DVDs in...

LCD Slams the Door on 32″ Plasma

August 20, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

The manufacturer shipment data reported for the second quarter of 2008 by DisplaySearch shows plasma units "surged" by 35%, largely on the strength of Vizio's introduction of a 32" plasma TV. This reprieve for plasma will be short-lived, however, as LCD models are available with better features at lower prices. The conventional wisdom has been that LCD wins for anything under 50" these days, and plasma faces a struggle to...

FCC DTV Road Tour: Your Tax Dollars at Work

August 19, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else get the idea that the FCC is making up this digital TV transition thing as they go along? After what seemed like years of wrangling before they finally set a firm date for the changeover, they have been making some major adjustments ever since. For example, there was the decision to make Wilmington, NC a guinea pig for the transition, making all...

New Toshiba DVD Player: Blow Up?

August 18, 2008 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Toshiba has announced their new XD-E500 DVD player, with a $149 list price. The product marks the debut of new "eXtended Detail Enhancement (XDE)" technology. The company claims that this player can give "near-HD" quality to standard DVDs. It not only upscales (like many other standard DVD players), but it adds processing for edge enhancement, color correction, and improved contrast for more detail in dark images. (Apparently you can only...