October, 2009 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: October 2009

Fall Back — Bah, Humbug!

October 30, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

And now for a public service announcement: Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour on Saturday night (unless you live in one of those areas that does not observe Daylight Savings Time). And now for my semi-annual rant: Why should I have to reset the clock on anything? It seems that I have more and more devices in my home and office that have clocks of some sort....

Sears: Eating Their Young?

October 29, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Hmmm, it's still October but the Black Friday madness has started already. Sears has decided to start a "Black Friday Now" campaign that offers "doorbuster" deals every Saturday from now until Christmas. The offers will be available from 7 AM to noon each Saturday, but in honor of Halloween this week the doorbusters will be available starting tomorrow (Friday) at 5 PM. The company press release does not mention an...

How Much Would You Pay for Hulu?

October 28, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Sky's offer of satellite service over the Internet for United Kingdom customers is an interesting step, but it raises a major question: How long can streaming video on demand sites remain free? I'm talking about Hulu, which reportedly attracts more than 40 million viewers these days, but the same question applies to Joost and other sites. On the one hand, we see that few information sites have been able to...

No Blu-ray for XBox

October 27, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

According to a Digital Trends report, a Microsoft spokesperson has stated that there are no plans to build an XBox version with a Blu-ray player in place of the current standard definition DVD drive. Microsoft was a backer of the ill-fated HD DVD technology, but now that even Toshiba has started shipping a Blu-ray player, you'd think that Microsoft might soften its position. Instead, the company is focusing on network-delivered...

Satellite Without the Dish

October 26, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Got Windows 7? Want satellite TV service? Don't want to hang a dish on your house? Well, if you live in the United Kingdom and your version of Windows 7 includes Media Center, you're all set. You can subscribe to the Sky satellite service and get all your programming content sent to you over the Internet. The service will provide all the broadcast channels as well as on-demand programming. Sky...

NBA Knicks Get Courtside LED TVs — Really

October 23, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

While 10 NBA teams now use DLP rear-projection modules from ANC Sports Enterprises as courtside displays, the New York Knicks are the first to use the company's new LED modules. Built by Mitsubishi, the panels are thinner and have better viewing angles than the bulkier DLP models. Note that these are true LED displays, where individual LEDs are used to create the image on the screen. This is different from...

New Wireless HDTV Option

October 22, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

You've got your beautiful, big, flat screen television hanging on the wall. Now how do you get the signal to it? You can buy an expensive HDMI cable to cover a long run, or you can spend a lot more to get a professional to run wires through your floor, wall, or ceiling. Now there's a Door Number 3, thanks to Philips. The company has started shipping its Wireless HDTV...

Consumers Still Buying HDTVs

October 21, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

A new survey by market research firm NPD indicates that one out of four U.S. households intends to buy a new TV within the next six months. Size and high resolution were the most important factors, according to the survey. For those planning to buy a new set, the average size for the intended purchase is 40" to 42". According to NPD, the average price for this size range was...

Taiwan Power Outage Cools Corning

October 20, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

In September, it was an earthquake in Japan that shut down one of Corning's glass factories. Last weekend, the gremlins struck again, this time at the company's Central Taiwan Science Park plant. A power outage caused an unspecified number of the plant's glass melting tanks to shut down, possibly damaging them in the process. The outage is likely to reduce the supply of Gen 6 and Gen 7 glass substrates...

ATSC Approves Mobile TV Standard

October 19, 2009 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Last week, the ATSC approved a standard for mobile digital television broadcasting. "Mobile DTV" will give consumers access to free programming on a variety of mobile devices. Already, 70 broadcasters in 29 markets have annonuced plans to roll out Mobile DTV this year. Manufacturers including LG Electronics will ship a Mobile DTV device early in 2010. Other companies have shown prototype devices, and products are expected in 2010 that will...