March, 2011 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: March 2011

Recipe for More 3DTV Content: Small Cameras

March 17, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

As I’ve written here repeatedly, the biggest factor to slow 3DTV sales is the lack of content. The extra cost of the sets and the annoyance of the glasses would be ignored if there were compelling content available in significant quantity. But it costs a small fortune to convert existing 2D content to 3D, and it costs far to shoot original footage in 3D than in 2D. If you’re working...

Netflix Dominates Digital Downloads

March 16, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Market-tracking firm NPD has issued a press release on digital video based on its VideoWatch Digital service. One of the interesting results is that digital video — either downloaded or streamed — now accounts for one quarter of all video watched at home. That’s a pretty stunning share of the total. Even more stunning are the numbers for Netflix. According to NPD, Netflix streaming is responsible for more than 60%...

Japanese Disaster Has Worldwide Impact on CE

March 15, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Words fail. Disaster, devastation, catastrophe; nothing seems adequate to describe the situation in northern Japan. The triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami, and electrical power plant failures has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives and untold billions in damages. No doubt, it will be weeks or months or even years before the magnitude of the losses can be tallied. But already the consumer electronics industry is marking...

Blockbuster: Down but Not Yet Out?

March 14, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

It came as no surprise to many when Blockbuster declared bankruptcy last September, given the struggling chain’s continued losses. After a lackluster holiday season, it appeared all but certain that the company was headed for Chapter 7 and liquidation. But not so fast! As reported by the Wall Street Journal last week, a judge has decided that a group of hedge funds should be allowed to purchase the company in...

Is That a Camel’s Nose I See?

March 11, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Dateline: Calgary, Alberta. (That's Canada, folks.) In a press release, Shaw Communications announced Tuesday that the company was going to offer its subscribers a new service called the Shaw Plan Personalizer. The new offering comes with a three-year price guarantee if you sign up before the end of May, but that's not the news. Here's what it says in the press release: With the new Shaw Plan Personalizer, customers can...

Now You Can “Like” a Movie

March 10, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Add one more player to the roster of online streaming video content services. Warner Brothers is partnering with the social media juggernaut Facebook. The studio is just dipping its toe in these uncharted waters by offering "The Dark Knight" at $3 for a 48-hour rental. There's no mention of resolution (or if you have a choice of resolution), but the company's press release states that "additional titles will be made...

15 Million 3DTVs by 2012

March 9, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Futuresource has announced a study that predicts an installed base of 15 million 3DTVs in the U.S. by the end of next year. They point to the increased content that is becoming available as the driving force behind this forecast. And other prognosticators are saying that this figure is way too high, especially when you consider how long it took HDTV to get traction. I take a different view. According...

Pot? Kettle? The Screen is Still Black

March 8, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Ever heard of LIN Media? It's quite possible that you haven't. It's a company that owns local broadcast television stations across the country, from Albuquerque to Toledo. In many markets, it owns more than one station, such as the CBS and CW affiliates in Buffalo, or the NBC and ABC affiliates in Grand Rapids. If you're a DISH Network subscriber in any of these 17 markets, however, you probably know...

More Broadcast 3DTV News

March 7, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Most analysts who understand the HDTV market seem to agree that the reported "failure" of 3D HDTVs is not about people not wanting 3DTV at home; it's more about the fact that there's very little to watch. So you can expect to see announcements about more content becoming available. And you can expect to see some companies trumpeting the news about rather little things as if they were very big....

Hook’em Up, Danno!

March 4, 2011 | Author: Ibex Marketing

[Okay, I'm not that big a fan of the 2.0 version of 5-0, but I couldn't resist the reference for this title.] The news is that The Diffusion Group has released a new report about Internet connectivity and television, and I expect that some people will be surprised by the results. According to their study, about one out of three broadband subscribers connect a PC to their television at least...