HDTV
| Netflix Teams with Roku on Player that Instantly Streams Movies from Netflix Directly to the TV / 09:01 AM |
Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, and Roku, Inc., an innovator in digital media streaming technology, today announced the introduction of The Netflix Player by Roku™, a device that enables Netflix subscribers to instantly stream a growing library of movies and TV episodes from Netflix directly to the TV. Priced at just $99.99, the player is available for purchase starting today at www.roku.com/netflixplayer.
The player is simple to install, eas... |
| MGM HD Signs Time Warner Cable Affiliate Agreement / 09:01 AM |
MGM HD, the high definition channel from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has signed an affiliate agreement with Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE:TWC) to provide MGM HD to Time Warner Cable customers. The announcement was made today by Douglas A. Lee, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Digital Media, MGM...
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| Samsung Announces Its OpenCableTM High Definition DVR for tru2way / 09:01 AM |
Samsung today announced the availability of its OpenCableTM High Definition DVR for tru2wayTM digital cable deployments. Tru2wayTM refers to interactive digital cable services delivered over the cable video network. Cable operators have committed to deploy support for the tru2way platform in service areas covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of 2008.
The SMT-3090 has...
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| Comcast Hits 500 HD Choices / 09:01 AM |
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq:CMCSK, CMCSA), the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communications, today announced it has more than 500 high-definition (HD) choices available at any given time and is significantly increasing HD video-on-demand (VOD) movie and television series programming from Showtime, Encore, MoviePlex and Starz. With this content increase, the company strengthens its leadership position in offering more HD movies and programming than anyone else. The c... |
| Early HDTV Supporter Dies at 93 / 09:01 AM |
Frances Cripps died yesterday, May 8th 2008, at high-noon in Corvallis, Oregon. She was 93 years old. She had suffered a long illness.
Why is this news in HDTV Magazine, you should rightly ask? Frances was one of many unsung heroes who played key roles in furthering HDTV. Always far-seeing and an engineer by nature, she...
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| A Comparison of Movie Download Services / 09:01 AM |
Over the past two years, we have seen a number of video download services hit the market from major players like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Netflix. There have also been some new companies entering this category, such as XStreamHD and VUDU. Some are available only via a software client, meaning a PC (or Mac) would be required to enjoy them, while others work with dedicated hardware connected to your TV. They vary in quality, selection, delivery methods and cost and this article will hit the hi... |
| Will Internet Video Replace Blu-ray? / 09:01 AM |
With one war over and Blu-ray taking victory, there is yet another war brewing in the background ... or is there? The new question being asked by the rank and file is whether or not there is even a future for packaged media. Can you imagine a day where nobody physically rents a movie? Some are.
Historically, this battle has been ongoing via your local cable system or satellite service; it is called Pay Per View (PPV) and Video On Demand (VOD). While the providers have found great profits in thi... |
| Blu-ray Wins: A Bittersweet Celebration / 09:01 AM |
I suppose I should be jubilant with Toshiba's announcement saying the end of the high def DVD format war has come. If you have not yet heard, Toshiba has tossed in the towel on their HD DVD format.
Oddly enough, I am not all that thrilled. It's not that I miss the fist pounding, name calling, and back biting from the combatants, for I don't. My sadness, if it is that, is because both contenders were so well suited for the job they were vying for. It is just unfortunate to me that one had to fa... |
| The Wonderful and Sometimes Confusing World of HDMI Connections / 09:01 AM |
HDMI (which stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface) was developed to accommodate the emerging HD digital technologies which have now entered the mainstream of home entertainment. It was planned as a "one wire" digital solution to both audio and video requirements. It is also one of the most confusing connection technologies available to the general public - especially when people hdmi(3)are used to more traditional interconnectivity. As HDMI attempts to do what it was designed to do, p... |
| 2008 HDTV Buyers Guide, Part 4 / 09:01 AM |
The last in a four-part series of articles on buying an HDTV. The following topics are covered in this segment:
HDTV as a System, not Just a TV Set
Recording and Digital Connections
Analyze the Connectivity Issues
HD Integrated Tuners
Controls, Cables, Screen Shields, ISF, Stores, etc.... |
| 2008 HDTV Buyers Guide, Part 3 / 09:01 AM |
The third in a four-part series of articles on buying an HDTV. The following topics are covered in this segment:
Viewing Factors
The Aspect Ratios
The Viewing Experience at the Store... |
| 2008 HDTV Buyers Guide, Part 2 / 09:01 AM |
The second in a four-part series of articles on buying an HDTV. The following topics are covered in this segment:
Decision to Go with HDTV
Research
The HDTV for Your Viewing Objectives
Your Consumer Electronic Habits... |
| 2008 HDTV Buyers Guide, Part 1 / 09:01 AM |
I wrote this article originally for the HDTVetc magazine for the August 2003 issue, and it was later published on the HDTV Magazine in 2006. Consumers still go through the same struggle at national-chain stores today. I updated the article to include current HD equipment and technologies. Its tutorial substance and analysis are still applicable today, and are intended to help consumers in making the right purchasing decisions. Enjoy the reading.
The following topics are covered in this segment... |
| Ed's View - Hail to the Glitches! / 09:01 AM |
The digital/HDTV transition now in pregress by the television industry is arguably (certainly by that industry) the most complex ever experienced, though likely not since the evolvement of radio communications from Morse coded pulses to commercial broadcast radio. That took about 15 years and with a lot of glitches along the way, But they were overlooked and corrected as the...... |
| LCD Specs Playing with Your Eyes / 09:01 AM |
A recent question by one of our HDTV Magazine readers regarding LCD was: What does 4ms really mean? And how would that reconcile with the fact that a typical 60Hz frame rate would display each frame every 16ms? (8ms on a 120Hz display).
To accurately respond to these questions would take more than just a few sentences. The answers are not black and white, as I explain in the following article.
There seems to be a contradiction in the way these specs are expressed or interpreted for LCDs, and t... |
| CES 2008: New HDTV Products and Technology Overview / 09:01 AM |
For those of you who have been receiving the bulletins from CES over the past two weeks, you will recognize many of the topics below. I've picked some of the highlights and popular themes from this year's show and included a brief comment or two on each. This is not a comprehensive overview, but rather a "highlight reel" from the event. Here is a list of topics covered in this article. These are in no particular order:
Warner Brothers Chooses to go Blu-ray ExclusiveBlu-ray Getting "Bonus View"La... |
| Gigabit Communication Challenges Cable Technology: Semiconductors to the Rescue / 09:01 AM |
Multi-gigabit communications present many challenges to cable manufacturers. How can bandwidths higher than 10Gbps required by new standards such as HDMI?„? and DisplayPort be achieved over low cost cables? What are the core technical problems with achieving these high data rates and what technologies can be used to address them? How can manufacturers achieve solutions which are less dependent on copper pricing? How can reliability issues be resolved without the need to use thicker cables? Cable... |
| A New Approach to Components in a Digital Audio/Video World / 09:01 AM |
Remember when Home Entertainment life was much simpler? All you did was to sit back and turn on the TV to watch programs. Or, if you remember TV before the days of remotes you turned on the TV and then sat back unless you had a young son who was your human remote. Carrying this one step further back (as this writer remembers) there was actually a time when you only listened to programs for your nightly entertainment. Fibber McGee and Molly anyone? In any event, in the 1950's to somewhere in the ... |
| Wired vs. Wireless Multimedia Connectivity / 09:01 AM |
The advent of high definition content with Blu-Ray and HD DVD, HD broadcast and stunning real time HD console gaming continue to drive the bandwidth requirements at a dramatic pace. The most recent specifications for supporting current and future HD content requires a bandwidth as high as 10.8Gbps (in the case of Display Port) and 10.2Gbps (in the case of HDMI). The first part of this article examines the driving forces behind the requirement for ever-increasing bandwidth. The second part of the... |
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