One of the highlights of CES 2010 was the hype about local broadcasts “going mobile” and essentially creating a new bandwidth for video delivery to smaller sized devices including cellphones, portable televisions and automotive displays. The signals are delivered alongside the same 6MHz channel your digital standard and HD signals are sent. Full Story
A press release from Comcast this week cites a Leichtman study showing close to 50 percent of US households will own an HDTV by the end of the year. But the ironic part is the same release says that only 36 percent of the HDTV owners were told how to get HD programming. A separate study done by Frank N. Magid Associates (from a recent MultiChannel article) says a whopping 14 million HDTV owners aren’t even viewing HD content — which amounts to a staggering 1/3 of HDTV owners. Full Story
Did you know you don’t have to subscribe to cable, satellite, or IPTV services to get HD channels? A limited number of high-definition channels are available over-the-air for free, you just need an antenna and HDTV. Full Story
As we enter the first weekend in the U.S. without analog television signals, you may be having some trouble getting good DTV reception or receiving certain channels. Here are a few tips to help you get the most available channels and best quality HD over-the-air. Full Story
The digital transition is just two days away, and according to Knowledge Networks one in four TV households in the U.S. have prepared themselves for the transition by either purchasing a digital TV, acquiring a digital-to-analog converter, or adding television service from a provider. Full Story
Here are some of the more important stories of the week having to do with high-definition (HD) television, gaming and technology. If there is anything you feel we may have missed please use the comments below to share with other readers. Full Story
In our weekly wrap-up for news related to high-definition television, products and gaming, here are some noteworthy stories you may have missed.
FCC releases new rules for the DTV transition
New guidelines released Friday from the FCC will require broadcasters to provide viewers with more information about antennas and converter boxes. More importantly, the rules will allow broadcasters to pull the analog plug starting March 17 if they can claim financial hardship resulting from the continuation of analog until June 12. Multichannel Full Story Full Story
Here’s a look at some of the mentionable happenings this week in HD.
The White House Gets an HD Radio
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs mentioned he doesn’t even own a radio so the HD Digital Radio Alliance sent one over to the White House — a Sony XDR-S10HDiP
If you haven’t got your federally funded digital converter coupon yet, you may be one of those who finally took note of the transition and are now waiting in line for unused coupons to expire. If you don’t want to wait, the digital converters are available at retail stores and are not that much of an investment. $50 for free digital television forever? It’s not a bad deal. Full Story
Today was the planned transition to digital television across America. While the Obama administration delayed the mandatory transition until June 12 due to lack of preparedness and the unavailability of digital converter coupons, hundreds of stations will go ahead and convert to digital. Full Story
I’ve been mainly up for the DTV transition to happen on its planned Feb. 17 date. Digital is the future, and analog is getting in the way. The newly acquired bandwidth will provide new channels for emergency and public services, cell phones, more television programming, wireless internet, and I’ve heard even satellite TV transmissions. Full Story
Earlier this week we thought the bill to delay the digital TV transition was going to pass, and we’d all be twiddling our thumbs waiting for the 4 month extended period to go by. But yesterday the bill failed to pass the House. Now Feb. 17 is back on the calendar. Full Story
With the DTV transition now only a month away, you may be wondering how flawlessly the conversion will take place. If the test done in Wilmington, N.C. back in September ‘08 is any indication, we will have phone lines flooded with calls about missing television stations. And while the calls from that particular city only ran in the hundreds, multiply that by the number of cities in the U.S. and you would say the FCC better have some extra phone operators that day. Full Story
In a partnership announced today LG Electronics will start selling HDTVs that allow streaming content directly from Netflix. The HDTVs, on display this week at CES Las Vegas, are available in four models. They include 42-inch and 47-inch LCDs as well as 50-inch and 60-inch plasma TVs.
While certain Blu-ray players have already enabled streaming content from Netflix, and Xbox Live also offers downloads, this is the first time the internet service has been integrated into a TV set. Full Story
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts came out on the Xbox 360 in November of this year with one BIG problem. Rare, the developers behind the title, had only designed the game to be viewed on High-Definition TV sets. Unfortunately this meant that when owners of Standard-Definition sets tried to view text in the game, it was too small to read — a huge problem because most of Nuts & Bolts’ vital tutorial information is, in fact, delivered through its text. Full Story
Unfortunately, yes. The larger the HDTV, the more energy it consumes. The more energy a TV consumes, the more demand on power plants and resulting carbon emissions. Gaming consoles, DVRs and disc players also consume lots of energy that results in more demand on power plants. Full Story
The new WD TV HD Media Player from Western Digital makes viewing photos, digital movies and music from your PC much easier. The player connects to your HDTV via HDMI interface and acts as an interface between your TV and USB storage drives. No longer will you have to search around for cables to connect to your TV, all you need are USB cables. Full Story
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