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Category: hdtv

  • UK Gets HD Programmes For AppleTV


    Apple has announced that the first HD show is available for download from the iTunes store for AppleTV owners in the UK.

    The first offerings in high def are episodes of the current series of ABC’s Lost, which will be sold for £2.49 each.

    This compares to the standard USD $2.99 rates charged for HD downloads on the US version of the Apple digital store.

    A season pass will be £41.99.

    A free five-minute HD trial is available from the store to give UK users a flavor of what’s on offer.

    Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced the arrival of HD TV shows last September – without mentioning that it would take a bit longer before they arrived in the UK.

    Worth waiting for? Please let us have your opinions.

  • 43% of US HDTV Owners Don't Watch HD Content


    More than 39 million US households have an HDTV set – and the figure keeps on rising.

    Yet a sizeable proportion – 43 per cent or 17 million – either don’t have or don’t watch HD content.

    A report from In-Stat has highlighted a "significant gap" between HDTV ownership and HD programming usage among US households.

    It shows that the number of US HDTV households – defined as households having both an installed HD-capable TV set and also receiving and watching HD programming – increased by almost 40 per cent in 2008.

    However, Mike Paxton, an In-Stat analyst, said the growth rate could have been much larger.

    "In the US, there are more than 39 million households with an installed HDTV set," he said.

    "However, only 22 million of those are HDTV households, meaning that 17 million US households with an installed HDTV set are not watching HD programming."

    The In-Stat report comes as the number of households with an installed high-definition television continues to grow worldwide.

    However, this installed base of households is decidedly biased to two countries: the US and Japan.

    And while there are many in the US not taking full advantage of their HDTV sets, the US has 61 per cent of the global total of 36 million HDTV households.

    Recent research by In-Stat also found the following:

    • On a global basis, HDTV service remains limited to a relatively small number of countries, primarily the US and Japan.
    • At year-end 2008, there were over 36 million HDTV households worldwide, up from 29 million at year-end 2007.
    • Even though the number of European HDTV households is rising, it will be 2011 before the number of HDTV households in that region reaches the 10 million mark.
    • Cable and satellite TV service providers provide HD programming to almost 80% of all HDTV households. Telco TV service providers and terrestrial broadcast TV service providers provide service to the remaining HDTV households.

  • Sony Takes On Pirates By Opening Blu-ray Plant in China


    Sony is turning its sights on the growing high-def market in China with the opening of a Blu-ray manufacturing plant in Shanghai.

    The new plant will produce 500,000 of the high-def discs per month specifically for the domestic market.

    With bootlegging a major problem in China the move by Sony is certainly bold.

    Not least because there are strong doubts over whether Chinese consumers are willing to pay the price premium for Blu-ray.

    Illegal DVDs fetch USD $1 compared to official Blu-ray discs that could cost up to USD $30.

    If successful, the rewards are certainly appealing.

    Blu-ray is growing in China with three Chinese manufacturers making the high-def players and Pioneer, Sony and Panasonic importing devices.

    Sony expects to add around 100 new Blu-ray titles by the end of the year to the 32 currently available in China.

    The company already has Blu-ray disc plants in the United States, Japan and Austria.

    By having a manufacturing plant in China, Sony should be better placed to combat piracy by avoiding import permits and taxes while also releasing movies to consumers faster.

    Sony just reported its first annual operating loss in 14 years and announced that it plans to close one of its two television plants in Japan – Ichinomiya TEC – and cut 2,000 full-time jobs.

    The cutbacks follow last month’s announcement that 16,000 jobs were to be lost.

    Sony is targeting a global headcount reduction of approximately 30 per cent across its TV design operations and related divisions by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

  • Testing Times For Technology Tradeshows


    This year’s Home Media Expo has been cancelled after a 27-year run as a result of the current economic conditions.

    With the financial situation worsening, the technology event is unlikely to be the only casualty among industry tradeshows.

    The Entertainment Merchants Association said it was planning on holding the Home Media Expo in 2010, according to VideoBusiness.

    It said the organizers felt that they had to temporarily pull the plug to meet the new recession-time realities for studios and retailers.

    While the DVD business suffered its steepest year-to-year declines in 2008 the EMA said the cancellation was not a reflection on the performance of DVD and Blu-ray.

    The economy has already impacted on the first major exhibition of 2009 – the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas – which saw visitor numbers drop from 140,000 in 2008 to 110,000 this year.

    Companies are also reconsidering their participation in trade shows, including influential players such as Apple and Nokia.

    Apple announced that this month’s Macworld Conference & Expo was the last at which it would exhibit, preferring instead to reach people in ways other than trade shows.

    Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

    Nokia Siemens Networks is also changing its approach to trade shows by scaling back on exhibits.

  • Hardware Confusion A Barrier To Blu-ray Uptake


    With prices of Blu-ray players and discs falling, the high-def format appears to be making some headway after a hesitant start.

    But public ignorance of what hardware is required to fully enjoy Blu-ray is preventing even greater uptake, according to the British Video Association.

    So much so that it has launched a new website with interactive guides to explain to consumers how they can get the best out of their equipment.

    Blurayrevolution.co.uk will also spell out the importance of having an HD-ready TV, a Blu-ray player and a Blu-ray disc to obtain the highest-quality home entertainment possible.

    "One of the current barriers to broader adoption of Blu-ray among mainstream consumers is misunderstanding of the hardware components needed to deliver maximum high-definition images and sound in the home," the BVA explained in a statement.

    A collaborative venture between hardware manufacturers, film studios and distributors supporting the high-def format, the website aims to become the online Blu-ray authority.

    As well as educating the public, it will raise public awareness about the benefits of Blu-ray and be a source of Blu-ray news.

    This will include information about new and forthcoming title releases and hardware player launches.

    The BVA said the launch of the website comes amid increasing optimism for the growth of the format in 2009.

    UK Blu-ray disc sales are forecast to rise to over 17 million over the next 12 months, according to Screen Digest, which equates to 7 per cent of current DVD volumes, but 14 per cent of DVD sales value.

    Hardware sales of stand-alone Blu-ray disc players are expected to hit one million this year, with the total Blu-ray hardware installed base in the UK hitting 4 million – 1.2 million stand-alone players and 2.8 million PS3 units.

  • AppleTV To Get Investment


    Apple reaffirmed support for AppleTV after announcing first quarter sales of the digital media receiver were three times higher than for the same period last year.

    Presenting its Q1 financial results, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, said they had beaten Wall Street estimates – with revenues surpassing USD $10bn for the first time in the company’s history.

    In the first quarter – which runs from 1 September through 31 December – revenues were up 5.94 per cent to USD $10.17bn and profits up 1.90 per cent to USD $1.61bn.

    When asked about AppleTV, acting CEO Tim Cook was fairly emphatic about the device’s future.

    "We still consider this a hobby, however, it is clear the movie rental business has helped AppleTV and there are more and more customers who want to try it," he said.

    "We fundamentally believe there is something here for us in the future. We will continue to invest in it."

    Strong video sales also helped the iTunes store to a record quarter.

  • Flat-panel TV Price Falls Factor In LG Losses


    Pricing pressure for flat-panel TVs was among the factors given as LG Electronics reported a net loss for the fourth quarter, ended 31 December.

    On a parent-company basis, LG reported sales of USD $4.84 billion for the quarter, an operating loss of USD $228 million and a net loss of USD $493 million.

    In the fourth quarter of 2008, sales on a global basis rose 22.5 per cent year on year to USD $9.82 billion and operating profit was USD $74.2 million, resulting in a profit margin of 0.8 per cent.

    For fiscal year 2008, annual sales on a global basis rose 20.8 per cent to a record USD $36.2 billion with operating profit at USD $1.56 billion.

    By operating unit, LG’s digital display company sales rose to USD $3.39 billion, an increase of 16.4 per cent from a year earlier.

    Sales of flat-panel digital TVs grew 22 per cent year on year and 26 per cent quarter on quarter, but PDP module sales declined 44 per cent year on year and 24 per cent quarter on quarter.

    Globally, operating profit saw a loss of USD $10 million primarily due to a sharp drop in the prices of TVs and slowdown in external sales of PDP modules.

    The company said it sees global demand in 2009 to be similar to 2008 as a result of growing low-end/small sized flat-panel TV demand in emerging markets and expects to expand its market share with stronger branding activities and product lineup.

  • Final Chance to Nominate HDTV Person/Product Of The Year


    The new year may well be firmly underway but there’s still plenty of time to submit your nominations and votes for hdtv.biz-news’ 2008 Man and Product of the Year awards.

    With voting expected to be close in both award categories there’s plenty of opportunity for latecomers to make their mark.

    In the product section, submissions can be made for any hardware launched in 2008 that has particularily impressed.

    Alternatively, nominations can be made for anything else HDTV-related – from content providers to software applications.

    For the Person of the Year, there can be no shortage of likely candidates – whether its an innovative industry leader or a colleague who made waves in 2008.

    But please don’t delay – we need your product or person nominations before the end of January.

  • NVIDIA's Ion For AppleTV?


    Reports are circulating about the likely inclusion of NVIDIA’s Ion platform in the next AppleTV.

    It appears that Apple was the first to receive samples of the platform – when other potential users were being supplied with blueprints.

    The Ion platform makes use of the 9600M GPU, which can easily decode full HD video.

    Along with the Ion’s inclusion in AppleTV there is the possibility that it could also be used in the next Mac Mini.

    Since it is also paired with an Intel Atom processor – not the ideal fit for the Mac Mini – the likelihood is that it’s more certain to appear in AppleTV.

    Extremely compact, the inclusion of the Ion in either Apple product is certain to reduce the case size.

  • Blockbuster and Sonic Solutions Agree Download Deal


    Sonic Solutions has joined forces with Blockbuster in a deal that will enable consumers to download the movie giant’s content.

    Under the agreement, Blockbuster will "supply the branded consumer interfaces and Sonic will power content delivery across PC and portable devices".

    What this means is US users of Sonic’s existing CinemaNow products can download content onto their PCs, PMPs, Blu-ray Disc players, PVRs, STBs, mobile phones and Web-connected television sets.

    The material will initially be available on a pay-per-view basis. A subscription model could be implemented in the near future.

    In November, Blockbuster launched a movie rental service via set-top boxes in the US.

    The MediaPoint digital media player is "free" if you pre-pay for 25 movies at the cost of USD $99.