Business News Holding

Category: hdtv

  • Europe To See Presidential Inuguration in HD


    The upcoming US presidential inauguration will be broadcast in Europe in high definition for the first time ever following "unprecedented demand" from broadcasters.

    Eurovision is to offer European broadcasters access to full HDTV coverage of the ceremony, Barack Obama’s speech and motorcade beamed from cameras on location in Washington DC.

    US President-elect Barack Obama

    The company is better known for its eponymous annual pan-European song contest, which now attracts some 120 million viewers thanks to an eastern-led revival.

    Eurovision America’s president, Bill Dunlop, said they were more than trebling the number of circuits provided compared to the same event four years ago.

    "All over Europe, networks are planning special programming to bring this historic day to their viewers live," he said.

    Founded in 1950, Eurovision is a network grouping more than 75 national broadcasters in Europe.

  • Slingbox Founders' Departure Completes Transition


    Various members of Sling Media’s top management, including several founders, have announced their departure from the company.

    The move follows Echostar’s acquisition of Sling for USD $380 million in 2007.

    Among those departing are co-founders Blake and Jason Krikorian, who are leaving their positions as CEO and SVP of business development, respectively.

    Jason Hirschhorn and Ben White will also leave their posts as president and chief creative officer of the Sling Media Entertainment Group.

    Blake Krikorian, departing CEO Sling Media

    The vice president of sales, Greg Wilkes, is also to leave.

    Their departures signal the completion of the transition following Echostar’s acquisition.

    The Slingbox, developed by Sling Media, allows users to stream live or recorded TV from a set-top box to an Internet-connected computer or cellphone.

    Recent announcements include an iPhone app and a new SlingPlayer for Mac HD that allows Slingbox PRO-HD users to stream HD content to a Mac desktop or notebook computer.

    The service works in conjunction with the Sling.com web-based software.

  • New Chip Spells iPhone HD?


    Imagination Technologies has announced a new graphics processor IP core – the PowerVR SGX543.

    The UK-based company is the designer of the PowerVR MBX hardware used in the iPhone and iPod Touch.

    Its new four-pipeline SGX543 is expected to be able to support HD resolution video and graphics output.

    The chip is to be available in both single core and multi-processor solutions.

    The new design improves upon Imagination’s Universal Scalable Shader Engine (USSE) that was first incorporated into earlier PowerVR SGX designs.

    The company said the new technology – dubbed USSE2 – is a multi-threaded GPU shader processing engine that’s incorporated into each of the design’s four pipelines.

    It said USSE2 incorporates a major upgrade of the data path to deliver vastly improved vector processing performance and overall throughput.

    Imagination claims the SGX543 can achieve performance of 35 million polygons per second and a pixel fill rate of one gigapixel per second when running at 200MHz.

    The technology also provides advanced colour space handling and gamma correction to ensure that each of those polygons and pixels are displayed in vivid and accurate color.

    As with all members of the PowerVR SGX line, the SGX543 supports the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for programmable 3D graphics.

    Last year Apple purchased a 3.6 per cent stake in Imagination for USD $4.8m.

  • Blu-ray Growth Bolsters Dipping DVD Sales


    US consumer spending on packaged home entertainment – rental and sales of DVD and high-def disc formats – fell by 5.5 per cent in 2008, to USD $22.4 billion, according to the Digital Entertainment Group.

    Spending on DVD purchases fell more dramatically than the total, declining by 9 per cent, to about USD $14.5 billion, and the shipment of DVD units was down almost 15 per cent in 2008 to 1.4 Billion

    That contrasts with expenditure on high-def discs, primarily Blu-ray Disc, which almost tripled during the year to reach USD $750 million.

    The figures, compliled by DEG with input from all the major studios, which while still dwarfed by those for DVD show that Blu-ray software shipments grew 250 per cent, to 63.2 million units in 2008, from 18 million units in 2007.

    Sales of Blu-ray players, including videogame consoles, meanwhile, grew to almost 10 million units since the format’s launch.
    The trade group said that in the fourth quarter alone, 3 million devices were sold.

    The DEG figures coincide with a SNL Kagan report that says Blu-ray discs will soon rescue the industry.

    Kagan suggests the growth of Blu-ray will eventually make up for losses in the standard-def category.

    "Retail revenue should start to grow again in 2010. Sales should start a short period of growth as high-definition player prices drop below $200 in 2011 and Blu-ray really begins to penetrate the mass market," Kagan says in its report.

    Blu-ray players in the US dipped under USD $200 at the end of 2008 and Vizio is to launch a USD $199 Blu-ray player in April.

    Kagan said Blu-ray sales represented less than three percent of home video revenue in 2008. But the research firm projects that it will grow to around 19 percent by 2011.

  • HD Content Helps Freesat Double Sales


    Freesat doubled sales of its satellite packages in the last quarter of 2008.

    Emma Scott, MD of the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television service, said high definition content from the BBC and ITV have helped drive sales.

    Since the service launched in May 2008, over 200,000 sales have been recorded, with 100,000 of those coming in the months since September.

    "Freesat is able to offer incredible HD with no subscription," said Scott.

    "We’re thrilled that both the BBC and ITV are investing more in HD programming in 2009.

    Scott said key goals in 2009 include increasing Freesat’s product range and distribution by the quality and choice of channels and services available, and the anticipated launch of IPTV services, like BBC iPlayer onto Freesat later this year.

  • Yahoo Widget Engine Gets HDTV Makers' Backing


    Yahoo has agreed deals with a host of big-name HDTV makers, including Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio, that will result in their sets supporting Yahoo’s online service.

    The alliances put Yahoo firmly at the forefront of the drive towards the convergence of the Internet and TV.

    The new TVs will be available from as early as the spring and will support widgets – small Internet applications – that operate alongside broadcast TV content.

    After making the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo said the applications can be used for a variety of Web activities.

    These include YouTube, MySpace, tracking stocks and sports teams, buying and selling on eBay, messaging friends using Twitter, or using Flickr.

    The widgets give viewers more interaction with the programs they’re watching.

    There will also be applications based on Yahoo-branded services such as Yahoo Finance.

    Yahoo will use the technology as a means to to sell advertising.

    The technology also allows outsiders to write TV applications for the platform.

  • Panasonic Takes Blu-ray Portable


    Panasonic has unveiled the first portable Blu-ray player at the CES in Las Vegas.

    The DMP-B15 features an 8.9-inch WSVGA display and along with the ability to play Blu-ray discs it also has access (via Ethernet connection to the Internet) to VIERA CAST.

    Fully Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) compliant it also features an SD card.

    The DMP-B15 offers three hours of playback time through a built-in rechargeable battery.

    It can also be connected to an HDTV using an HDMI connection, which means that it could technically be used as a stand-alone player in the home, or even while on the go.

    The DMP-B15 will be available beginning in May 2009, no details yet on the expected cost.

  • Young Lead Shift Towards Internet TV Viewing


    Internet television viewership is increasing rapidly in the US due to better content and improved viewing quality, according to Move Networks.

    The Internet TV service provider has released figures showing it streamed more than 100 million hours of high definition content and over 180 million total hours of content in 2008.

    It experienced 100 per cent growth in the number of people watching Internet television delivered via Move’s adaptive streaming technology – up from 25 million unique viewers in 2007 to 55 million unique viewers in 2008.

    Not surprisingly the shift to Internet viewing is even more dramatic among younger viewers.

    According to Move, 70 per cent of the college-age demographic have watched television online and 55 per cent watch more than half of their television programming via the Internet.

    Move Networks streams 60 per cent of the US’s most popular television shows and 11 of the top 20 primetime TV shows, including Fringe, Lost, Gossip Girls and Ugly Betty.

    The company also streams an average of 600 live events every month, including concerts, political conventions, educational series, sporting events with Fox Sports, the NFL, ESPN and more.

  • Amazon Video On Demand Brings New-Release Movies To Roku


    Roku has agreed a deal that will give its set-top box users access to Amazon’s video on demand (VOD) content.

    The agreement means owners of Roku digital video players will be able to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from the Amazon service.

    Currently the Roku player only supports Netflix.

    Amazon’s VOD service has more than 40,000 commercial-free movies and television shows, including instant access to new release movie titles.

    Rental prices range from USD $0.99 to $3.99 per view.

    The deal with Amazon, which will kick in during Q1 2009, is part of an effort by Roku to widen its content offering.

    Tim Twerdahl, Roku’s vice president of consumer products, said Roku owners should expect more content to become available in the first half of 2009.

    “We’re looking to create an open platform for a number of different business models and content types,” he said.

    With Netflix providing a subscription-based model and Amazon a transactional one, Twerdahl said the company was now working hard to get ad-supported video on the Roku player.

  • LG Broadband HDTVs To Stream Netflix Movies


    LG Electronics has announced the first broadband-enabled HDTVs with Netflix streaming software embedded directly in the set.

    The new LCD and plasma “broadband HDTVs” will be able to show Netflix’s library of movies, TV episodes and HD content directly on the set without needing an external device.

    The HDTVs will join the Korean companies LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player, the first high-def format player to stream movies instantly from Netflix.

    LG is also preparing five new models of Blu-ray Disc players and home theater systems for 2009.

    Netflix members pay from USD $8.99 per month for unlimited instant streaming and unlimited DVDs from a catalog of more than 100,000 DVD titles in more than 200 genres.

    LG Electronics and Netflix will demonstrate the broadband HDTVs this week at the CES in Las Vegas.