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  • ESPN Announces Results of Comprehensive 3D Study

    ESPN Research + Analytics unveiled a studies on 3D TV. Compiling results from more than 1,000 testing sessions and 2,700 lab hours, ESPN has concluded that fans are comfortable with the medium and even enjoy it more than programming in HD.

    The research was conducted by Dr. Duane Varan, professor of New Media at Murdoch University, during ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at the Disney Media and Ad Lab in Austin, Texas.

    The research employed an experimental design approach including the use of perception analyzers, eye gaze and electrodermal activity. The study focused on a multitude of topics including overall viewing enjoyment, fatigue and novelty effects, technology differences, production issues and advertising impact. In all over 700 measures were processed during the testing. The Ad Lab used five different 3D manufacturers in its testing.

    “The results from this comprehensive research project support what we have said time and time again – fans have a higher level of enjoyment when viewing 3D. Plus, for advertisers, this study provides good news on the level of fan engagement when viewing 3D ads,” said Artie Bulgrin, senior vice president of ESPN Research + Analytics. “This study will help us continue to develop ESPN 3D as an industry leader for event-based 3D viewing.”

    Key Findings:

    3D TV ads can be more effective

    * In testing the Ad Lab showed viewers the same ads in 2D and 3D. 3D ads produced significantly higher scores across all ad performance metrics – generally maintaining a higher level of arousal than the 2D counterpart.
    * Participants showed better recall of the ad in 3D:
    – Cued recall went from 68% to 83%
    – On average, purchase intent increased from 49% to 83%
    – Ad liking went from 67% to 84%

    Fans enjoy 3D

    * The results showed a higher level of viewer enjoyment, engagement with the telecast and a stronger sense of presence with the 3D telecasts.
    – Enjoyment increased from 65% to 70% in 3D while presence went from 42% to 69%

    Passive vs. Active

    * With all things equal, there were no major differences between passive and active 3D TV sets for overall impact however, passive glasses were rated as more comfortable and less distracting by participants.

    Depth Perception

    * The study found that there were no adverse effects on depth perception (stereopsis).
    * It appeared that there is an acclimation effect whereby participants adjust to 3D over time under normal use.

    True 3D vs. 2D

    * Participants showed much more favorable responses to true 3D images than to 2D.

    Related news
    3D TV Not Growing as Fast as TV Makers Expected in 2010
    Blu-ray Player Shipments to Exceed 62.5 Million in 2011
    NVIDIA Demonstrates Streaming 3D Video Using Microsoft Silverlight

  • iPhone 4 is Here

    The iPhone 4 has been finally announced at the WWDC 2010. Steve Jobs himself revealed the new smartphone by Apple: the next iPhone is a 9.3mm thick (a quarter thinner than the iPhone 3GS; “the thinnest smartphone on the planet”, as Jobs said), has glass on front and back (“for better optical quality and scratch resistance”), and stainless steel around. It uses the stainless steel band as part of the antenna system.

    “It’s the most precise thing we’ve ever made,” Apple CEO said.

    iPhone 4 is powered by the A4 chip (designed ”in house”) and comes with two built-in cameras (one on the front and one on the back with an LED flash), two mics (one for a noise cancellation), micro-SIM (“we needed the space!"), 802.11n WiFi, GPS, compass, accelerometer, Quadband HSDPA/HSUPA, 7.2Mbps and up to 32GB of storage.

    The display is a huge innovation: based on new IPS technology ("quite a bit better than OLED"), the 3.5 inch, 960 x 640 Retina Display displays 326 pixels per inch (four times as many pixels as in any standard display) giving us really sharp text and pictures. The contrast ratio is 800:1 (4x better than the 3GS).

    Since the battery is now a bit bigger, its life has been improved. Apple says there is 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby.

    Another new piece of hardware is a gyroscope with pitch, roll, and yaw. It provides 6-axis motion sensing and features new CoreMotion APIs for extremely precise positioning. "We’re adding a 3 axis gyro, and we tied the gyro and accelerometer, compass, and gyro together for six axis. It’s perfect for gaming," Jobs said.

    Back camera has gone from 3 to 5 MP. Apple is using something that’s new to smarpthones — a back side illuminated sensor (giving more light to the camera). There’s a 5X digital zoom, tap to focus, and LED flash built in.

    Camera also does HD 720p (at 30 frames per second) video recording. It supports tap to focus and allows us to edit videos right on the phone. It also has 1-click sharing and the LED flash will stay on for the HD video recording. There is also iMovie coming to the iPhone for $4.99 (“if we approve it,” Jobs joked).

    iPhone 4 will also feature "FaceTime" video calling. It works between iPhone 4 devices, doesn’t require any setting-up and works anywhere there is WiFi. “It’s WIFI only in 2010. We need to work a little bit with our providers,” Jobs said. He added that Apple is going to make FaceTime and open industry standard.

    Apple has renamed the iPhone OS. Now it’s just iOS 4." Becuase it’s on iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone,” Apple CEO said. He also said that 100 millionth iOS device will be sold this month. "There is definitely a market for your applications," Jobs added.

    As announced earlier this year, new iOS 4 features include Multitasking for third party apps; Folders to better organize and access apps; improved Mail with a unified inbox, fast inbox switching and threaded messages; enhanced Enterprise support with better data protection, mobile device management and wireless app distribution.

    Apple has also added Bing to the iPhone for search (“Microsoft has done a great job on this,” Jobs said). Google will still be the default, but now we’ll have choice of Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

    Developers will get a Golden Master Candidate release of iOS4 today.

    Apple is also bringing iBooks to the iPhone with the iPhone 4. It has the same bookshelf as on the iPad, the same ability to read a PDF and comes with the same controls, highlighting, notes, and bookmarking. We can download the same book to all our devices at no extra charge (“Buy it on your iPad, download to your iPhone”)! In addition, iBooks will automatically and wirelessly sync our current place, bookmarks, and notes across all our devices.

    On July 1st Apple will also start providing iAds to all iOS 4 devices. “Why are we doing this? To help our developers earn money to continue to create free and low-cost apps for users,” Jobs said. According to him, they are trying to combine “the emotion of video with the interactivity of the Web."

    Apple sells and hosts the ads, so developers just have to tell them where to put the ads. And devs get paid 60 percent of the revenue. The company started selling ads eight weeks ago to: Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JCPenney, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, TBS Network and Disney. "We’ve got advertisers committing to $60m," Jobs said.

    Price and availability
    iPhone 4 comes in two colors: black and white. 16GB model is for $199, and 32GB model for $299. Old 3GS is now $99

    Jobs said that AT&T is going to make an “incredibly generous upgrade offer: if your contract expires at any time in 2010, you can upgrade to the iPhone 4. You can get it up to six months early."

    The new iPhone will be on sale June 24th. Pre orders begin June 15th. Apple will ship iPhone 4 in US and four other countries on the first day (U.K., Germany, France, Japan). In July they’re shipping in 18 countries more. By September it will ship in 88 countries. "Our fastest roll out ever," Jobs said.

    iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod touch users can upgrade to iOS 4 for free starting June 21.

    Reed Hastings from Netflix, Mark Pincus from Zygna and Karthik Bala from Activision were also on stage announcing that Netflix, Farmville and new Guitar Hero will be coming to the iPhone.

  • Sony Launches Flagship HD Handycam


    Sony has announced two new flash memory-based high definition camcorders – the HDR-CX520V and the HDR-CX500V.

    Both cameras capture full 1920 x 1080 resolution video and up to 12 megapixel photos on internal flash memory.

    They offer support for up to 25 hours of HD video on the 64GB model.

    Among the features of both cameras are the ability to output 60p video – automatically converting convert to 60 frames per second on compatible HDTV sets.

    The camcorder’s Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode now comes with three way Shake Canceling.

    This reduces camera/hand shake in three different directions – the vertical and horizontal shake is corrected by optical image stabilization system while the lateral roll shake is now corrected by electronic image stabilization.

    There’s also the BIONZ imaging processor which now adds a Face Touch function. With Face Touch, users simply select a person to be prioritized by the camcorder simply by touching a detected face on the screen.

    Once a face is selected, the camcorder prioritizes and optimizes focus, skin color, and brightness for that selected individual.

    Other features include:

    • Back illuminated "Exmor R" CMOS sensor with twice the sensitivity of current front-illuminated CMOS sensor at F2.0
    • Built-in GPS antenna and NAVTEQ digital maps can geo-tag your videos and photos
    • Supports optional DVDirect Express DVD writer
    • Built-in zoom microphone with Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound
    • Instant power-on feature when the LCD is opened
    • User interface comes with new operation bar for scroll searching of all menu items and a customizable shortcut menu
    • Highlight Scenario which saves up to 8 highlight scenes for viewing again later on
    • Record content onto optional Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX media

    The HDR-CX500V and HDR-CX520V will be available in September for approximately USD $1100 and $1300 respectively.

    The HDR-CX500V comes with 32B of internal flash memory while the HDR-CX520V comes with 64GB of internal flash memory.

  • MEDION Unveils Mobile HD Netbook


    MEDION has unveiled its next generation netbook – with an 11.6" HD display and ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 graphics.

    The AKOYA MINI E1312 appears to offer fast performance for its class. Equipped with AMD Sempron processor 210U power saving technology and 160 GB hard disk, the netbook is definitely geared at HD entertainment on the move.

    The TFT widescreen display presents HD resolution with 1366×768 pixels in a cinematic 16:9 format.

    The netbook also includes an HDMI output should users want to watch movies or look at photos on a larger screen.

    MEDION says the E1312’s 160GB S-ATA hard disk can comfortably hold over 30,000 songs or photos.

    It has a 6-cell Li-Ion battery (9-cell battery optional) and an in-flight mode to conveniently shut down all radio communications while on board a plane.

    There is also an integrated 1.3 MP webcam including microphone and Bluetooth 2.1.

    Connectivity options include three USB 2.0 ports, a 3-in-1 multi-format memory card reader, 802.11b/g/draft-n fast wireless networking capability and a 10/100MBit/s Ethernet port for high-speed file transfers.

    Available later this month in the UK and Ireland, it will be priced at GBP £339.99 and comes with a three-year warranty at no extra cost.

  • Mvix Launches "Ultimate" 1080p Home Theater Media Player


    Mvix has announces the worldwide launch of the Mvix Ultio, a hard-disk based media center capable of HD digital media playback with video output as high as 1080p.

    The company claims the device supports the largest array of AV formats and codecs of any media player.

    Ultio supports most 1080p HD video codecs, and formats such as H.264, MKV, Dixv HD, MOV, VC-1, FLV, etc.

    It is also capable of playing unique formats such as AVC-HD (normally used in camcorder footage) or FLAC (the popular, uncompressed audio, craved by audiophiles).

    Mvix Ultio is being launched in two flavors: the regular version (without a HDD) is priced at USD $169, whereas the premium version (bundled with 1TB Hard Drive) will be available at USD $259.

    Mike Mallon, business development manager of Mvix, said the Ultio is internet-ready and pre-equipped with a network port and an optional Wireless-N capability.

    He said it sports a samba server and a UPnP implementation, allowing seamless integration with services like PlayOn or Tversity – for streaming video content from Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Youtube, CNN, ESPN and much more.

    "This is our most comprehensive product to-date and we feel very confident about its market traction," he said.

    The Ultio is available now.

  • HD Models Taking Over PVR Market


    The personal video recorder (PVR) market is continuing to grow, fueled by high-definition models.

    Global PVR shipments exceeded 25 million in 2008, with HD PVRs making up nearly 75 per cent of the total, according to In-Stat.

    Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst, said demand for HD units has increased dramatically recently.

    "Over the past 18 months, HD PVR product unit shipments have not only surpassed SD PVR product unit shipments, they now account for nearly three-quarters of all PVR product shipments," he said.

    Research by In-Stat also found:

    • Multi-room or "whole home" PVR service has become available in an increasing number of cities in the US over the last year
    • On a regional basis, growth of PVR products is much stronger in Asia Pacific and Europe, compared to the more mature North American market.
    • Over a quarter of US survey respondents were extremely or very interested in multi-room PVR capability

  • I-MOVIX Announces New Deal with CANAL+ France


    I-MOVIX has announced a new contract with CANAL+ France to use its ultra slow motion SprintCam solution for sports broadcasting.

    The SprintCam Live V2.1 and SprintCam V3 HD offer broadcast integration and have the ability to work at 500 fps under restricted lighting conditions.

    The V3 – the first broadcast-integrated, native HD, ultra-slow-motion solution offering with instant replay – was launched in March.

    It produces slow-motion output equivalent to 20 to 40 times slower than normal speed.

    Coralie Piton, head of sports production at CANAL+ France, said the collaboration between I-MOVIX and CANAL+ France is not new.

    Both partner teams have worked together on several occasions this year, including football matches between Olympique de Marseille and Girondins de Bordeaux, Real Madrid and Liverpool, Paris Saint Germain and Olympique de Marseille and more recently, Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais.

    Depending on the stadium, with only a little bit more than 700 LUX, CANAL+ was able to make the most of the SprintCam system unique capacity from 500 to 5,000 frames per second.

    "The I-MOVIX technology matches our expectations in terms of innovation and stunning images," said Piton.

  • NEC Upconverting Chip Promises Sharper Full HD Image


    NEC Electronics has announced a new chip that reduces blurring when SD images and video are expanded and displayed in 1920 x 1080 resolution HDTVs.

    The µPD9280GM is also capable of supporting one billion colors (30-bits color depths – or "Deep Color"), which enhances color vividness and accuracy of display, according to the company.

    Another feature of the super-resolution ASSP is an increased operating frequency of 150 megahertz (MHz), compared to the previous 108 MHz.

    This enables the advanced processing of image data and boosts images with higher resolution even on full HD television broadcasts.

    The µPD9280GM’s super-resolution technology also enables high-resolution processing with just one frame of image data.

    This reduced processing load eliminates the need for expensive, external high-capacity memory.

    Conventional image-resolution technologies use a multiframe technique to process image data, which require large-capacity external memory – making it expensive and difficult to create hardware capable of real-time processing.

    NEC said the new chip will help to better archive valuable images, data and memories previously recorded with only low-resolution technology in various applications, from security camera and automotive backup camera to medical endoscope.

    Mass production is scheduled to begin in July 2009, starting from 100,000 units per month, and expected to reach approximately 1,000,000 units by 2010.

  • WD Adds 2TB Hard Drives As Demand Grows


    WD has expanded its WD AV-GP line of hard drives to include a 2 TB capacity, which it claims is the industry’s largest available drive to-date.

    The company said the move was in response to growing demand for higher capacity storage continues to increase due to large video applications, including high-definition video.

    Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups, said consumer electronics consumers require hard drives that consume less power, generate less heat and operate quietly.

    He said audio and video recording applications, such as DVRs, media servers, media centres and mainstream surveillance systems, often demand 24×7 operation from hard drives.

    "Our drives meet the demanding requirements of these markets including higher reliability, universal compatibility, low power consumption and the ability to simultaneously record multiple audio and/or high-definition video streams," he said.

    The WD AV-GP 2 TB hard drive (model WD20EVDS) is available now for USD $299.00.

  • LG Offers First DivX HD 1080p Certified Blu-ray player


    LG has launched the first DivX HD 1080p certified Blu-ray player.

    The BD390 – originally displayed at CES in January – has an 802.11n WiFi module and support for DivX streaming from a DLNA server.

    It includes BD-Live support, 7.1-channel audio output, 1GB of inbuilt memory and a USB 2.0 socket.

    The BD390 also features support for Netflix, CinemaNow, NetCast, and YouTube streaming, and comes bundled with Nero MediaHome Essentials to connect the player to household PCs and media servers.

    In April, LG announced that its new range of HDTVs will be capable of playing full DivX HD 1080p videos.

    While DivX support may not be on everyone’s wish-list it will certainly appeal to the more tech-minded consumer.

    With DivX 7, a full two-hour HD film can be compressed to around 8 GB – so capable of being stored on a double-layer DVD.

    It also sets LG’s latest high-def player apart from the competition – certainly not a bad thing in today’s busy marketplace.

    Simon Kang, CEO and President of LG Home Entertainment, said incorporating support for DivX HD 1080p video is a key product differentiator.

    The player is available now for USD $399.95.