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  • Samsung launches programme to ensure compatability of HDMI-enabled products






    The Korean electronics giant has begun a pilot programme of Simplay HD testing and verification at its facilities.
    The scheme aims to ensure customers can simply “plug-and-play” any new device without the frustration of getting home and finding it isn’t compatable with existing equipment.
    The testing ensures interoperability between electronic components such as set-top boxes (STBs), high def televisions (HDTVs), digital video disk (DVD) players, cables and audio/video (AV) receivers.
    By taking the guesswork out of shopping for HDMI-enabled components it’s hoped that consumer satisfaction will be boosted and return rates reduced.
    The pilot programme of Simplay HD testing and verification will be administered by both companies.
    In what is described as the first-of-its-kind self-testing initiative, the scheme will expand Samsung’s participation in the Simplay HD Testing Program by increasing product through-put, extending the range of products tested and accelerating time to market.
    Once assessed, components bear the Simplay HD logo, which signals that they have passed a rigorous HD interoperability and performance-testing regimen and will work together.
    ChanHo Youn, assistant manager of the Customer Satisfaction Management Centre at Samsung Electronics, said the company understood the importance of delivering fully interoperable products with optimised performance to retailers and customers.
    He said the best way to ensure this was by utilising the expertise of Simplay Labs and its HD testing programme.
    “Samsung has used Simplay Labs testing extensively on a variety of consumer electronics devices and, as we expand our Simplay HD participation, the self-testing programme will help streamline the process,” he said.
    The pilot program will include on-site Simplay testing equipment installation, technician training and certification, quality control, collaborative test specification reviews and integration with product development and supply chain processes.
    Joseph Lias, president of California-based Simplay Labs, said he was thrilled to expand a longstanding relationship with Samsung by rolling out the self-testing pilot program.
    “Working closely with Samsung in defining the parameters of the Simplay HD Testing Program continues to provide consumers with the peace of mind that their HD components will work together to deliver a great HD experience,” he said.

  • High definition broadcast of 4th of July fireworks from US capital promises to be a spectacular affair


    It’s billed as America’s biggest birthday party and one that even those not able to attend in person will be able to enjoy on HDTV.
    Demand from viewers has led to coverage of this year’s Capitol Fourth celebrations from Washington DC being given extended coverage on the US public broadcast network PBS.
    The Independence Day fireworks will be captured live by 18 cameras positioned around the capital as national landmarks such as the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials are silhouetted on the skyline.
    An estimated 100 million homes in the US own HDTVs – around 41 per cent of TV owners.
    Jerry Colbert, executive producer of Capital Concerts, said that if you couldn’t be in Washington, DC for the event, watching it on HDTV would be the next best thing.
    “We heard from our viewers that they’d like to see more of the most amazing fireworks display in the nation,” he said.
    “We are pleased to respond to our viewers’ requests, not only with extended coverage of this year’s fireworks, but we’ve also added more TV cameras that will capture these dazzling and colourful pyrotechnics in high definition from virtually every panorama.”
    The event will be broadcast on PBS Friday, July 4, 2008 from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. ET.
    Capping off the show will be a rousing rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” complete with live cannon fire provided by the United States Army Presidential Salute Battery.
    Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning film, theatre and television actor Jimmy Smits will host the 28th annual broadcast of the concert, featuring musical performances from some of the country’s best known and award-winning artists.
    Grammy winners Huey Lewis and the News, American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, rock ‘n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell, classical superstar Hayley Westenra and soprano Harolyn Blackwell will perform a selection of music with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Erich Kunzel.
    Olympic Gold Medal winner Scott Hamilton will lead a tribute to Team USA members competing in Bejing.

     

  • Former backer of Toshiba's "defeated" HD DVD format to release first Blu-ray Disk player










    Onkyo, the A/V manufacturer that backed the high def DVD format and sold around 2,000 players, is to launch its first BD player later this year.
    The company had flagged up its intention to let bygones be bygones and join the other “side” shortly after Toshiba announced that it would concede the format war last February.
    It discontinued production of its HD DVD players, while assuring existing customers they would continue to receive full product support and service.
    A company statement also said it’s R&D team had “maintained a parallel development programme for the competing Blu-ray technology”.
    The results of that effort are an as-yet un-named Blu-ray player which has been designed to be partnered with the company’s high-definition A/V receivers that come equipped with 1080p HDMI processing and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding.
    Product and pricing details will be announced in advance of the product’s official entrance into the market.



  • HDTV coverage of Beijing Olympics offers athletics action in immediate slow motion

    Belgian company I-Movix is to provide its SprintCam Live 2 HDTV cameras to cover much of the action from the Olympic games in Beijing.
    Able to record events at speeds up to 8,000 frames per second, a rate which is more than 260 times that of normal video.
    And while the cameras produce incredible slow-motion images, there is nothing slow about replay times – clips are available for immediate re-viewing.
    The HDTV cameras will be deployed with mobile units at all the major games venues.
    While sports fans have come to expect slow-motion instant replay with standard definition productions, it has not been so in high definition.
    Beijing is going to be both a proving ground and shop-window for HDTV and the I-Movix cameras are part of an array of HD hardware that will be providing unparalleled high def coverage of the sporting event.

  • Cable operators will continue to shoulder the cost of STBs unless testing is adopted to ensure all devices work in all cable systems.


    A retail market for tru2way compliant set-top boxes (STBs) in the US will never emerge unless they are portable across cable systems.
    That’s the conclusion of Steve Wilson, principal analyst with ABI Research, who expects the biggest challenge to tru2way to be interoperability.
    The 1996 Telecommunications Act required cable operators to open up their specifications to create a more competitive market in the United States.
    The result was OCAP, the Open Cable Applications Platform, recently rebranded “tru2way”.
    Any device with a tru2way compliant receiver can receive premium cable TV programming on any operator’s network with the appropriate CableCARD.
    This means any STB vendor can build a tru2way-compliant device and compete for cable operators’ business, and CE manufacturers can embed them in TV’s or other devices for retail.
    In his research brief, “The Outlook for tru2way”, Wilson describes it as a “double-edged sword” for operators.
    “On one hand, cable operators want to ‘own’ the customer’s entire user experience and they aren’t ready to allow others to start loading applications into the STB,” he said.
    “On the other, an open cable standard will reduce the tremendous cost burden custom systems and STBs place on the entire cable business.”
    Wilson says operators are finally starting to deploy tru2way STBs and estimates that in 2013 about half of all US cable subscribers will have a tru2way STB.
    But he goes on to warn that to achieve this many industry-political obstacles and interoperability challenges must be overcome along the way.
    “There’s no real interoperability testing, and no industry group focused on making sure that all the devices brought to market will work in all cable systems,” he said.
    “If applications and devices aren’t portable across cable systems, a retail market will never appear and operators will continue to carry the burden of STBs.”

  • Japan to use audience rating system to discover IPTV programme preferences

    A viewer rating system developed by Oki Electric Industry is to be used in Japan to collect information on the viewing habits of IPTV users.
    Existing ground-based broadcasting systems have the means to gather viewership data, such as user preference and viewer history.
    Broadcasting companies say this information is important in enabling them to improve services.
    However, until now there has been are no equivalent user information collection functions for IPTV services.
    OKI’s IPTV Audience Rating Information System allows service providers, with the authorisation of users, to obtain information about when and which channel and programs the users watched.
    The system will collect the viewership data in the form of an “audience rating library” on the user’s device, which will then be encrypted, sent to and registered in the database server at the IPTV distribution centre.
    This information will then be printed out as viewership reports which service providers can offer to programme producers.
    Masa Saito, general manager of IP Systems Division at OKI, said the system, which uses the company’s eVideo technology, would ensure the efficient delivery of high quality video over IP networks.
    “We have been proposing the technology to handle audience rating information to ASTAP, Asia’s communication standard organisation and FG-IPTV in ITU, the UN’s agency for information and communication technologies, as we believe open standards are important in improving IPTV service and technologies,” he said.
    “We will continue our activities within IPTV-GSI, the IPTV standardisation initiative, to promote international standardization to enrich IPTV services.”
    Telecom carriers in Japan are expected to increase their IPTV service provisioning with the start of next-generation network (NGN) services, and as the ITU works on setting international standards.

  • Survey shows viewers shifting towards web but preference is still for television screen


    Over a third of all US broadband users have watched at least one TV show on the Internet, according to a study conducted on behalf of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).
    But the research found that while broadband users are increasingly turning to the web for their video content fix, 94 per cent still prefer to do their viewing on a television screen.
    For cable and satellite networks concerned about the growing threat of online TV shows and movies, the survey provided some comfort.
    Of those who watched online shows, 82 per cent did so because they had missed a specific programme on TV.
    Based on this, the report points out the “critical importance of strong marketing for the initial TV showing”.
    That said, technical limitations that make viewing web video onto TV difficult are not likely to remain so for long.
    The research comes as ByD:sign announce they are launching the first LCD HDTV with DivX Certification for the Japan market. (See Separate article hdtv.biz-news.com/news/2008/06/30/0017)
    With guaranteed DivX video playback, users will be able watch content from the PC on the television while maintaining superior video quality.
    Video On Demand also continues to have a growing presence, with availability in approximately 28 million US homes and over half (54%) of these households ordering On Demand movies or programs.

  • LCD HDTV to be sold in Japan which allows simple transfer of high def content from the PC to the TV


    Watching high def content downloaded from the Internet is going to get a whole lot easier for viewers in Japan.
    A liquid crystal display high-definition television made by byd:sign Corporation is to be the first with DivX Certification sold in the Japanese market.
    The video format will let viewers watch digital content from PCs on the HDTV – rather than on a PC monitor.
    Katsumi Iizuka, chief executive officer of byd:sign Corporation, said DivX videos had enabled consumers to enjoy high-quality content through the internet.
    “DivX Certification enhances our HDTV features and gives added value,” he said. “We plan to provide more valuable entertainment to our customers in working with DivX high quality content and devices in the future.”
    Kevin Hell, chief executive officer of DivX, said the DivX certified LCD TV would allow the Japanese market to easily transfer high-definition videos directly to their TVs.
    “DivX is the only video format that offers consumers an easy and flexible way to move video content across devices, guaranteeing interoperability between the PC, TV, DVD players, mobile phones, and more,” he said.
    “Byd:sign’s compact LCD HDTV is a prime example of the simple transferability of high-quality content in an open, digital system.”

  • Movies from every major Hollywood studio now available in HD


    The Weinstein Company became the final major studio in Hollywood to release movies in high def.
    It has announced that its first offering in HD is to be the horror movie The Mist, which will be released in Blu-ray this August 5th.
    The Weinstein company, distributors of Dimension Films, briefly supported HD DVD, but pulled out before releasing a title after the format’s downfall.
    The extensive extras present on the standard DVD are set to be included on the Blu-ray.
    These features include and audio commentary with director Frank Darabont, making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, and theatrical trailers.
    Both the original theatrical version and the stylised black and white version of the movie will each be present and each on their own disc.
    Each will be presented in 1080p with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track. Price has been listed at US$ 34.98.

  • Olympics and Tour de France to be aired as Europe's public channels add to their high definition options


    The UK’s BBC has begun testing the transmission of high def services over Freeview in a move that could see the introduction of full HD terrestrial by the end of 2009.
    The broadcaster has started transmissions from a Guildford-based transmitter using the second-generation DVB-T specification DVB-T2.
    Justin Mitchell, leader of the DVB-T2 modem development team at the BBC, said the trial could enable the introduction of HD onto Freeview by December next year.
    DVB-T2 is said to offer 30 per cent more data carrying capacity as DVB-T under the same conditions.
    Across the Channel, the HD version of public channel France 2 has been launched on several platforms, including CanalSat DTH and Numéricable.
    As has been the case with other broadcasters across Europe, including VRT in Belgium and Nederland 1 in The Netherlands, France 2 will show sport events such as the Tour de France and the Beijing Olympics in HD.
    Freeview currently uses the ten-year old DVB-T standard. DVB-T2 was developed for use in a “post-Analogue Switch-Off environment”.
    UK communications regulator Ofcom has said it wants to convert at least one of the nation’s DVB-T multiplexes to DVB-T2 by the end of 2009.
    The test comes as HDTV services begin to flourish in the UK, which has almost 10m HDTV sets currently in use.
    While Sky – the main provider of HD broadcasts in the UK – has barely half a million subscribers signed up to its Sky HD service, much is being made of the May launch of Freesat.
    The venture – a joint initiative between the BBC and ITV – has the potential to give millions of UK viewers access to free HD programmes for the first time.
    Its launch has prompted Sky to cut the price of its Sky+ HD set-top box by 50 per cent.
    Virgin and Apple have also improved their HD offerings recently.