HDTV Magazine Columns

HDTV Almanac - Silly Season in Full Swing

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:44 -0800

Okay, if you want the coolest bargains on HDTVs, you probably will have to spend all your time just tracking the deals. In addition to the sales circulars and online specials posted at the retailers’ Web sites, you can also check out the various Black Friday sites or monitor the year-’round bargain aggregators such as [...]

HDTV Almanac - California Choose Stick Over Carrot

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:20 -0800

Yesterday, the California Energy Commission (CEC) made it official, and unanimously adopted new energy requirements for televisions sold in the state. It sets electricity consumption limits for sets up to 58″ diagonal. The first level takes effect January 2011, at which time one source indicates a 42″ must not consumer more than 183 watts. In [...]

HDTV Almanac - New Lamps for Old!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:00:36 -0800

An evil sorcerer tricked Aladdin’s wife into giving him the magic lamp by offer to swap new lamps for old. It’s no trick this time around, however, as Warner Brothers has launched a campaign that lets you trade in your old WB DVDs in exchange for the same titles in Blu-ray format. They have set [...]

HDTV Almanac - 3M Promotes Energy Star for HDTVs

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:00:39 -0800

The HDTV world is flat and turning green. Plasma and LCD panels dominate, and now manufacturers are fighting over who can make the most environmentally-friendly televisions (since there are relatively few other meaningful differences among their features). And one of the key focal points for these efforts is to use less power. The good news [...]

HDTV Almanac - Bugged, But It Could Be Good

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:56 -0800

My entry last Friday about advertising on television shows streamed over the Web hit a few nerves over on HDTV Magazine where the Almanac is republished every day. It generated a long string of comments that covered a wide range of issues, from how much people pay for television service in their homes, to how [...]

HDTV Almanac - How Much Can You Stand?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:27 -0800

I watch Hulu. Do you? If you do, you know that most shows are interrupted several times for advertisements. These typically run 15 to 30 seconds, and aren’t long enough to get to the kitchen for a snack; you’ll have to put the show on pause before making a raid on the refrigerator.
Content providers worry [...]

HDTV Almanac - More on DVD Killers

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:37 -0800

On Monday, I wrote about the evidence that the DVD market is fading (and taking Blu-ray’s hopes with it). So of course, I immediately found one more bit of evidence that adds more weight to the conclusion.

NCR and MOD Systems announced on Monday that they were launching a new line of digital movie kiosks that [...]

HDTV Almanac - Wrong-Way Corrigan Works for Sony?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:19 -0800

“Wrong-Way” Corrigan made history by flying across the Atlantic when he was supposed to fly coast to coast across the U.S. (History indicates that it was a case of “accidently on purpose” because he couldn’t get clearance for the trans-oceanic flight.) But his spirit apparently lives on at Sony.
I’m the first to agree that an [...]

HDTV Almanac - Is 3DTV in the Cloud?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:42 -0800

Friend and colleague Jon Peddie is one of the leading analysts and experts in the area of graphics processing and related display concepts. In his blog yesterday, he mused about the role of cloud computing in various applications. He pointed out that lots of server farms have idle CPU cycles, and just as we rely [...]

HDTV Almanac - Where Are the DVDs?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:49 -0800

So you think DVDs are doing just fine, and that Blu-ray is getting poised to be the high definition replacement for them in due time. Well, here are some news items that might cause you to think again.
Best Buy and Sonic Solutions announced last week that they are forming a partnership to promote the Roxio [...]

HDTV Almanac - Walmart Joins Early Sales Trend

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:42 -0800

Early Black Friday sales are popping up all over, and Walmart is holding a one-day in-store sale tomorrow, Saturday November 7, starting at 8 AM. Quantities are limited, and you can’t buy more than two of some items, but here are some of the items that might get your attention. The 46″ 1080p plasma HDTV [...]

HDTV Almanac - Looks Like Last Year

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:24 -0800

Last month, the NPD Group came out with the results of their annual survey of consumers, trying to find out what their holiday shopping plans are. And the results look very familiar. 11% of those polled indicated that they intend to spend more than they did last year, which is the same number as last [...]

HDTV Almanac - Go with the Flo

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:20 -0800

I’ve mentioned Qualcomm’s Flo TV before, but now you have a new way that you can get television programming as you go about your daily routine. Chrysler announced last week that it will be offering this mobile TV service as an option in most of its cars, starting next month. For $629 (plus dealer installation [...]

HDTV Almanac - Comcast Close to Buying NBC

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:47 -0800

It seems a little like a gasoline company buying General Motors, but it looks like the rumors about Comcast wanting to buy NBC Universal have some fire behind the smoke. In an article published Sunday by the New York Times, General Electric may be on the verge of reaching a deal with Comcast. According to [...]

HDTV Almanac - DIY Big Antenna

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:52 -0800

I still get TV broadcasts over the air, but I’m not happy with the antenna I’ve got in one of our buildings. So I’ve been poking around the Web lately, looking at ideas for a do-it-yourself TV antenna. And then I found a site that has plans for a monster, designed for fringe reception. I [...]