Broadcasters worry over high cost of HD equipment
Analog signals will cease to be broadcast by 2009. Do you think you’re at a severe disadvantage for having to buy new digital-enabled television sets? Well, think again. You would only need to spend a minimum of about US$1,000 on a television set, but broadcast companies would have to shell out upwards of US$ 80,000 for every HD-enabled camera.
Smallish production companies and independent TV stations are fretting over HD cameras that can set them back $80,000. The federal government’s requirement that broadcasters move to digital TV signals within three years had scores of tiny production houses, public broadcasting stations and university communications departments pacing the aisles at the National Association of Broadcasters 2006 electronics media conference [in Las Vegas] this week.
Meanwhile, equipment providers are trying to win over broadcasters this early by offering discounted or lower prices on their hardware. Sony, Avid and Apple, among others, are wooing TV executives into adopting early. However, broadcast companies are still worried about a possible low viewer demand for HD content. Still, since it’s only three years away before the analog signal swithch-off, an investment on digital at this point is likely to pay off, especially since this would pave the way for a faster adoption rate among viewers.
SkyTV and Sony Will Give Your Cash Back
Buyers of Sony BRAVIA high-definition LCD TVs who will subscribe to SkyTV’s (UK) HDTV service between April 26th to July 10th will be eligible for a £100 rebate. This is open to subscribers who purchase BRAVIA TV V and S series with sizes of 26-inch and up, and a SkyHD set-top box, which has built-in personal video recording features. The set-top box retails for £299 and the HDTV service comes at a monthly service fee of £10 on top of regular SkyDigital subscriptions (usually ranging from £15 to £30 per month).
Sky has recently launched its high-definition digital television service, which went live this April 12th.
[via PocketLint]
Blu-Ray to go the Betamax Way
Now this is a scary proposition.
A Microsoft executive likened Sony’s upcoming Blu-Ray technology to Betamax, the video technology of the 1980’s that was beaten in its own game by rival format VHS. Note that Betamax was the technically superior and sophsiticated standard, but VHS was better-marketed and had wider adoption. And the reason? VHS was a shared standard, while Beta was kept proprietary by Sony.
This statement was said in light of Microsoft’s confirmation that the Xbox 360 will be able to play HD-DVD movies.
When asked about the console’s lack of an HDMI port - which may yet be necessary to play some HD DVDs at full resolution because of restrictions the format’s copy protection system allows content vendors to impose - [Microsoft European console business head, Chris Lewis] responded: “All I can say to you is: there are interesting developments in the pipeline. We will make sure that the HD DVD peripheral device will meet all the requirements for consumers to enjoy high-definition DVD playback.”
Sony D-VE7000S DVD-player Walkman
Who said Walkmans (or Walkmen?) were only for playing audio? The D-VE7000S features a 7-inch widescreen LCD (only 480×234 pixels, though), and can play DVDs The player offers Dolby/DTS digital output, with video in and out ports for connecting to external screens or cameras for input. This handy little number will be available in Japan for the equivalent of approximately US$300.
Get a Sony Bravia (and a host of other cool stuff) from Google!
Google has an ongoing contest, the Da Vinci Code Challenge, in partnership with creators of the Da Vinci Code movie, and they’re giving away more than US$128,000 worth in prizes, including a cool Sony Bravia S-series high-def widescreen LCD TV. Of course, with Sony co-sponsoring the contest (Sony Pictures is, after all, the producer and distributor of the movie), you’d expect a lot of cool Sony gadgets, including a Vaio laptop, a CyberShot digicam, Walkman MP3 players, SonyEricsson mobile phones, and a PlayStation 2 (why not PS3?).
Do check out the contest and see if you’re up to the challenge.
Smallest USB Tuner from AVer Media
AVerMedia announced what it claims to be the smallest USB TV tuner ever. The tuner supports digital TV and can run on Windows Media Center Edition, Linux (some distributions, at least), and is tested to run on the upcoming Windows Vista. The manufacturer says this tuner is ideal for use on a notebook computer, as it only draws 2 Watts of power–hence saving on battery consumption.
The new DVB-T Volar weighs a mere 17.5g and measures in at 7 x 2.5 x 1.1cm making it ideal to slip in your pocket and out of sight when you boss heads your way.
We however don’t exactly think it’s great to bank on a gadget’s being the smallest, particularly since it’s USB. It’s deigned either to just sit there plugged in all the time (for desktop computers), or slipped into the bag (for laptops). No bid deal, really, but perhaps useful, indeed, for people who have to hide the fact they’re watching TV (while at work, perhaps!).
Korean IPTV to use Sun DRM
Sun Microsystems is developing an open source Digital Rights Management (DRM) system it intends to license out to IPTV operators. Dubbed DReaM (for DRM everywhere available) seems to have bagged its first client in Korean IPTV provider Alticast. While the conditional access system is still more than a year away from being finalized, the Korean firm is already displaying enthusiasm for building the system into their IPTV service.
Sun … plans to create a royalty-free, interoperable DRM technology, independent of any specific hardware or operating systems which focuses on the concept of a user being given access to content, rather than one specific device being authenticated. This is something that may come more easily to Sun, since it can rely on the Liberty Alliance initiative which is was also behind, for allowing a single copy of a persons identity to act as a trust source for other services, without having to reveal identities to other services.
At present, DReaM will only work on streamed content, and has no mechanism for protecting content that’s already recorded on enduser media (such as PVRs).
Watching the World Cup on Mobile TV
Mobile providers and manufacturers are anticipating record sales of digital-television enabled handsets this season, with the World Cup starting two months from now. However, with unexpected delays in licensing and hardware production, fans may be in for quite a disappointment.
Although major supplier Samsung Electronics earlier this year unveiled a terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (T-DMB) phone, the first of its kind for commercial services in Europe, the Korean company decided to delay manufacturing and shipping while it awaited the outcome of a complicated license allocation process in Germany, which is still not completed, according to German news service Heise Online.
Telcos are banking on the World Cup in their plans to launch their respective digital-TV setups. For instance, in Germany, viewers can watch German such channels as ZDF, N24, MTV for a subscription of EUR 9.90 per month. Mobile phone TV is much anticipated for a national rollout in the country after the World Cup.
Fox TV to give affiliates a cut of online revenue
With Disney and ABC TV’s jumping into the Internet TV bandwagon, it seems they left their affiliates hanging in the air, in their rush to launch their Web TV portal. With Fox, however, it seems they want to keep a healthy business relationship with their affiliate stations, who run the risk of losing revenues to new media.
Direct-to-audience presentation of TV shows via the Internet would surely eat into the revenue streams of traditional stations, but the owners of the content still get good business from displaying “unskippable” adverts online. But with any business deal, it pays to keep goodwill across business partners, as Fox is doing, in this case. Otherwise, arties would keep bickering about getting ripped off or getting the losing end of the bargain,
Green.tv - A Promising Launch
The Register reports on the successful launch of Green.tv, the broadband channel dedicated to environmental issues. The site garnered 250,000 views during its first week online. The Internet-based channel will regularly feature shows, commentary, and general resources on everything concerning the environment, such as climate, wildlife, and pollution.