ViewSonic N3235W
What’s great about the ViewSonic N3235W is that it is not that expensive considering the specifications it could offer. It offers a decent quality picture in its 32 inch widescreen display that uses TFT active matrix technology. It has a resolution of 1360 x 768 giving you a high quality detailed images. A display format of 720p plus an aspect ratio of 16:9 and image contrast ratio of 1200:1, enjoy watching quality films at this television set. It has a brightness of 500 and a viewing angle of 176 degrees horizontally and vertically giving you a clear view of what your watching.
The ViewSonic N3235W measures 31.5 inch x 4.6 inch x 22.6 inch (WDH) and weighs at 34 lbs. Designed with a glossy black color, this television set includes 2 speakers that has a Bass, Treble, and Balance audio control. It has a VGA and HDMI connectivity type among others.
Philips 32PF9731D
Philips has tried to comeback with one of the finest LCD screens. Like other best stuffs in electronics world, this one doesn’t come cheap. According to the review from CNET, the Philips 32PF9731D is said to be ‘Expensively priced but ultimately class-leading’.
It is said to be better than cheaper TVs because of Philips’ Ambilight system which independently projects lights from the sides that creates a surround glow. Plus, enjoy watching DVD movies with its WXGA resolution (1,366×768 pixels). Its screen supports 720p and 1080i high-definition formats giving you better image.
Besides the design and the display, Philips says that the performance is the big factor in giving the customers a better experience. It is said to be the Pixel Plus 3HD engine that improves the quality of the image. With it, reviews say that it can match up against the best LCDs with respect to the image quality.
Misadventures in Customer Service: DirecTV
Aaron, a friend of mine has been having some problems with DirecTV. Seems they won’t give him what they promised.
All I want is my DVR at no charge which was what I was promised. I don’t want to be the proverbial hot potato. I want my account dealt with accordingly. I don’t want to sit on hold forever while the incompetent people at DirecTV figure out what my problem is and get me to the right person. If you want to know, just ask me. Or better yet, read this blog along with the other 2k people per day and 200 RSS subscribers that do.
Hopefully the blog community can help him out and get DirecTV to fold and do what’s right. Good luck Aaron.
Google Confirms YouTube Deal
The news about Google’s plans to acquire YouTube has proven true. Google has just announced that it will acquire YouTube in a stock-swap deal worth US$ 1.65 Billion.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
Offhand, I see the deal benefitting both parties this way: Google gets YouTube’s userbase and community (along with the market data YouTube has gathered so far and continues to do so), and YouTube gets better accesss to revenue streams from advertising.
ForeverGeek has a post detailing interesting opinions on why this deal makes sense. The post basically reasons that acquiring YouTube is one way Google sets itself ahead of the pack. Video advertising is expected to be the next best thing, and Google is already positioning itself as the leader, when its competitors (Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) are still starting to fiddle with contextual text-ads.
Also, it’s the YouTube brand that’s likely to be the most important aspect of the acquisition. YouTube already has excellent mindshare, and Google knows that this is just what makes a successful web application. With the large community already revolving around YouTube, Google can expect tons of market data. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
If this turns out to be a synergy–where the acquisition will produce more value for the larger entity, as opposed to each running on its own–then good. If it fails, it probably won’t make much of a dent on Google’s bottomline. $ 1.65 Billion is just a small amount considering Google’s performance so far and earning potential. And no cash changed hands, after all. It’s a stock-swap!
Implications to television
I’m a fan of Web videos because it’s one form of video-on-demand. I get to do searches on videos and watch them when and where I want to. Admittedly, I do watch some show episodes on YouTube, and the very presence of those videos is against the site’s terms of service, because they are copyrighted material.
With Google entering the picture, there had been speculations that YouTube will be facing lawsuits left and right because they will now start earning revenues off other people’s copyrighted material–this is no longer within fair use principles. But with Google on the business side, it might be able to strike a compromise. Why not do what the television networks are doing? Why not show advertisements (text ads, and even video ads) along with the freely-viewable videos, and give the copyright owners a cut? In my opinion, pay video is bad in that it limits the viewership, and does not satisfy the audience, because of low quality of Web-videos.
As for the traditional television routes (free TV, cable, PVRs), this could spell trouble. Google is known to own tons of dark fibre running across the entire United States (the company has been buying defunct ISPs and broadband providers). Once it decides to start using these to boost bandwidth across the country, then Google could just be creating the next big multimedia network since TV was invented.
Google Interested in Acquiring YouTube
Search giant Google is reportedly interest in acquiring popular video-sharing site YouTube, according to a report by CNN. Google and YouTube are in discussions, but would not disclose any details for now.
Recall that Google already has its own Web video service, Google Video, developing its own format along with content available for-pay. Google has even gone to the extent of incorporating video advertisements on its Adsense publisher program.
However, if estimates are correct, YouTube gets 100 million video views per day, and that makes it the largest video sharing site online.
One very pressing issue, however is copyright. YouTube has been criticized for its users uploading copyrighted content. While this is against the YouTube terms of service, it has become very difficult to enforce. And most copyright holders (TV and movie studios, for instance) have become lenient, presumably because YouTube helps spread the popularity of their content, and since YouTube still does not have a compelling business model to date.
But once Google–or any other larger company, for that matter–decides to acquire YouTube and put up a clear business model for the content online, then copyright holders are sure to protest (and sue).
Canon to Mass Produce Thin, Power-Efficient TVs by 2008
Canon, Inc. announced that it will begin mass-producing ultra-thin and energy-efficient television sets by early 2008, amid predictions that steep price drops in flat-screen sets would be a tough hindrance to rolling out such a technology.
In 2004, Canon and Toshiba Corp. set up a joint venture to produce surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) panels, which are thinner and consume less energy than liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panels, the main technologies used for flat panel TVs.
While an earlier release to market of Canon’s super-thin and power-efficient televisions had been planned, the companies had to postpone to a later date, with news that price drops of flat-screen TVs would be prevalent in the ensuing months. The delay gives Canon and Toshiba more time to be able to develop their product at an improved cost competitive atmosphere, rather than develop expensively today and sell at a loss sooner.
How Many Televisions?
According to a recent survey done in the USA, it seems that there are now more televisions per house than people, thanks to the decreasing costs of purchasing a CRT television (those big, heavy, boxy ones).
Nielsen Media Research has said that the threshold was crossed in the last two years, but this means that now there are on average 2.73 television sets in the typical home which only has 2.55 people.
How many televisions do you have in your home? We only have one, for my fiancée and I, but that seems plenty, at least for the time being.
Source: Silicon Valley
Hyper Color TV Technology Upcoming?
If you’re happy with the color reproduction of your television set, then you’re missing a whole lot. Apparently, even the most modern of TVs today can only produce half the available colors in the light spectrum that the eye can perceive. Researchers, however, are looking into using nano tubes to enhance color reproduction to levels equalling what the eye can see.
Researchers in Switzerland are developing a new nano technology they claim will double the range of colors that future TVs can produce — displaying every hue the human eye can see. By comparison, most of today’s TVs — be they plasmas, LCDs or projectors — display only about half the visible colors.
The technology is based on the use of millions of stretchable parallel grooves called diffraction gratings that combined into a grid to reflect a full-color, high-definition images onto a screen. This technology also enhances the intensity of an image, providing crisp and bright images.
However, the technology is still in its very early stages. For now, the prototypes are power hogs, requiring 300 volts to stretch the elastometer (in comparison LCDs require up to 5 volts to adjust pixels). The refresh rate is also very slow. One cannot expect the usual 60 frames per second on this technology, yet. And then there’s the cost factor. Nanotechnology is still too expensive for the consumer market.
The researchers estimate that the technology is still eight years into the future. Much can still happen in that span of time, particularly with mature technologies that are available today, such as LCD, DLP and even Plasma. Perhaps this is just a sneak peek at what we can look forward to a decade from now.
Wider Losses for TiVo Expected
TiVo, pioneer in personal video recording (PVR) technology is expanding, but the company is expected to bleed in its finances due to legal battles and stiff competition.
The Alviso, Calif., company reported a quarterly loss of $6.45 million, or 7 cents a share, up from $892,000 or a penny per share in the same period of 2005.
Revenue rose 50 percent to $59.2 million, from $39.3 million a year ago, with the company boosting its year-over-year subscriber count by 24 percent to 4.4 million as of July 31.
The company is spending heavily on marketing, in an effort to further expand its reach. TiVo is also involved in a costly litigation to protect its technology from being copied. Along with this, other companies offering similar services or services that can potentially enroach on TiVo’s user base (such as video-on-demand) are gaining ground.
The losses are likely to expand as the company increases its marketing spending to entice new customers. In its current quarter, TiVo expects to lose $12 million to $17 million on revenue of $54 million to $56 million. Analysts are projecting on average a loss of $14.8 million, or 16 cents a share, on revenue of $54.6 million.
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Rogers would not break out how much money TiVo spent on legal battles. But the company reported Wednesday that “general and administrative” expenses — a category that includes payments to some accountants, lawyers, consultants and technologists — swelled to $11.09 million last quarter, up from $8.41 million in the same period of 2005.
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The company has seen its competitive position shrink as cable companies, satellite television operators and electronics makers scramble to offer a version of the DVR. But TiVo has claimed successor models infringe its 2001 patent on the underlying technology and that makers should license the technology.
IPTV to Surge by 2010
Analysis by research firm eMarketer suggests that IPTV has the potential to shake up the broadcast television and Web-based video industries, but still has a long way to go. At present, IPTV isn’t much of a threat, with about 300,000 subscribers in the United States as of 2005. This figure could go up to 8.7 million by 2010, the study says.
According to IPTV: The Global Picture (via Media Post Publications),
“While the first incarnations of IPTV in the U.S. are likely to be extremely underwhelming, this should not undermine the long-term potential of IPTV,” states the report, by senior analyst Ben Macklin. “The combination of high-quality video content (both user-generated and professionally produced) with the search and retrieve capability of the Web has the potential to radically disrupt the existing TV model,” noting that this effect is already being seen from other video-content distribution models online.
eMarketer estimated that the number of IPTV-capable households worldwide will climb to 139 million in 2010, up from just 14 million last year.
IPTV is defined as a television system whereby digital content is delivered via a network infrastructure. IPTV is often delivered in conjunction with Video-on-Demand (VOD) and other non-television services such as Voice-over-IP and other Internet services like Web and email. While IPTV is still in its infancy today, the widespread residential uptake of broadband Internet has paved the way for IPTV to be a viable (and inexpensive) solution in the future.