Video / Misc
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Thursday, 17 January 2008 |
 TiVo has a new offer on their TiVo HD high definition DVR from now until February 17.
New subscribers to TiVo HD service receive three months of service free of charge and free shipping. TiVo HD monthly service fee of $12.95 for the remaining nine months of service plus $299 for the box. TiVo is not compatible with satellite service, so only cable subscribers need apply.
The TiVo HD will replace your cable tuner with the addition of a CableCARD from your cable provider. The TiVo HD will store 20 hours of high definition programming or 180 hours of standard definition programming, and will handle up to 1080i material. |
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Thursday, 03 January 2008 |
 Wireless HD is a new standard for streaming uncompressed audio and video, and may just end up replacing some of the nest of cables behind your equipment rack.
WiHD operates in the 60GHz band, and is capable of streaming uncompressed 1080p video and multichannel audio at an initial throughput rate of 4Gbps, with a theoretical maximum 25Gbps possible. The standard calls for transmission up to 10 meters, not line of site dependent. The technology is targeted at HD disc players, cable and satellite tuners, DVRs, camcorders, and videogame consoles. The WiHD includes HD content protection. Early backers include LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Sony, Toshiba, NEC and Samsung.
I always cast a suspicious eye at wireless technology as I'm not convinced there isn't signal loss involved. When it comes to my audio and video I would much rather deal with an inconvenient cable than lose signal for convenience's sake. With an impressive theoretical bandwidth limit and so many CE companies on board, WiHD just may become the new standard for audio and video signal transmission. Hopefully it will not produce the unwanted side-effect of reanimating the newly dead, ultimately ending civilization as we know it.
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Monday, 05 November 2007 |
 In the December issue of Consumer Reports, brand reliability gets put under the microscope for both direct view and rear projection televisions. It is the first time that Consumer Reports has published such a study. The study was conducted over a three year period from 2004 to 2007, and was compiled from a pool of 93,000 submitted product reliability surveys.
Their findings indicate that direct view displays are less prone to failure than rear projection televisions. Their study indicates that their is no significant difference in reliability between LCD and plasma models, but repairs on plasma models were about a third more costly than on LCD. Dell and Hitachi LCDs and Philips plasmas enter the Hall of Shame as most likely to need service of the surveyed brands. Most reliable were Panasonic,
Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba and JVC on the LCD side. For plasma,
Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung took top honors for reliability. CR found that the majority of repair costs on rear projection models were incurred by failed lamps, which are a user-replaceable part, and they advise not to bother with an extended warranty if you purchase a rear projection set.
The study is slightly flawed, as it should have filtered out lamp replacements in rear projection sets. However, it's nice for buyers to have another tool for helping to choose a display. If you're in the market for a direct view television, Panasonic and Samsung scored well on both LCD and plasma reliability.
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Tuesday, 30 October 2007 |
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 Nielsen released their estimates today of what percentage HDTVs occupy in the market, based on their latest quarterly samples.
According to their findings, only 13.7% of TV households in the U.S. have HDTV capability. Only 82.5% of those households are actually utilizing the high definition capabilities of their TVs, whether due to disinterest or lack of availability. The city with the highest percentage of installed HDTVs was Los Angeles, where high definition televisions accounted for 20.4% of all television households. This illustrates the problem that Blu Ray and HD DVD face in supplanting DVD as the de facto optical media standard. In addition to the low percentage of high definition households at this time, the number of Blu Ray and/or HD DVD households is significantly lower. Recently the HD DVD release of Transformers made waves when it sold 190,000 copies in it's first week of release. Contrast that to 8.3 million copies flying out retailer's doors on DVD, HD DVD accounted for a paltry 2% of disc sales. |
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
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 J.D. Power and Associates released the results of their 2007 Large Screen HDTV Usage and Satisfaction Study last week.
Taking top honors in the sub-50 inch class was the Sony Bravia series of direct view LCD televisions. Coming in a close second and third was LG, with their LCD and plasma series in a dead heat with the Sony Bravias.
The 50-65 inch class was won by Pioneer's plasma televisions, who edged out Sony's Bravia series for first place in this class. Rear projection televisions are rated in their own class, and Samsung DLP televisions beat Sony Wega LCoS and Toshiba DLP in a very tight race. It should be noted that while Samsung won the class, both Sony and Toshiba topped Samsung in picture quality scores.
It should be noted that this evaluation is used to determine consumer satisfaction and is targeted at mass market consumption. A thumbs up from J.D. Power is a good thing, but if you're shopping for a television, please take the time to read some detailed editorial reviews, and make sure to go look at televisions yourself and let your eyes be the judge. |
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