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- Connected Home Networking: Strategy Analytics finds 9.5 million European homes have installed home networks (04MAR04) (StrategyAnalytics)
The news announcement quotes Strategy Analytics' connected home devices service director Peter King as stating, "Today's broadband users clearly demand Internet access to multiple PCs and other devices. With the trend toward IP-enabled consumer electronics devices such as set-top boxes, DVD players, audio systems and other entertainment centres, service providers can benefit from growing demand for multiple applications and services. However, they must ensure that home networking remains as simple and easy to use as possible." - Samsung Electronics has S5H2010 MPEG2 decoder & S3C2800 Digital TV central processing unit chipset for HDTV and set-tops (13JAN04) (Samsung)
The news announcement quotes Samsung Electronics' SoC R&D Center vice president Don H. Lee as stating, "The U.S. television market is quickly transitioning to digital." - How Many Digital TVs: CEA says more than 1.2 million over-the-air digital TV tuners sold since end of 1998 (23FEB04) (CEA)
The news announcement reports, "The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) ... announced that more than 1.2 million over-the-air digital television (DTV) tuners have been sold factory-to-dealer since product came to market at the close of 1998." CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro is quoted as stating, "Just three years ago, we celebrated the one-millionth DTV product sold.... Today more than 9 million U.S. households own a DTV product. With more integrated DTV sets on the market than ever before, for broadcast and cable reception, we will see millions more tuning into HDTV in 2004. Digital cable ready (DCR) HDTV sets are making their way to retail shelves and present yet another option for American consumers who have an increasingly strong desire for integrated products based on a wider availability of compelling HDTV programming." - HDTV In Europe: Strategy Analytics says HDTV to reach 2.6 million European homes by 2008 (03MAR04) (StrategyAnalytics)
The news announcement states, "According to the latest estimates from Strategy Analytics, Europeans bought 70,000 HDTV displays in 2003, and demand is growing rapidly as consumers buy the latest LCD and plasma flat panel displays. By 2008 the analysts predict that 17.4 million homes will have HD-capable TV sets; 2.6 million of these homes will have bought set-top boxes to receive HD broadcasts." - HDTV Conference: HDTV Summit for Partnership, Policy and Profits Conference to be held March 29, 2004, in Washington DC (08MAR04) (CEA)
"The HDTV Summit: Partnership, Policy and Profits will bring multiple industries and policy-makers together to discuss the issues at-hand and debate the best next steps." - EHome Conference: Electronic House Expo 2004 to be held March 10-13, 2004 at Orlando, Florida (08MAR04) (EHX)
- Nielsen TiVo Reality: Yankee Group's Adi Kishore says TV commercial skipping provides opportunities for better more effective ads (08MAR04) (Wired)
Wired cites Yankee Group analyst Adi Kishore as indicating, "[W]hile advertisers must explore new ways to reach viewers because commercial-skipping will not go away, the move could provide opportunities for advertisers to make better, more-effective ads." And that, "The Nielsen data, for instance, doesn't take into account whether the viewer is actually watching television simply because the TV is on. It's common knowledge in the advertising business that 40 to 50 percent of TV watchers are not watching commercials anyway, even without a PVR." Wired furter quotes Kishore as stating, "The viewer could be fixing themselves a sandwich." Wired additionally cites Kishore as indicating one option includes "Enhanced commercials that invite television watchers to click a button to get more information, for instance, could be a more effective way to reach consumers." - Downloading Movies: Hollywood studios only allowing MovieLink downloads on a tight leash (07MAR04) (LATimes)
The Los Angeles Times reports, "The technology developed for Movielink provided two ways to transfer movies to televisions. They could be beamed wirelessly to TV set-top boxes or burned onto a DVD or video CD. But the studios haven't incorporated those features into the service, mainly due to concerns about piracy." The Times goes on to report, "At the heart of those concerns is [the movie industry's] reluctance to take risks on a new technology that could wind up hurting the movie industry's biggest cash cow, DVD sales. Several of the studios behind Movielink are in no rush to change the service ... and [the studios see] Movielink is more of a test bed than a business.... [Sony] pulled back some of the service's features. For example, the original design would have let customers download movies from each other, cutting the cost of distributing films. Sources said Paramount put the kibosh on that idea, insisting that movies be erased from users' hard drives as soon as their 24-hour rental period expired." - Broadband Television: ESPN Broadband to premiere 'The Game' original series about X-Games surfing competition in Summer 2004 (08MAR04) (Mediapost)
Mediapost reports, "This summer, ESPN Broadband will premiere "The Game," an original series chronicling the a surfing competition at the X Games. ESPN executives say the ramp up is intended to help its cable operator affiliates drive broadband subscriber penetration." - TV-Like Commercials On Web: CondéNet, Discovery iMedia, Forbes.com, MaxOnline & Weather.com to use Unicast-powered video ads (08MAR04) (iMedia)
iMedia Connections reports, "The video commercial, introduced to the market last month, plays video up to eight times faster than traditional broadband/streaming video ad units. The format exposes advertiser brands to different a different audience." - Individual Media & TiVo: Ad Guru Joe Cappo says we're in an era of individual media & need to communicate based on TiVo profiles (08MAR04) (iMedia)
iMedia Connections quotes advertising guru Joe Cappo as stating, "We went from mass media to class media, and we're moving very rapidly to individual media. If you take TiVo, for example, you can create a profile of a person just the way they have their TiVo programmed, and that's what TiVo is doing. TiVo is now talking to advertisers about communicating with people, based on the types of programming they watch because that says a lot about the people, and we're in that era." Cappo goes on to state, "What gets me about most of you or business is that you're not really taking great advantage of the individual identification nature of the Web, and many of you think of yourselves as mass communicators, and you should be thinking of yourselves as individual communicators." - Ruel's Spotlight Site: Philips MiraVision Mirror TV 23MW9110 has LCD TV display integrated into mirror (08MAR04) (Philips)
The Philips site states, "The MiraVision Mirror TV is a versatile 17-, 23- or 30-inch LCD display integrated into a mirror. The MiraVision Mirror TV uses a unique polarized mirror technology, which transfers nearly 100 percent of the light through the reflective surface." - * Broadband Future: Verizon's Jim Smith says broadband to reshape telecom with interactivity for video, wireless & phone (07MAR04) (UnionTribune)
The San Diego Union-Tribune cites Verizon spokesman Jim Smith as indicating, "... Verizon plans to build its own fiber optic network. In the future, he said, television [as we know it] will not be the focus of a household's entertainment." And instead that "... broadband capabilities will reshape the telecommunications landscape with interactive programming that works with video, wireless and regular phone services. These applications could range from video games delivered over the Internet to a television console to integrated voice mail that links up a wired and wireless phone." The Union-Tribune goes on to quote Smith as stating, "It won't be telephone this and entertainment that. Whoever gets there first with the best set of broadband applications will win." - PC-TV Can Rival TiVo: Snapstream PVR software for PC doesn't require that you buy a new Media Center PC (04MAR04) (NYTimes.AP) (alt.link)
The Associated Press (AP) reports the Snapstream "program is similar to the TV features in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Media Center Edition, but SnapStream offers more features -- without the purchase of a so-called multimedia computer" and "It even gives the standalone personal video recorder from TiVo Inc. a run for its money." Ruel's Note: Ruel recommends and uses the Snapstream software -- Ruel uses it as one of the four PVR software programs for the PC that Ruel has on his PC-TV system. -ruel - TiVo Selling Cheaper Boxes: TiVo Boxes still require you to pay for TiVo TV listings service separately (04MAR04) (NYTimes)
The New York Times reports, "The monthly TiVo service for updated TV listings is sold separately: you can pay a one-time fee of $299 for the life of the unit or a monthly charge of $13. A $99 package of Home Media features for the Series2 models also enables TiVo users to display digital photographs on the television screen, play MP3 tunes through the home entertainment system and even remotely program the box over the Internet to record shows, in case you accidentally leave the house without setting it to snag 'The Sopranos.'" - Ruel's Spotlight Site: Axonix MediaMax Multimedia Home Entertainment System, SuperView VOD Server & SuperCD/DVD Server (06MAR04) (Axonix)
With regard to the three devices, the Axonix site states: "MediaMax is the first all-in-one, remote controlled, multi-room, multi-media home entertainment system for your home. Watch DVD movies in Dolby™ 5.1 Surround Sound or listen to your favorite music on-demand.... SuperView records, stores and shares hundreds of hours of your VHS, DVD or live camera video to hundreds of users on-demand.... SuperCD is the award-winning CD-ROM server in use at thousands of schools, libraries and businesses that saves money and time by centralizing CD/DVD access." - What's On HDTV: Roku HD1000 set-top box let's you play slideshow of pictures, paintings, photos on your HDTV display (04MAR04) (NYTimes)
The New York Times reports, "What will appear on that $5,000 sheet of plasma when you're not watching TV? Roku suggests a slide show of high-resolution photos, nature scenes or famous paintings. That's the point of the company's first product, a slim set-top box called the HD1000." - DVD Player Market: NPD Group says ten percent of the 31.1 million DVD players sold last year were Apex DVD players (04MAR04) (NYTimes)
The New York Times reports, "Of the 31.1 million DVD players sold last year, roughly 10 percent were Apex models, according to the NPD Group, the retail tracker. That puts the brand in second place, just behind Sony...." - EchoStar Int'l launches new product line of Fixed Satellite Receivers DSB-770 FTA, DSB-880 FTA, DSB-1220 2Ci, DSB-2220 2Ci (10FEB04) (Echostar)
- Flash Storage: Xbox-partner M-Systems says next version of Xbox to not have harddrive (05MAR04) (CNET)
CNET quotes M-Systems CEO Dov Moran as stating, "Microsoft has taken the hard disk out of its Xbox. The only thing left will be a CD; that's all." CNET goes on to report, "M-Systems announced an agreement late last month with Microsoft to supply flash-based storage devices for future versions of the Xbox."
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