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MediaOne launches Digital NexTV service in Massachusetts for more choice, greater
convenience, clearer pictures and sound, and more flexibility (14FEB00) (PRN)
MediaOne northeast region marketing vice president Curt Henninger said, "Digital NexTV is ... a platform on which MediaOne will offer web-based interactive services in the future, including products such as video-on-demand and interactive television linked to email and the internet." -
Broadband not for everyone: Cheap dial-up narrowband access versus more expensive broadband access (14FEB00) (ZDNet)
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Vision Thing: It's safe to buy a new analog TV set because the transition to HDTV may go longer than expected (21FEB00) (Forbes)
Forbes reports, "A recent forecast by London-based Strategy Analytics estimates that only 9% of U.S. households will be HDTV-compatible by 2006. This is the cutoff date when analog stations are supposed to go dark, provided 85% of local viewers have digital TV reception. By current projections the 'transition' will go on indefinitely."
One person working for a telecom company that was considering getting into interactive set-tops recently asked me if HDTV could provide an obstacle to set-top boxes. I don't think so. Unless HDTV sets are sold at super cheap prices, real HDTV may come much later than expected to the average consumer's home. Average consumers for the most part don't care or don't know about HDTV at this time. And don't be surpised if there is some sort of anti-corporate or political backlash against HDTV in 2006 if people are told they will be forced to replace their trusty old analog TV sets with very expensive new HDTV sets. Perhaps the most likely scenario is that analog television may be around for a little longer than expected because of slow consumer acceptance of HDTV. -ruel -
ATI demos ATI Rage 128 PRO ability to decode and display all 18 ATSC HDTV formats at full frame rates (14FEB00) (ATI)
(alternate link)
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Sony Electronics selects ATI Rage XL graphics and ATI Rage Theater video chips for
Sony advanced digital set-top box (14FEB00) (ATI)
(alternate link)
(alternate link)
- Wink chooses Scientific-Atlanta as systems integrator for multiple launches of interactive television services at five Charter Communications sites (14FEB00) (PRN)
- Wink and Pioneer make deal to incorporate Wink into Voyager digital set-top boxes running Passport software platform (9FEB00) (Wink) (alternate link)
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General Motors, Kraft, and Unilever sign agreements to broadcast Wink-able interactive television commercials (7FEB00) (Wink)
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BSquare to distribute Insignia accelerated java Jeode solution for WinCE info net devices,
web pads, interactive television set-top boxes, and windows-based terminals (14FEB00) (BSquare)
(alternate link)
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Beyond iCraveTV: TV networks and Hollywood studios get ready to go after other video pirates (13FEB00) (LVSun-AP)
- TV and Web living in harmony (14FEB00) (PCWorld)
- TV and Web show simultaneous play in Cyber Dialogue study (11FEB00) (IndustryStandard)
- Telewebbers have double vision on web and tv (10FEB00) (BusinessWeek)
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Cyber Dialogue says "enhanced television" for telewebbers catching on with
10 million people visiting websites and watching television at the same time (8FEB00) (NYTIMES-COX)
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Eagle Wireless announces wireless DSL capabilities for convergent set-top box (11FEB00) (EGLW)
(alternate link)
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Ruel's Spotlight Website: VM Labs' NUON (11FEB00)
The PR folks for VM Labs write in to say the NUON media processing chip set technology is already in Motorola's Streamaster and will be in DVD players from Samsung, Raite, Toshiba, and other companies. "NUON ... powers interactive TV, whether through a set-top box, or a DVD player that will ... provide access to the Internet." -
Watch Out Playstation2: Motorola, Toshiba, Samsung, and Raite Optoelectronics to use
VM Labs' NUON technology to let you play videogames on DVD movie player boxes (7FEB00) (MSNBC)
Waiting for VHS VCRs to go away before you get a DVD player? A consultant with extensive consumer electronics experience recently told me there are various manufacturers who are going to stop or scale down making VCRs within a year's time. -ruel -
Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget bullish on AOLTV (11FEB00) (CNET)
A previous grapevine report indicated that AOLTV may make its online debut in March and then appear in retail stores in May with a possible price-tag of $249. Expect heated competition between AOLTV boxes and WebTV Plus boxes. -ruel -
OpenTV ends 1999 with more than 6.1 Million digital set-top boxes worldwide (10FEB00) (OpenTV)
(alternate link)
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Web Lifestyle: Net to be more like ordinary home furniture in near future (10FEB00) (MSNBC)
- BSkyB investing £250M in new media ventures Sky.com and Skysports.com to replicate television success on internet (9FEB00) (BBC)
- BSkyB to build cross-platform portals to drive viewers between television, internet, and BSkyB's Open interactive television service (9FEB00) (CNNfn-Reuters)
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BSkyB pouring £250M ($403M) into internet properties (9FEB00) (InternetNews)
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Blue Zone has multi-year agreement with Canadian news network CTV
for enhanced television programming, personalized news-on-demand, and
simulcast interactive content on-air and online as Blue Zone becomes Microsoft TV
solutions provider (10FEB00) (PRN)
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Blue Zone expands with new studio to serve interactive broadcast clients throughout
eastern United States and Canada (9FEB00) (PRN)
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Sega of America to launch multiplayer videogame on Sega Dreamcast Network in March (9FEB00) (CNET)
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Next phase of the Microsoft-RadioShack store-within-store alliance scheduled for 3Q Y2000
showcasing Microsoft technologies including WebTV Network
services, MSN Mobile Service, and Microsoft home networking solutions (9FEB00) (PRN)
Linked news item is primarily about Microsoft and RadioShack offering MSN internet access service to PC consumers but mentions the 3Q Y2000 plans.- Microsoft Windows Media Player now does pay-per-view and pay-per-download (9FEB00) (CNET)
- Microsoft making pay-per-view play with Windows Media Player (9FEB00) (IndustryStandard)
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Nicholas Johnson on interactive television: People want passive TV (8FEB00) (UnionTribune)
Nicholas Johnson was on the FCC in the 1960s and 1970s. Union-Tribune ComputerLink editor Suzanne Cooney labels him a renegade. Johnson gave two afternoon lectures as the Regent's lecturer at the University of California at San Diego where at one of the lectures he said, "As I explained to one of the companies that thought interactive TV was on their road to riches, 'You need to understand, the TV audience doesn't want interactive TV. They don't even want active TV. They want passive TV. That's the whole point of TV.'"
That may sound very old school to some, but you can pull some truth out of what Johnson says when you consider that TV watching is a passive lean-back activity compared to the active lean-forward activity of computers. It'll mostly be click, click, click on the remote control and not necessarily all type, type, type on a keyboard when watching the TV (although you will have some computer-type functions).
If you "Think TV," you will understand that entertainment functions will predominate over typical computer-type functions (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) on the TV set. So, that means media on-demand, surfing the internet, and some two-way communications.
Going over to the radio world for simple analogies, this would be similar to having an all-in-one radio box for listening to AM-FM radio stations, listening to ham radio, and, if you have the capability, talking on ham radio. Also throw in a CD and a tape player into that audio system.
For interactive television that would mean having an all-in-one box for watching TV broadcast and cable stations, surfing the internet, and doing email or some other form of two-way communications. And you can also toss in a DVD-CD player, media on-demand, videogames, and a digital video recorder. -ruel -
FCC denies petition filed by Sinclair Broadcast Group and backed 300 other
television stations requesting changes to U.S. digital television standard (8FEB00) (CNET)
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Ruel's Spotlight Website: Commerce.TV (8FEB00)
- Welcome to the Post-PC era (8FEB00) (Register)
- IDC says net appliances to soar (8FEB00) (NUA)
- Post-PC Era: Net appliances including internet videogame consoles, WebTV and set-top boxes, internet handheld devices, web terminals, email terminals and screenphones to pass PC shipments in 2002 (7FEB00) (CNNfn-Reuters) (alternate link)
- IDC says info appliance market to explode to $17.8B by 2004 with net devices to pass consumer PC shipments in 2002 (7FEB00) (PRN)
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Expansion of info net appliance market to be driven by couch potatos with TV set-tops to be first wave of products to hit the home (7FEB00) (CNET)
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Accessing the internet in Japan without the PC (8FEB00) (WashPost)
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