Apple has announced that the first HD show is available for download from the iTunes store for AppleTV owners in the UK.
The first offerings in high def are episodes of the current series of ABC’s Lost, which will be sold for £2.49 each.
High Definition TV News
More than 39 million US households have an HDTV set – and the figure keeps on rising.
Yet a sizeable proportion – 43 per cent or 17 million – either don’t have or don’t watch HD content.
Sony is turning its sights on the growing high-def market in China with the opening of a Blu-ray manufacturing plant in Shanghai.
The new plant will produce 500,000 of the high-def discs per month specifically for the domestic market.
This year’s Home Media Expo has been cancelled after a 27-year run as a result of the current economic conditions.
With the financial situation worsening, the technology event is unlikely to be the only casualty among industry tradeshows.
With prices of Blu-ray players and discs falling, the high-def format appears to be making some headway after a hesitant start.
But public ignorance of what hardware is required to fully enjoy Blu-ray is preventing even greater uptake, according to the British Video Association.
Apple reaffirmed support for AppleTV after announcing first quarter sales of the digital media receiver were three times higher than for the same period last year.
Presenting its Q1 financial results, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, said they had beaten Wall Street estimates – with revenues surpassing USD $10bn for the first time in the company’s history.
Pricing pressure for flat-panel TVs was among the factors given as LG Electronics reported a net loss for the fourth quarter, ended 31 December.
On a parent-company basis, LG reported sales of USD $4.84 billion for the quarter, an operating loss of USD $228 million and a net loss of USD $493 million.
The new year may well be firmly underway but there’s still plenty of time to submit your nominations and votes for hdtv.biz-news’ 2008 Man and Product of the Year awards.
With voting expected to be close in both award categories there’s plenty of opportunity for latecomers to make their mark.
Reports are circulating about the likely inclusion of NVIDIA’s Ion platform in the next AppleTV.
It appears that Apple was the first to receive samples of the platform – when other potential users were being supplied with blueprints.
Sonic Solutions has joined forces with Blockbuster in a deal that will enable consumers to download the movie giant’s content.
Under the agreement, Blockbuster will "supply the branded consumer interfaces and Sonic will power content delivery across PC and portable devices".