Posts Tagged: hdtv

High definition broadcast of 4th of July fireworks from US capital promises to be a spectacular affair


















It’s billed as America’s biggest birthday party and one that even those not able to attend in person will be able to enjoy on HDTV.
Demand from viewers has led to coverage of this year’s Capitol Fourth celebrations from Washington DC being given extended coverage on the US public broadcast network PBS.
The Independence Day fireworks will be captured live by 18 cameras positioned around the capital as national landmarks such as the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials are silhouetted on the skyline.
An estimated 100 million homes in the US own HDTVs – around 41 per cent of TV owners.
Jerry Colbert, executive producer of Capital Concerts, said that if you couldn’t be in Washington, DC for the event, watching it on HDTV would be the next best thing.







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Former backer of Toshiba's "defeated" HD DVD format to release first Blu-ray Disk player










Onkyo, the A/V manufacturer that backed the high def DVD format and sold around 2,000 players, is to launch its first BD player later this year.
The company had flagged up its intention to let bygones be bygones and join the other “side” shortly after Toshiba announced that it would concede the format war last February.
It discontinued production of its HD DVD players, while assuring existing customers they would continue to receive full product support and service.
A company statement also said it’s R&D team had “maintained a parallel development programme for the competing Blu-ray technology”.



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HDTV coverage of Beijing Olympics offers athletics action in immediate slow motion

Belgian company I-Movix is to provide its SprintCam Live 2 HDTV cameras to cover much of the action from the Olympic games in Beijing.
Able to record events at speeds up to 8,000 frames per second, a rate which is more than 260 times that of normal video.
And while the cameras produce incredible slow-motion images, there is nothing slow about replay times – clips are available for immediate re-viewing.
The HDTV cameras will be deployed with mobile units at all the major games venues.

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Cable operators will continue to shoulder the cost of STBs unless testing is adopted to ensure all devices work in all cable systems.


A retail market for tru2way compliant set-top boxes (STBs) in the US will never emerge unless they are portable across cable systems.
That’s the conclusion of Steve Wilson, principal analyst with ABI Research, who expects the biggest challenge to tru2way to be interoperability.
In his research brief, “The Outlook for tru2way”, Wilson describes it as a “double-edged sword” for operators.
“On one hand, cable operators want to ‘own’ the customer’s entire user experience and they aren’t ready to allow others to start loading applications into the STB,” he said.
“On the other, an open cable standard will reduce the tremendous cost burden custom systems and STBs place on the entire cable business.”

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Japan to use audience rating system to discover IPTV programme preferences

A viewer rating system developed by Oki Electric Industry is to be used in Japan to collect information on the viewing habits of IPTV users.
Existing ground-based broadcasting systems have the means to gather viewership data, such as user preference and viewer history.
Broadcasting companies say this information is important in enabling them to improve services.
However, until now there has been are no equivalent user information collection functions for IPTV services.
OKI’s IPTV Audience Rating Information System allows service providers, with the authorisation of users, to obtain information about when and which channel and programs the users watched.

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Survey shows viewers shifting towards web but preference is still for television screen


Over a third of all US broadband users have watched at least one TV show on the Internet, according to a study conducted on behalf of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).
But the research found that while broadband users are increasingly turning to the web for their video content fix, 94 per cent still prefer to do their viewing on a television screen.
For cable and satellite networks concerned about the growing threat of online TV shows and movies, the survey provided some comfort.
Of those who watched online shows, 82 per cent did so because they had missed a specific programme on TV.
Based on this, the report points out the “critical importance of strong marketing for the initial TV showing".

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LCD HDTV to be sold in Japan which allows simple transfer of high def content from the PC to the TV


Watching high def content downloaded from the Internet is going to get a whole lot easier for viewers in Japan.
A liquid crystal display high-definition television made by byd:sign Corporation is to be the first with DivX Certification sold in the Japanese market.
The video format will let viewers watch digital content from PCs on the HDTV – rather than on a PC monitor.
Katsumi Iizuka, chief executive officer of byd:sign Corporation, said DivX videos had enabled consumers to enjoy high-quality content through the internet.
“DivX Certification enhances our HDTV features and gives added value,” he said.

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Olympics and Tour de France to be aired as Europe's public channels add to their high definition options


The UK’s BBC has begun testing the transmission of high def services over Freeview in a move that could see the introduction of full HD terrestrial by the end of 2009.
The broadcaster has started transmissions from a Guildford-based transmitter using the second-generation DVB-T specification DVB-T2.
Justin Mitchell, leader of the DVB-T2 modem development team at the BBC, said the trial could enable the introduction of HD onto Freeview by December next year.
DVB-T2 is said to offer 30 per cent more data carrying capacity as DVB-T under the same conditions.
Across the Channel, the HD version of public channel France 2 has been launched on several platforms, including CanalSat DTH and Numéricable.
As has been the case with other broadcasters across Europe, including VRT in Belgium and Nederland 1 in The Netherlands, France 2 will show sport events such as the Tour de France and the Beijing Olympics in HD.

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Report says HDTV will not become the new "normal" television until around 2015


The uptake of HD technology in Europe is accelerating rapidly but there remains a “significant” content gap caused by the lack of HD programming on free-to-air platforms across the region.
That’s the conclusion of the latest report from media analysts Screen Digest which says that by the end of 2007, 18 per cent of the 165 million European TV households were equipped with HD displays.
But less than one per cent of these (approximately one million) were fully “HD enabled” – that is equipped with an HD set-top box and an HD subscription enabling them to watch HD broadcasts.
The report forecasts that by 2012 the situation will have improved little – only 20 per cent of the 85 per cent of European households with HD displays will actually be watching in HD.
It says that ultimately HD will become the default choice of TV viewers but in the most part they will have to wait at least until 2015 to enjoy the content for free.

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DVD still dominates the movie market but Blu-ray set to overtake by 2012


The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) expects sales of Blu-ray disks in the US to exceed those of standard DVDs by 2012.
In its latest Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry, the EMA reports that home video continues to dominate the movie market.
This segment of the market had sales of approximately US$24 billion, making it the largest segment of consumer movie spending by far, accounting for 49% of total consumer movie spending in 2007.
In the video game market, game software sales increased 34% in 2007, to a total of US$8.6 billion.

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