A year before NTIA’s DTV converter box coupon program takes effect Thomson is using CES to arouse retailer interest in its DTAA800 set-top that would be coupon- eligible. The DTAA800 has a remote control, a smart antenna interface and displays on-screen program information transmitted by the broadcaster. It conforms to energy efficiency standards likely to be adopted by NTIA. On the CES floor, Thomson is demonstrating the DTAA800 on a 40-year- old TV set, to help commemorate the 40th anniversary of CES. The first OCAP-based MPEG-4 HD DVR cable set-top is being introduced at CES by Thomson’s Premises Systems division. The DCI9000 has an embedded DOCSIS 2.0 and DSG cable modem, enabling IP communication directly to the set-top. “This architecture facilitates the deployment of services requiring 2-way communication like switched broadcast or VoD, as well as bandwidth-intensive IP services,” Thomson said. A new modem version supporting downstream channel bonding will be introduced by the end of the year, enabling download speeds of over 100 Mbps. “With this new set-top box, cable operators can gradually introduce IPTV services on top of their existing broadcast and VoD services,” it said. The DCI900 supports single-stream and multistream CableCARDs, Thomson said. Thomson’s effort to sell its AV business “hasn’t stopped us from innovating,” COO Dan Collishaw said. Thomson doubled its DVD market share in 2006 and had a successful year with its RCA Small Wonder digital camcorder, he said: “In fact, Small Wonder will redefine the camcorder business.” It’s introducing a 3rd-generation Small Wonder, the EZ201 $129, with SD Memory Card slot and flip-out display. It runs on 2 AA batteries. A companion to Small Wonder, the RCA MemoryMaker docking station, is due in fall, for burning DVDs of one’s favorite homemade videos.
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
LAS VEGAS -- Surprising feature shortcuts mark LG’s much-heralded industry-first dual-format Blu-ray/HD DVD player, including its inability to support HD DVD’s iHD interactivity, senior executives told a pre-CES news conference here Sun. Moreover, its dual-format PC drive supports the full suite of Blu-ray read-write functionality, but only ROM playback for HD DVD, the executives said.
HD DVD delivered on all its 2006 promises made at CES a year ago, Toshiba Vp-Mktg. Jodi Sally told a news conference Sun. Over 4,000 storefronts have sold 60,000 units of Toshiba’s first- and 2nd-generation HD DVD players to consumers, Sally said. If Toshiba can sell an HD DVD player to only 3% of new HDTV owners in 2007, it can amass unit sales of 2 million decks this year, she said. Toshiba’s HD DVD resolution a year ago was to capture early adopters, she said. Its resolution this year is to capture the “early majority,” she said. At CES, Toshiba is adding a new 2nd- generation player, the HD-A20, available in spring at $599. At that price point, it sits in the middle of Toshiba’s good- better-best HD DVD lineup, between the $499 HD-A2 and $999 HD-XA2. The HD-A20, like the HD-XA2, sports 1080p output.
LAS VEGAS -- Average DTV set pricing will fall this year to $901 at the factory level, as unit sales soar 22% and will be in striking distance of breaking 30 million sets for the year, CEA said Sat. in releasing its annual consensus forecast here on the eve of CES. Total CE industry volume jumped 13% last year to $145.74 billion, but growth this year is expected to slow to 7%, though still topping $155 billion, CEA said.
Over 191,000 CableCARDs have been deployed by the 5 largest cable companies, NCTA said Fri. in its latest update to the FCC. Including the next 5 largest cable companies, the total exceeds 216,000 deployed by operators whose service areas include about 90% of U.S. subscribers, NCTA said. By Nov. 10, 29 CE companies had 541 models of CableCARD-ready product verified, it said. CableLabs in Jan. will begin offering compatibility tests of one-way digital cable products and their multistream CableCARD interface, as it tests “conformance” to the single-stream CableCARD interface, NCTA said. Comcast had the largest number of CableCARD subscribers by far, 102,168 in Nov., but charges no monthly leasing fee, the report said. Time Warner Cable (TWC), which had 41,461 CableCARD subscribers, charged $2.05 on average -- the most among large MSOs. But most of its divisions are at $1.75, it said. TWC still is working on standard CableCARD lease rates across its divisions, it said. Pricing differs within the cable systems formerly owned by Adelphia and related systems that were swapped with Comcast, TWC said. TWC was virtually alone among major MSOs in offering to let subscribers self-install CableCARDs, though self-installs accounted for only 4% of TWC CableCARDs deployed, the report said. TWC also had the highest average number of truck rolls required to install a CableCARD -- 1.73.
San Bruno Cable will put 2 Motorola DCT-700 digital cable set-tops in each subscriber’s home at no extra charge if it can keep buying those boxes after the July 1 CableCARD deadline, the municipal cable operator told the FCC. San Bruno wants a 2-year “expedited” CableCARD waiver on the DCT- 700 so it can convert customers to an all-digital network within 3 years, it said. “Our transition to an all-digital network will free up bandwidth for additional services, including more high definition channels, more specialty channels, higher internet bandwidth and more,” San Bruno said. Without a waiver, “we will have no choice but to purchase and deploy digital set-tops that cost significantly more with no discernible benefit to our customers,” it said: “This will derail our digital simulcast plans and push our transition date back several years at least.” CEA will oppose San Bruno’s waiver request and “will have more to say” about it “when we file our response,” a spokesman told us. The DTV transition “is vitally important to all American consumers, and the cable monopolies should not try to hold that transition hostage to their self-interested push to maintain an equipment monopoly,” he said: “Cable should abide by the commitment it made a decade ago to support a robustly competitive equipment marketplace, and it should further abide by its commitment to support the transition to digital television with no strings attached.”
Audiovox “weighed all options,” including buying Thomson’s Americas-based AV and accessories operations as a package, but decided to cherry-pick the accessories business in an “end agreement” the company is “very excited about,” an Audiovox spokesman told Consumer Electronics Daily Thurs.
Participation in CEA standards activities “is open to all interested parties,” CEA said, responding to an ex parte letter filed at the FCC by the Coalition for Independent Ratings Services. Coalition members, including Media Data Corp., had alleged they were shut out of the process to revise the CEA-766-A specification. The spec enables DTV sets to read U.S. and Canadian “region rating tables” (RRTs) using “program and system information protocol” (PSIP) in the ATSC standard. CEA has “already communicated to Media Data that we welcome their participation and look forward to receiving their input,” CEA said. “CEA maintains an unmatched reputation as a credible and flexible standards- making body, providing a unique and efficient forum where technical professionals throughout the industry develop a unified technology roadmap and address technical issues critical to CE industry growth. We welcome all participation in this process.” As for Coalition allegations that CEA had reserved “RRT 0X05” for itself for future use, CEA said ATSC is “the librarian” for RRTs. That was established so there would be a public record of what numbers are assigned to which regions, CEA said. This registry of reserved RRTs “is necessary to keep 2 countries from grabbing the same number,” CEA said. “CEA asked the ATSC to assign the next available rating region number to the U.S. for this new downloadable RRT. The next available number happened to be 5. We reserved the placeholder for future downloadable rating systems, but not the actual content of the table. That is the way the ATSC system works, not our over-reaching. The CEA standards working group that discusses rating systems is still active. The standard referenced in the letter to the FCC, CEA-766-A, is still open for comment.”
With Best Buy set to require vendors this spring to certify their HDMI products as compatibility-tested (CED Dec 19 p1), and with other retailers also likely to do so, Simplay Labs is “definitely up to the challenge” of increased demand for Simplay HD tests should it materialize, Pres. Joseph Lias told Consumer Electronics Daily.
“There’s no evidence at all to suggest” the FCC will grant cable’s various CableCARD waiver requests, NCTA Pres. Kyle McSlarrow told reporters in a Tues. teleconference. Months ago, McSlarrow told major cable operator CEOs to prepare to comply with a July 1, 2007, CableCARD deadline, he said. “Though while I thought we had a meritorious case to make to the FCC,” the cable operators “needed to proceed as if they're going to put CableCARDs in our boxes, and I believe they're doing that,” McSlarrow said: “I see no evidence we're going to get this resolved anytime soon. That’s not to say that it won’t get resolved later, but I think at this point, for July, I think most people frankly are assuming that there’s going to be CableCARDs in some boxes for some period of time” because cable operators need to place orders, he said. “There’s an irony that’s not lost on us” when the Commission wants to impose a 90-day “shot clock” on video franchising, but hasn’t acted on cable’s waiver requests in the 90 days it’s required to do so by law, McSlarrow said: “It’s ironic that the FCC presumes to tell anybody else in America that they have to get something done in 90 days, when by law they were supposed to rule on our waiver requests within 90 days.” The Commission hasn’t acted on a Comcast waiver request filed last spring, he said. And NCTA’s waiver request -- now 120 days old -- wasn’t even put out for public comment for 76 days, McSlarrow said.