SANTA MONICA, Cal. -- Label proponents of the new “DualDisc” used the DVD Forum Promotional Conference here Tues. to trumpet their DVD/CD hybrid as the most important new packaged music product to be introduced since the advent of the CD. But the advocates -- Universal Music, Warner Music and 5.1 Entertainment Group -- broke little new ground about DualDisc and sidestepped all controversy about the hybrids, including whether they face possible patent challenges and the playability concerns that have prompted Philips to bar them from carrying the CD logo. Meanwhile, our hands-on evaluation of the newest DualDiscs unearthed fewer problems than with those issued during Feb.’s test marketing, but found perplexing anomalies still exist -- resulted in a 23-25% incompatibility rate with legacy CD and DVD playback hardware.
Sirius won’t rule out a buyout of Howard Stern’s contract with Infinity Bcstg. to push up his satellite radio debut ahead of Jan. 2006 date planned, senior Sirius executives told financial analysts Wed. in the company’s quarterly conference call. Infinity officials wouldn’t comment.
CE is “the logical place for our brand to play,” Bryan Burns, ESPN vp-strategic planning & business development, told us Wed. at the CEA Industry Forum in San Francisco. His company will use the Jan. CES to launch ESPN2HD with 3 back-to-back college basketball telecasts the evening of Jan. 6 -- DePaul vs. Cincinnati at 7 p.m. (ET), following by Memphis vs. Tex. at 9 p.m., and Gonzaga vs. Santa Clara at 11 p.m. Ultimately, Burns said, he foresees the introduction of ESPN-branded CE gear, although it’s unlikely the first products will be introduced at the next show. He also declined to speculate whether ESPN would introduce such gear on its own or with an established CE partner. Meanwhile, Burns and ESPNHD remain avid defenders of HDTV in 720p, despite a derogatory reference or 2 from speakers at this week’s CEA Forum suggesting it’s not quite up to snuff. “We've never called this a debate between 1080 and 720, just between the ‘p’ and the ‘i,'” Burns said, repeating the mantra he has stated at many recent conferences. Those “in the know” regard progressive scan as the best system for live sports in HD, Burns said, arguing no alternative system can better capture the glory of an Andy Roddick tennis serve at 140 mph. Burns said statements he made last summer that ESPNHD would use 1080p cameras for live sports beginning in 2005 caused a “firestorm” of reaction in the CE industry and elsewhere. In reality, converting to 1080p is “not even on the radar screen” at ESPNHD, he said. Burns said his company simply acquiesced to suppliers that approached the network about testing 1080p cameras. He said it was in suppliers’ business plans to do so, not ESPN’s.
Multi-industry meetings continue on bidirectional plug-&-play set tops, but “I can’t even begin to guess” when there might be an agreement, Brian Smith, of Philips, Cable Working Group chmn., told the CEA Video Div. Tues. at the CEA Industry Forum in San Francisco. As for unidirectional plug-&-play, Panasonic’s Peter Fannon, CEA Video Div. chmn., told us the “experience” of rolling out CableCARD-ready products “in general has been very good in most places.” Still, Fannon said, CE will continue to press its case at the FCC and elsewhere that digital cable ready DTV products be made “fully competitive.” CableCARD problems generally have been “resolved promptly,” Fannon said. He said he’s sympathetic to cable, because CableCARDs afford “a raft of very complex issues.” But at the same time, he said, “there shouldn’t be any issues that aren’t insurmountable.” Moreover, he said, cable had “6 years’ notice” to get CableCARDs right.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Fresh from the recent failed attempt to craft broadly acceptable Induce Act copyright language in the Senate, CE and content industry combatants took their campaigns to the CEA Industry Forum here Tues. The MPAA renewed a vow to work with CE on a bill that would please both sides, but Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Fred von Lohmann said Induce couldn’t prevent indiscriminate P2P file-sharing.
Netflix shares lost nearly 41% of their value Fri., a day after the company announced what Wall St. perceived as drastic measures to fend off a competitive challenge from a new potential rival, Amazon.com.
CE margin pressures were the one blight for Philips in an otherwise solid 3rd quarter in which results improved “across a broad front,” the company said Tues. In fact, CEO Gerard Kleisterlee said the company would have been entirely pleased with the quarter if not for CE, where margins, especially in flat-panel TVs and DVD+RW products, “came under heavy pressure in a highly competitive consumer market.”
The FCC exceeded its statutory authority by enacting broadcast flag requirements for DTV despite Congress having “specifically withheld” power from the Commission to control TV receiver designs, plaintiffs told a federal appeals court Mon. In an opening brief filed at the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., in an 8-month-old suit against the Commission (CED Feb 4 p2), a coalition of 9 consumer and education groups asked the court to set aside FCC’s broadcast flag mandate.
Next-generation optical disc systems and the advanced TV technologies best-suited to display them took center stage at the CEATEC electronics show that opened Tues. in the Makuhari exposition grounds on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Tempting as it might be for the Blu-ray camp to excessively exploit for political advantage the announcement Mon. that Fox was joining the Blu-ray Disc Assn. (BDA) as the 14th founding member of its board, Blu- ray “knows the risks in so doing,” a key Fox executive told Consumer Electronics Daily.