As Best Buy’s launch of the Magnolia store-within-a- store concept represents a test of the “elasticity” of the Best Buy brand, “I do believe there are boundaries” to how far that brand can stretch, Tweeter Home Entertainment CFO Joseph McGuire told the Thomas Weisel Partners investors conference Tues. in N.Y.C. No brand “can be all things to all people,” and at Best Buy, “I think they're trying to figure out where that [limit] is,” McGuire said.
The MPAA and its member studios “are actively hostile” to any broadcast flag protection technology that allows remote viewing of DTV content, and therefore their arguments against TiVo’s TiVoGuard “should be taken with a grain of salt.” So argued Public Knowledge (PK) and Consumers Union (CU) in a joint reply Mon. at the FCC opposing a petition for reconsideration filed by the MPAA, which urged the Commission to require the imposition of proximity controls for TiVoGuard and SmartRight technologies for broadcast flag protection (CED Sept 27 p4).
Thomson and its SmartRight partners have begun “private discussions” with the MPAA to develop criteria for remote content access controls so the “full functionality” of the system “can be exploited for the benefit of consumers,” Thomson told the FCC last week. Its comments replied to a petition for reconsideration the MPAA had filed at the FCC a week earlier, urging the Commission to require imposition of proximity controls for SmartRight and TiVo’s TiVoGuard technologies.
Promoting widespread use of the term “transmitters disabled” and corresponding screen icons is at the heart of a CEA draft of a standardized “recommended practice” that is circulating for comment and ultimately could ease restrictions on use of wireless personal electronic devices (PEDs) aboard commercial aircraft (CED Sept 22 p7). CEA has set a Sept. 27 deadline for comments on the draft, with the aim of releasing it as a final voluntary standard Oct. 18, opening day of the CEA Industry Forum in San Francisco (CED Sept 3 p5).
DTS is “actively engaged” in standards talks with both the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps, and is optimistic it will become a mandatory part of both systems, CEO Jon Kirchner told the SG Cowen technology conference last week in Boston.
DLP as a technology “does not need any added hype” because “it almost sells itself,” Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton told the Smith Barney Citigroup technology conference Thurs. in N.Y.C. DLP is on the brink of becoming a billion-dollar business for TI, and “we think we have headlights and plans and roadmaps to take that higher yet,” Templeton said. Although DLP is most closely associated with rear-projection TVs for the home, about 60% of the DLP revenue is from business projectors, he said. The segment accounts for sales of about 3.5 million units annually, and is growing about 30% per year, he said. TI also will try “to generate a branding opportunity” in commercial DLP equipment, he said. “Customers can see simply the greatest-looking picture in a theater, and they can carry that recognition with them off to a Best Buy or Circuit City,” he said. As for rear- projection DTV with DLP, Templeton said, “we really have been pleased with the progress we have made, because we've already got the world’s best display, and we've also kept the sales organization focused on our customers.” There were 18 DLP models available at 2003’s end, and as many as 50 will be available this holiday selling season through 6,000 retail outlets worldwide, he said. DLP now outsells plasma throughout the world “because it has a better picture and it’s less expensive, and that’s a pretty compelling offer when it comes to customers,” he said.
DLP as a technology “does not need any added hype” because “it almost sells itself,” Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton told the Smith Barney Citigroup technology conference Thurs. in N.Y.C. DLP is on the brink of becoming a billion-dollar business for TI, and “we think we have headlights and plans and roadmaps to take that higher yet,” Templeton said. Although DLP is most closely associated with rear-projection TVs for the home, about 60% of the DLP revenue is from business projectors, he said. The segment accounts for sales of about 3.5 million units annually, and is growing about 30% per year, he said. TI also will try “to generate a branding opportunity” in commercial DLP equipment, he said. “Customers can see simply the greatest-looking picture in a theater, and they can carry that recognition with them off to a Best Buy or Circuit City,” he said. As for rear- projection DTV with DLP, Templeton said, “we really have been pleased with the progress we have made, because we've already got the world’s best display, and we've also kept the sales organization focused on our customers.” There were 18 DLP models available at 2003’s end, and as many as 50 will be available this holiday selling season through 6,000 retail outlets worldwide, he said. DLP now outsells plasma throughout the world “because it has a better picture and it’s less expensive, and that’s a pretty compelling offer when it comes to customers,” he said.
Macrovision has reached agreements with ReplayTV and TiVo that would place limits on how much content may be recorded and stored on high-capacity PVRs, Carol Flaherty, senior vp in Macrovision’s Technology Group told a day- long piracy workshop in L.A. sponsored by IRMA.
DivX Networks believes format wars such as the Blu- ray vs. HD-DVD fight are “for the long-term good” of the industries involved because they force a market-driven solution, GK Parish-Philip, DivX HD product mgr., told last week’s HDTV Forum in L.A. Letting the market decide which technologies will succeed is preferable to having “political or bureaucratic bodies” such as the DVD Forum set standards, Parish-Philip said.
Thomson will impose proximity controls on its SmartRight technology, the company told the MPAA in a letter Fri. The company is standing by its late-May pledge to the major movie studios to add this further buffer against unauthorized content redistribution, though the FCC’s recent order on broadcast flag protection absolved Thomson from any requirement to do so (CED Aug 16 p1).