In a potential boon for those who predict a proliferation of 1080p HDTV sets for sale at the high end next year but fear a scarcity of programming to do them justice, a senior ESPN executive told Consumer Electronics Daily that ESPN-HD plans to begin using “some” 1080p cameras “in the near future.”
LOS ANGELES -- “The TV opportunity” facing the LCD industry in terms of market potential “is substantially larger than the notebook and desktop PC markets combined” for LCD applications, Joe Virginia, vp of Samsung’s LCD business, told the HDTV Forum here Wed. “That’s why everyone’s got their sights set on it and that’s why we're making all these big investments” in plant capacities, highlighted by Samsung’s $20 billion joint venture with Sony, Virginia said.
LOS ANGELES -- Picture quality matters as much to a consumer as form factor in a DTV set purchase, speaker after speaker emphasized here at this week’s HDTV Forum. Set-maker executives said CE will respond next year with a “proliferation” of DTV products capable of 1080p resolution, putting the onus on broadcasters and the content industry to respond with 1080p HDTV programming.
LOS ANGELES -- The success of ESPN-HD has exceeded all expectations, but the biggest challenge remains “getting the consumer comfortable with HDTV,” Bryan Burns, ESPN vp- strategic planning & business development, told the HDTV Forum here Tues. in a keynote. With “Joe and Martha Consumer” seeking an HD-ready DTV set, Burns said, “you see them walk in the store, you see them pull their credit card out and you see them put it back in their pocket because they're scared.”
The CEA has joined the chorus urging the FCC to grant an IEEE 802.18 Radio Regulatory Technical Advisory Group request to extend the comments deadline for a proceeding on using the white spaces between TV channels for unlicensed devices (CED Aug 18 p4).
Repackaging used goods and passing them off as new is but one of a passel of charges levied in the suit against Best Buy brought by Ohio’s attorney gen. (CED Aug 20 p6), the 12-page complaint disclosed.
Daewoo’s U.S. subsidiary broke its customary silence Tues. to react to our report it had parted ways with Best Buy (CED Aug 17 p1), defending its relations with the national chain as “a great partnership.” It’s true that Daewoo’s 42W enhanced-definition (ED) plasma monitor has been discontinued from Best Buy’s merchandise mix, Stan Kowal, mktg. mgr., told Consumer Electronics Daily. However, other Daewoo products that have been available for sale at Best Buy will remain so, and “are on order,” Kowal said.
Software recently introduced that allows consumers to automatically search the Internet for radio stations and to record songs as MP3 files is proof of the “real and imminent” threat of in-band on-channel (IBOC) DAB without content protection, the RIAA told the FCC in a letter Mon.
The U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco ordered Apex Digital to pay its Chinese exporter more than $10.7 million in an almost 4 year old arbitration dispute over defective DVD player shipments.
All 13 protection technologies approved by the FCC for broadcast flag certification (CED Aug 5 p1) will give content owners “reasonable assurance” against the indiscriminate redistribution of DTV content “while protecting consumers’ use and enjoyment of broadcast video programming and facilitating innovative consumer uses,” the Commission said in the text of its order, issued last week.