Audio Video News

LG webOS 3.0 has a unified Channel Plus list that integrates streaming with broadcast channels including free and premium content. You can even control other LG smart appliances through the home network...

LG Is Building OLED in a new South Korean plant with a $9 billion investment, Reuters reports. It will open in early 2018, making not only big-screen TVs but screens for smartphones and smart watches...

U.S. UHDTV Penetration will hit 34 percent in 2019, predicts IHS, more than in any other country, driven by price drops for the underlying panels. Penetration will reach 31 percent in the U.K., 25 percent in the European Union, 24 percent in China, and 14 percent in Japan...

Pay-TV Subscriptions Are Growing, but not in the U.S., reports the informitv Multiscreen Index. The biggest gains are in the Asia Pacific countries, with additional gains in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the U.K....

Comcast and Philadelphia have inked a new 15-year pact—no surprise, since that’s Comcast’s hometown. The nation’s number-one cable operator will increase its educational and governmental commitments and is building a 59-story Innovation and Technology Center...

Apple Is Spiking plans to offer a live TV service. Bloomberg reports that it is refocusing efforts on getting media companies to sell directly to consumers through the App Store...

TV Everywhere Is Burgeoning, growing 102 percent in 2015, according to the Adobe Digital Index. The most used devices are iPad (22 percent), Android (19 percent), Apple TV (13 percent), and PC (11 percent), with Roku, Mac, game consoles, and Amazon Fire TV in single digits, and smart TVs less than 1 percent...

Dish Anywhere is getting a parental filter that’s configurable in the app. “Now parents can hand over their tablets and laptops to their kids guilt- and worry-free!”...

TiVo’s Roamio DVRs may not be the latest generation, but they’re getting some new features anyway. Just added are QuickMode, which speeds up content with pitch-corrected audio; and SkipMode, which hops over commercial blocks...

TiVo Has Tested a Cloud DVR, “and it works,” says CEO Tom Rogers. But getting anyone to license it will be tough in a legal environment where cloud DVRs must make individual recordings, as opposed to multiple DVRs sharing a single stored copy on a network, due to copyright concerns...

Verizon’s DVR Anywhere feature is part of the software update for FiOS TV. Subscribers can access recordings on connected devices, stream the full channel lineup at home, stream recorded shows at home or away, and download recordings to mobile devices for offline use...

JetBlue and Amazon have teamed up to offer Amazon video service on 150 planes with Fly-Fi connectivity. Even non-Prime members can rent or buy, while Prime subscribers can of course access their existing libraries...

The Repacking of the Airwaves may run into problems as the FCC girds for its spectrum auction, which would reallocate some spectrum currently used for DTV broadcasting to mobile broadband. A study commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters suggested that there may not be enough broadcast-tower workers to install all the necessary transmitters, antennas, RF components, and tower structural modifications...

Should We Worry that the Consumer Electronics Association changed its name to the Consumer Technology Association? Given that its original name back in 1924 was the Radio Manufacturers Association, probably not...

The Internet of Things bedevils 67 percent of users, who struggle with the devices, says a PlumChoice survey of 1,500 people. Even those 18 to 24, presumed to be hipper, have trouble understanding the full functionality what they’ve purchased...

Who Buys the Most CE? Gen-Xers, at 45 percent, says a study by comScore and Purch. However, Millennials spend the most...

DTS:X Firmware Updates arrived earlier this year to upper-end Denon and Marantz receivers including Denon’s flagship AVR-X7200WA ($2,999) and Marantz’s SR7010 ($2,199). Once updated, the receivers can run Audyssey auto setup and room calibration for up to 9 or 11 channels...

Amazon’s Top Sellers of the 2015 holiday shopping season were a Jenson JTA-230 turntable with built-in speakers and USB port (marked down from $80 to less than $50) and Fuji film for Instax Mini cameras ($15/twin-pack). Other, less retro audio sensations were the Yamaha RX-V677 A/V receiver (under $400) and Sonos Play:1 speakers ($349 for a two-room bundle)...