Audio Video News

Facebook’s Virtual Reality technology uses dynamic streaming to offer multiple resolutions. It musters the highest quality in the center and lower quality in your peripheral vision...

Ultra HDTVs Occupied 40 percent of U.S. retail shelf space in late 2015, according to Quixel Research—although picture-improving HDR and other technologies are still developing. Shelf share of 1080p TVs dropped to 46 percent, from 71 percent 18 months before...

Netflix in HDR is on the way. Check out the first season of Marco Polo and the second season of Daredevil...

Vudu’s Ultra HD offerings have increased to 33 with The Intern and In the Heart of the Sea. The latter streams in Dolby Atmos...

Amazon’s First Non-Prime original series is the third season of Fashion Fund. Does the ad-supported show herald more free programming?...

Verizon’s FiOS Custom TV now comes in two flavors: Custom TV—Essentials and Custom TV—Sports & More. The latter was apparently designed to mollify ESPN, which was miffed at having its expensive sports channels omitted from the money-saving skinny bundle...

Canada Mandates Skinny TV bundles, requiring all pay-TV providers to offer an under-$25C package. Full à la carte service is due in December...

Tom DeVesto, cofounder of Cambridge SoundWorks and Tivoli Audio, has launched a new Boston-based company called Como Audio. The first products, due in fall, will be different from Tivoli’s, but still small and user friendly...

ABC Is Now on Sling TV as a Broadcast Extra add-on for $5/month in some markets. It’s the first time one of the major broadcast-TV networks has gotten slung...

Xfinity Now Records 24/7 on home security cameras, a boon to Comcast cable subscribers who get the Home Automation package for $9.95/month. You can review footage for up to 10 days on the Xfinity Home app or computer web browser...

T-Mobile and YouTube have inked a pact to bring the latter’s videos to the former’s Binge On mobile video service, making it immune from the data cap. Also added are such luminaries as Baeble Music, Discovery Go, ESNE TV, FilmOn.tv, Fox Business, KlowdTV, and Red Bull TV...

Sky Q, from Sky, the U.K. pay-TV and ISP company, will launch with the Sky Q Silver 12-tuner DVR, the Sky Q Mini Wi-Fi box for secondary TVs, the Sky Q Hub, which connects to Sky boxes with Wi-Fi and power-line technology, and the Sky Q app for tablets and smartphones. The company calls it “fluid viewing,” and Ultra HD support will follow...

Internet-Connected TVs now reach 52 percent of internet-connected homes, says the NPD Group. Most are fed through a game console or streaming player, with directly fed smart TVs accounting for less than half of the total...

Sony’s PlayStation Vue streaming platform has gone nationwide following a limited launch in March. The cord-cutter lure runs on PlayStation4 and -3, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, and iOS devices running the Vue app...

Hulu and Windows 10 now have diplomatic relations with a PC, tablet, and phone app that integrates with the operating system’s live tiles and voice-operated Cortana personal assistant. Hulu has also launched an ad-free version for $11.99/month and another that integrates Showtime’s streaming service for $8.99/month over the basic $7.99/month charge...

Microsoft Axed Its Skype for TV app from smart TVs from most major manufacturers. If you’re already using it, it may go on working for a while but may eventually be removed from your set...

DTS Play-Fi wireless multiroom audio distribution is now built into the Acer Liquid Jade 2 smartphone. Press the Play-Fi tile in your Android notification screen, and your Wi-Fi network will fling music to Play-Fi devices, which include serious audio equipment from heavy hitters like Paradigm and Polk...

Sonos Cut Jobs in a restructuring designed to give new emphasis to voice control and advanced streaming. The wireless speaker market, especially Amazon’s Echo speaker, prompted the refocus...

Online Radio Listening now reaches half of listeners 12 and up, up from one-third two years ago. The medium has captured 73 percent of listeners 12 to 24...

PBS Is Multicasting kids’ channels. The stream is available through local affiliates as well as pbskids.org...

B&O Comes to LG Smartphones via its B&O Play division. LG already offers 192/24 and a 32-bit DAC in some models...

The DisplayPort 1.4 Interface does 8K at 60 hertz. Will it leapfrog 4K, which the new standard supports at 120 Hz? No comment...