Audio Video News

You want to spend time with the family.  That's good. You want to watch Survivor, the kids want to watch Ugly Betty. So, you slog off to the home theater, alone, and leave the rest of the family sharing popcorn. Bummer for you.

If Texas Instruments has its way, you'll be able to stay with the family, and you can enjoy both shows, on the big screen. TI, maker of the DLP Cinema chip is working on a way to display two shows on the same screen. Not a picture-in-picture, but both using the whole screen.

Sounds like magic to me . . .

The technology used will be similar to what is used to create a 3D image on your screen. Instead of wearing glasses that combine two slightly different images, you'll wear glasses that will only expose one of the signals. The rest of the family will wear glasses that expose the other signals.

Of course, someone will have to wear headphones to hear the sound for their programming.

At CES 2008, NPR was showing off a car video display that showed two separate images depending on the viewing angle — nav system for the driver, close-captioned radio for a hearing-impaired passenger. This could be another interesting approach with similar results.

All these new developments are exciting, and certainly beat a tiny picture-in-picture image. Can they work on making the 3-D-esque glasses slightly less dorky? —Leslie Shapiro

The Hollywood Reporter