LATEST ADDITIONS

Mark Fleischmann | Aug 29, 2006

If you live in Naperville, Illinois and want telco TV as an alternative to cable and satellite providers, you're out of luck. AT&T has dropped the Chicago suburb like a bag of dirt. Naperville was willing to sign a franchise agreement that would have brought AT&T's Project Lightspeed—a combination of television, broadband, and telephone service—as long as all residents were eligible to subscribe to the service. AT&T walked away, an executive pouting: "Nowhere in this country has AT&T agreed to a build-out requirement." Then again: "We have an economic incentive to make the service as widely available as possible." But: "What we're not willing to do is make a commitment in 'x' number of months." However, AT&T actually did sign an agreement with nearby North Chicago to provide video service within 18 months. Confused? Here's the catch: that agreement doesn't specify next-generation Internet-based video. The folks in Naperville charged AT&T with making a scene in an attempt to strong-arm Congress into passing pending legislation providing telcos with a national franchise agreement that would end-run municipal governments. A Naperville council member commented: "We have some intellectual dishonesty taking place." See coverage in ArsTechnica and the Chicago Tribune. More tomorrow.

Ears On

Will Telco TV Reach the Trailer Park?

Mark Fleischmann | Aug 28, 2006

To speed the entry of the telephone companies into the video-delivery business, Congress is in the midst of rewriting the franchising rules, substituting national for local authority. Conspicuously absent from the national franchise legislation soon to hit the Senate floor is any mention of "buildout"—that is, an explicit requirement that new video providers serve all homes in a locale. Instead the bill would require the FCC to gather information on patterns of deployment and make an annual report to Congress, flagging any patterns of discrimination. Would that relatively relaxed regulatory approach make it easy for telcos to ignore poor folk? Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg flatly denies it: "We have never engaged in redlining or cherry-picking, and we never will. It is a violation of federal law, and it runs counter to our 100-year legacy of great service to customers. Our deployment strategy speaks for itself. We are serving diverse communities in every state where we are building our FTTP network, and the cable industry's claim is yet another red herring aimed at stifling choice and competition." Media activists will be watching closely. To be continued tomorrow.

Audio Video News

Firmware Update 2.0 Available For Toshiba HD DVD Players

| Aug 27, 2006

Toshiba has made available Firmware Update Version 2.0 for its first-gen HD DVD players. In addition to enabling "anticipated network delivered content in future HD DVD discs" the new firmware version expands Dolby TrueHD support from 2.0-channels to full 5.1-channels. The update can be downloaded directly from the "Suport" link at Toshiba's HD DVD <a href="http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/hddvd/">web site</a>, or upon request Toshiba will ship a CD to registered HD DVD player owners.

Toshiba TheaterWide 62HM196 1080p Rear Projection DLP HDTV

Thomas J. Norton | Aug 27, 2006

As I reported in my news story on the recent <A HREF=" http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/082006displaysearch/ ">DisplaySearch HDTV conference</A>, rear projection displays have lost much of their allure. Everyone, it seems, wants flat, Flat, FLAT! Plasma and LCD displays are hot, and many potential buyers see bulky rear projection displays as old school technology. Some folks even confuse them with CRT rear projection sets.

A/V Veteran

HD DVD Goes Pop

Thomas J. Norton | Aug 27, 2006

The August 2006 issue of Popular Mechanics devotes one entire page (!) to HD DVD. The main feature of the article is a comparison between HD DVD and the standard disc played back on a much less expensive, upconverting DVD player (an $80 Philips).

Audio Video News

Keep It Quiet

Darryl Wilkinson | Aug 25, 2006

Auralex Acoustics will be introducing a complete do-it-yourself home-theater room treatment system at the upcoming Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) Expo in Denver, Colorado.

Ears On

Jobs Blinks

Mark Fleischmann | Aug 25, 2006

Steve Jobs has finally found a situation he can't bluff or bully his way out of. He has, however, bought his way out of a longstanding tiff with Creative Labs, which holds valuable patents on the workings of music players—including the iPod. A $100 million settlement will end court battles and heal all wounds. Jobs' comment on the outcome is wry and brilliantly understated: "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent." And in case you were wondering, he adds: "This settlement resolves all of our differences with Creative, including the five lawsuits currently pending between the companies, and removes the uncertainty and distraction of prolonged litigation." The settlement will leave him freer to contemplate finer things, like warm batteries and cool Scandinavians. Folks at Creative, meanwhile, are looking forward to a harmonious future with Apple. Says victorious CEO Sim Wong Hoo: "Apple has built a huge ecosystem for its iPod and with our upcoming participation in the Made for iPod program we are very excited about this new market opportunity for our speaker systems, our just-introduced line of earphones and headphones, and our future family of X-Fi audio enhancement products." Unmentioned: Creative's Zen player, pictured. He's also pleased about the 85 cents per share Creative stockholders will reap from the settlement. Who wouldn't be?

Audio Video News

EchoStar, Warner Sign HD VOD Deal; AOL Video Portal To Offer Movies, TV Shows

| Aug 24, 2006

DISH Network to offer Warner movies on-demand and in HD 
The ever changing face of video distribution continues to evolve. EchoStar and Warner have signed off on deal that will allow DISH Network customers to access to Warner's new releases and catalog titles via its "Dish On Demand" and pay-per-view services in standard and high-definition.

Ears On

Rising Copper Prices Hit Industry

Mark Fleischmann | Aug 24, 2006

You think gas is expensive? Copper, which formerly sold for around 90 cents a pound, has shot up past $3 a pound. Janet Pinkerton sums up the situation succinctly in the August 2006 issue of Custom Retailer (story not on site): "The copper price spiral has been driven by...a 'perfect storm' of economic factors: ravenous demand for copper and other metals from China and secondarily India, a strong construction market in the U.S., an extremely tight copper inventory supply, labor unrest in key copper mines, and the yet-to-be-quantified impact of fund managers and others speculating on copper futures." The labor unrest seems to be centered in Chile but production is also down in China. Skyrocketing copper will affect not only cables but a/v components as well. They're stuffed with copper wire. Some, like Pioneer's Elite receiver line, even use a thick copper chassis. Higher prices will be the inevitable result. For example: The Outlaw Audio site still quotes the price of the RR2150 stereo receiver as $599, but when I was fact-checking an upcoming review, my source bumped it to $649. Place your order now!

Ears On

Will Ruling Speed CableCARD Adoption?

Mark Fleischmann | Aug 23, 2006

Implementation of the CableCARD may have taken another babystep forward with a court ruling last week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the FCC's long-delayed "integration ban." By prying encryption apart from the cable box, as required by a 1996 act of Congress, the FCC wants to speed adoption of CableCARD technology, which enables consumers to plug their cable feeds directly into sets with a card slot. However, although the major TV makers and the major cable operators put their John Hancocks on an FCC-brokered CableCARD adoption agreement as long ago as December 2002, the integration-ban deadline has slipped from January 2005 to July 2006 to July 2007. And the many consumers who have already bought CableCARD-compatible sets have been frustrated to find the standard not supported by their local cable ops. Enough already, said the appeals court. Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association hailed the ruling: "Consumers are entitled to a broad array of products that can connect to cable systems featuring innovative new features for competitive prices. In the wake of the court's decision, we are hopeful that cable will stop its foot-dragging and comply with the law for the benefit of consumers." In their defense, cable operators say they've got their eye on a new technology that supplants the card with a chip, not to mention new multi-streaming and IP-based solutions. And they hate the existing CableCARD because it's unidirectional, meaning one-way, meaning no video-on-demand, meaning less lucre. But consumers might wait years for implementation of these new technologies, whereas the CableCARD is here now and waitin' at the church.

Search form

LATEST ADDITIONS

Pages