[opendtv] 20060807 Mark's Monday Memo
- From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 23:21:08 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
Here are some very efficient (low-administrative-cost) relief
organizations (all have four-star ratings from CharityNavigator.org):
<http://www.americares.org/>
<http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html>
<http://www.directrelief.org/index.html>
<http://www.hopeww.org/>
<http://www.mercycorps.org/splash/>
Americans may also call the Red Cross at 800 HELP NOW (800 435-7669).
- Follow-ups:
- NTIA DTT set-top-box coupon program -
- The National Telecommunications & Information Agency is shopping
for a third party to administer the program:
<http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6358522.html>
- The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have reportedly already made comments. The
CEA comments listed in this article refer to "HDTV" and "DTV" but not to DTT.
The NAB comments repeat the Government Accountability Office figures that show
more "broadcast-only" homes than the program has coupons for:
<http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletters/hd_tech/home_hd_growth_20060801>
- DTT reception in my apartment - Today, we tried the DVico FusionHDTV 5
USB Gold. It reportedly uses the 5th-generation LG demodulator but doesn't
appear to use the same RF front end as the 5th-generation LG box that conquered
set-top reception here.
We got good reception on many channels with various set-top antennas and
got more with a Silver Sensor at the window, but, so far, the LG box is still
the only one to be able to receive ALL DTT transmissions reliably with a
set-top antenna here.
- PVR impact -
- A Leichtman Research Group survey of 1350 U.S. households found 12%
of U.S. households with PVRs, up from 3% two years ago, but less than 4% of
viewing via video-on-demand (VOD) or shows recorded on PVRs, up from 2% (the
study found 60% of digital-cable subscribers had used VOD, up from 25%):
<http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6356918.html?display=Breaking+News>
- A Mediamark Research survey of 26,000 adults found that PVR users
watch LESS TV than others; a previous Arbitron study in Houston showed they
watch more:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/technology/31drill.html>
The Mediamark study found 11.2% with PVRs. It found that PVR users read
newspapers and used the Internet more than others. This story is from
Mediaweek:
<http://tinyurl.com/rlpvd>
- Nielsen told clients recently that PVR users DO watch more TV: an
average of 6 hours 14 minutes live and 1 hour 49 minutes played back per adult
per week, 29% more than non-users. This story is from MediaBuyerPlanner.com:
<http://tinyurl.com/ezru4>
- Time Warner Cable of Raleigh reportedly refused to supply a
CableCARD for a TiVo PVR, saying they will supply them only for TV sets. This
story is from Gizmodo.com, but I've seen it elsewhere, too:
<http://tinyurl.com/ls69l>
- Other CableCARD news - As requested, CEA and the National Cable &
Telecommunications Association (NCTA) have issued a progress report on their
talks. There's not much there:
<http://www.ncta.com/DocumentBinary.aspx?id=461>
- New HD camcorders -
- Canon has two new small ones, the XH A1 ($3999 suggested) and the
XH G1 ($6999 suggested), the latter with HD-SDI out with embedded audio and
timecode:
<http://www.hdissues.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=52951>
There's also an HV10 for $1299 (suggested):
<http://www.hdissues.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=54418>
In a somewhat related story, Sony has introduced an inexpensive module,
the GPS-CS1 to provide location metadata for cameras and camcorders:
<http://www.twice.com/article/CA6358508.html>
- Next-generation consumer disks -
- The European Commission is looking into the licensing terms of both
Blu-ray and HD DVD:
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20060728/tc_macworld/eu20060728>
- LG does not plan to offer a single player for both formats:
<http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/08/02/hddvd_blu-ray_hybrids_unlikely_after_lg/>
- Connection issues -
- Here are comments that appeared in the Daytona Beach Journal
online, under the heading "The Dark Side of HDTV":
<http://tinyurl.com/rmf76>
- Here's more on HDMI 1.3:
<http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800427728_499491_2088d09a20060801.HTM>
- IPTV - There were 2.4 million subscribers last year according to an
iSuppli report in EETimes Asia:
<http://tinyurl.com/gk9a6>
- May 1 - Doug Lung's RF Report found 912 licensed U.S. DTT stations in
the FCC database as of July 25, up seven from two weeks before:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1355>
- TV Week reports that Discovery and ESPN each have 90 million ordinary cable
subscribers and 5.5 million HD:
<http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=205>
- Here's an interesting viewpoint on the desirability of small TV screens:
<http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/07/23/dont_supersize_me/>
- U.S. consumers spent 1% less on home-video movies in 2005, according to
Kagan's Motion Picture Investor:
<http://tinyurl.com/ega6v>
- In case you're interested in such things, here's a story on the Contour, a
new form of 3-D facial information capture:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/technology/31motion.html
- Major Japanese manufacturers, including Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sony have
created a joint venture, TV Portal Service Corp., for a standard for "internet
televisions." They will reportedly use Linux. This story is from the Sydney
Morning Herald:
<http://tinyurl.com/mm9wo>
- International news:
- Here's a report from TVB Europe on the HD Masters conference:
<http://tinyurl.com/ru37a>
- Sky has reportedly received 90,000 UK orders for its HD satellite
service and hopes to get them all installed by next month:
<http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/2161305/sky-hd-orders-break-90-barrier>
- Here's an update on Central & Eastern Europe (note that "digital
television" is not limited to DTT)
<http://impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8873>
- Here's more on China's DTT standard:
<http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800423182_590626_82328af9200606.HTM>
- In Japan there was a failed attempt to make sense of HDTV labeling:
<http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200608050119.html>
- According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan is planning to ask both
broadcasters and manufacturers to drop "record once" protection to stimulate
the market:
<http://www.forbes.com/home_asia/feeds/afx/2006/07/30/afx2913771.html>
- According to the Asahi Shimbun, Mitsubishi has installed the world's
largest HD screen (218 feet long) at a Tokyo racetrack:
<http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletters/sports/largest_hd_screen/?r=3>
- Australia's pornography industry wants their content allowed on DTT
there:
<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/26/1153816251759.html>
- Here are some updates on New Zealand:
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10393516>
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10393512>
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=175&objectid=10393860>
<http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3756286a28,00.html>
- CEA's Digital America is now available on the web. Be sure to click on all
the pages listed at the top of each page:
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/1989.asp>
It says that, of 109.6 M TV households, only 15 million "homes continue to
receive TV over-the-air":
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/1989.asp>
I found the information on the following page to be most interesting. It
says that in 2005 the widescreen proportion of "DTV" sales was 79%; that's
significantly lower than the previous 85%, and the proportion is likely to fall
even more this year as smaller sets join CEA's "DTV" numbers. Another bit of
fallout from the smaller sets is that direct-view CRT sets are expected to be
the "sales leader" in 2006:
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/2010.asp>
CEA also expects the DTT "tuner mandate" "is likely to spell the end for
most remaining VCR models, except digital models and those built into
combination products":
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/2005.asp>
They list 27.7 million U.S. DBS households:
<http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/2011.asp>
- Today's New York Times has a story saying, "Picture Tubes Are Fading Into the
Past," but it's worth remembering CEA's comment that they'll be the "DTV"
"sales leader" this year:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/technology/07tube.html>
- Another interesting thing to note in this era of flat-panel TVs is Pacific
Media Associates' report that rear-projection TV unit sales grew substantially
in June:
<http://tinyurl.com/pvupe>
- J&R advertised a 1 GB SD card this week for $9.99 after rebate.
- I have not-yet received CEA dealer-sales figures past week 27.
- I'm still catching up on ads, but I thought I'd note two things I've come
across. Best Buy's $199.99 price for the Insignia NS-27RTV 27-inch DTV is the
lowest price I've seen for a set with integrated DTT reception circuitry, and
over the course of the many ads, Circuit City actually ended up charging less
for the integrated Panasonic TC26LX60 than for the non-integrated TC26LX50.
- DVD news:
- Again, I'm awaiting CEA sales figures past week 27.
- Best Buy offered pre-recorded movie DVDs for just $3.99 each and
DVD+R/-R blanks at 25 for $7.99, 50 for $14.99, and 100 for $29.99. Circuit
City offered a 25-pack for $5.99 and a 50-pack for $7.88. Even Radio Shack
offered a 25-pack for $5.99 after rebate.
- According to the Elmo Sapwater, moderator of the "Call to Simplify Image
Capture" panel that will be held at Photokina on September 28, "almost 50% of
people are already using camera phones as either their main capture devices or
as a supplement to their digital cameras":
<http://www.photokina-cologne.com/>
- The FCC is looking to train young engineers:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-266804A1.pdf>
- Add the Federal AVIATION Administration to those who will want to regulate TV
transmission in the U.S.:
<http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1357>
- Upcoming Dates (DTV and non-DTV):
- August 10-11, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Atlanta, SBE/GPB seminar on
ATSC 8-VSB fundamentals and measurements
<http://www.broadcast.net/~sbe5/GPTV_Seminar_Flyer.pdf>.
- *September 7, Hershey Lodge, Pennsylvania, PAB Engineering Conference
<http://www.pab.org/conventions.html>.
- *September 7-12, RAI, Amsterdam, International Broadcasting Convention
<http://www.ibc.org/cgi-bin/displaypage.cgi?pageref=100>.
- September 27-29, Hotel Washington, Washington, D.C., IEEE Broadcast
Symposium <http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/bt/sympo.html>.
- October 3-5, Hotel Fort Des Moines, Des Moines, Iowa, Iowa DTV Symposium
<http://www.iptv.org/dtv/2005/>.
- October 4-6, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Jackson Hole Tech
Symposium <http://www.jhfestival.org/symposium2006/>.
- October 18-21, Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, SMPTE convention
<http://www.smpte.org/conferences/148cfp.cfm>.
- *December 5-6, Hilton Universal City, High Definition Summit
<http://www.multichannel.com/contents/pdf/HD%20Summit1sheetHDWEB.pdf>
- ***January 31-February 2, The Westin at Mission Hills, Rancho Mirage
(Palm Springs area), California, ***HPA Technology Retreat***
<http://www.hpaonline.com>.
- April 14-19, Las Vegas Convention Center, NAB convention
<http://www.nabshow.com/>.
- April 18-21, Atlanta Convention Center, Satellite Expo 2007 with C-band
Pioneers Reunion <http://www.bobcooper.tv/c-band-reunion.htm>.
* - new or revised listing
TTFN,
Mark
PS Permission is granted to forward this or any other Monday Memo. Next
week's memo might be late.
Have a question about the memo? Before contacting me, please try the FAQs and
glossary in the second postscript to the January 5 memo:
<http://www.digitaltelevision.com/mondaymemo/mlist/frm02213.html>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
