Digital Trends
So you’re ready to take the plunge and buy a PlayStation 3 Slim. Congratulations, at $300, there’s never been a better time to buy. But the skeptical consumer can’t help but wonder: What’s the catch? Is it missing something? In short, the answer is “not much,” but Sony has made a handful of very slight changes to the new machine that are worth reviewing before you buy. Here’s what’s new.
Refreshed Design
Market analysis firm iSuppli has released its forecasts for the growth of the high-definition television market through 2012, and the report contains one interesting tidbit: in 2008, shipments of high-definition televisions have already overtaken shipments of standard-definition televisions.
“The technology is everywhere these days—on broadcast television, on cable, on satellite, and on the Internet,” said iSuppli senior analyst Sheri Greenspan, in a release. “You can’t escape hearing about something being broadcast in HD or getting the most out of your HD receiver or the most HD channels available.”
Apple has announced that Fox and CBS are now offering high-definition television shows for sale via the iTunes store, joining ABC and NBC. High-definition shows joining the iTunes lineup include installments of CBS’s CSI franchise along with Numb3rs and NCIS; Fox shows available in HD on iTunes will includqe Bones, House, and Prison Break.
Tallied up, iTunes now carries more than 70 primetime shows from major broadcast networks, along with television programs from cable networks like Sci-Fi, Comedy Central, Bravo, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, HBO, Showtime, and more.
A new report from market research firm Informa Telecoms & Media predicts that the number of HDTV households worldwide will total 151 million by the year 2011, more than triple from the number at the end of 2006. The report predicts the top HDTV market in 2011 will be the United States, followed by Japan, China, the U.K., and Germany; the U.S. will have nearly 63 million HDTV households, while number two Japan will be approaching 30 million. Currently, the U.S. and Japan represent nearly 80 percent of the global HDTV market, with the United States accounting for 27.7 million HDTV households.
Quote from the story:
“On March 8th, Sony invited the press to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to preview their 2005 line of Audio, Video, and High Definition Television products. In previous years, Sony had held 3 individual Zone Shows for dealers and the press in East Rutherford (NJ), Chicago, and Los Angeles from late February to April. However, since the company moved its headquarters last year from Park Ridge, NJ to San Diego, it was felt that Las Vegas was a more centralized location to bring everyone together to view their new product offerings. With this new venue, the press was able to spend much more time with products.”
As Americans prepare for the nation’s unofficial holiday — Super Bowl XXXIX – consumer electronics retailers are ringing up huge sales of digital television (DTV) products. According to figuresreleased today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), December 2004 factory-to-dealer sales of DTV products hit 927,000 units, marking a 45 percent increase over December 2003. Total DTVsales for 2004 reached 7.2 million units, an increase of 75 percent compared to year-end 2003.
With November 2004 holiday sales of 844,000 units, the 10 percent increase in December sales demonstrates that retailers know that an upgrade to a high-definition television (HDTV) is a priority to consumers before this year’s Super Bowl,” said CEA Director of Market Research Sean Wargo
“The recorder, dubbed the BD-HD100, will be positioned at the high end of Sharp’s Blu-ray Disc recorder line and is expected to sell for 320,000 yen (about $3,000) in Japan.
In contrast to competing recorders from Sony and Matsushita, Sharp’s recorder has a separate BD drive and DVD/CD drive together with a 160 Gbyte hard disk drive. It is designed to record and play back high-definition pictures to and from the built-in hard drive and Blu-ray Discs with the same resolution seen in digital high-definition television (HDTV) images. “
Read more at EETimes
The launch of Microsoft TV Foundation Edition in Washington will support the advanced digital cable services that Comcast offers to more than 1 million cable customers. Today marks the first majorU.S. deployment of Foundation Edition and Comcast’s launch of dual-tuner digital video recording (DVR) services in Washington.
With the launch of dual-tuner DVRs supported by Foundation Edition, Comcast customers can enjoy the ultimate control of their home entertainment experience by recording their favorite programs digitally. They also can pause and rewind live television broadcasts, build a customized list of recordings by using the DVR’s repeat-recording capability to record multiple episodes of favorite shows, and record high-definition television programming.
Quote from the review:
“High Definition Television (HDTV) continues to gain in popularity and market share. ATI is bringing this technology to the desktop with the introduction of the HDTV Wonder. At the heart of the HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition is a PCI tuner card that allows receiving both traditional analog TV signals and the newer over-the-air (OTA) high definition digital television signals. The received video signals are decoded and passed to the PC’s main video card for display on a standard computer monitor.”
Niveus Media is a manufacturer of media entertainment systems for the high-end audio/video market. Digital Life is a first of its kind consumer technology and entertainment event produced by ZiffDavis, and the editors of PC Magazine.
“We’re thrilled to receive the home entertainment Best of Show award for our high-end Summit Series media centers,†said Tim Cutting, President & CEO of Niveus Media. “The editors of PC Magazine continue to validate our superior styling and silent fanless design over alternative media centers that use noisy fans, and mediocre styling. As entertainment evolves, we see an ever increasing need for high-end home entertainment systems and we will continue to provide top of the line media centers for our consumers.â€
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