Audio Video News

Sony Projectors got firmware updates to add HDR contrast to the picture menu, add an HDR indicator to the information menu, and automatically select the BT2020 color gamut. Affected models include the VPL-VW5000, VPL-VW665, and VPL-VW365; the VPL-VW675 already has these features...

Dish Network’s NBA Team Pass lets you follow your favorite team for $119 per season. The NBA League Pass, which covers the whole league, is still available for $199...

Sports Account for 84.3 percent of all DVR recordings, according to a Thuuz Sports and Ring Digital survey of 1,000 pay-TV subscribers. The majority use the DVR as a backup when they can’t watch a game or missed the beginning of a game, while another 58 percent use it to skip ads...

YouTube Red now has 1.5 million paying subscribers in addition to the one-billion users of its free version. The $9.99/month service, launched last October, lets you stream music and music videos without ads, offers original movie content, allows for offline viewing, lets you listen with the screen off, and includes a no-extra-cost subscription to Google Play Music...

Smart Watches Tanked in the third quarter of last year, plunging 51.6 percent versus the previous year, says IDC. Consumer complaints include battery life and tethering to smartphones...

Netflix Video Previews are showing up on its TV-centric platforms. They’re not so much teasers or trailers as “specially designed video synopses that help members make faster and more confident decisions by quickly highlighting the story, characters, and tone of a title,” says the company’s product innovators...

Netflix Program Spending cost more than $1 billion in the first nine months of last year. Analysts are concerned that the company’s growth strategy may be too aggressive for its current income—and subscription prices...

Digital Foundry, which analyzes technical issues in video games, says its own 4K video distribution site is a better way to analyze video than bandwidth-limited YouTube. Check it out at digitalfoundry.net...

PlayStation Vue, Sony’s video streaming service, has added support for PCs and Macs. It also supports Android smart- phones, tablets, and TVs, plus iOS phones and tablets, Roku and Amazon Fire TV boxes, and compact streaming devices like the Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast...

PlayStation 4 includes Ultra HD and HDR support. The $399 price of admission includes the ability to stream Netflix in UHD...

HDTV Penetration is approaching the total number of U.S. households, says the Digital Entertainment Group, with 85 percent of homes having at least one HDTV. Third-quarter 2016 sales of Ultra HDTVs more than doubled from the same time the previous year...

TiVo and Samsung have ended a protracted legal battle, and TiVo will license certain of its patents to Samsung phone, set-top box, and CE products. The move came after TiVo was acquired by program-guide supplier Rovi...

TiVo and Comcast are still locked in legal battle. TiVo already has deals with nine out of ten top U.S. pay-TV suppliers...

Spotify Premium’s app now controls Sonos speakers. That way you needn’t switch to and fro between the Spotify and Sonos apps...

THX Will Certify concert sound systems in collaboration with Eighth Day, a provider of live sound reinforcement services. THX Live! made its debut last year on a Beyoncé tour...

Amazon-Branded Products are thriving—like the Echo speaker, which has 45 percent market share among the top 10 brands sold online, reports 1010data. Ninety-four percent of batteries sold online go through Amazon, with the AmazonBasics brand winning a third of online battery sales...

AT&T Is Violating net neutrality by using data cap exemptions to facilitate access to video from its own DirecTV network, asserts the FCC. But net neutrality regulation may not have a bright future under the new Trump administration...

Parents Spend Nine Hours per day in front of a screen, with 82 percent of that being personal viewing, says a study from Common Sense Media. However, 85 percent of them monitor their kids’ media use...

Vinyl Beat Download sales in the U.K. last year according to the Entertainment Retailers Association. Vinyl sales doubled from £1.2 million to £2.4 million, and downloads were halved from £4.4 million to £2.1 million...