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Netflix Measures ISP Speeds
Scott Wilkinson  |  Feb 01, 2011  | 
Last Thursday, Ken Florance, Director of Content Delivery at Netflix, posted the results of a very interesting study on the Netflix Tech Blog. The company measured the effective throughput speed of its HD streams as delivered by many ISPs in the US and Canada from the first of October to the middle of January. The US results are shown above, while the Canadian results are shown below.
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Audio Video News
Netflix Taunts ISPs with Speed Ratings
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 01, 2011  | 
If you're a Charter subscriber, you are fortunate indeed. But if your provider is Clearwire, you're in ISP hell—at least that's what Netflix says in a blog post.

"We find ourselves in the unique position of having insight" into ISP performance thanks to the many streams Netflix delivers over the internet, says Ken Florance, the company's director of content delivery. "The throughput we are able to achieve with these streams can tell us a great deal about the actual capacity our subscribers are able to sustain to their homes."

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Audio Video News
Pioneer Elite Is Now Sharp Elite for TVs
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 31, 2011  | 
Pioneer has licensed its Elite brand to Sharp as a prelude to the joint marketing of Elite-branded LCD TVs.

Historically the brand has applied to all of Pioneer's higher-end products, including plasma TVs, audio/video receivers, Blu-ray players, and speakers. For instance, Pioneer maintains two receiver lines, called Pioneer and Pioneer Elite. The deal with Sharp covers only TVs, and will allow Sharp to introduce a line of high-end Elite-brand LCD TVs this year in North America.

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Audio Video News
Watching TV Is Almost Full-Time Job
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 28, 2011  | 
The average American spends nearly as much time in front of the TV as on the job, Nielsen figures show. Now if only we could get paid for the 35.6 hours per week most of us watch, the economy would skyrocket.

This was just one of the interesting figures in the Nielsen Company's "State of the Media 2010" report.

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Audio Video News
Netflixers Plead for Disc-Only Plan
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 27, 2011  | 
Even while Netflix has passed the 20 million mark in subscribers, some Netflixers are pleading for a disc-only rental plan.

"If you don't want instant gratification, then there should be an option -- call it the slow lane, if you like," said a blogger quoted in Home Media Magazine. In the wake of recent Netflix disc-rental price increases, an online poll showed 10 percent threatening to ax their membership. That probably won't cut much ice with Netflix, which sees its future in streaming, even to the point of removing "Add to DVD Queue" from its streaming interface.

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Audio Video News
TW Wants Netflix Streamers to Pay More
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 26, 2011  | 
The $7.99 per month that Netflix customers pay for unlimited streaming isn't enough, according to the folks at Time Warner and HBO. They want Netflix to raise the fee, and until that happens, they're withholding their content.

The story emerged in The Hollywood Reporter, which quoted a Time Warner executive saying Netflix streamers should pay $20 a month. Ouch. Until then, HBO refuses to license its premium content for Netflix streaming, citing the cost of producing that content and its value to viewers.

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Audio Video News
Netflix Streaming Bumps Off Disc Option
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 25, 2011  | 
Attention Netflix streamers: The "Add to DVD Queue" option will be eliminated from streaming devices. The move effectively means that you can rent a disc only by going to your computer, even if you pay the monthly rate for a combined streaming and disc plan.

The announcement came in a company blog. Here is the blog post in its entirety:

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Audio Video News
Sony Makes Its Browser Move
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 24, 2011  | 
Sony Bravia TVs and other broadband-connected products are getting a new feature: the Opera web browser.

Of course there's hardly a higher-end TV left that doesn't have some kind of IPTV capability. But most IPTVs depend on apps, guided by the philosophy that a computer-centric approach is not right for television. By adopting a little-known but fully developed browser, while also offering apps, Sony is taking more of a belt-and-suspenders approach.

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Audio Video News
UltraViolet to Arrive This Summer
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 21, 2011  | 
Buy it once, play it on any device: That's the promise of UltraViolet, a cloud-based computing scheme. While the Consumer Electronics Show was in full swing this month, it was reported that UltraViolet is launching this summer.

As we've previously reported, this is a big deal. UltraViolet will let you access content you've paid for once across multiple platforms including TVs, PCs, gaming consoles, smart phones, and any kind of computer.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsAudio Video News
Star Wars Trilogy Hitting Blu-ray September 27th According to Amazon
Stan Horaczek  |  Jan 20, 2011  | 

We managed to catch the trailer for the upcoming release of the Star Wars saga on Blu-ray out at CES. During the presentation, which was put on by Panasonic, they marched out an Amazon exec to announce that pre-orders were going live, but there was still no release date to be had.

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Audio Video News
Folks Fuss Over FCC's CNBCU Deal
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 20, 2011  | 
The Federal Communications Commission's conditions for the merger of Comcast with NBC-Universal are attracting comment. Media giants are dreading what will happen at the negotiating table as they cut deals for their own content. At the same time, others are saying that the FCC's net neutrality rules don't go far enough.

The initial fussing is coming from Disney and News Corp., both of whom own motion picture studios, TV networks, and cable channels. One of their concerns is that the FCC's requirement that Comcast make available programming it owns to online video services it doesn't own. This could complicate their ongoing negotiations with the likes of Netflix and Apple, pointed out The Wall Street Journal.

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Audio Video News
FCC Green-Lights Comcast-NBCU Merger
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 19, 2011  | 
After long deliberations, the Federal Communications Commission has given the green light to the merger between Comcast, the nation's larger cable operator, and NBC-Universal, which owns a major movie studio and a variety of TV networks including NBC and a slew of cable channels.

On the heels of the FCC announcement, the Justice Department announced its own approval of the merger.

However, the approval didn't come without plenty of conditions. And one commissioner, Michael J. Copps (left of chair Julius Genachowski in picture), gave a piece of his mind to the others who voted for approval.

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Audio Video News
CES 2011 Attendance Up
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 18, 2011  | 
While the final tally isn't yet in, the Consumer Electronics Association reports that attendance at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show was up over the previous year.

The estimate for 2011 is 140,000, a healthy increase over 2010 (126,641), and that in turn beat 2009 (113,085). At present the all-time biggest CES was 2008, with 141,150 people.

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Audio Video News
CES 2011
Kim Wilson  |  Jan 03, 2011  | 

It's just about time for CES, the annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. While mobile devices are expected to dominate, as manufacturer's vie for recognition in the tablet and smartphone categories, there will still be an abundance of announcements from top AV companies with newer, thinner, HDTVs offering 3D capability, Internet-connected Blu-ray players providing a range of options and services, and AV receivers that connect to your home network. With an increased number of components offering Internet connectivity, wired and wirelessly, the living room space is changing dramatically. So catch all the news and the latest product announcements from the show floor with daily updates from our correspondents at sister publications <a href="http://www.hometheater.com/category/ces-2011/">
Home Theater</a> and <a href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/category/ces-2011/">UltimateAV</a>.

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Audio Video News
Channels May Go Dark on TWC
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 30, 2010  | 
Time Warner Cable is the latest cable system to be threatened with channels going dark due to yet another spat over retransmission fees.

Cable companies and TV stations have been brawling over how much the former should pay the latter for the right to carry their content. This time the warring parties are Time Warner Cable and Sinclair, owner of 33 stations in 21 markets including CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox affiliates. The channels may go dark as early as this coming weekend.

But there's a twist. The Fox network has agreed to provide TWC with a signal if the local station withholds it. That's because its parent, News Corp., already has a retransmission agreement with TWC.

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