Audio Video News

If you've been reading <I>UAV's</I> reviews you know that while 1080p displays are proliferating, the ability of these displays to actually accept a 1080p native signal is a rarity. And if you've been following our coverage of the next-gen disc formats you also know that DTS and Dolby have cooked up new audio formats that aren't based on the lossy compression schemes we've been living with on DVD for years. All of these developments are intertwined with the HDMI specs, as HDMI will be the carrier for both 1080p video and the new audio codecs. Here's the latest on what it all means.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) recently filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to let broadcasters and TV companies voluntarily switch to the next-gen ATSC 3.0 TV standard for delivering Ultra HD (UHD) TV and immersive audio via formats such as Dolby Atmos.

The final specs for HDMI version 1.3 are nearing completion and it's been announced that the first products incorporating the new HDMI standard will be released late this year. In somewhat related news, Sony has pushed the release of its BDP-S1 Blu-ray player back from August to October 25th. There isn't currently indication that the BDP-S1 will incorporate HDMI 1.3, but speculation is rampant all over the web that PlayStation3, due in November, will indeed incorporate the new spec.

Denon has announced that the upgraded Series 2 versions of the four wireless speakers in its Heos line are now available.

As part of a major restructuring, Sonos is opening its first retail store in the trendy Soho section of New York City tomorrow (July 19).

The FCC's plan to convert US households to digital television by 2006 is on the verge of collapse, according to a new report by consultants <A HREF="http://www.strategyanalytics.com">Strategy Analytics</A>. Their report, titled "Interactive and Digital Television: Issues in the Transition Phase," predicts that fewer than 5% of US households will be watching over-the-air DTV by 2005, with terrestrial broadcasters expected to use their digital capacity increasingly for data services. Terrestrial broadcasters can use their digital (DTV) capacity for either HDTV (high-definition TV) or SDTV (standard-definition TV), and there is currently debate over whether the industry should change the technical specifications of the ATSC standard.

One of every five American children is seriously overweight, and government officials are pointing their fingers at television as a major contributing cause. Health experts have been observing the trend for years, but it has finally grown to the point that high-level policy makers are beginning to take note. Some, like experts speaking at a <A HREF="http://www.usda.gov/">US Department of Agriculture</A> conference last week, are calling it an epidemic.