Audio Video News

This is what nerds do: after watching another awesome episode of season one of <I>Heroes</I> on HD DVD I cued a firmware update and indeed my Toshiba HD-XA2 found one and started downloading it. I waited up until the update was complete, and then checked the player's setup menu and sure enough, "up to 1080p/24" is now a selectable output resolution.

Is it a really big computer monitor, or a smallish HDTV? Gateway blurred these lines in demonstrating its XHD3000 30" Extreme HD display at CEDIA 2007. Although it only comes in at $1,699, this enormous display features Silicon Optix' top end REALTA processing solution, and features a powerful blend of elegant interface and pure HD power.

Here's the deal. The music industry wants to sell you a CD single with three songs and a ringtone. Are you ready to "ringle"? Yes, that is indeed the name.

There are several fears surrounding the U.S. transition to digital television broadcasting in 2009 and one of them relates to the set-top boxes that would keep old analog sets running. The federal government will attempt to allay that fear by awarding as many as two $40 coupons per household to help viewers buy the digital-to-analog devices. Judging from what's happening in the U.K., that looks pretty generous.

First the<A HREF="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/82007paramount/"> Paramount defection</A>, and now some potentially big hardware news from the HD DVD camp. We've been hearing for months that the Chinese are coming with cheap HD DVD players in the fourth quarter of this year, and the first announcement appears to have been made. Headquartered in Canada, Venturer Electronics is releasing the Chinese-manufactured SHD7000 HD DVD player in time for this year's holiday shopping season. No offical release date or price was given, but Video Business is reporting it will be the least expensive standalone HD DVD player on the market at $199.

A coalition of small cable operators is urging Congress to let them provide free analog cable service following the switchover to digital television broadcasting. That should make the DTV transition painless for owners of old-fashioned analog TVs, right? But there's a catch. The cable ops want a waiver on the retransmission fees that they'd otherwise have to pay broadcasters in exchange for carrying network signals.