Audio Video News

With the slow but sure move toward providing consumers with digital television and other services via cable, the set-top box manufacturers have been aggressively jockeying for a position in the audio video system. In a deal sure to give Philips' market share a boost, <A HREF="http://www.att.com/">AT&T Broadband</A> and <A HREF="http://www.philips.com">Philips Electronics</A> announced last week their plan to market Philips' digital cable set-top boxes to US consumers beginning in 2001.

Simplify, simplify. Hitachi has applied this wise old adage to high technology, with a new product that should tweak the interest of movie and music fans everywhere.

Never say Aiwa doesn't pay attention to the market. Noting the widespread popularity of MP3 audio downloads, the company has included the ability to decode and play MP3s in its new XD-DV370 DVD player. Music fans can now make compilation CDs of their favorite MP3 audio tracks on CD-R or CD-RW discs and play them back over their home theater systems.

It seems that <I>Star Wars</I> fans can never get enough. In March 1999, more than six million of them downloaded the QuickTime trailer for <A HREF="http://www.lucasfilm.com/">Lucasfilm</A>'s <I>Episode I: The Phantom Menace</I> in the first three weeks it was available. QuickTime is <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/">Apple Computer</A>'s streaming-media technology, and it has been selected to deliver behind-the-scenes views of <I>Episode II</I> as it develops on location in Australia.

Makers of personal video recorders (PVRs) like <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com/">TiVo</A> and <A HREF="http://www.replaytv.com/">ReplayTV</A> have been fighting an uphill battle to get consumers to understand and purchase their products. This reluctance has caused some marketing executives to question whether there is much of a market for personal video services. But consumer apathy toward unknown technology shouldn't be confused with the potential for such services, according to a recently released report from market analysts <A HREF="http://www.techtrends.net/">TechTrends</A>.

It's the dream of home-theater fans and TV addicts everywhere: Video-On-Demand, better known as VOD. The concept is simple: Viewers pick movies or shows from a list and watch them via their cable, satellite, or Internet connection when they want to&mdash;no waiting for the program to start at the top of the hour, or recording something that is broadcast only while you're on vacation. But getting VOD to work, especially in anything approaching DVD quality, is another issue altogether, and has become something of a Holy Grail for VOD developers in the broadcast industry.