Jon Iverson

Late last week, <A HREF="http://www.intel.com">Intel</A> and <A HREF="http://www.sony.com">Sony</A> announced that they intend to collaborate in an effort to give consumers the ability to share electronic content between PCs and various consumer electronic devices, including home entertainment systems (digital televisions, set-top boxes), digital cameras, digital camcorders, and portable music players. Intel says that the effort is part of the companies' vision of the "e-Home" of the future, in which the Internet will be available throughout a range of devices.

Last week, before its appeal had been denied by the FCC (see <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?641">related story</A>), the <A HREF="http://www.sbgi.com">Sinclair Broadcast Group</A> announced that it had demonstrated live, over-the-air digital television (DTV) reception last week in Washington, DC, "in response to numerous Congressional inquiries." These demonstrations were "intended to demonstrate to members of Congress the flaw in the DTV standard."

In an effort to kickstart the digital feature-film production and distribution market, <A HREF="http://www.intertainer.com">Intertainer</A> and <A HREF="http://www.artisanent.com">Artisan Entertainment</A> announced last week a new agreement to co-develop, produce, and distribute five feature-length motion pictures, to be shot and edited completely in the digital format. Intertainer says it will showcase the films on its entertainment "on-demand" service, and Artisan will retain domestic rights to the features.

It's been roughly 12 months since TiVo and Replay Networks first unveiled their digital video recorders, so it seemed a good time to ask how the format is doing so far. To answer the question, market intelligence company <A HREF="http://www.techtrends.net">TechTrends</A> conducted a survey of more than 1400 consumers for a new study, <I>The Digital Television Revolution: Success Factors for the Emerging Digital Video Recorder Market</I>. TechTrends claims that their research is the most comprehensive market study to date of the DVR market.