Apple/Firewire getting a boost from HANA's HDTV plan?
By Richard Lawler 
posted Dec 20th 2005 4:07AM
posted Dec 20th 2005 4:07AM
So it would seem, Macsimum News has gone deeper into last weeks
announcement of the newly-formed HDTV
initiative, and how exactly they plan to connect all of your devices together. Basically, HANA certified
devices will all use 1394 to communicate with one another, without the installation of drivers and users will be able
to control all connected devices with one remote.What with Firewire being an Apple technology, plus Apple's existing relationships with some of the companies in the group, it seems like a no-brainer that apple will be getting on board at some point. That is all of no concern to me, I just want to know when I can get that widescreen high-resolution MPEG-4 playing video iPod, Mr. Jobs?
HANA sounds great! But so did HAVI, and no one knows what it is becaused it was never widly excepted.
I have a Mitusbishi TV that has a 1394 port and is a HAVi device. The only other HAVi device I ever used with my tv was my Mitsubishi DVHS deck. I tried to use some software on my windows XP box that was supposed to allow my computer to interact with the other HAVi devices on my 1394 network but it was never stable enough to use.
I love the dream, but I am skeptical that HANA will be any different than HAVi.
On the flip side, with the tuner mandate in effect almost all new TV's have mpeg2 decoders built in which means the cost of adding a 1394 port and HANA will be less than it was 3 years ago. So maybe it is differnt this time around.