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AMD readying a demo of the Blu-ray 3D standard, might not wait for it to exist first

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 7th 2009 at 4:27AM

AMD and CyberLink, which recently integrated SENSIO 3D technology into its PowerDVD player, are already touting a 2010 CES demo promising to show off their implementation of "the forthcoming Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D standard." While the world continues to wait for an announcement on what the 3D Blu-ray standard will actually entail (backwards compatible 2D combo discs, and Full HD stereoscopic technology are definitely on the list) AMD is ready to leverage its position as a contributing member of the Blu-ray Disc Association and make sure that when discs hit the market -- likely around the time Avatar is released at home -- it has compatible software and hardware available. We've prepped and ready for the glasses-required trials that promise to be featured at many booths during next months Las Vegas experience, so a note to potential exhibitors: sports and videogames are the best bet for an impressive 3D showing, bring Space Harrier 3D for extra bonus points.

AMD, Cyberlink

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HDTV Listings for December 6, 2009

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 6th 2009 at 6:01PM

What we're watching tonight:

CBS (1080i) has Cold Case at 9 p.m.
Fox (720p) has the BCS Selection Show at 8 p.m.
NBC (1080i) brings Sunday Night Football with Vikings/Cardinals at 8:15 p.m.
Syfy (1080i) presents Alice (Part 1 of 2) at 9 p.m.
ABC (720p) has Desperate Housewives at 9 p.m., and Brothers & Sisters at 10 p.m.
Showtime (1080i) has Dexter at 9 p.m. and Californication at 10 p.m.
HBO (1080i) has Robin Williams: Weapons of Self Destruction at 9 p.m.
TLC (1080i) has Invasion of the Christmas Lights at 9 p.m. and Chainsaw Ice Sculptors at 10 p.m.
ESPN2 (720p) has Texas/Tennessee women's basketball at 7 p.m.

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Poll: How do you feel about Comcast buying NBC?

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 6th 2009 at 2:31PM

Comcast has agreed to take a controlling interest of NBC from GE and whether the company has a can of Raid waiting for Hulu or not, there's a lot of potential reactions to this new deal. Some have the opinion that another team to take on the Disney-ABC-ESPN combination could help keep prices down for everyone, while others can't see how the government should allow so many media and communication outlets to be controlled by one company. So let's have it, what were you thinking when you heard about the buyout?

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WD TV Live boxes left bricked by firmware update

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 5th 2009 at 11:11PM

In its short stay on retail shelves the WD TV Live HD media box has picked up an avid community of users for the unassuming unit -- at least until they tried to update the firmware of the last couple of days. Forum reports show formerly operational units with nothing but a blank screen after download the v1.101.12 update. For its part Western Digital has acknowledged the problem and pulled the update from its site, but given the poor ratio of successful upgraders to mourners in the thread, we hope it sees loyal customers out of RMA hell and back to 1080p video playing bliss quickly. Until then, we'd keep clear of that "upgrade now" screen until the next patch has been thoroughly vetted.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Western Digital forums

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HDTV Listings for December 5, 2009

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 5th 2009 at 4:52PM

What we're watching tonight:

ABC (720p) has the Big 12 Championship game between Texas and Nebraska at 8 p.m.
Fox (720p) has Cops at 8 p.m.
Spike TV (1080i) brings the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter at 9 p.m.
History (720p) has the season finale of Cowboys & Outlaws at 9, 10 & 11 p.m.
NBC (1080i) has Saturday Night Live with Blake Lively at 11:29 p.m.
ESPN (720p) has the ACC Championship game with Georgia Tech/Clemson at 8 p.m.
ESPN2 (720p) has South Florida/UCONN college football at 8 p.m. and Wisconsin/Hawaii college football at 11:30 p.m.
NBA TV (1080i) airs Nuggets/Spurs at 8:30 p.m.

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Terminator: Salvation's McG hosts the first audio Blu-ray director's chat session tonight

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 5th 2009 at 3:52PM

It's been a little over a year since we first checked out a live director's chat session on Blu-ray with Gullermo del Toro and Hellboy II, and now Warner is prepared to take the next step by letting interested fans hear their questions answered rather than simply reading text for the duration of the movie. the first release so honored? Terminator: Salvation and its director McG. Everything's set to go off at 9 p.m. est, with only a copy of the movie, BD-Live connected player, registration on Warner's website and an appetite for yet another sequel in an action movie franchise that topped out two movies and almost as many decades ago. A chance to see if Blu-ray's interactive potential can ever pay off means we're in, interested parties can sign up at the read link below, if you can't make it check back later, we'll try and grab some audio.

Update: Well, we're logged in and ready to go, we'll save you our 30 seconds of confusion and remind that you'll need to insert the director's cut disc to access the BD-Live menu. Feel free to add "Rjcc" as a buddy on Warner's BD-Live setup.

Warner BD-Live registration

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Univision & Telefutura en HD starting Monday

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 5th 2009 at 1:22PM

Spanish speaking HDTV owners in the U.S. can expect the other shoe to drop this week, with Univision and Telefutura stepping up to high-definition broadcasts starting Monday. The cutover will be staggered, with New York and LA going first at 12:02 a.m. Monday morning, followed by other markets throughout the week. The network's first all HD program will be the Tournament of Roses parade broadcast January 1. As promised, it's followed Telemundo to higher quality in plenty of time for the World Cup next year, sadly now we're just wondering when they'll switch over to 3D.

[Thanks, Andres]

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HDTV Listings for December 4, 2009

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 4th 2009 at 5:54PM

What we're watching tonight:

Fox (720p) has Dollhouse at 8 p.m.
USA (1080i) has the series finale of Monk at 9 p.m. and the fall finale of White Collar at 10 p.m.
MyNetworkTV (720p) has WWE: Smackdown at 9 p.m.
CBS (1080i) has Ghost Whisperer at 8 p.m., Medium at 9 p.m. and Numb3rs at 10 p.m.
TLC (1080i) has Say Yes to the Dress at 9 p.m. and the season finale of Happily Ever Faster at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
Starz (1080i) airs Crash at 10 p.m.
Syfy (1080i) has the winter finale of Stargate Universe at 9 p.m. and Sanctuary at 10 p.m.
History (720p) has Ancient Discoveries at 10 p.m.
ESPN (720p) has Bulls/Cavaliers at 8 p.m. and Heat/Lakers at 10:30 p.m.
ESPN2 (720p) airs the 2009 MAC football Championship with Ohio/Central Michigan at 8 p.m.

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Hell freezes over, the FCC admits that CableCARD is a failure

By Ben Drawbaugh

posted Dec 4th 2009 at 3:52PM

Well we have to say we never saw this coming, but have dreamed of it for years, but it appears that the FCC is actually listening to the CEA and is asking for comments on how to replace CableCARD with something that would actually make the network open. For those just catching up, Congress mandated that cable had to be open with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- yeah that long -- and 3rd party CableCARD devices first became available in 2004 and five years later there are only 14 3rd party certified devices and 443k 3rd party devices in service. The fact that CableCARDs just don't work is no surprise to anyone who has tried to use one -- ok we're exaggerating here, but we've had our fair share installed and every one makes for a funny story. Now obviously admitting you have a problem is the first step, but it also means we are years away from a solution. But since they asked, here's ours. Instead of silly cards and middleware, just specify a two way communications protocol and embed signed certificates that CableLabs will control the distribution of in the box for authentication and encryption. It really doesn't have to be any harder than that.

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Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: Televisions

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 4th 2009 at 2:09PM

Feature

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season.

Want a gift the whole family can enjoy? A brand new television is sure to do the trick and with more HDTV content available than ever from antenna, cable, satellite, Blu-ray discs or even the internet, there will always be something to watch. Whether it's their first flat-panel or an upgrade, these picks come through in several price ranges selected to maximize ~~your~~, we mean their, viewing pleasure. The only question left we can't help you with? Who gets the first turn on the remote.

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Kodak selling OLED display business to LG, cross-licensing like there's no tomorrow

By Paul Miller

posted Dec 4th 2009 at 10:20AM

It was always hard to comprehend Kodak as a display technology company while maintaining a zero presence in the TV or monitor industry, and now, after developing the first OLED material way back in the 70s and plenty of beautiful displays since, Kodak is getting out of the OLED game. They're selling to LG, who first inked a deal with Kodak back in March for using Kodak technology, just started selling a 15-inch OLED in November, and hopes to have a 30-inch display out by 2012. Kodak calls its IP portfolio for OLED "fundamental," so even if this doesn't speed up LG's time to market, it might give it some significant cost advantages in the long run. Speaking of patents, Kodak and LG have also entered into a "broad" cross-license agreement to dip into each other's patent portfolios, and the two companies could last be seen skipping merrily, hand-in-hand into the sunset.

Business Wire (sale), Business Wire (patents)

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The best HD sports on TV this week

By Ben Drawbaugh

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 9:55PM

In what is the closet college football will ever get to a real championship game, #2 Alabama meets #1 Florida in Atlanta on Saturday at 4pm. This is probably the hottest ticket in college football too as you could buy a really nice HDTV for what a decent set of tickets to this are going for on the second hand market. As much as we are looking forward to college football this weekend, it also, sadly, marks the end of real football because we all know that bowl games are just glorified scrimmage games. So be sure to catch one of the other great conference championships before its too late.

CFB
#2 Alabama vs. #1 Florida CBS 4:00 PM Sat
#10 Georgia Tech vs. Clemson 8:00 PM Sat
#5 Cincinnati at #15 Pittsburgh ABC 12:00 PM Sat
#3 Texas vs #22 Nebraska ABC 8:00 Sat

NFL
Tennessee Titans at Indianapolis Colts CBS 1:00 PM Sun
Minnesota Vikings at Arizona Cardinals NBC 8:20 PM Sun
Baltimore Ravens at Green Bay Packers ESPN 8:30 PM Mon

NHL
New Jersey Devils at Buffalo Sabres 7:00 PM Wed Vs
NY Islanders at Philadelphia Flyers 7:00 PM Mon Vs

NBA
Boston Celtics at San Antonio Spurs 8:00 PM Thurs TNT
Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers Fri 8:00 PM ESPN

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XStreamHD adds advanced RF remote next to satellite beamed 1080p on its list of promises

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 5:09PM

It's been a while since we'd heard from XStreamHD, but with yet another CES bearing down the company is ready to talk about its advanced RF One Remote Control. In case you haven't been paying attention over the last two years, it's promising all manner of satellite-delivered 1080p movies with lossless audio, that beam into its media server and then stream to any of its receivers or other DLNA compatible clients in the home. Jennic's microcontroller powers the remote, and it uses Zigbee Pro wireless tech so it will control all the connected devices, even without line of sight. We've added "peek at the media closet" to our list of things to look for at the XStreamHD booth in January, but really we're still waiting to find out when beta testers will get a crack at the service.

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HDTV Listings for December 3, 2009

By Richard Lawler

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 4:23PM

What we're watching tonight:

ABC (720p) has FlashForward at 8 p.m., and Private Practice at 9 p.m.
CBS (1080i) airs Survivor at 8 p.m.
Fox (720p) has Bones at 8 p.m. and Fringe at 9 p.m.
NBC (1080i) has Community at 8 p.m., Parks & Recreation at 8:30 p.m., The Office at 9 p.m. and 30 Rock at 9:30 p.m.
WGN (1080i) has WWE Superstars at 8 p.m.
NFL Network (1080i) has Jets/Bills football at 8 p.m.
Discovery (1080i) has Destroyed in Seconds at 8 p.m.
FX (720p) has It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia at 10 p.m. and The League at 10:30 p.m.
Spike (1080i) has TNA! Impact at 9 p.m.
History (720p) has Gangland at 9 p.m.
TLC (1080i) brings American Chopper at 9 p.m. and the series premiere of BBQ Pit Masters at 10 p.m.
Food Network (1080i) has the season premiere of Ace of Cakes at 10 p.m.
ESPN (720p) has Oregon/Oregon State college football at 9 p.m.
ESPN2 (720p) has a college basketball doubleheader with Washington/Texas Tech at 7 p.m. and USC/Texas at 9 p.m.
TNT (1080i) has an NBA doubleheader with Celtics/Spurs at 8 p.m. and Heat/Nuggets at 10:30 p.m.

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Redbox sues Warner and Fox for retailer interference

By Ben Drawbaugh

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 4:11PM

Even though only a few Redbox kiosks actually offer Blu-ray Discs for rent, we still find the company's trials and tribulations with the studios entertaining and newsy. In this latest complaint, Redbox claims that Warner and Fox have instructed retailers to only allow Redbox kiosk operators to buy three copies of any given title, thereby preventing Redbox from renting movies day and date with the disc's retail release. Besides the obvious fact that the studios are being jerks here, it really gets our legal thoughts running about one's right to buy as many of something as one wants. Now we're pretty sure all this is just a way for Redbox to gain leverage in inevitable kick-back negotiations, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining or interesting.

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Sony and FIFA team up to make the World Cup 3D

By Donald Melanson

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 3:29PM

It's no secret that plenty of companies are hoping that 2010 will be the year of 3D, and it looks like Sony has now gotten a big boost by lining up a partnership with one of the biggest events of the year: the FIFA World Cup. As the pair have announced today, the new arrangement will see at least 25 World Cup matches produced in 3D using Sony's 3D cameras, which will be viewable through a variety of means. That includes special public viewing events in seven cities around the world (none in North America, unfortunately), an "Official 3D Film" that will be previewed at Sony Stores and other retail outlets and, last but not least, a Blu-ray of said film that will be made available at some point following the World Cup. This won't be the first time a soccer match has been broadcast in 3D, however, and it looks like it won't be your only option for catching some games in 3D next year either.

[Thanks, Matt]

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The HD Guru tries to burn-in a plasma, but fails

By Ben Drawbaugh

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 3:08PM

We've been telling people for years that burn-in just isn't a problem on modern plasmas, but honestly we haven't ever tried to put are money where are mouth is. Gary Merson doesn't mind trying though -- since it's not like he has to pay for the HDTVs he reviews -- and although he found that freeze framing an image for 10 hours straight failed to burn-in on the 2008 and 2009 plasma models he tried, he's confident that if he put a full white 100 IRE square up on the center of a plasma, with the user mode set to Vivid and contrast maxed out, that after a number of days there would be some signs of burn-in -- so yeah, kind of like testing a water proof watch by throwing it into an abyss. Now of course this doesn't change the fact that everyone believes that burn-in is a problem and that the brightest TV is the best TV, we're just saying.

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SSD drives don't help dedicated Windows Media Center PCs much

By Ben Drawbaugh

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 1:55PM

Review

We had a chance to play with the Kingston 40GB SSDNow and of course we just couldn't wait to see what kind of magic it could work for our dedicated Windows 7 Media Center PC. The bad news is the answer is, not much. In fact we tried just about every combination we could think of from setting the SSD drive as the Live TV recording buffer, to just copying recordings to be scanned for commercials. But in the end Media Center just isn't an application that requires much disk I/O to perform well and there really wasn't any noticeable improvement. The real issue is that HD recordings are so big you can't fit many of them on the drive and at 40GB, you can only hold about 5 hours of HD, so recording to the SSD until it was scanned for commercials and then moving to a spinning platter just doesn't work. Now if the SSD was 120GB or bigger, then in this likely scenario we could avoid the UI lag that we experience if we try to record five HD shows at once while playing back one and scanning two for commercials. But at the current price of large SSD drives and frequency of that scenario, it just isn't something we think is worth the money right now.

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DirecTV 12 on its way to the launch site

By Ben Drawbaugh

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 12:31PM

No doubt DirecTV has spent a pretty penny on the great HD content race that we love so much, so of course it's no surprise that DirecTV's third new satellite in three years is on its way to the site of its December launch. According to Boeing, DirecTV 12 features both national and spot-beam Ka-band transmitters which will help boost DirecTV's HD offerings by 50 percent; and when combined with DirecTV 10 and 11, will allow DirecTV to offer a total of 200 national HD channels and 1500 HD locals. As for how long you'll have to wait for the additional HD goodness, DirecTV 11 took about four months after launch to get into service -- assuming nothing goes wrong that is.

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Comcast takes control of NBC, promises not to crush Hulu

By Joseph L. Flatley

posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 11:29AM

As expected, Comcast announced its buyout of NBC this morning, and we have a few details of interest to Engadget readers and fans of rom-coms alike. Essentially, Comcast now owns 51 percent of NBC-Universal to GE's 49 percent and will manage the entity -- leveraging the newly acquired content with their infrastructure. On an investor call (reported by All Things Digital) a short time ago, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts emphasized that the company bought "a bunch of profitable cable channels" and "some theme parks, too" (we think that last part was a joke). Not so funny, of course, is the film studio that's seen better years and the broadcast network that's been described elsewhere as "faltering." When asked about TV Everywhere and Hulu, Comcast COO Steve Burke notes that "NBC has been careful not to put too much cable content on the Internet. We think that's a smart strategy... We think that going forward, you're going to continue to have free broadcast stuff on Hulu, and cable stuff on TV Everywhere." As for rumors of Hulu Premium? "That's certainly not in the cards." ~~Web-based TV fanatics will be pleased to note that Roberts appears to be in your court: "We love Hulu and have no intent to crush it like a bug."~~ That's all well and good, but as we know nothing's final until the government has its say: the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Justice Department are all sure to have strongly held opinions on the matter. PR after the break.

Update: The "crush it like a bug" comment was actually just some editorializing from Peter Kafka at All Things Digital -- but we're certain Steve Burke has only love in his heart for Hulu.

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