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Posted by larry dixon at 04:30 PM. Filed under: General
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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Up until about a decade ago it was really easy to select a television set. That's because there was only a limited number of technologies to choose from. There was basically the cathode ray tube which functions by firing electrons through a vacuum and onto a screen that turns them into light of different colors, thus creating a television picture made out of pixels. Only a decade or two ago, the cathode ray tube was the only real option and with it you didn't even have to decide whether you wanted black and white or color, because black and white had already been phased out. That left screen size as the only consideration, and that was largely determined by your budget.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
There are a lot of different television technologies out there that promise greater connectivity and the option of watching television anywhere. Portable video devices which store downloaded TV shows and movies on their hard drives and allow you to watch them just about anywhere on built in color LCD screens have been around for a while now. It's also been possible to watch DVD's on laptop computers for years, and more recently it's been possible to have movies and TV shows stored on the laptops' hard drives available for viewing anywhere as well. There are even companies offering the option of streaming video onto mobile phones!
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:29 PM. Filed under: General
Sunday, February 25, 2007
In one of the latest attempts to combine television technology with computer technology, the electronics company Artec has released a device called the T14A that claims to provide portable access to high definition television when it's plugged into a laptop computer. The super compact device is essentially an over the air digital television tuner that can handle high definition television and can plug into the USB 2.0 port of a Windows based computer. It also comes with a stand up antenna that can be plugged into the tuner via a coaxial cable connection. The same connection can also be used to plug into a larger roof top antenna. The T14A also comes with software that allows it to play through Windows Media Center.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:27 PM. Filed under: General
Friday, February 23, 2007
One of the major issues that buyers of television sets have to deal with is answering the question of which type of technology is right for them. In the past, this was an easy question to answer because the only type available was a cathode ray tube set. (Okay, to be fair the decision to buy a color cathode ray tube set versus a black and white cathode ray tube set was once and issue, but that was decades ago.) Now, the modern television buyer has to choose among a bunch of different options. For example, will it be a standard definition television set or a high definition television set? For, the sake of this discussion, we'll narrow it down to high definition television sets, but that still doesn't eliminate many options. That's because high definition television sets are available with LCD screens, Plasma screens, projection screens using DLP and LCD technologies, DLP projectors, and even a few cathode ray tube sets.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:25 PM. Filed under: General
Thursday, February 22, 2007
If you've ever been watching TV in a dark room and been struck by the contrast of what you were seeing on the screen and the darkness all around the screen, you're not alone. With the insight that people take in more than just what's on the screen while watching television, and often find the darkness around the screen disconcerting or a strain on their eyes, engineers at Philips electronics recently introduced "Ambilight" technology.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:24 PM. Filed under: General
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
One type of television technology that's having a huge effect on the way people watch TV is the Digital Video Recorder. A Digital Video Recorder, which is often called a DVR for short gives people the ability to record programs directly off of the television signal and then watch them whenever they want to.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:23 PM. Filed under: General
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
While portable video devices have become almost as ubiquitous as their more primitive forbear, the MP3 player, a lot of them have very similar features that causes them to get lost in the crowd. For that reason, when one company comes along with something truly different, that company and its product can get a lot of attention. The new Archos 604 WiFi is just such a device.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:22 PM. Filed under: General
Monday, February 19, 2007
Digital Video Recording is a television technology that has been around for a while and represents incredible promise to provide television the way people want it. For anyone who doesn't know, a Digital Video Recorder, which is also referred to as a DVR, is a piece of home entertainment equipment that records programming in digital television format onto a built in hard drive. Digital Video Recorders can typically store anywhere from thirty hours of high definition video on their hard drives all the way up to two hundred hours of standard definition video. They're generally very easy to program with the use of graphic user interfaces rather than the obscure text and number system used by VCR's. They also play back their programming with the same picture quality that it was recorded in- which in the case of digital television or high definition television means that the picture quality is a lot better than anything a VCR can do.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:22 PM. Filed under: General
Sunday, February 18, 2007
There's new evidence that Americans find high definition television to be a source of frustration and don't derive as much satisfaction from it as they often do from normal TV. This information comes in the form of a new study from Frank N. Magid Associates. The survey, which was taken in September and questioned about twelve hundred adults fount that of all the people buying and using high definition television sets, a surprisingly low number were really happy with high definition television itself. For example, only forty seven percent of High Definition Television set buyers said that they're looking forward to watching television shows in High Definition. That number is down from over sixty percent a few years ago.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:21 PM. Filed under: General
Saturday, February 17, 2007
When shopping around for high definition television equipment, one option that home theater aficionados don't often consider is using a projector as a way to display a high definition image. This should pretty much be second nature considering that the whole point of having a home theater system is to replicate the movie theater experience in the comfort of your own home. However, that said, there are a couple of reasons why a projector might not be the first option that you think of. First, flat screen TV's are trendy and therefore get more media and advertising hype. Second, projectors are expensive.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:20 PM. Filed under: General
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The new Play Station 3 video game system that was recently released by Sony was supposed to give a huge boost to the new Blu-ray HDTV-DVD. The reasoning was that because the Play Station 3 comes with a Blu-ray disc drive built into it and the capability of playing Blu-ray movies onto a high definition television screen, people would buy the Play Station 3 in order to play games with stunningly realistic graphics and see the advantages of the Blu-ray format for playing movies in high definition format. Sony even included a popular movie title in Blu-ray format along with all of the Play Station 3's that were just released, just so that video game enthusiasts could try out the Blu-ray format or movies.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:17 PM. Filed under: General
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Digital Television, or DTV for short, isn't exactly a new television technology, but the pending widespread adoption of the digital television format could have new and wide ranging consequences for Americans. That's because, as of February 17, 2009, all over the air broadcasters will be required to broadcast their signals in one hundred percent digital television format. The analog signal will be done away with.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:16 PM. Filed under: General
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Part of the appeal of high definition television is that the technology has so many different applications. Besides providing a realistic experience while watching sports and movies, high definition television is also used for medical imaging as well as other applications that require extremely detailed pictures. Some of these applications include military and security.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:15 PM. Filed under: General
Monday, February 12, 2007
As the holidays approach, a number of players in the high definition television industry are positioning themselves both to take advantage of the publics' new found interest in high definition television and to feed that interest as much as possible. The most obvious example of what companies are doing in an effort to stimulate the sales of high definition equipment can be seen in their plans to slash prices on high definition televisions on Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving).
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:14 PM. Filed under: General
Sunday, February 11, 2007
High Definition Plasma screen TV sets have become coveted status symbols among the American public, but according to statistics reported by DisplaySearch out of Austin, Texas, sales of Plasma screen TVs are expected to slow down in the near future. There are a number of probable reasons for this. For example, while Plasma screens provide vivid colors and a great deal of contrast, they tend to lose their brightness gradually over time. They also don't look very good in higher light levels. One major disadvantage that effects some Plasma TV owners is that they produce an annoying buzzing sound at elevations greater than about six thousand feet. While most of the population of the United States lives at well under six thousand feet, this detraction is definitely a turn off to those who are confronted with this issue.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:14 PM. Filed under: General
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Right now, there's a situation developing in the United Kingdom that can serve as a study case for what happens when technological advances out pace the development of standards to govern that technology. This particular case revolves around an incompatibility between high definition television sets bought just a few years ago and set top high def receivers that just recently came on the market.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:13 PM. Filed under: General
Thursday, February 08, 2007
As part of the ongoing format war between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray high definition digital video disc formats, Sony has been hyping the fact that its Blu-ray format can support 1080p high definition resolution while Toshiba's HD-DVD format can't. As a counter attack an executive who works for Microsoft- which has gotten behind the HD-DVD format- said that because of up-conversion features on most high definition television sets, the distinction between 1080i and 1080p is meaningless. Then, caught in between, is the average consumer who may or may not know the technical difference between 1080i and 1080p resolutions, but has the vague feeling as a result of all of this that he should know the difference.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:10 PM. Filed under: General
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Broadcom Corp. recently announced that it will manufacture a special chip that will allow the construction of high definition digital video disc players capable of playing discs in both Sony's Blu-ray format and Toshiba's HD-DVD format. If such a device can in fact make it to market, it could have big repercussions as far as the format war between the to competing formats goes.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:10 PM. Filed under: General
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
The cable television and satellite television industries have been fighting for years about which one offers superior service. In general the cable television industry contends that it offers a better overall service, while the satellite television industry points out that it provides a lot more channels for a lower price.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:08 PM. Filed under: General
Monday, February 05, 2007
As electronics manufacturers are developing more efficient manufacturing processes that are causing the prices of high definition television sets to drop, a number of other factors are aligning in the marketplace that suggest huge improvements in the profitability of the products as well as the ability for consumers to get the HDTV sets at lower costs.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:06 PM. Filed under: General
Sunday, February 04, 2007
One of the interesting things about television technology is how it effects the market that it's sold to and how that market in turn effects it. For example- contrary to the popular notion of how supply and demand are supposed to work- an increase in demand for electronics often leads to decreasing prices in the long run. That's because, the fact that more people are buying those electronics means that more money is available to go into research and design. More R&D money in turn means more efficient manufacturing processes which lower the costs.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:05 PM. Filed under: General
Saturday, February 03, 2007
In the past, attempts to combine televisions and computers have largely ended in failure. In general those attempts have involved using the television screen in the living room as a computer screen. The idea would be that people would do work on their computers and surf the Internet as well as watch television and play video games all from the comfort of their couches or their favorite chairs. Unfortunately for the computer manufacturers who have tried to make this work- and of course the people who would enjoy having the above options- most of the computer systems that were designed with this type of scenario in mind failed miserably. Yet, for some reason, the computer industry has continued to try to make this strategy work.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:04 PM. Filed under: General
Friday, February 02, 2007
In 1994 Direct TV launched a revolutionary new service that caused satellite TV to surge toward the widely loved and technologically advanced service that we enjoy today. When Direct TV was founded, satellite TV enthusiasts were able to rid themselves of the huge, ten foot satellite dishes they had been using and install portable 18 inch models in their place. Plus they were suddenly able to receive all of their programming in fully digital form. Though satellite TV initially appealed mostly to people in rural areas who could not receive clear over the air programming or cable programming, people from all walks of life quickly realized the potential of new satellite technology. Twelve years later, Direct TV has won over fourteen millions customers who are extremely satisfied with the great selection of programming and incredible technology that only satellite TV can provide.
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Posted by larry dixon at 04:02 PM. Filed under: General
Thursday, February 01, 2007
As the holiday season approaches, there are a variety of new video gaming platforms hitting the market. Microsoft's Xbox 360 is already in stores and has an optional HD-DVD drive available that will allow it to function as an HD-DVD player. Sony's new Play Station 3 is in the holiday line up. The newest iteration of this highly successful line of gaming platforms has graphics that are so realistic that many people watching the screen have to remind themselves that they're watching a video game and not a recording of a real scene. The Play Station 3 also has a built in Blu-ray high definition DVD drive which allows it to play movies onto a television screen. The Play Station 3 is specially designed to take advantage of high definition technology and will even display resolutions of up to 1080p.
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Posted by larry dixon at 03:53 PM. Filed under: General
