Cell phones with build in cameras are replacing cheap pocket size digital cameras and video cameras. Best cell phone cameras can be better in many ways than cheap pocket digital cameras from few years back. And most people do not want to carry separate devices for each function (at least without a very good reason), when a smart phone can handle calls, Internet, photos and video shooting.
CES 2013 fair had more pocket advanced size cameras on display than DSLRs, but the trend on then was that business was going down due cellular phone cameras getting better. So camera manufacturers are integrating more cellular phone like features to their cameras (like Android OS with wireless connectivity to photo sharing sites) and concentrate on building good superzoom and DSLR type cameras. You need to have something clearly different than what cell phone can offer: huge zoom, good performance in low light or works also in harsh environment. Wireless connection is getting more and more common, either built-in or using memory card with WiFi.
As Sales Slip, TV Makers Strain for the Next Sensation because hardware companies want to make their products stand out in a sea of black rectangles that can show the content user want to watch. And one that is particularly acute for television makers. The hardware is becoming kind of boring and exciting things are happening in software. TV manufacturers continue to push the idea of “smart” sets by adding apps and other interactive elements.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. Almost every major electronic device you own is a black rectangle that is brought to life by software and content.
In the last two years, television makers have tried a push with 3-D sets. But now It’s official: 3D is dead. The tech industry’s annual hot air balloon show is gone. On the one hand, 3D has become ubiquitous enough in televisions that people are unwittingly buying it when opting for a high-end new HDTV to fill their living room.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. This year, television makers like Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic are trying to grab attention by supersizing their television screens and quadrupling the level of detail in their images. They are promoting what they call Ultra High-Definition televisions, which have four times as many pixels as their high-definition predecessors, and can cost as much as a car. It’s a bit of a marketing push. It seems that all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays.
4K at CES 2013: the dream gets real article tells that the 4K bandwagon is fully loaded and ready to get rolling. The US TV maker isn’t alone in stepping up to the higher resolution in its new flagship models. Sony, Panasonic and Sharp, Japan’s traditional big-screen TV leaders, are all attending this year’s CES with proper retail products. Manufacturers Need You to Buy an Ultra-High-Def 4K TV. Save Your Money because just as HDTV was slow to take off, the 4K start will be slow. It’s more than the price that’s keeping these things from hitting critical mass. 4K is only for ultra-premium markets this year.
4K resolution TV has one big problem: The entire ecosystem isn’t ready for 4K. The Trouble With 4K TV article tellst that though 4K resolutions represent the next step in high-definition video, standards for the format have yet to emerge and no one’s really figured out how to distribute video, with its massive file footprint, efficiently and cost effectively. Getting 4K content to consumers is hard.
Even though 4K resolution is widely use in digital cinematography, but there is no suitable consumer disk format that supports it and the bandwidth need to stream 4K content would be huge. Given that uncompressed 4K footage has a bit-rate of about 600MB/s. Broadcom chip ushers in H.265 and UltraHD video tells that H.265 video standard, aka HEVC or MPEG-5, squeezes more pixels over a network connection to support new high-resolution 4K TVs.
You should also note that the new higher resolution is pretty pointless for a small TV (where the TV mass market is now). Ultra HD would make a difference only on screens that were at least 80 inches, measured diagonally. For smaller screens, the extra pixels would not be visible to a person with 20/20 vision viewing from a normal viewing distance. Ultra HD TVs can also be a flop. But let’s see what happens in the world where nowadays tiny smart phone screens can have full HDTV resolution.
Keep in mind that 4K is not any absolute highest resolution expected in few years. 8k resolution TVs are coming. Sharp showed a 8K resolution TV with 7680 x 4320 resolution at CES2013. For more details on it read Sharp 8K Super Hi-Vision LCD, 4K TV and Freestyle wireless LCD HDTV hands-on article.
Another development than pushing up the resolution to make high end display products is OLED technology. OLED is another new technology to make expensive products. The much buzzed-about device features next-generation, high-quality OLED screens. OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, and they offer a bevy of benefits: more energy efficient, cleaner image, wide viewing angle and devices can be made thinner. You can also make TV screen curved in shape. In a race between television titans, LG has beat Samsung in becoming the first manufacturer to introduce a 55-inch OLED television to market: the largest OLED TV panel to date.. OLED products are very expensive (LG TV $10,300 in US dollars). OLED display can also have 4K resolution, so you can combine two expensive technologies to one product. Market analysts say that they believe the technology will not become more affordable until 2015.
The Verge Awards: the best of CES 2013 article lists for example product like Samsung 4K “easel TV”, Sony 4K OLED TV, Teenage Engineering OD-11 Cloud Speaker and Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming.
All your audio, video kit is about to become OBSOLETE article tells that although much of the audio and video technology packed into CES 2013′s 1.9 million square feet of exhibition space is indeed impressive, one panelist at an emerging-technology conference session channeled a little 1974 BTO, essentially telling his audience that “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Deep-geek soothsayer predicts smart audio, Ultra HD eyewear, much more in coming years. Audio is going to become adaptive, changing its wave forms to fit each user’s personal aural perceptions. Active noise reduction is finding its way into cars. HD audio will be coming to mobile phones. MEMS-based microphones and speakers are also on the runway. Consumer-level video will see in the future much higher resolution devices with much higher frame rates.
903 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Wins Against Viacom Again
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/04/18/2331202/youtube-wins-against-viacom-again
“Once again YouTube has defeated Viacom and other members of the content cartel; once again the Court has held that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act actually does mean what it says.”
“Among other things Judge Stanton concluded that YouTube had not had knowledge or awareness of any specific infringement, been ‘willfully blind’ to any specific infringement, induced its users to commit copyright infringement, interacted with its users to a point where it might be said to have participated in their infringements, or manually selected or delivered videos to its syndication partners.”
technomate says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
YLE has launched the first TV company in Finland TV channels direct online distribution. Channels of direct provision can watch TV from today with tablets, PCs and smart phones.
All YLE TV channels, YLE TV1, YLE TV2, YLE Teema and YLE Fem are seen live on YLE Areena web service.
The new service aims to bring the whole YLE television supply to where the people are.
- Viewing habits are changing and nowadays many people want to watch TV from mobile devices. We are pleased to be able to be a pioneer in Finland and the first to offer live TV channels online viewing of all people in Finland, YLE release says Ismo Silvo.
Streaming works in Finland. Copyright The reasons for preventing the transmission channels of the network abroad. The aim is to get promoted to domestic television content as widely as possible to the international distribution of Yle Areena.
Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/ylen_tv-kanavat_nettijakeluun/6589356
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix Beats Analyst Estimates, With 29.2 Million US Subscribers And $1 Billion In Q1 Revenue
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/22/netflix-beats-analyst-estimates-with-29-2-million-us-subscribers-and-1-billion-in-q1-revenue/
The results represent a positive response to Kevin Spacey-led political thriller House of Cards, which just happens to be the first major release in Netflix’s original programming slate this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s Getting Harder to Make Money on YouTube
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-22/its-getting-harder-to-make-money-on-youtube
Despite success stories about YouTube (GOOG) sensations such as Jenna Marbles, the vast majority of the site’s users probably don’t think of it as a place to earn money. The video giant wants to change that. It’s trying to build a bench of talent that can support its ambition of competing with traditional TV.
For folks who dream of earning a living as YouTubepreneurs, the biggest change took effect last April, when the video site launched a new revenue-sharing program. Whereas before, creators who wanted to pair sponsors’ ads with their videos had to get YouTube’s permission, now the video platform has automated the process with a “monetize” button, essentially opening the flood gates to anyone who posts an original video. Creators get about half the advertising proceeds, according to industry analysts and video makers.
(YouTube typically finds the advertisers, although creators can approach sponsors directly.) “If they can generate an audience, they can start making money,” says Tom Pickett, YouTube’s vice president of global operations.
But for many of the more than 1 million creators who have signed up for the ad-revenue sharing program since its launch, the payout has been disappointing. The surge in new content—about 72 hours of which is uploaded each minute today vs. every 48 hours in 2011—makes it harder for any one content channel on the site to get noticed. Even worse for creators: Rates that advertisers pay to be on popular videos have fallen by about one-third since last June
Specifically, the rates for the most lucrative, “pre-roll” video ads that appear right before the featured video dropped from an average of $9.35 per 1,000 views in June of 2012 to $6.33 in March of this year
Dave Morgan, founder of Simulmedia, an ad targeting firm for TV, says “most of what’s on YouTube is not what advertisers want,” in terms of both production quality and content. That disconnect has created an “unnatural pricing bubble” that he says is beginning to pop.
dismisses such problems as “early growing challenges” and “a few areas of tension” in a rapidly evolving industry
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s TV project loses key exec months before going to market
http://gigaom.com/2013/04/22/intel-media-jim-baldwin-gone/
Intel Media, the chip giant’s ambitious attempt to reinvent pay TV, has lost a key executive just months before going to market. Jim Baldwin, who was working as VP of Engineering for Intel Media, has left the company.
No matter the circumstances, losing a key exec during the last stretch of the race can’t be good news for Intel Media. The project is currently running a private test in three markets, and Intel Media boss Erik Huggers said in February that the service will be available to consumers before the end of the year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Video is the new audio, as videoconferencing contender Vidyo grows 68% and raises $17M to grow even faster
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/22/video-is-the-new-audio-as-videoconferencing-contender-vidyo-grows-68-and-raises-17m-to-grow-even-faster/
“Our overall growth in billings was 68%,” Vidyo CEO Shofer Shapiro told me last week. “That’s while our competitors were somwhere between flat and negative growth.”
Shapiro’s talking about videoconferencing pioneers Cisco and PolyCom.
Vidyo, the company that supplies the technology for Google’s Google+ Hangouts and Nintendo Wii’s videoconferencing, is disrupting the fast-growing video communications world on at least three levels, Shapiro said.
The technology transitions are key, the company says.
“PolyCom and Microsoft say they’re doing it, but not well,” Shapiro states. “We are by far the leader here.”
“I believe the price point is just starting to erode,” Shapiro says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix Surpasses HBO in U.S. Subscribers
http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/netflix-surpasses-hbo-in-u-s-subscribers-1200406437/
Netflix reports 29.17 million subs in 1Q, edging out HBO’s 28.7 million
Netflix reported 29.17 million domestic subscribers in the first quarter of 2013, surpassing HBO for the first time.
kitchen design says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Said to Plan TV Set-Top Box for Streaming Video
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-24/amazon-said-to-plan-tv-set-top-box-for-streaming-video.html
Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, plans to release a television set-top box that would stream video over the Internet into customers’ homes, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The device, due later this year, will connect to televisions
Many competing set-top boxes already give access to Amazon’s video catalog. By building its own device, Seattle- based Amazon can put its content more directly in center of consumers’ living rooms, while giving developers another reason to create applications for Amazon’s digital ecosystem.
A representative of Amazon declined to comment.
The set-top box is being developed by Amazon’s Lab126 division, based in Cupertino, California
Lab126 has toyed with building connected television devices for several years, the people familiar with the effort said.
The project is being run by Malachy Moynihan, a former vice president at Cisco Systems Inc. who worked on the networking giant’s various consumer video initiatives.
While the device will compete with other set-top boxes, it could coexist with rival streaming services, such as Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Hulu LLC and Google Inc.’s YouTube. Owners of Amazon’s Kindle Fire line of tablets can already access those services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K Helicopter Cam Ups the Gnar in Gorgeous Skiing Videos
http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/04/4k-skiing-videos/
Extreme sports demand extreme documentation, and the latest example of this involves mounting a $750,000 4K Ultra High-Definition camera rig to a helicopter to capture luscious skiing videos that rival Hollywood blockbusters.
Earlier this year Teton Gravity Research, a production company with several well-known ski and snowboard films under its belt, announced that it was the first company to use the new Gyro-Stabilized Systems’ C520, a portable five-axis gyro-stabilized camera platform that works with several 4K cameras including the RED Epic.
“The evolution of digital and video equipment over the last five or six years has been tremendous and we’ve really been trying to stay on the forefront of that,” says TGR co-founder Todd Jones. 4K video has roughly four times more resolution than regular HD. The gyro-stabilization ensures smooth video even when it’s shot from a vibrating and constantly moving helicopter.
The C520 is an important step up technically for TGR. Jones says the company shot film for the first 13 years because they loved the quality and look. They never thought digital video could match film until 4K was introduced. Regular HD didn’t cut it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why TV Shows Are Self-Censoring After the Boston Bombing (And Why It Won’t Last)
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/pop-culture-terrorism/
Fans of network crime shows might be a bit confused this week as ABC’s Castle and NBC’s Hannibal skip regularly scheduled episodes and instead broadcast next week’s episodes, a move made to sidestep plotlines that might be deemed insensitive in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and other events of real-life violence.
While the immediate aftermath of tragedy tends to make audiences more sensitive to images of terrorism, history shows that the sensitivity rarely lasts long.
Although 9/11 had perhaps the most significant and lasting impact on entertainment
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kindle TV: why does Amazon need a set-top box?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/25/4263262/how-the-living-room-became-prime-territory-for-amazon
With competitors swarming the biggest screen in the house, Amazon makes a move of its own
News that Amazon is building a set-top box to rival offerings from Apple, Google, and Roku arrived yesterday as a surprise — but not a shock. In the past several years, all of its biggest competitors have made their own plays for customers’ living rooms. The simplest explanation for Amazon’s entry into the set-top box space is that the company has to.
Amazon declined to comment, but consider the competition: Apple has its TV “hobby,” which sold 5 million units last year. Google has its bewildering array of TV devices and hardware partnerships. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have their consoles, with the latter two expected to release next-generation models in the coming months. Even Roku, a relatively tiny maker of set-top boxes, has managed to ship 5 million units since releasing its first streaming box in 2008.
Among its major streaming-content peers, only Netflix has so far resisted the urge to build hardware of its own.
As the living room’s would-be conquerors have multiplied, so too have Amazon’s video ambitions.
Until now, Amazon has been content to let Instant Video exist as an app on phones, tablets, set-top boxes and consoles. But there are drawbacks to relying on competitors to build your hardware for you. Chief among them: customers get drawn into competing ecosystems of devices, content and services, at a time when Amazon is rapidly building out an ecosystem of its own.
“If you’re going to do an ecosystem, you need to have an anchor in the living room. We’ve seen Apple be very coy about Apple TV, but that box — as a thing that gets you onto a bigger screen, with all this content we have in various places on various devices — is going to be hugely important.”
And it’s not just other tech titans Amazon has to worry about. Roku has became the second most popular streaming-video box, after Apple TV, while taking an approach that is notably different than the walled-garden strategy of its far larger competitors.
A Kindle TV — as Bloomberg suggests the device could be called — could bring Amazon many benefits. First among them: another device linked to an active credit card.
Kindle TV presents a similar opportunity. An estimated 10 million people already subscribe to Amazon Prime, the other benefits of which include free two-day shipping on millions of items and one book rental per month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon’s success formula: move bits instead of boxes
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/26/us-amazon-results-digital-idUSBRE93P09820130426
Amazon.com Inc appears to have figured out the secret to being more profitable: sell less physical stuff.
The Internet retail giant that once specialized in moving books and other physical items quickly is increasingly trying to do the same in the digital world, where profit margins are higher, partly because e-books, music and video files and are transmitted electronically at high speed.
Throw in a fast-expanding third-party merchant business, where Amazon simply books a cut of sales from seller listings on its website, and the retail giant’s margin outlook is looking a lot better.
“Over the long term it does help margins,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. “You don’t have to put these things on a truck and ship them.”
In the short term, the Internet retail giant that started out as a book-retailing business faces several challenges.
But longer term, analysts say Amazon’s focus on aggressively pushing digital content – such as by selling Kindles at close to cost, undercutting much of the competition – is a winning strategy.
Amazon has largely focused on using price as a lever to get its content in front of more customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Hear My Voice, Alexander Graham Bell’: Smithsonian Releases 128-Year-Old Recording Of The Telephone Inventor [AUDIO]
http://www.ibtimes.com/hear-my-voice-alexander-graham-bell-smithsonian-releases-128-year-old-recording-telephone-inventor
American history is full of memorable quotes and speeches, but until recently the oldest audio recorded was captured in 1888 on a phonograph invented earlier that year by Thomas Edison. Thanks to new technology, however, physicists have been able to recreate and convert even older recordings once thought “lost to history” into playable audio recordings, which is how the Smithsonian was able to salvage the voice of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, from a 1885 recording made on a rare experimental phonograph.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Video rental store a surprise contender for Netflix and other in Finland
Video stores have been forced to the new competitive situation, when watching films and television series has moved more to the network.
DVD Rentals Makuuni has entered into a Anvia with video on demand service in cooperation with Makuuni Movies video on demand selection is connected to Anvia owned by the Watson-service. Watson through to record and watch TV shows.
Makuuni videos on demand it is possible to look at the Watson-service to smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/uutiset/videovuokraamosta_yllatyshaastaja_netflixille_ja_muille
Tomi Engdahl says:
Toshiba announces 160MB/s compact flash cards for 4K video
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2264406/toshiba-announces-160mb-s-compact-flash-cards-for-4k-video
CHIPMAKER Toshiba has announced its Exceria Pro series of compact flash memory cards sporting read and write bandwidths of 160MB/s and 150MB/s, respectively.
Toshiba said its Exceria Pro cards comply with the Video Performance Guarantee Profile 2, which should provide some indication as to where the firm expects these cards to be used.
Toshiba said it expects the cards to be used in devices that record video at 4K resolution. However the firm is likely to see interest for its latest cards from those that use digital SLR cameras where compact flash memory is still the primary storage medium, and higher write bandwidths will allow longer continuous image capture before the camera’s buffer is filled.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Reality Show to Skip TV, Play Entirely on Social Media (EXCLUSIVE)
http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/new-reality-show-to-play-entirely-on-social-media-exclusive-1200416708/
Series to unfold on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Tumblr
Who says a reality show has to air on TV?
The Chernin Group is producing an audacious new unscripted series that will be distributed entirely on social-media platforms instead of having a home on TV, according to sources familiar with the production.
The series, entitled “@SummerBreak,” will play out largely on four platforms: Twitter, where Peter Chernin sits on the board of directors, and Tumblr, where he is among the investors, as well as YouTube and Instagram. Production has just begun and the launch is anticipated this summer with AT&T on board as sole sponsor and financial backer.
With TV networks skewing increasingly old, the point of the concept is to target younger viewers on the devices on which they spend most time. Whether they will adapt to a narrative threaded across multiple platforms sans traditional time slots remains to be seen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iTunes Store Turns 10
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/13/04/28/0447211/itunes-store-turns-10
“On April 28, 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store. In their original press release, they called it ‘revolutionary,’ in typical PR fashion. As the service reaches its 10th anniversary, it seems they were actually correct.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D print your next headphones
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/20-20khz/4412735/3D-print-your-next-headphones
In an interesting technology demonstration, someone has created a set of headphones using no manufactured parts – just a 3D printer and a few raw materials. While the result isn’t going to cause the likes of a Sennheiser or AKG Acoustics to lose any sleep anytime soon, it does hint at the amazing potential that affordable 3D printing promises to bring to end consumers.
In this case, the “Low Fi Hi Tech” headphones were created using only wire, tape, solder, magnets and of course 3D printed parts. The headphone drivers themselves were 3D printed – as thin printed parts with spiral slots in which copper wire thread was inserted – as was the headphone driver casing and headband. The latter was made using a flexible spring structured material.
jack – is 3D printed
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG beats Samsung to OLED flexi-TV with hella pricey 55-incher
Norks get another excuse to invade the South
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/lg_samsung_flexible_loed/
At this year’s CES, both LG and Samsung proclaimed that concave OLED screens are the next big thing in televisual entertainment, and promised working systems. Now LG has began taking orders for a 55-inch model and will begin deliveries next month.
The curvy EA9800 1080p model has a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic screen that’s 4.3mm (0.17 inches) thin and weighs 17 kg (37.5lb). While the device has a much bigger footprint than a standard LCD or plasma screen, it more than makes up for this in image quality, according to the manufacturers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Barry Diller says broadcasters are bluffing about going cable
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-barry-diller-resist-change-20130429,0,3247583.story
Media mogul Barry Diller said he thinks his Aereo, the startup company that distributes broadcast signals via the Internet, could eventually end up with 20 million to 30 million subscribers.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills on Monday, Diller said once Aereo gets a significant subscriber base, it can become an outlet for original content as well as broadcast programming from CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox.
Broadcasters are trying to shut Aereo down because, unlike cable and satellite operators, it does not pay them to transmit their programming. So far, Aereo has survived legal challenges from the big broadcasters accusing it of copyright theft.
“No incumbent ever wants to see its territory invaded,” Diller said of the lawsuits against Aereo.
In recent weeks, both Fox and CBS suggested they would drop broadcast TV and become cable channels if the courts continue to side with Aereo.
Diller dismissed that as an empty threat.
“I think there is literally no chance,” he said, adding that the local TV stations that the networks own are still big profit drivers.
“What fool wouldn’t resist change if change would take away a real neat situation?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Two Classics of the Soaps Are Heading to the Web
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/media/two-classics-of-the-soaps-are-heading-to-the-web.html?pagewanted=all
On Monday the soap operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” will start their second lives, and Jeffrey Kwatinetz and Rich Frank will start to find out if they’re right.
The two men have poured money and nearly two years of their time into an Internet revival of the soaps. They’ve done this because they believe, as Mr. Kwatinetz puts it, that “this is the inflection point for online television.”
“Once again, soaps are right at the front of a change in the culturally dominant medium,” said Abigail De Kosnik, an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a co-editor of “The Survival of Soap Opera.” “Just as soaps moved to TV when TV started to become more dominant than radio, soaps are now moving to the Internet as the Internet is becoming more dominant than TV.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nielsen Gets Digital to Track Online TV Viewers
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323798104578453291286696164-lMyQjAxMTAzMDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html
Nielsen is expected to announce Tuesday that it is testing a tool to measure online viewing of TV shows, the latest step in the company’s efforts to improve how it tracks digital audiences.
Broadcast and cable networks, including NBC, Fox, ABC, Univision, Discovery and A+E, have signed up for the pilot program for “Nielsen Digital Program Ratings,” which will happen over the next few months before a broader commercial rollout later this year.
The TV networks will use the program primarily to track viewership of programs on their own websites. NBC, for example, will allow Nielsen to gather usage data for some shows that it streams on NBC.com.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yahoo rolls out six original shows and new TV partnerships
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57582013-93/yahoo-rolls-out-six-original-shows-and-new-tv-partnerships/
Aiming to bring users more content, the company is launching Web shows, starring Ed Helms, John Stamos, and Cheryl Hines, and debuting programming from WWE, ABC News, CNBC, and Conde Nast.
Tomi says:
Oh Man, a Custom 4K Imax Home Theater Would Change Everything
http://gizmodo.com/oh-man-a-custom-4k-imax-home-theater-would-change-ever-486206457
The summer blockbusters are already hitting theaters, and if you’re sane, you’re going to go see them in an Imax theater. It’s the big screen, only bigger, and more awesome. Now, you can take the IMAGE MAXIMUM experience home with you—provided you’ve got the guap to buy one of Imax’s new pricey custom installs.
If you buy an Imax Private Home Theater, the company will come to your mansion and design a badass theater from the ground up, from the geometry of the room, to the placement of the seats to the 7.1 channel surround sound, to the floor-to-ceiling curved screen.
it’ll cost $1-$2 million, depending on the install.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Watch your data caps: Kaleidescape starts offering Blu-ray-quality movie downloads
http://gigaom.com/2013/05/01/watch-your-data-caps-kaleidescape-starts-offering-blu-ray-quality-movie-downloads/
Summary:
Want to legally download Blu-ray quality copies of Harry Potter movies? Owners of Kaleidescape systems can do so today – but should watch their data caps.
Kaleidescape is known for its DVD servers, which allow users to rip their disc collections and serve them to TVs and home theaters.
Titles purchased through the Kaleidescape store can be played back with a Kaleidescape system, and also accessed on the web and through mobile devices via Ultraviolet, the studios’ locker system for digital movie purchases. However, even moderate users of the service could easily burst through their ISPs’ data caps.
The HD download of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for example, comes in at a whopping 54GB.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AOL Unveils 15 Fall Shows in an Aggressive Push for TV Dollars
Razorfish locks up ad deal during NewFront event, claims CEO Armstrong By Mike Shields
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/aol-unveils-15-fall-shows-aggressive-push-tv-dollars-149025
The NewFronts award for boldest attempt to really take on TV goes to: AOL. At least so far.
The Web portal has lined up big names and even bolder claims as it attempts to get advertisers to consider its original shows up against the likes of ABC and Fox.
All in all, AOL has 15 original projects slated for this fall, an aggressive push considering the typical Web output. It’s clear that the company wants to position itself as a leader in this space.
“The main thing is AOL is positioned to bridge the gap between Web and TV,” Ran Harnevo, svp of AOL Video, told Adweek. “We think we can show there is no substantial difference between the two media when it comes to quality and measurement.”
Regarding the aggressive content outlay, Harnevo took pains to emphasis AOL’s quality and exclusivity. He seemed to be drawing a distinction with YouTube without saying so. “We’re not an open platform,” he said. “We’re doubling down on originals. This investment is unprecedented. We pick and chose content. That’s the definition of premium.
“If you really look at what makes advertisers scared of Web video, it was the programming was lost,” Harnevo added. “it was all about algorithm.”
Advertisers seemed to be buying what AOL was selling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Movie Business Is A Total Drag — On Earnings
http://www.buzzfeed.com/peterlauria/the-movie-business-is-a-total-drag-on-earnings
CBS’s first quarter earnings, released today, shined in part because it doesn’t own a major movie studio. At least not yet.
CBS Is The Only Big Media Company To Lack A Major Movie Studio
CBS launched its own movie division six years ago, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing about it. The small studio specializes in mid-budget (around $50 million) niche productions, such as “Extraordinary Measures,” “The Back-Up Plan,” and “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”
Operating Income At Viacom’s Paramount Pictures Fell 43 Percent In The First Quarter
Paramount still reported a 20 percent decline in revenue
Warner Bros Results Were “Somewhat Disappointing” In Part Because Of The Poor Performance Of Gangster Squad
Revenue fell $103 million, or 4 percent, to $2.7 billion for the second quarter.
Universal Studios Posted A Solid Quarter But Is Only A Small Part Of Comcast’s Overall Business
Disney And News Corp Report Results Next Week
As For CBS, It Reported Its Best Quarterly Numbers Ever
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Camera Inspired by Insect Eyes
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/05/new-camera-inspired-by-insect-ey.html?ref=hp
An insect’s compound eye is an engineering marvel: high resolution, wide field of view, and incredible sensitivity to motion, all in a compact package. Now, a new digital camera provides the best-ever imitation of a bug’s vision, using new optical materials and techniques. This technology could someday give patrolling surveillance drones the same exquisite vision as a dragonfly on the hunt.
Human eyes and conventional cameras work about the same way. Light enters a single curved lens and resolves into an image on a retina or photosensitive chip. But a bug’s eyes are covered with many individual lenses, each connected to light-detecting cells and an optic nerve.
While flat silicon chips have worked well for digital photography, in biology, “you never see that design,” Rogers says. He thinks that a curved system of detectors better imitates biological eyes. In 2008, his lab created a camera designed like a mammal eye, with a concave electronic “retina” at the back. The curved surface enabled a wider field of view without the distortion typical of a wide-angle camera lens.
Over the last 3 years, Rogers and students in his lab at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have developed an array of 180 ommatidia (about the same number as in the eye of a fire ant), each of which contains a lens, tiny silicon photodetectors, and circuitry to read the image.
A wide-angle, compact camera would be ideal for a high-flying, motion-sensing surveillance drone or a miniature, snakelike endoscopic medical device, Rogers says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The W3C’s Soul at Stake
Posted by Richard M. Stallman at May 02, 2013 12:30 PM
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/w3c-soul-at-stake
The World Wide Web consortium is considering a proposal to specify standards for HTML extensions to implement Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). The proposal is supported by Netflix, Microsoft, Google and the BBC.
Of course, the W3C cannot prevent companies from grafting DRM onto HTML. They do this through nonfree plug-ins such as Flash, and with nonfree Javascript code, thus showing that we need control over the Javascript code we run and over the C code we run.
However, where the W3C stands is tremendously important for the battle to eliminate DRM. On a practical level, standardizing DRM would make it more convenient, in a very shallow sense. This could influence people who think only of short-term convenience to think of DRM as acceptable, which could in turn encourage more sites to use DRM.
The arguments for standardizing DRM aim to avoid hypothetical minor inconveniences.
However, the main point is that that’s a side issue either way. It is insignificant compared with the importance of discouraging DRM.
Proprietary software is an injustice since users can’t control it, and it commonly carries other injustices with it. The proprietary plugins or kernels required to view media under this standard, like proprietary software in general, could never merit users’ trust. Once they harbor one malicious functionality, the digital handcuffs of DRM, there is no reason to suppose they won’t have back doors and spyware as well.
Tomi says:
Time Warner Cable CEO wants to slim cable bundles, eyes Aereo’s technology
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2013/05/02/f6b43b84-b27b-11e2-baf7-5bc2a9dc6f44_story.html
Time Warner Cable’s chief executive said his company may consider capturing television content from public airwaves and delivering them to customers over an Internet connection, a practice that has shaken the entertainment industry.
The idea was pioneered by a Web start-up called Aereo, whose business model sparked lawsuits from all of the nation’s broadcasters, including NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC. Their complaints in courts have failed.
The entry of Time Warner Cable into Aereo’s space would be a game changer, with broad implications for how television is created and delivered to households. Unlike Aereo, which serves only two markets, Time Warner is the country’s second-largest cable company and has broad influence over how TV content is delivered into millions of living rooms.
“What Aereo is doing to bring broadcast signals to its customers is interesting,” Time Warner Cable chief executive Glenn Britt said in an interview. “If it is found legal, we could conceivably use similar technology.”
Part of Britt’s interest in Aereo stems from his belief that the traditional model of television — in which broadcasters bundle together hundreds of channels and force cable companies to buy and distribute them to consumers as a package — is under siege.
“Forgive me Glenn Britt’s hypocrisy over rising cable rates. Time Warner Cable owns regional sports channels that charge viewers as much as $5 per subscriber per month,” said Dennis Wharton, an executive vice president at the National Association of Broadcasters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TV gesture patent bombshell: El Reg punts tech into public domain
Vulture North’s droid gives lawyers the finger
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/07/gesture_control/
Gesture control to operate next-gen home electronics is the next patent battleground – so last month we asked you lot for hand movements you’d like to see protected from the lawyers as prior art. Here are the most popular, and practical, suggestions
Rather than allow individual gestures to be patented, thus closing off useful and obvious body shaking to a select few manufacturers, we vowed to publish the best gestures to put it all into the public domain – thus keeping it out of the hands of patent-filing lawyers.
We asked our crack team of cybernetic engineers to roll out the El Reg android and demonstrate the ways in which you’ll be controlling your TVs in the next decade
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pay Youtube channels this week?
07.05.2013
Leading distributor of video on Youtube can be opened for months been working on pay-TV channels this week, writes the Financial Times.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/viihde/2013/05/07/maksulliset-youtube-kanavat-jo-talla-viikolla/20136520/66?rss=6
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Tomi says:
Google Chrome extension exploits Spotify with MP3 download feature
Music streaming service is working on a fix
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2266688/google-chrome-extension-exploits-spotify-with-mp3-download-feature
A GOOGLE CHROME extension is enabling users of Spotify to download music from the streaming service for free, exploting the firm’s offline mode feature.
The Chrome plug-in, called Downloadify and created by Dutch developer Robin Aldenhoven, was discovered on Tuesday, and allows users to download MP3 files from the Spotify web player app.
Tweakers.net says Downloadify, which still works, takes advantage of the fact that music on the Spotify web player is not encrypted.
A Spotify spokesperson told The INQUIRER that it is aware of the issue and is working on a fix, although it was unable to say when this will be rolled out.
Tomi says:
Why Online Video Just Took One More Big Step to Legitimacy
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/07/why-online-video-just-took-one-more-big-step-to-legitimacy/
I frequently hear critics saying, “yeah, but you can’t monetize on YouTube.”
While I will admit that there are still issues in building a profitable business on YouTube alone given the YouTube vig plus talent payouts – I can tell you first hand that big businesses are being built, brands are significantly more interested in large media buys, audience loyalty and brand building are taking place and at volume this looks like the making of the next generation of online media to me.
If you want to understand my thesis behind Maker you can read this article that outlines the trend, but in summary:
People watch 5.3 hours of TV / day. They read less than 30 minutes. You can’t change media consumption patterns easily. The future of the Internet is video. Full stop.
Production costs have fallen more than 90%. Distribution costs have, too. This is classic “Innovator’s Dilemma” market conditions.
My estimate is that the top 5 YouTube networks will do > $200 million net revenue in 2013 (after Google’s share)
These same top networks – Maker, Machinima, Zefr, FullScreen, BigFrame – and the like have create nearly 1,000 new tech / media jobs in LA in the past 3 years alone.
Ynon had decided that YouTube would play a major role in the reshaping of the video business and he wanted to figure out how to be involved.
Tomi says:
Why Silicon Valley and Hollywood Don’t Get Each Other and Who Will Win the Future
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2012/11/05/why-silicon-valley-and-hollywood-dont-get-each-other-and-who-will-win-the-future/
So Who Will Win the Future?
Tomi Engdahl says:
AOL vs. Netflix: The Entire Internet In One Simple Chart
Dialup out, broadband in. It doesn’t get more clear than this.
http://www.splatf.com/2013/05/aol-netflix-chart/
At the end of March, almost 2.7 million people still subscribed to AOL service, the company reported this morning. That’s about where Netflix stood at the end of 2004.
Since then, Netflix’s subscriber base has grown — 29 million at the end of March — and AOL’s has declined at a remarkably parallel rate.
Worth noting: Netflix now has more subscribers than AOL ever had.
Worth pondering: What will eventually cause Netflix’s decline?
Tomi Engdahl says:
This 17-Year-Old Coder Is Saving Twitter From TV Spoilers (Spoiler: She’s a Girl)
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/meet-17-year-old-saving-you-game-thrones-twitter-spoilers
She came up with the idea for Twivo the night before the competition, and it took her 10 hours and 150 lines of code to complete. It works as an extension to the Google Chrome browser: A user can type in the key words she would like to block, and for how long, and make those Tweets disappear.
Once a user is done blocking the show, the Tweets reappear. Lamere says the program is still in demo form and won’t be ready for another two or three weeks, but she’s already been approached by Furious Minds, a tech company that intends to help her market the final product.
“We’re always interested in the convergence between TV and social media, and Jen’s hack was awesome, not to mention she did the entire thing herself,” says Ashley Swartz, CEO and founder of Furious Minds. Swartz, who was one of the judges for the competition.
Tomi says:
YouTube Adds Paid Channel Subscriptions
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/youtube-adds-paid-channel-subscriptions/
YouTube will let you pay to subscribe to channels with a new pilot program that includes a limited number of channel partners for now. The company listed Jim Henson Family TV and Ultimate Fighting Championship as initial members.
Prices start at $.99 per month, paid via Google Wallet. Users get a 14-day free trial to channels, which are also discounted if you subscribe by the year. Once signed up for a paid channel, you can suck down as much video as it has to offer.
Tomi says:
New ways to support great content on YouTube
http://youtube-global.blogspot.fi/2013/05/yt-pc-2013.html
We’ve been building a YouTube partner program since 2007 that enables content creators to earn revenue for their creativity. We’ve watched them build amazing channels that have made YouTube into a news, education and entertainment destination 1 billion people around the world cannot do without.
Starting today, we’re launching a pilot program for a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates. For example, Sesame Street will be offering full episodes on their paid channel when it launches.
This is just the beginning. We’ll be rolling paid channels out more broadly in the coming weeks as a self-service feature for qualifying partners
Tomi says:
Can Congress Blow Up the TV Bundle? John McCain Is Going to Try — Again.
http://allthingsd.com/20130509/can-congress-blow-up-the-tv-bundle-john-mccain-is-going-to-try-again/
Lots of people say they want to break up the bundle — the economic model that keeps the TV Industrial Complex intact — but no one has been able to do it. Can Congress?
Senator John McCain is going to try, via legislation he is set to introduce soon, perhaps today. McCain’s office has given a sneak preview to some TV industry officials, and while reports about what’s actually in it are still a bit hazy, here are the broad strokes:
McCain wants to force pay TV operators to break up the programming bundles, by offering channels in smaller groups or on an individual basis.
He wants to penalize programmers who move their most valuable shows from broadcast networks, which are theoretically free, to paid cable networks.
He also wants to change the FCC’s rules about sports “blackouts,” which currently prohibit cable channels from carrying NFL games if the local broadcasters don’t air them because the tickets to the games aren’t sold out.
Tomi says:
Future for Microsoft Set-Top Box Is Uncertain
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323744604578473174039768406-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html
As videogame fans await the unveiling of Microsoft Corp.’s next Xbox console, the future of another piece of hardware under development is less clear.
Microsoft has been creating designs for a simple set-top device for streaming video and other entertainment options, people familiar with the matter said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Optimize Video Streams to Be Worthy of Your HDTV
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/optimize-video-stream/
Nothing ruins a dramatic scene like buffering, so do yourself a favor and optimize your rig for streaming video.
Absolutely everything you own connects to at least one video streaming platform, so there’s no point in watching crappy video riddled with giant pixels.
There was a time when a fast Wi-Fi network was all you needed to watch streaming video.
So if you want a true high-def experience, it’s time to get hardwired.
Most routers have gigabit LAN ports.
If stringing wires throughout the house is out of the question and you absolutely, positively have to use Wi-Fi, do yourself a favor and invest in a simultaneous dual-band router. These fancy routers push Wi-Fi on the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands.
Many routers feature the ability to prioritize media, apps or devices so the thing that’s most important to you gets the most bandwidth. Giving your TV, Xbox 360 or other video-consuming device top billing in your home network
WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia) is a ratified certification that prioritizes network traffic based on four types of traffic: voice, video, best effort, and background. In theory, WMM should route your traffic automatically based on traffic type.
QoS (Quality of Service) does the same thing but at the application level.
With 4K video streams on the horizon, you’re gonna have to upgrade to 20Mbps to really enjoy crystal clear images.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Google Deliver on Its Nexus Q Promise? Not at This Year’s I/O.
http://allthingsd.com/20130513/will-google-deliver-on-its-nexus-q-promise-not-at-this-years-io/
Nearly one year ago, at its I/O developer conference, Google unveiled its Android-powered Nexus Q media player product to much fanfare. Little more than a month after the big reveal, Google suspended the launch of the Q indefinitely.
So, will Google’s I/O conference — set to kick off this Wednesday — bring news of the Nexus Q’s fate?
No, it won’t. Google won’t have any news on the Nexus Q this week, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Q was indeed attractive and well built, a matte-black sphere slightly smaller than a bowling ball
Aside from looking pretty, the Q didn’t do quite enough to warrant the hefty $300 price tag. The Nexus Q was for all intents and purposes a direct gateway to Google Play, the company’s Web-based media store which sells MP3s and videos to consumers.
However novel, the Nexus Q paled in comparison to devices from competitors like Microsoft, whose massively popular Xbox is capable of delivering all sorts of downloadable content like games, video and music. Apple, too, offers the Apple TV at a modestly priced $100, and is capable of delivering video and music from its iTunes online media store, as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hand-held “sound camera” shows you the source of noises
http://www.gizmag.com/seesv-s205-sound-camera-locates-noises/27447/
If you work with machinery, engines or appliances of any type, then you’ve likely experienced the frustration of hearing a troublesome noise coming from somewhere, but not being able to pinpoint where. If only you could just grab a camera, and take a picture that showed you the noise’s location. Well, soon you should be able to do so, as that’s just what the SeeSV-S205 sound camera does.
Other sound cameras do already exist, but they’re generally larger, heavier contraptions that need to be assembled and mounted on a tripod.
On the flat face of the SeeSV-S205, there are a total of 30 MEMS microphones arranged in five spiral arrays. Utilizing a beamforming algorithm, these are able to detect and locate both stationary and moving noise sources. Additionally, a high-resolution optical camera located in the middle of the device records images at a rate of 25 per second.
The output from the microphones and the optical camera are displayed on a linked computer. They’re combined to show both a real-time image of the subject, with a thermograph-like color-coded overlay that indicates the location(s) at which the noise is loudest.
it’s limited to noises between 350 Hz and 12 kHz – which should apparently be all that it really needs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Patents “Cartoon Face Generation”
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/05/14/0230248/microsoft-patents-cartoon-face-generation
“The latest round of patents granted by the USPTO included one for Cartoon Face Generation, an invention which Microsoft explains ‘generates an attractive cartoon face or graphic of a user’s facial image’.”
“A Microsoft Research Face SDK Beta is available.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advertisers Will Spend Nearly $10 Billion This Week On A Broken TV Model
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-2013-tv-upfronts-2013-5?op=1
This week, advertisers will sit down with the broadcast TV networks and hash out their “upfront” ad buying deals for the year.
The talks are one of advertising’s huge, dramatic set-pieces. As Ad Age describes it, “possibly as few as 40 people from the networks, agencies and brands will go into backrooms and decide how $9 billion of the $62 billion U.S. TV ad market will be spent next year.”
Networks are expecting, again, to see TV ad spending rise.
analysts expect the network may get 7-9% price increases
Oddly, the networks want those increases even as the viewing audience itself dwindles. Goldman Sachs estimates that 17% of the 18-to-49-year-old demographic simply stopped watching broadcast TV in winter 2012-2013, the New York Times notes.
Although TV’s numbers may be dwindling, it still has a massive audience. And with the fragmentation of the audience across thousands of different online and digital venues, there remain very few vehicles who can reliably deliver eyeballs in the millions, night after night. The supply of big audiences is getting smaller, in other words, and thus prices increase.
But there are signs that this won’t last, and that broadcast TV may be facing a crisis.
The Times said:
“The networks are getting picked at from every direction,” said Jessica Reif Cohen, the senior media analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “This year was the tipping point,” she said, “when the television ratings really fell apart.”
It’s not just Aereo of course. It’s Hulu and YouTube and Netflix and a hundred other alternatives to watching TV.