TiVo’s agreement to develop “non-DVR” products with Best Buy runs through January 2013 and applies to TVs that can’t record programs to a hard drive, a staple feature of TiVo standalone DVRs, TiVo said in an SEC filing.
Bluetooth-based 3D TVs and glasses will hit the market by year-end, relieving some of the viewing angle and interference problems that have marred first-generation 3D TV viewing, a Broadcom executive told us. Jim Muth, marketing director in Broadcom’s embedded Bluetooth products group, said two or three manufacturers will ship Bluetooth-enabled 3D TVs this year, but he wouldn’t elaborate.
The first programming that showed up on the mobile DTV receiver was live from a news helicopter covering a hostage-taking at nearby Discovery Communications. The next day, the Washington Redskins game started at 10 p.m., a perfect opportunity for viewing mobile DTV with headphones in a darkened bedroom. The third day, it was all about watching live coverage of Hurricane Earl, at a desk.
An effort to get California-style utility incentive programs for energy-efficient consumer electronics in the northeastern states floundered this year because of a lack of consensus on how to run the programs, said an official of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships. NEEP had sought to bring utilities in the region together to support incentive programs for CE products, especially TVs, but failed to get agreement on how to run them and whether “there was going to be enough claimed [energy] saving to run them,” said David Lis, appliance standards project manager. The group will make a renewed push in 2011, he said.
BERLIN -- Were glasses-free 3D as a business ever to take off, Philips would be “sitting on a golden egg,” said Maarten Tobias, CEO of Dimenco, at the IFA show. Dimenco is the startup company formed by eight former Philips employees who previously worked for 3D Solutions, the Philips-funded incubator project in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to develop autostereoscopic 3D display panels.
"Why rebuild an entire showroom and then close the doors?” read a recent post from a fan on Absolute Sound’s Facebook page after the Winter Park, Fla.-based specialty AV store went out of business in early August. The once-prominent specialty AV dealer was celebrating its 31st year in business, having weathered transitions from two-channel audio to home theater, from multi-room audio to whole-house custom electronics. In the end, owner Charles O'Meara said, a “perfect storm” of adverse business conditions and misfortune caused the company to shut down operations just a month after completing a $900,000 showroom renovation, leaving him to shutter operations of his retail and custom businesses when he couldn’t make the payroll.
NuVision will plunge into the 3D LCD TV market with a range of models including 72- and 55-inch Internet-capable sets featuring 480 Hz panels and direct LED backlights, said Chris Porter, vice president of engineering and product management.
LG postponed plans for OLED TVs and an 72-inch LED edge-lit LCD TV to focus on delivering 3D models, including the first plasma sets certified under THX’s new 3D display program, said Tim Alessi, director of new product development for home electronics. The PX950 50- ($1,999) and 60-inch ($2,999) 3D plasma TVs that are shipping to dealers feature 1080p resolution, 600 MHZ sub-field drive and a TruBlack filter that works to block external light reflections, while maximizing internal light to produce higher contrast levels. The TVs also have a Dual XD Engine to upconvert SD content to HD. LG also is marketing 47- and 55-inch 3D LCD TVs.
Microsoft on Nov. 4 will ship a “Special Edition” 250-GB Xbox 360 bundle, “while supplies last,” featuring the console, a Kinect motion sensor and the first-party game Kinect Adventures at $399.99, it said Wednesday. The bundle will allow consumers who want the redesigned, 250-GB version of the console and the coming controller-free, motion-sensing control system sensor to save about $50 from what they would have paid if buying the items separately.
CEA’s lobbying on Capitol Hill in Q2 included several energy and environmental issues, as did the Information Technology Industry Council’s, reports filed with Congress show. Although the CEA’s overall lobbying expenditure rose by $300,000 from Q1 to $700,000, “the second quarter was pretty quiet for us,” said Amy Dempster, CEA senior manager of governmental affairs and environmental policy.