Intel is touting a device that it said can be used to monitor in-home energy consumption, allowing consumers to “make informed decisions to reduce energy use.” What Intel called the “proof-of-concept” device, powered by Intel’s Atom processor and running on Windows, was demonstrated during a technology showcase it held for reporters in New York.

The tech industry wants government policies that would let consumers better manage energy consumption using Web-enabled devices, they said at a briefing hosted by Google and the Climate Group Tuesday. Meanwhile, positive signs were seen on Capitol Hill on efforts that could meet the Obama administration’s goal of a comprehensive energy plan, said Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change.

DirecTV doesn’t have the right to manufacture and distribute TiVo DVRs to its subscribers despite the companies being expected to release a new DVR/satellite receiver later this year, TiVo said in its 10-K report filed at the SEC. DirecTV and TiVo executives weren’t available for comment.

D&M Holdings is dropping the Escient and Snell brands, while Toshiba America Consumer Products is restructuring, a sign that both companies are moving to shore up finances.

Bang and Olufsen will increasingly focus on LCDs as it adds large-size TVs, but it won’t abandon its plasma business, B&O America President Zane Nielsen said.

Reminiscent of HDTV’s early days, the live CBS telecast in 3D Monday of the NCAA basketball final between Butler and Duke was rife with compelling moments and annoying glitches. The 3D telecast, sponsored by LG Electronics and beamed via satellite to about 100 Cinedigm digital cinema screens nationally, sported an on-air crew different from that of the regular CBS broadcast. It also featured a limited palette of commercials not in 3D supplied by LG, plus house ads for CBS shows such as Criminal Minds and NCIS: Los Angeles.

The EPA’s decision to suspend new product registrations as part of immediate steps it announced to tighten Energy Star qualification rules (CED April 2 p6) will “place onerous and unreasonable burdens and delays” on CE makers and retailers and “limit consumer access to and confidence in the most efficient consumer electronics products available,” three trade groups said. CEA President Gary Shapiro, CE Retailers Coalition Executive Director Christopher McLean and Sandra Kennedy, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Monday voicing their “immediate and serious concern” over the agency’s announcement of an “indefinite hold” on new Energy Star product registrations.

Sony Computer Entertainment is “continuously working to reduce power consumption” on the PS3 “in an effort to address concerns about the effect of energy consumption on our environment,” an SCE America spokeswoman said Tuesday. Earlier, website Retrevo said console makers still “have a long way to go” to make their devices truly green, but some console owners are making up for the manufacturers’ “shortcomings” on the power consumption front, according to the findings of a poll of more than 400 Internet users that it did in March.

Two draft items to be voted on at the FCC’s April 21 meeting would take different approaches to making it easier for pay-TV subscribers to use devices not supplied directly from those companies to get video, Web and other content, numerous commission and industry officials said. A CableCARD rulemaking notice for all cable operators, with a partial exemption for small systems, deals with ways subscribers can use CableCARDs with plug-and-play devices, the officials said. An inquiry on all-video devices would have cable, satellite and telco-TV providers offer small, inexpensive devices so subscribers could connect to their networks using third-party gear, they said. The devices would contain the proprietary information to connect to the network of a particular provider, they said.

Verizon’s FiOS set-tops will be 3D-ready, and the telco plans to offer service through its fiber network later this year. But getting 3D programming from competitors that develop and distribute content remains an issue, Verizon said, saying “integrated operators should not withhold programming options from the marketplace."