St. Louis, MO - HDTV - Page 49

I think -- and bear in mind that I'm only speculating -- that when KMOV set up the subchannel they made a hard allocation for subchannel bandwidth, and when the election ended and the subchannel went dark, they never removed the allocation.

It seems that if there wasn't any fixed allocation for the subchannel, once there wasn't any video or sound appearing on the subchannel, then the HD channel would have returned to full bandwidth. To my eye and others here, that clearly hasn't been the case.

Continuing on with the reading of tea leaves, it might seem like an oversight that the bandwidth wasn't returned to KMOV's HD channel, but maybe this can be explained by the fact that the CBS network does have plans for subchannel broadcasting. As a result, maybe KMOV simply left the subchannel allocation in place so as to "acclimate" HD viewers to a less robust service, or (more charitably) maybe they just expected to have something to put on the subchannel sooner.

Yeah, I got it, too -- right in the shorts. The update came on Wednesday afternoon and the process crashed my HD TiVo. I was away from Wednesday morning, and when I fired up the TV last night to watch "Lost," I was greeted by a "Please Wait a Few Moments..." After several minutes went by with no change, it was necessary to reboot (three times) to get the receiver back in commission. When it came back, the last thing recorded was a late Wednesday morning SportsCenter.

I'm officially fed up with this HD TiVo nonsense -- it's been nothing but hassles and inconvenience since the so-called "folders" update. When I called DirecTV to complain, they initially suggested a $299 "upgrade" as the solution, though they did eventually come down to $99.

DISH Network is looking ever more appealing...

January Sales Data Indicate Blu-ray Doubled HD DVD Sales

The following story excerpt is from today's TV Predictions newsletter:
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Blu-ray HDTV DVDs outsold rival HD-DVD by a two to one margin in January, according to Nielsen's home video unit. And Blu-ray players are now in roughly one million homes (including PlayStation 3 units), far more than the number of HD-DVD units, according to industry reports.

With the latest numbers, you can understand why Sony, which backs the Blu-ray format, is declaring victory in the biggest video format war since Beta vs. VHS.

The message that we're going to put out to the consumer now is, now it is safe to make a choice, says Sony Pictures Home Entertainment President David Bishop. No more fence-sitting is needed.

But Video Business reports that Toshiba, which is behind the HD-DVD format, is not ready to concede and is planning a number of initiatives to level the playing field.

For starters, Circuit City, which has rarely carried Toshiba products in its electronics stores, has begun offering Toshiba's second-generation HD-DVD players. (The retailer has sold Blu-ray players since they were launched last spring.) In addition, Toshiba has partnered with Circuit City to hold showcases for the HD-DVD format at selected stores.

Circuit City has become a very strong partner, Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products Digital A/V group, told the publication. We've already done over 200 demos at Circuit City, which we started at the end of January. It was always our intention to expand our retail distribution.

Sally told Video Business that sales of Toshiba's second generation players have already passed sales of the company's first HD-DVD series which was introduced last spring. However, she refused to provide sales numbers.

Also likely on the horizon: A $100 price cut on the second-generation HD-DVD players, which now start at $499. At $399, Toshiba's unit would cost up to $600 less than some Blu-ray players.

You'll see the lower pricing in 30 to 60 days, one industry source told Video Business. "For Toshiba to hit the sell-through numbers that it wants, I expect to see a base level of $299 this fall.
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AT&T's U-verse Inks Deal for HGTV, Food Network in HD

From today's Morning Bridge newsletter:
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AT&T and Scripps Networks this morning announced a distribution agreement to deliver the programmer's linear, high-def and on-demand programming as part of the AT&T U-verse TV channel lineup.

Channels included in the deal are HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living TV Network and Great American Country (GAC).
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I just wanted to add my "second" to Joe's statement.

The stellar work that Jim does for KDNL goes to show that producing a high quality HD broadcast service comes down to making a commitment to it and then following through.

Study Finds Proper HDTV Setup May Reduce Electricity Need by 25%

This may seem a little bit self-serving, but I think it does "shed some additional light" on recent discussions here about the benefits of reducing contrast settings or operating displays in "low power" modes.

The following excerpts are from the March 2007 issue of Widescreen Review ("One Installer's Opinion" column, pp 58-59). The article details initial findings of an Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) study, conducted in concert with the environment focused firm, Eco Consulting.

Some highlights:
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* The TV manufacturers and the EPA are working together to develop a standard video test clip to use when measuring TV energy use. Our preliminary measurements with that test clip are showing BIG energy use variations within TVs of the same type and size, probably due to differences in power supply design, backlight settings, and picture control factory defaults. Some of the biggest energy users consume more electricity in a year than your fridge!

* Just before CES, we were able to take some cursory measurements on a popular manufacturer's 50-inch Plasma Display Panel to check the effect that display settings have on power use. Through special instrumentation provided by Ecos, we were able to measure the difference between "out-of-the-box" consumption and "post calibration" consumption power drain to the fourth decimal place. We were hoping for as much as a 5 percent improvement, but what we found was on the order of 25 to 30 percent.

* While there are certain to be different results for different manufacturers and technologies (Plasma versus DLP versus LCD, etc.), and a much larger sample size for each will be required -- and results by technology need to be weighted and averaged for existing and future set populations -- this is very big news...

* What if government bodies were to encourage all manufacturers to ship their sets with energy-saving screen settings (think MOVIE instead of VIVID) that were the factory default? The consequences for the 98 percent of the population who don't know/care about calibration will be: 1) Better Picture Quality; 2) Less Eye Strain; and, 3) Lower Electric Bills.
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The balance of the article discusses some of the basics of video calibration and the benefits of LCD displays with backlight controls and displays that allow the user to create specific settings for daytime and night viewing.

The full article can be found at the Widescreen Review web site (www.widescreenreview.com), although a subscription to the magazine is required for online access.