Devices View – Page 16 – a Techsponential Company

The State of Home Theater View

April 27, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Home Theater View does not have a huge audience, but, based on the feedback I get, the quality of the audience is high. That said, my posts have been steadily slowing down: 2004: 9 posts per month (Nov. & Dec.) 2005: 3.3 posts per month 2006: 2.1 posts per month 2007: 1.5 posts per month It’s not just the post count that has changed, but also the focus. Many recent posts were tilted more towards digital entertainment and less at hard core home theater. There are several reasons for the shift, which I do hope to reverse – at least …

Computing

Love Vista, Just Can’t Recommend Upgrading to It

March 8, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Microsoft sent over a copy of Vista Ultimate and I upgraded my Media Center test box to put it through its paces. I have had mixed results. First, the positive. Vista is building on XP Media Center, which was already a good media platform. XP Media Center 2005 Edition crossed over the threshold of "good enough" to serve as a PVR instead of a TiVo or ReplayTV. I found it quite stable, though it still needs an antivirus subscription, and works best as a DVR when used almost exclusively for TV rather than combination work/TV/test box with all the software …

DVD

Getting Harder To Sell Obscure DVDs

March 5, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The New York Times (free registration required) has an article up on the difficulties facing independant DVD labels: DVD sales are stalled Retail is flooded with titles Retail space is shrinking (big box stores are cutting back, while independents and record chains are going out of business) Shelf space that might be dedicated to less mainstream titles is instead allocated to HD-DVD and Blu-ray The most important point? Overall DVD sales are stalled. I suspect that sales will start to fall next year as collectors have built their libraries and the market is saturated: anyone who doesn’t already own a …

Displays / DVD / HDTV / Industry

50% of HDTV Owners Don’t Have HDTV

February 28, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

The Wall Street Journal has a great article (subscription required) quoting a recent survey showing that 50% of consumers who bought an HDTV set don’t actually have HDTV service. What’s more frightening – and yet entirely believable – is that 25% of HDTV owners think that they do have HDTV when they don’t. Well worth a read. -avi

Computing / Industry

Apple TV Knocking off Cable?

January 29, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Alan Graham proposes that Apple’s Apple TV is aiming at the heart of the cable TV business model: Is Apple Out to Kill Tivo? by ZDNet‘s Alan Graham — Yeah, I’m calling it. I think Apple (and others) are about to send Cable TV and Tivo a clear message…your time is almost up. The Web 2.0 world is about to kick the door in and escort the old methodology to pasture. And I think it is going to happen pretty quickly. Don’t let the […] It’s well argued, and there’s no question that Apple TV is a TiVo competitor, but …

Industry

CES and MacWorld

January 3, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I will be attending both CES and MacWorld next week, but as you can imagine when you cram two shows and two cities into one week, I will be extraordinarily pressed for time. Therefore, I will only be taking meetings with clients at CES, though I will be attending most of the press conferences on Sunday. I will also be at Digital Experience Sunday night and Showstoppers on Monday night. Journalists who would like to contact me for quotes and reactions to the announcements can call me on my VoIP line: 703-788-3788 or shoot me an email at: agreengart (at) …

Accessories / Audio / Computing

LIVEDigitally Posts Avi’s Holiday Gift Guide

December 22, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s been a long time since the last post here at Home Theater View, but that’s not because I haven’t been writing. My Last Minute Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide has just been posted over at LIVEDigitally. As I write this, there is only one day left to Chanukah and a couple of shopping days before Christmas. I figure there’s no need for a last minute gift list with obvious entries. Let’s face it, if you didn’t already get an HDTV or MP3 player for your home theater and gadget-loving giftees, you don’t need me to tell you that you …

Displays / HDTV / Industry

It’s Not the Products, It’s the Distribution

November 12, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Vizio put out a press release a few months ago for two of its 42" LCD HDTVs, touting in the headline, that Vizio is, "ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING FLAT PANEL BRANDS IN THE U.S." On the surface of things, that’s not such a bold claim – after all, who the heck are these guys, anyway? They came from nowhere, so of course they’re growing quickly. When you sell nothing one year, and something the next, your growth rate looks fantastic. So, growth by itself is not necessarily a meaningful statistic. Perhaps all the newcomers, slapping a moniker onto an …

HDTV

Try It and You Won’t Go Back. (Or will you?)

October 26, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Jeremy Toeman over at LiveDigitally talks about the "living room effect" that can convince even the most hardened skeptic to make the move to HDTV. I’m a big proponent of experiencing products in order to understand their impact, but there are certain things that even a demo can’t cure. I find this uniquely interesting on a personal level because the "living room effect" hasn’t proven to be true here, at casa HomeTheaterView. I’ve had a 53" LCOS HDTV for 2+ years, but reception is over the air (when we get it – it can be flaky), and our ReplayTV is …

Industry

Is Going Luddite the Answer?

October 25, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Back in January, 2005, I posted a column asking if the speed of new technology was outstripping consumers’ abilities to absorb its implications. Thanks to the magic of Google, that old column is now getting new comments, one of which spurred me to revisit the issue. The complaints are numerous: nothing works with anything else, it all gets outdated too quickly, and retail salespeople don’t understand what they’re selling, so there’s no place to turn for advice. This reader’s solution? Withdraw from technology altogether. The question of when to buy/when to wait is a common one; nobody wants to buy …