Devices View – Page 21 – a Techsponential Company

Something There Is That Doesn’t Love a Format War

March 2, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

It seems like everybody’s writing stories about the upcoming HD disc format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (BD). The technical specs are reasonably locked down, but everything else is up in the air – perfect fodder for journalism/rampant speculation. Gizmodo had prematurely called HD-DVD the winner based on studio support (I called them on it here). More recently, DVDFile.com posted a follow up of sorts – also trying to predict a winner based on the various studios and where they’re currently lined up on the issue. This is pretty hard to do because the studios are about evenly split, and …

DVD

This Disc Will Self Destruct. Interested?

February 10, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Wired is reporting that Disney has given up on Flexplay’s EZ-D disposable DVD format. The press had a field day getting environmental activists all riled up against the format, but that’s just a sidebar. If consumers found disposable DVDs moderately convenient, then the used discs would end up in the landfill alongside the rest of our disposable society. If the discs were a smash hit, then we’d end up with another color plastic recycling bin for media (which might not be a bad idea anyway. I must throw away hundreds of discs a year, even after AOL stopped mailing them …

Displays / Industry

Consolidation in the Display Business

February 8, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The New York Times today reports (free reg. req’d) two separate deals: Fujitsu is selling its LCD display manufacturing to LCD leader Sharp, and Matushita (known in the US as "Panasonic") is hooking up with Hitachi to jointly manufacture plasma displays. Bottom line here: prices are dropping too fast to go it alone if you aren’t dominating the field. -avi

Computing / HDTV

I Want My IP TV

February 1, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The current issue of BusinessWeek has a nice overview of Microsoft’s efforts in IP TV (sending television feeds to a set top box over a broadband connection). It’s a bit skeptical, and focuses on how Microsoft has bent over backwards to address the needs of partners. For example, Microsoft’s brand does not appear on the set top box, and the boxes don’t even need to run a Microsoft operating system. I saw a demo of the system at CES, and BusinessWeek leaves out an important element of the story: it’s really, really cool. I suppose cable operators adopting this system …

Audio / Computing

Mobile PC-based Theater Speakers

January 27, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

This is such a good idea I wonder why nobody’s done it well before. Altec Lansing sent over their XT1 Portable Audio System for notebooks. A DVD-ROM equipped notebook is essentially a giant portable DVD player combined with an iPod with a larger color screen, but most notebooks have terrible internal speakers. Adding external speakers solves the problem at the cost of portability — even if you did shlep them with you, you’d be dragging along another power brick, too. The XT1 siphons power off your notebook’s USB port which greatly simplifies setup and enables easy portability. Both Windows and …

Computing / Industry

Is technology moving too fast for consumer acceptance?

January 25, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

Former colleague Joe Wilcox notes that most computer brands are met with cognitive dissonance when they journey into consumer electronics. Joe is definitely on to something (though his observations are backed by admittedly anecdotal evidence — don’t you think that’s something you guys over at JupiterResearch should be testing empirically?) Another part of the problem, though, is that consumers are slow to fully understand the implications of digital technology – never mind convergence. (OK, I’m working with entirely anecdotal evidence here as well, but bear with me). When I meet new people and invite them to watch a movie in …

DVD

Upsampling is the new progressive scan

January 20, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I don’t know why this didn’t come out at CES, but Samsung is expanding their lineup of upsampling DVD players. The key product feature is added 768p support, which is the native resolution for many plasma and projectors (the players will also do 480i for regular TVs, 480p for digital EDTVs, and 720p and 1080i for other HDTVs). This is great news if you have a recent model 768p TV with DVI or HDMI, but this is NOT HD. It’s merely moving the process of image manipulation from your TV over to your DVD player. Your HD TV has more …

Displays

Plasma vs. LCD

January 19, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

Now that CES is over, it’s time to hit the mailbag. If my email inbox is a barometer of market readiness, there’s a lot of consumer confusion around LCD and plasma. Here’s a primer: Both LCD and plasma have advantages and disadvantages. The simple answer is that – due to manufacturing constraints – for smaller sized screens you’re limited to LCD and for larger screens you’ll only find plasma. If you’re in the middle, then keep these guidelines in mind: LCD LCD is currently a lot more expensive on a per inch basis. This doesn’t mean it’s better, just that …

Computing / Displays / HDTV / Industry

CES 2005: Trends

January 12, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I spent most of my time at CES focused on mobile devices, but did note a few overriding trends: The story of the show was definitely flat panels, which were everywhere. LG showed off a particularly interesting integrated plasma/HDTV tuner/DVR, and Samsung showed off a plasma so big you couldn’t get it down the stairs and into my basement even if you took out a second mortgage to pay for it. On the opposite end of the pricing spectrum, there were countless Asian importers with booths at the show displaying large LCD and plasmas at much lower prices. The other …

Accessories

CES 2005: Logitech Sweetens the Harmony

January 9, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Logitech has done really well with their acquisition of Intrigue Technologies, makers of the Harmony remote control line. With the broadened marketing and distribution muscle behind it, Logitech announced that they have overtaken Philips and Sony as market share leaders for programmable remote controls. This doesn’t surprise me, as most remote controls have a serious drawback – you have to program them. The Harmony essentially programs itself once you walk through a questionnaire online. While it took them a year or so before they had enough codes online to work consistently, I now consider the Harmony the reviewer’s best friend: …