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Issue: May. 14, 2008
Samsung, Panasonic, Vizio Post Gains in LCD/Plasma
Samsung has edged slightly ahead of rival Sony for the first quarter of 2008 to retake the top ranking in North America for LCD products—rising to 12.8 percent unit share—while maintaining its lead in “combined flat panel TV” (LCD and plasma) TVs, according to new numbers from industry analyst DisplaySearch. Panasonic continued to rule in the plasma-only slot. Most of the affected product in both categories was HD.
Far and away the most competitive technology in Q1 was LCD TV as Samsung, Sony and Vizio found themselves separated by less than a total of half a percentage point of unit share (12.8, 12.6 and 12.5 respectively.)
Panasonic held a commanding lead in is share of plasma units for the quarter (33 percent) followed by LG (19 percent), which was down by half from its 38-percent share a year earlier in Q4 2007). Panasonic’s share included its first shipments of its 46-inch 1080p plasma units in North America.
Meanwhile, upstart Vizio posted its strongest combined LCD-plasma share to date, rising early 2 percent to 12:2 percent from the previous quarter to Q1 2008—and thus overtaking Sony for runner-up in distribution in the United.States only (not Canada). Vizio apparently benefitted from its “LCD + Plasma product strategy,” according to DisplaySearch.
WSYX/WTTE in Columbus go Local HD
WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio (DMA no. 32), a Sinclair ABC affiliate, transitioned to 720p newscasts last weekend (May 10) with its early evening newscast, using a new HD set geared for 16:9.
Sinclair has selected the Devlin Design Group to create the HD sets for its 14 news outlets around the nation. The set in Columbus features an anchor desk that rotates, two backdrops and with more than two dozen monitors—as well as HD studio cameras, a new graphics package, and enhanced weather facilities and software (“First Warning Forecast Center”).
Unlike some local stations (and networks) that initially transition to HD news, WSYX-TV (along with co-managed Fox outlet WTTE-TV) is shooting a lot of its field content and live remotes with HD cameras in 16:9, too. Consequently, the stations say they’ll be offering most of their eight hours of daily local news content in widescreen.
The total number of stations that have made the transition to local HD is thought to be around 90.
Dish Adds More National, Local HD
Dish Network grew its HD national footprint with the launch of nearly two dozen mostly national channels this week (rolling out May 12-14). Dish also added local HD services of broadcast stations in Hartford-New Haven, Conn. (DMA no. 29), and Portland–Auburn, Maine (DMA no. 76).
The DBS firm said it continues to be on track for its long-term plans to reach a goal of 100 local HD markets and 100 national HD channels by New Year’s Eve 2008. (It now offers local HD stations in 57 markets, reaching about two-thirds of all American TV households.)
The new national (and a few regional) Dish channels include:
- ABC Family HD (Ch. 180)
- Biography HD (Ch. 119)
- Bravo HD (Ch. 129)
- Cartoon HD (Ch. 176)
- Cinemax 5 Star (Ch. 381)
- Cinemax HD West (Ch. 380)
- Comcast Sports Network Bay Area HD (Ch. 419)
- Comcast Sports Network New England HD (Ch. 435)
- CNBC HD (Ch. 208)
- CNN HD (Ch. 200)
- Disney HD East (Ch. 172)
- ESPNews HD (Ch. 142)
- Hallmark Movie Channel HD (Ch. 187)
- MGM HD (Ch. 385)
- Sci Fi HD (Ch. 122)
- Smithsonian HD (Ch. 374)
- Tennis Channel HD (Ch. 400)
- Toon Disney HD (Ch. 174)
- Travel Channel HD (Ch. 215)
- USA HD (Ch. 105)
- Weather Channel HD (Ch. 214)
- World Fishing Network HD (Ch. 396)
Q&A: Is ‘BD-Live’ Coming too Soon?
In the May 7 edition of HD Notebook, Sony laid out some of its strategy for pushing its next-gen of Blu-ray products, BD-Live, which will combine packaged media and online enhancements not yet available with most current Blu-ray players or with standard DVD. But a few analysts, including Steven Wilson of ABI Research, think this early marketing tactic by Blu-ray may be ill-advised. Wilson spoke with HD Notebook.
HD Notebook: Why do you think something as relatively complex as BD-Live may be coming too soon?
Wilson: Some of it is the cost. The current high price of Blu-ray players, coupled with many other secondary challenges, keeps buyers on the sidelines. [Besides that], today we have these ‘upscaling’ [standard] DVD players which typically produce image quality somewhere between SD and HD as a low-cost alternative, and many consumers can’t tell much difference. And many consumers aren’t willing to pay a premium of $200 or more for a Blu-ray player.
HD Notebook: Having said that, then how do you see BD-Live evolving?
Wilson: The spec could have been defined as such that there was a basic [Blu-ray] player that doesn’t require Internet connectivity. Although there are no plans to do this, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Blu-ray Disc Association did that down the road. It would save little in cost, but it would significantly reduce the software complexity and test requirements of the platform.
Furthermore, it’s the Internet connectivity features that will differentiate BD players down the road. It further wouldn’t surprise me to see BD players adopt personal connectivity features such as USB, WiFi and Bluetooth, in effect, making the BD player a central digital player hub in the living room.
Disney Lab to Study Effect of HD, Other Ads
All of a sudden there’s a whole new set of TV-like commercials for advertisers to choose from across varied media—ranging from 30-second spots popping out on large 1080p monitors to 3-second mini-ads on tiny cell phone screens and variously sized 15-second awareness commercials on desktops and portable WiFi-enabled laptops, not to mention interactive spots.
The Walt Disney Co. is setting up a special lab in Austin, Texas, in the fall to test the biometrics prompted by these various commercials, which could signal for the first time exactly what impact large-screen HD has on typical viewers. HD proponents have long talked up HD on large screens as providing a more effective visual medium to reach consumers emotionally than non-HD ads, but have offered little tangible proof to back up such claims.
The new Disney lab, which will be used to decide on commercial spots for ABC Television’s broadcast network and ESPN’s cable channels, including ESPN HD, plans to gauge the biometric reactions of a few thousand “viewers” in a controlled living room setting, according to the Associated Press. Heart rate and skin conductivity—as well as tracking eye-movement and other visual activity of test subjects—will be recorded and analyzed.
If HD and other newer forms of advertising can be shown to be more effective than traditional TV ads, presumably advertisers can look forward to being asked to fork over higher fees to air them. Running the lab will be the Interactive Television Research Institute of Perth, Australia. Some early results are expected to start trickling in by early 2009.
Neil Young to Produce Career Archive in Blu-ray
Legendary rocker Neil Young announced earlier this month he finally plans to release his archive project on Blu-ray Disc, which will eventually include each decade of his music, along with video, still photos, and other items whose retrieval and multi-use applicability will enhanced with Blu-ray technology.
After fits and starts over the project—which was delayed because of hurdles with other technologies that Young said were finally overcome with Blu-ray—the singer-composer outlined some of his plans at a recent Sun Microsystems conference in San Francisco, according to Bill Sheppard, Sun’s chief digital media officer. (Blu-ray uses Sun’s proprietary Java technology.)
Sheppard told HD Notebook that Young’s first 10-disc set will chronicle the politically active decade of 1963-1972. Along with HD audio recording from the original analog master tapes of all his songs (including a few unreleased works), the Blu-ray discs also will include videos (HD and archival), handwritten notes and manuscripts, and other mementos from his long music career. Users will technically be able to browse through each disc’s archival material while listening to recordings simultaneously, without degrading audio quality.
The inaugural Neil Young Archive set is currently scheduled for release this fall from Reprise/Warner Bros. Records.
DirecTV Goes with Harris NetVX HD
Harris Corp. said this week it will supply its NetVX HD video networking equipment to DBS firm DirecTV for HD “contribution encoding” and transport. NetVX HD is designed to permit broadcasters to install multiple encoders in a single chassis with a common signal output, further reducing equipment costs by providing an all-in-one device for encoding, multiplexing and network adaptation.
The DBS firm said it will use NetVX HD’s MPEG-4 video encoders based on its feature set and performance levels, along with the satellite operation’s need for platform flexibility. (DirecTV first began using NetVX three years ago to backhaul local market programming content.)
DirecTV is in a spirited competitive race with DBS rival Dish Network, as well as cable players Comcast, Time Warner and Cox, to ramp up as much HD content on as many channels as possible, as soon as possible.
‘Ellen’ Going HD in Fall in New Digital Complex
The successful syndicated “Ellen DeGeneres Show” from Warner Bros. plans to slide into HD mode (1080i) in the autumn when the daily program moves to new studios in Burbank, Calif., from its NBC Universal Burbank facilities.
The new complex will house a 32,000 square-foot studio with a state of the art digital tapeless HD production facility that will serve three stages. The first HD broadcast is set for Monday, Sept. 8, which is also the premiere of the comedienne’s sixth season.
The new control room will be connected via fiber optic cable to other stages on the Warner lot and used for live specials and other programming, when the Ellen show is on hiatus.
CBS Taps Bexel, Stratos to Deliver Masters in HD
CBS Sports contracted with broadcast equipment supplier Bexel to use video conversion transport gear from Stratos Optical to deliver the network’s recent HD coverage of the PGA Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga.
Specifically, Bexel supplied Stratos’ VMCR-CWDM 1RU Media conversion and transport system to transport 32 HD signals (24 HD feeds from the CBS production compound to the press room and 8 HD feeds back from the press room) via two fiber strands.
To extend distance, reduce fiber count and cost, and simplify the use of coarse wave-length division multiplexing (CWDM), Stratos recently developed the CWDM Multiplexed HD video transport system by packaging standalone coax to fiber optical media conversion products into a turnkey 16-channel CWDM single fiber transport solution.
“While the product is available in standard configurations, the modular media converters allow for simple reconfiguration to vary the channel count running in each direction,” said Dennis Gudgel, video product manager at Stratos Optical.
Asia: Samsung HD Flash Cam Goes Slo-mo
Samsung’s newest HD flash camcorder (model SC-HMX20C) for consumers should start hitting store shelves this month in South Korea and soon thereafter in North America and Europe. The tiny device will record 300 fps to a flash drive, allowing recording in slow-motion (at least for up to 10 seconds). The cam normally records 1080p at 30 fps.
Samsung also said the camera can capture still images up to 8 megapixels. The SC-HMX20C features a pop-up flash unit (as in lighting, not memory). The flash memory technology (no moving parts, like disc) was designed to allow for quicker start-up and lower rate of battery consumption.
HDMI and USB connectivity allows for playback on an HD television set or PC.
Europe: Nat Geo HD Heads for the Alps
National Geographic Channels International is growing its reach with the start-up of National Geographic Channel HD in Austria and Switzerland. Beginning this month, NGC HD is being made accessible through UPV (digital cable networks) in both mountainous nations.
NGC HD plans to feature National Geographic’s mainstay programming, offering thematic wildlife, science, technology and culture fare. With these two country additions NGC continues its goal of strengthening its brand throughout Western Europe. NGC said its core SD channel is now available via cable, satellite and IPTV, accounting for more than one million subscribers in Austria and Switzerland.
NGC HD is now accessible (to one degree or another) in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Singapore and Japan, with further expansion in the works. The National Geographic Society is based in Washington, D.C.
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