July, 2008 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: July 2008

Ready for Some IPTV Football?

July 31, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

This week, NBC and the NFL announced that Sunday Night Football will be streamed live on the Internet on NFL.com and NBCSports.com. Ironically, the first game will actually be on Thursday, September 4; if you've got a broadband connection, you'll be able to watch the Redskins and Giants battle it out on the gridiron. (Does anybody actually say "gridiron" anymore?) The remaining 16 games will be on Sunday nights, and...

DIRECTV Adds HD Channels

July 30, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

The space race is now measured in number of high definition channels, and DIRECTV is continuing with its successful drive to stress HD coverage to attract subscribers. This week, the company announced that it will be adding more than 30 additional HD channels next month, which adds up to a total of more than 130 HD channels. This increase was made possible by the new DIRECTV 11 satellite, which was...

NYC Gets FiOS TV

July 29, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

Residents of the Big Apple will now be able to get their daily dose of fiber -- fiber optics, that is -- thanks to FiOS TV. Verizon announced yesterday that the service is now available to residents in 108 neighborhoods, with a capacity of 300,000 subscribers. By the end of the year, the company plans to offer service to a half million homes. Verizon also announced that they will offer...

Tax Fairness Passes House Judiciary

July 28, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

There are those who argue that any tax on subscription video service fees is unfair, but in many states, satellite services are taxed at a higher rate than the cable services. As a result, Michigan representative John Conyers introduced H.R. 3679 -- known as the State Video Tax Fairness Act -- which is wending it way through Congress. It passed a major hurdle last week when the House Judiciary Committee...

Samsung TVs Go Online

July 25, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

At Samsung's annual "Christmas in July" press event in New York City on Wednesday, the company showed off cool stuff like their 3D-capable plasma and DLP rear projection televisions, but the item that caught my eye was the "touch of color" LCD HDTVs with Samsung's "Infolink" feature. This function is built in as a standard feature in all Series 6 and higher models, and uses an RSS feed to display...

Stores Recommend LCD HDTVs

July 24, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

A press release from J.D. Power and Associates and Market Force Informaiton cites a new report, "2008 Television Retail Insights Report", which was released last Monday. Based on the results gathered by more than 2,000 mystery shoppers at retail stores across the country over the past six months, the report measures the product knowledge of the salespeople. And at look at the results explains why I try to stay out...

Boob Tube Becomes Buy Box

July 23, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

Unholy alliance or the greatest thing since the Home Shopping Network? You decide. According to many sources, TiVo announced a partnership with Amazon yesterday that will let TV viewers buy products right off their screen. If you have a broadband-connected Series2, Series3, or TiVo HD DVR, you can use the remote control to purchase an advertised product right away, or simply add it to your Amazon shopping cart so that...

CEA Gives Free Converters to Seniors

July 22, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

Let's review the facts. On February 17, 2009, full-power broadcast television stations will cease analog broadcasts. If you do not have a cable or satellite subscription, or you do not have a TV with a digital (ATSC) tuner, then you'll need to get one or add a converter box that will received the digital signals and translate them to analog for your existing television. You can apply to the federal...

Belkin Cuts the HDTV Wires

July 21, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

One of my main themes from CES 2008 last January was how the HDTV manufacturers were looking to wireless connections to make it easier for consumers to install and connect their HDTVs to other home entertainment devices. Given the expense and hassle of running wires through walls and floors -- or even through wire channels on walls and baseboards -- a wireless HDTV sounds like a great idea. But what...

880-Inch HD Display for Times Square

July 18, 2008 | Ibex Marketing

It's not just the neon lights that they say are bright on Broadway. The Great White Way got a little brighter and more colorful this week when Toshiba unveiled its new LED billboard on top of One Times Square in New York City. The new display is 880" diagonal, which is all the more impressive because it's nearly square instead of wide format. The resolution is 1280 by 1248, giving...

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