HDTV news overview
Pinnacle PCTV HD stick and HD Pro stick introduction
June 7, 2007 1:25 am
 Pinnacle today announced the retail availability of the new sub-$100 Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick and PCTV HD Pro Stick for anytime, anywhere television watching from a personal computer. The compact device enables consumers to view live television on their PC complete with pause, rewind and fast-forward time-shifting functionality. They can even record their favorite programs for viewing later, at their convenience.
“The PC is no longer just a device to create and store information. It has become an entertainment center for many consumers,” said Jeff Hastings, general manager for Pinnacle Systems. “The PCTV HD Stick, a device about the size of a key, instantly turns a PC into a personal video recorder. Consumers can enjoy TiVo-like television features on their computer at home or on the road. We are excited to now offer two models of this great product.”
The Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick is an ultra-compact USB 2.0-powered TV tuner in an attractive stick form factor that brings the brilliant sharpness of HDTV to a PC via ATSC. ATSC, the new digital TV standard, comes over-the-air and for free in high or standard definition, with no required subscription fees. In addition to ATSC, standard analog TV (NTSC) can be received via cable or antenna. The PCTV HD Stick comes with Pinnacle TVCenter Pro software and is also fully certified for Windows® Vista™ and the use with Windows Media Center.
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Sony slim SXRD HDTV introduction
June 6, 2007 8:07 pm
 Sony today unveiled five new BRAVIA®SXRD® (Silicon X-tal (Crystal) Reflective Display) micro-display HDTVs featuring Motionflow 120Hz high frame rate technology and dramatically thinner cabinets.
About 20 percent slimmer than last year’s sets, Sony’s A3000 line features three new models including the 50-inch Sony KDS-50A3000, the 55-inch Sony KDS-55A3000, the 60-inch KDS-60A3000 (screen sizes measured diagonally) models.
With cabinets about 40 percent thinner than its predecessor models, the XBR micro-display line features two new sets ”“ the 60-inch KDS-Z60XBR5 and 70-inch KDS-Z70XBR5 (screen sizes measured diagonally). Sony’s engineers were able to decrease the depth of each model without increasing the height of the models.
“Going bigger is not a compromise with Sony SXRD micro-displays,” said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of Sony Electronics’ Home Products Division. “With slim cabinets, advanced features like high frame rate and full HD 1080p resolution, SXRD TVs give consumers who want big picture impact exactly what they have been looking for.”
Key to the outstanding picture quality is Sony’s Motionflow 120Hz high frame rate technology. The feature is adjustable with four modes (including “off”) that the user can change to match the content, be it high-definition sports or Blu-ray Disc® movies.
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Nine new models in the Sony LCD HDTV line
7:58 pm
 Sony today introduced nine new BRAVIA® flat-panel LCD HDTVs with advanced features.
The new models all feature 1920 x 1080 full high-definition resolution, 10-bit panels and, in select models, Motionflow 120Hz high frame rate technology, as well as x.v.Color™ capability. Encompassing the XBR5, XBR4 and W series, they come in screen sizes of 52, 46 and 40 inches (measured diagonally). Including the previously announced S series and V series flat-panel LCD models, the complete line of 17 models range in size from 70 to 26 inches (measured diagonally.)
“Our BRAVIA flat-panel LCD HDTVs have the leading market share because they deliver an outstanding level of picture quality and style that people appreciate,” said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of Sony’s Home Products Division. “The new line elevates our commitment to full HD1080p televisions displays, while offering many more choices.”
All of the new models in the line feature Sony’s Digital Media Extender (DMeX), offering a digital connection for the BRAVIA Internet Video Link module (sold separately), which allows users to view select Internet video, including high-definition content, from the comfort of their living room from providers like AOL, Yahoo! and Grouper, as well as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music.
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Alienware Hangar18 HD Entertainment Center introduction
1:05 am
 The Alienware Hangar18 HD Entertainment Center combines a lot of functionality in a single box media center which is running on Windows® Vista™ Home Premium.
The Hangar18 can be used as a HD DVR ( Digital Video Recorder ) for recording and playback of HD content up to 1080p via it’s HDMI output. The harddrive storage capacity of the box can be expanded to 2 terrabytes. As with most media centers it has front inputs for Memory cards and Bluetooth and Wireless connectivity.
What can Hangar18 do?
Watch - Watch, pause, and record your movies, TV shows, photos, and internet videos on your widescreen TV in high definition
Listen - Listen to all your favorite songs and artists with Hangar18’s onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier
Share - Wirelessly stream all your media to other PCs, mobile devices, and media extenders throughout your home.
Download - Download content from all over the internet to one secure location to store and share with your home and others.
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Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player introduction
June 4, 2007 8:32 am
 Sony began shipping its new Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc (BD) player to major consumer electronics retailers and specialty dealers nationwide for a list price of $499.
The BDP-S300 is expected to broaden the high-definition disc player market while delivering new features including the advanced Dolby® Digital Plus audio codec as well as BRAVIA® Theatre Sync™ and CD playback.
“The BD format gained great momentum in the past several months, and we’re going to capitalize on that with the new model,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics’ Home Product Division. “The player gives a broader consumer segment the opportunity to experience the exceptional quality of Blu-ray Disc format at a competitive price.”
The new model can output 1920 x 1080/24p high-definition video, currently the highest resolution high-definition signal available through an HDMI™ connection. The player supports various video formats, including MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC and VC1.
For those who own an HDTV set without HDMI, an analog component output for 1080i (interlaced) is available as well.
The new Sony BDP-S300 BD player is compatible with most standard DVDs and has the added feature of 1080p upscaling through HDMI to 1080p capable HDTVs, improving the picture performance of existing DVD libraries.
The model also supports AVC-HD discs encoded with x.v.Color (xvYCC) technology, a new international standard for wide color space. The standard expands the current data range of video approximately 1.8 times allowing the player to output more natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye can actually see.
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New HD solutions from Broadcom
8:21 am
 Broadcom announced new media PC solutions that enable flawless playback of high definition (HD) video content across the widest range of PCs in the industry. By lowering CPU utilization, and integrating seamlessly into Microsoft Windows Vista™ and Windows® XP environments, Broadcom’s media PC solutions enable mainstream PCs featuring integrated graphics to play back high definition content from either a Blu-ray Disc™ or HD DVD, as well as from HD downloaded or broadcast content. The new Broadcom® media PC solutions are available in three add-in card formats (including desktop PCI Express®, PCI Express mini-card or ExpressCard™ 34), and as a chipset solution for PC motherboard applications.
The use of HD DVD and Blu-ray formats represents a key transition in the gaming, storage and consumer entertainment markets. Both optical disc formats offer new and exciting features such as high definition video at 1080p resolution, picture-in-a-picture, high definition multi-channel audio, 3D style graphics and user interactivity (for games, trivia, web-enabled content, etc.). These new and exciting capabilities require intensive CPU processing and additional components such as discrete graphics processors with video hardware acceleration that drive up the cost for this level of personal computers. Additionally, intensive CPU processing to reconstruct data is required for HD download and broadcast content. As a result, PCs/laptops capable of playing HD content can be very costly, typically ranging in price from $2,000 to $3,500.
To address the growing consumer demand for high definition content playback on cost effective mainstream PCs (typically in the price range of $999 to $1,499), Broadcom today announced its media PC family of products. Leveraging Broadcom’s widely deployed and field proven technologies in the high definition set-top box and consumer HD DVD and Blu-ray player markets, Broadcom’s media PC technology provides the highest quality video playback of multi-format (VC-1, H.264 and MPEG-2) HD content for the mainstream PC market. With total power consumption of approximately 2 watts, Broadcom’s media PC solutions help extend battery life on notebook PCs, enabling full-length movie playback.
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Toshiba SD-L912A slim HD DVD RW drive introduction
June 3, 2007 10:30 pm
 Toshiba today announced the world’s first slim HD DVD-RW drive for notebook PCs, the Toshiba SD-L912A, that can read and write and rewrite to HD DVD-RW discs, and read and write to HD DVD-R discs and to standard DVD and CD discs. Sample shipments of the new drive are scheduled to start next month.
The new Toshiba SD-L912A makes it possible to backup the large capacities of PC hard drives to the reusable format of HD DVD-RW discs, and store data-rich HD digital content. The drive’s ability to rewrite to HD DVD-RW also opens the way to a wide range of applications involving storage and rewriting of large volumes of data.
The new product also supports high speed read and write for standard DVD and CD discs, and the complete library of different DVD and CD formats.
The new drive is compliant with the EU RoHS ( is European Union legislation that eliminates the use of six hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment ) directive on environmentally hazardous substances, which came into force in July 2006.
Toshiba will feature the new drive at the Toshiba Digital Media Network Taiwan Corporation booth (booth: B1234) at Computex 2007, which will be held in Taipei, Taiwan from June 5 to 9.
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Fraunhofer mini laser projector introduction
June 1, 2007 5:48 am
 Anyone who has a game console generally needs a display screen as well. However, the console of the future will be able to project games directly onto a wall ”“ thanks to a miniature laser projector. Even images from cell phones can be shown without vibration on a flat surface.
The car journey has been going on for hours, and back-seat passengers often have nothing better than the view from the window to divert them. Playing ‘sudoku’ on the cell phone gets tiring after a while, as the display is too small and keeps shaking with the motion of the car. A new development by the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS in Dresden could soon help: A novel miniature laser projector can be integrated into any mobile handheld device and used to project the display onto any flat surface in A3 format. And the great thing is, the image always remains steady ”“ even if the user holding the device is shaking or the whole car is vibrating.
Researchers at the IPMS, who developed the miniature projector jointly with their colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, have now succeeded in making it insensitive to small movements.
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