March 12, 2007
Thomson Consumer Electronics today announced the RCA DTA800, a digital television adapter to prolong the life of analog TV sets that haven’t succumbed to set-top boxes from satellite, cable or IPTV providers. As you can see, it will look great in your living room if you keep it on a mirror-shined green floor.
Speaking of green, Thomson claims that this bringer of broadcasts is energy-efficient. And further speaking of green, Thomson notes that the device should qualify for the two $40 coupons that the federal government will provide to ease the digital transition. Since my main TVs are obediently tethered to TimeWarner Cable awaiting the great Verizon liberation (wait, that just doesn’t sound right), I haven’t had much exposure with over-the-air digital television, but I tried out a PC adapter recently and was delighted with the quality of unprecedented reception in the heart (OK, perhaps an aorta) of New York City. I’ll take two; here’s my gift card from Uncle Sam.
February 23, 2007
Robert Scoble sounds a little confused about the difference between digital and high-definition TV and what implications it will have on the analog cut-off in 2009, but over-the-air analog broadcasts will indeed end soon. I don’t know if Robert is familiar with the extensive debating that occurred regarding a hard cut-off date but we now have one and we should stick to it.
As his commenters point out, those who want to continue receiving over-the-air signals with their old TVs will continue to be able to do so with a subsidized converter box. That said, I also think Robert underestimates how quickly prices will come down on LCD televisions by 2009. Hey, that TV is going to die some day.
Ultimately, though, analog TV will live on for many years via analog cable, which still makes up a high percentage of cable subscriptions.
October 15, 2006
Long in development, CableCard was the great compromise between the consumer electronics and cable industries that would provide higher picture quality and easier setup. However, the initial standard supported only unidirectional transmissions. That took away the ability for customers to order video-on-demand or DVR services from cable operators, which not surprisingly did little to promote the interface. An expensive addition, TV makers have abandoned it in droves, and now typically feature it only on their most expensive or highest-margin sets.
Next year, though, CableCard will see renewed interest from a host of companies gunning to be the next set-top, continuing the steps that TiVo has taken with Series 3. Microsoft will support CableCard via an add-on for Media Center PCs, and Digeo plans to bring them to retail with its Moxi Media Center. The downside is that, for a while out of the gate anyway, video captured via CableCard will have all the flexibility of video captured via a DVR, that is, none. You won’t be able to stream it to another room or sideload it to a portable video player as Dish Network can with its PocketDish system.
CableCard may be imperfect, but it sure beats stringing infrared blasters everywhere, captures great video quality, and will be with us for at least a few years before it is superseded by DCAS, the software-based system for conditional access.
June 13, 2006
Moving video — particularly high-quality video — around remains a difficult problem complicated by large file sizes, incompatible file formats, diverse sources and rights management issues. Last week at the DigitalLife Press Preview and other events, I met with several companies that see a bright future for more fluid exchange of this emotionally powerful content type.
- Seagate sees video as a key medium to drive storage, from the big racks of hard drives used to store it on Internet servers to microdrives inside portable video players and the relatively untapped area of mobile digital video. Rights management issues will need to be worked out for this dream to become a reality.
- Vongo. One of the favored competitors in the PC space, it offers a Netflix-like subscription without the queue as well as pay-per-view movies. Movies can be played on up to three PCs and the service is working on compatibility with Portable Media Center.
- ITVN. This company offers set-top boxes somewhat similar to Akimbo and offers a number of packages, including adult content. It's still putting the pieces together in terms of how different video packages might work. It offers the Starz feed as Vongo does, but displays it on a television without any Media Center machinations.
So, there are signs of progress, but it's still early. While ITVN and Vongo charge for their content, Apple faces a tougher battle here that it has with music because it's carrying a lot of content that people really do expect to be free.
