Author: Simon Perry

Will current HDTV’s work in the future?

There have been rumours buzzing around about the possibility of many of the $5-10k HDTV set that have been sold in the US won’t be able to display HDTV by the time it’s actually publicly launched. A news item appears to confirm the rumour. Discussions between the Hollywood studios and equipment manufacturers has lead to the creation of the High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). HDMI will be the interface between the receiving set top box and the screen/monitor, enabling the content to remain encrypted up to the point it is displayed. By unscrambling at the point it is actually viewed, the studios hope to reduce unauthorised copying of films.

SonicBlue to combine PVR and DVD

The constantly innovative SonicBlue have been talking about combining PVR and DVD players in the same unit for only about an extra $75 on top of one of the individual box price by xmas 2003. Their CTO also predicted that in two years they will have one terabyte of storage in their PVR – giving around 3,000 of programming.

Film world tries to fashion digital future

There has been a lot of worried people in the film world since Napster became mainstream. They’re paranoid about people stealing movies, in the same way that they were with VHS, but as history has shown, VHS was a boon for them, not a threat but that doesn’t stop them discussing how to control consumers seeing their content. Through their strong links with government they are trying to fashion the future in their image. I can half understand why they take this approach, it being better for them to be in an all powerful position, but this is not only controlling how content is copied but how and when it can be used. I’m sure most consumers feel they should pay for content and not be free to give it away to everyone at no cost. I hope the consumers will start to see the content owners ultra aggressive attitude and start to view them in their true light. After all we’re buying the product, why shouldn’t we use it in the way we feel?

First year of Emmy for Interactive TV

This year will be the first time there will be an Emmy for Interactive TV. The scope is broad, covering on TV-screen graphics as well as related Web sites and is being seen as a first step in full recognition. Interestingly it will be given during the engineering awards presentation and will be a plaque, not a statuette. The article also refers to the 1950s TV show “Winky Dink and You” as being the first interactive TV show.

NTL debt default is larger than Enron

UK cable company NTL have defaulted on their debt, making it the World’s largest default, even larger than Enron. Fortunately for 3.5m NTL UK customers, control of the UK company will pass to the bondholders rather than just shutting down. Less fortunate are the shareholder – the shares, have lost more than 99 percent of their value in the past year, yesterday closed at 9.4 cents.