TV related – Page 16 – Digital-Lifestyles

Silicon Image: HDMI First To Computers

Silicon Image Enables PC/CE Convergence With HDMI Interface Silicon Image has introduced its new Sil 1390 and 1920 transmitters, chip-based platforms capable of transmitting Intel’s SDVO (Serial Digital Video Output) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), respectively.

HDMI is being pushed by the content industry as the ‘upgrade’ of DVI (Digital Visual Interface). Sure, HDMI offer a few more features, like integrating eight-channel Audio and HD Video carried on a single cable, and acting as a conduit to pass remote control signals around, but the main reason for enthusiastic support is HDCP.

In this ever expanding lexicon, why is HDCP important? High-Definition Content Protection keeps digital video and audio encrypted through out the digital distribution chain, up to the point it hits your eyeballs and ears. This is to stop the naughty people that might want to save the content they’re paying for (heaven forbid).

Capitalising on growing sales of Media Center PCs and the growing availability of High Definition content for PC platforms, Silicon Image’s new series of HDMI transmitters targeted at PCs are the first integrated solution designed to interface directly to the video and audio interfaces of PC platforms. Out of interest, Silicon Image is one of the founders of the HDMI standard.

Silicon Image has also introduced the SiI 1368, billed as (take a deep breath, folks) the industry’s first Digital Visual Interface High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (DVI-HDCP) transmitter designed for PCI-Express graphics chipsets supporting Intel’s Serial Digital Video Output (SDVO) interface.

All three transmitters support the full 25-165 MHz HDMI and DVI bandwidth. The SiI 1390 and SiI 1930 transmitters also support a wide variety of audio interfaces-including HD-Audio, SPDIF and three I2S channels-to ensure compatibility with a broad range of PC audio hardware platforms.

“As PC users gain access to HD content, secure content delivery on PC platforms will be an important issue,” said Neerav Shah, president of Digital Content Protection, LLC, the licensor of HDCP.

“HDCP already has the support of content providers in the consumer electronics market and has emerged as an important technology in enabling consumers to access HD content.

We expect HDCP will similarly become a requirement on PC platforms capable of receiving and playing HD content. As a contributor to the HDCP specification and having developed HDCP test protocols for its PanelLink Cinema Partners test center, Silicon Image can help enable PC platforms to access the growing volume of HD content.

With the availability of new HD content and the popularity of Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition (with integrated HDTV support), the market for entertainment PCs is projected to grow from 7.9 million in 2004 to 59 million in 2008.

Silicon Image Enables PC/CE Convergence With HDMI Interface You may think, “what do we need another effing’ cable for?” but with more HD content becoming available, the PC market will require PCs to support HDMI or DVI with HDCP in order to access this content.

With its single cable coupling multi-channel audio and uncompressed HD video and small connector, HDMI is poised to become the de facto multimedia interface for both PCs and consumer electronics devices-enabling PCs with true entertainment and multimedia functionality.

“All the signs indicate that 2005 will mark the year HDMI gains a foothold in PC platforms,” stated Joe Lee, Silicon Image director of product marketing, PC and display products.

“Our family of new HDMI products for the PC supports our corporate strategy of enabling secure delivery of digital content on any and all platforms, including Windows Media Center and other Intel architected desktop PCs, notebooks, set-top boxes and media adapters.”

Silicon Image, HDMI Standards
Silicon Image Press Release
hdmi.org

Diffusion Group Report: Media Servers, Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged Platforms

Stand-Alone Media Servers And Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged Platforms Evidence is beginning to amass that two of the most hyped products in the early digital home market will be lucky if they manage to reach niche market status in the next few years.

Not so long ago, people were getting very excited by media servers and digital media adapters. They were the future. And then, err, people kinda forgot about them.

So what happened?

According to new research from The Diffusion Group, it seems that despite the products being well-hyped, widely discussed and blessed with encouraging early forecasts from a number of research firms, the devices have suffered from extremely limited demand.

Moreover, the report concludes that demand for both these technologies will remain limited and that what unique functionality these solutions do offer will be quickly integrated into other platforms.

“It is not that this type of functionality is undesirable,” said Michael Greeson, President of The Diffusion Group. “The premise of networking stored digital media content to multiple devices in the home is valid, but consumers aren’t looking for separate devices to enable this experience.

Instead, the applications and benefits enabled by these two platforms will be increasingly integrated into devices with which consumers are more familiar – such as DVD players that are now evolving into DVD-recorders or set-top boxes with built-in hard-drives and integrated networking.”

“While media servers were originally positioned to be the hub of the digital home, demand for these solutions has never gotten off the ground.”

Although Windows Media Center PCs have proved more popular, Greeson asserts that this is simply down to normal PC replacement cycles rather than consumers finding anything particularly compelling about the concept.

Other media server platforms have been much less successful, although the push of high-end digital set-top boxes by cable and satellite video service providers offers a case for optimism.

“However,” says Greeson, “this is a push model, where the equipment is subsidised by the service provider in order to generate digital media service revenue, as opposed to a ‘pull’ model where consumers are so enamoured with the device that they run to the retail store to purchase one.”

When it comes to digital media adapters or DMAs, the Diffusion Group paints a gloomy picture.

Introduced a couple of years ago, the idea was to make it easy to share content from the PC to other media devices in the home, such as a TV or stereo using a DMA. But their techie-tastic appeal failed to win over punters.

“Not long ago, there were ten to fifteen companies offering DMAs,” said Gary Sasaki, a contributing analyst with The Diffusion Group and President of DIGDIA, a media consultancy.

“At this year’s CES, DMAs were hard to find. Part of the reason for the premature demise of DMAs is that their functionality appeals mostly to early-adopter or technology-savvy buyers. Additionally, and somewhat similar to media servers, the functionality of DMAs is slowly getting integrated into other more familiar product categories.”

The report suggests that we’ve got an industry in fast transition, with early, stand-alone technologies being picked clean for their useful ideas and then incorporated into more consumer-friendly converged products.

Diffusion Group

Broadcast Flag “Crossed The Line”, FCC told by US Appeals Court

FCC Oversteps Their Authority on Digital TV, T.V. A US appeals panel has challenged new federal rules which require certain video devices to incorporate technology designed to prevent copying digital television programs and distributing them over the Internet.

US Appeals Judge Harry T Edwards delivered a slap across the wrists of the Federal Communications Commission by saying that that it had “crossed the line” with its requirements for anti-piracy technology in next-generation television devices.

The anti-piracy technology, known as the broadcast flag, will be required after July 1st for televisions equipped to receive new digital signals. Many personal computers and VCR-type recording devices will also be affected.

The broadcast flag would permit entertainment companies to designate, or flag, programs to prevent viewers from copying shows or distributing them over the Internet.

Two of the three judges on the District of Columbia Circuit panel said the FCC had not received permission from Congress to undertake such a sweeping regulation, and questioned the FCC’s authority to impose regulations affecting television broadcasts after such programs are delivered into households.

“You’re out there in the whole world, regulating. Are washing machines next?” fumed Judge Harry Edwards. Judge David Sentelle was equally unimpressed: “You can’t regulate washing machines. You can’t rule the world.”

The groups challenging the FCC’s broadcast flag regulation include the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Library Association, Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

They argue that the FCC has over-stepped its authority, that Congress should be responsible for making copyright law, and that librarians’ ability to make “fair use” of digital broadcasts will be unreasonably curtailed.

Although the judges’ comments are encouraging for opponents of the Broadcast Flag, doubts have been cast whether their opponents have the legal standing to challenge the rule in court.

Either way, we can expect to wait a few months before the court issues a ruling. In the meantime, activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation continue to offer consumers the means to get around the restrictions with their “HD PVR Cookbook,”.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Federal Communications Commission

Siemens offers TV on mobiles and Voice over WiFi at CeBit

Siemens offers TV for mobiles Siemens are planning to make a big splash at the upcoming CeBit in Hannover, Germany.

Along with Skype-capable M34 USB that they’ve already released, they’re planning to go the whole hog and show a Voice over WiFi handset (Gigaset S35 WLAN). On the telephone-plus-TV front they’ve announced a new concept handset, offering DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast for Handheld Devices) compatibility, which – in theory – will let users pick up around half a dozen digital TV and about 30 digital radio channels.

The ‘DVB-H Concept’ can pick up digital TV signals beamed across 3G networks using a modified version of the existing DVB-T terrestrial digital TV. Adapted for battery-powered terminals, the DVB-H broadcasts in bursts, allowing the receiver to power-down whenever possible, and thus boosting battery life.

DVB-H trials are underway in the UK, US, Germany and Finland, and if all goes to plan, UK residents will be able to wander about the streets watching Coronation Street on their phones in about a year. Not surprisingly, Digital TV phones are already huge in Japan and Korea.

Details are still a bit sketchy, but it will definitely feature a VGA screen and stereo sound. If they can also wedge a hard disk into the phone for recording programmes (and for storing your video clips transferred from PCs) this could be next year’s must-have technology.

The omens are good: the lucky citizens of Japan and Korea are already enjoying TV mobiles and it’s not hard to imagine sleep-deprived Brits shelling out hard cash to tune into every mumbled utterance of popular shows like Big Brother.

This marks another strange twist in the Siemens story. Not long ago, strong rumours were circulating around the net that they were looking to flog off their mobile phones division. This announcement – along with two other new phones (the Gigaset S35 WLAN, a Voice over WiFi and the M75, a chunky military style handset) suggests that no one’s told their tech bods yet.

Siemens (UK)
Siemens (USA)

HomeChoice VoD Hits 15,000 Subs, Reach Doubles to 2.4m

HomeChoice STB Video Networks Ltd (VNL) has announced that it’s broadband and Video on Demand (VoD) service, HomeChoice, now has 15,000 subscribers, since its relaunch in last September.

Eight in ten of their customers have also signed up to the company’s ‘triple play’ package that consists of broadband-delivered TV, broadband and voice calls.

It’s also taking this opportunity to announce that it’s going to be doubling the number of homes it can reach to 2.4 million in London and the Stevenage area, up from 1.2 million.

The VoD component of HomeChoice lets subscribers choose from over 1,000 movies, over 3000 music videos and hundreds of hit TV series, all available to watch exactly when you want.

“The concept of broadband delivered TV and VoD is very new to the entertainment-buying public and to already have 20 per cent market share of new DSL subscribers in our coverage area so soon after our launch is a great achievement. This gives us the confidence to significantly expand our network”, said Roger Lynch, Chairman and CEO VNL Ltd.

VNL initially made inroads into launching its phase 2 footprint in December 2004 when it enabled five new exchanges, including Stevenage – its first exchange outside of the M25. By ‘unbundling’ the exchange, called LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) in the trade, Homechoice is able to provide customers with a 6.5Mbit connection. 2.5Mb are used for TV and VoD delivery, and up to 4Mbit for Internet connection.

The company’s major marketing push for the re-launched HomeChoice service began in September 2004. During Q4 of 2004, VNL was responsible for one in five new DSL net additions in its initial launch footprint of 1.2 million homes.

The company has continued to build on what it offer its subscribers. In August last year, HomeChoice signed a retail deal with BSkyB enabling its subscribers to watch Sky Sports and selected Sky Movies channels on the service. It has also added telephony to its offering, and is about to launch a music download service that will allow HomeChoice customers to buy downloadable music tracks as they appear on screen. It also plans to double the speed of its broadband service from February, at no extra cost: 512Kbps will raise to 1Mb, 1Mbps to 2Mbps, and 2Mbps to 4Mbps.

HomeChoice

RAJAR: UK Internet Radio Listening Increases, Again

This morning RAJAR released their Q4 UK Radio listener figures, over radio, via the Internet and on TV.

For those who don’t follow this kind of thing, RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is the organisation that monitors and reports the radio listening habits of the UK population, by taking a listening diary of 32,000 people from a pool of 130,000 people around the UK. The figures sound large, and they are. It’s the largest media survey outside the US.

While the details of who is listening to which UK radio station is of great interest to those in that business, the part that caught our attention was the ‘new’ ways of listening to radio, currently via TV-delivery and over the Internet.

RAJAR-Dec-2004-Radio-via-Internet It’s worth clarifying that the Internet figures include any listening of the radio on a computer, whether live streaming, using services like the BBC’s RadioPlayer/Listen Again, or Podcasting (download and play).

RAJAR are reporting 16.3% of the UK population, approximately 7.8m people, have used the Internet to listen to radio stations.

RAJAR-Dec-2004-Radio-via-Internet-UK-Growth The largest area of growth has been in people listening to UK National radio stations over the Internet. This has increased from 8.3% a year ago to 10.8% of the UK population, equating to just short of 4.8m people. It is thought that this is probably due to an raised awareness that the Internet can be used to listen to the radio, helped in no small part by the BBC pushing the service.

Due to synchronicity or just good planning, it’s of note that a new version of BBC RadioPlayer is released today. Providing very fast access to previously transmitted radio content, it comes with a feature that suggests additional programming that may of interest to the listener, based on the program they have selected to listen to. Once Internet listeners become comfortable with features like this, the number of hours listened to online will be significantly boosted.

Strangely the number of people listening to non-UK stations via the Internet has dropped 1.1% from 4.1% to 3.0%. Quite why this would be the case is a slight mystery.

While listening to the radio through a TV might sound like a very strange idea, it’s becoming increasingly popular and includes delivery over Freeview, Sky and Cable TV. Those with a DVR connected to their Freeview box are also benefiting from being able to record radio programmes and play them back when it suits them.

29.7% of the sample (equating to around 14.25m people) reported that they had, at one time or another listened to the radio through their TV. This is up 8.4% from the same month last year.

RAJAR told us that the people listening via non-traditional means appears to be in addition to their normal radio listening.

As these ‘new’ forms of radio listening are clearly gaining favour with the UK public, we feel there would be significant benefit in gaining a more detailed breakdown in how people are using the Internet to access radio. It would be of benefit to all those involved.

RAJAR are in the process of evaluating new ways to monitor radio usage. They are carrying out trials of electronic ‘listening’ devices that are carried or worn by the user. These would replace the manually completed diary version that’s currently used.

RAJAR
National stations – summary
London stations – summary
Detailed figures
New version of the BBC RadioPlayer

China Develops its First Digital TV Chip

China Digital TV Chip Shanghai-based Fudan University has developed the country’s first home-made digital TV chip. Not only that, but the chip has passed appraisals by experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and it’s outperformed European and US standards in terms of sensitivity and anti-jamming capacities – at lower costs.

The ‘Zhongshi No.1’ chip, which is based on China’s DMB-T standard and is made by Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing and Semiconductor Manufacturing International, integrates more than 70 storages, 2 million logic gates and 20 million transistors. It’s expected that the mass production of the cost-effective chip will help to boost China’s digital TV industry as it will pave the way to a new generation of high-definition televisions (HDTV).

Apparently, dozens of electronics makers have integrated the new chip technology into their products, including Changhong, TCL, Skyworth and Haier. China’s Henan Province has applied the new technology to launch mobile TV programs, and other localities have reported success in trial operations. US-based Time Warner has also announced that it plans to offer subscription-based digital TV programs to China.

According to official statistics, China has more than 370 million TV sets and an average 40 million sets are being sold each year. China plans to broadcast the 2008 Beijing Olympics on digital TV and hopes to roll out the service nationwide by 2015.

HDTV Support in HP Media Hubs

CES is coming. Prepare yourself for the flood.

In an effort to get heard above the noise of CES, HP has this morning announced a couple of products that will be capable of receiving and storing High Definition TV (HDTV).

The first is an extension to their current Digital Entertainment Center (DEC) range that will add high-definition ATSC (Advanced Television Standards Committee) tuning capabilities. Two models are expected to ship this spring with different storage, graphics card and tuning options.

The second is the industry’s first HDTV media hub which comes with dual-tuners and expected for release in autumn 2005. It will handle all of the now-expected digital photos, music and videos and act as a digital video recorder (DVR). While HD tuning cards have been available for some time, this is the first time that a mainstream company has announced a HDTV product.

We contacted HP for further details about the products support for the US Broadcast Flag, but as yet they were unable to provide it. Given the release date of the product is after the July 2005 compulsory support date, and that it’s a US-focused product it is highly likely that the equipment will support the Broadcast Flag.

Given HP partnership with Philips in the Video Content Protection System (VCPS), an FCC-approved technology designed to restrict the copying of video content to DVD, it is highly likely that this will be included too.

Of particular interest is HP’s inclusion of an “intuitive Electronic Programming Guide” designed by them to “allow consumers to easily find and record the content they want.” There are no details of this being a free or fee service.

We see this as HP’s move to become the gateway to access on-demand content of all sorts. This is further demonstrated by their mention of delivering “upgrades the device with new services.” It’s a smart move, placing themselves in this pivotal position before someone else gets in there to provide a service.

It’s not just computer-based equipment that HP is offering in HD world. They’ve also announced plans to introduce a full line of 17 new HDTVs and home theater projectors based on HP-developed “visual fidelity” technologies.

One of these is the spectacularly named “wobulation” technology, a patent-pending method to provide twice the resolution of digital projection displays without increasing the cost.

HP
ATSC
VCPS

UK Households Buying Second Digital TV, Ofcom

In Ofcom’s morning release of its third quarter figures for digital TV (dTV) penetration in the UK, they’re reporting an estimated 55.9% of UK households now have dTV in some form.

The dominant provider of dTV in the UK is still Sky, with over 7m subscribers, although they have only added 53,000 more in the quarter.

With just short of 4m households is Freeview (the UK Free-To-Air Digital Terrestrial Television service), which exceeds the combined analogue and digital services of UK cable TV providers NTL & Telewest. Pure digital cable is running at 2.5m subscribers.

One of the big concerns with digital switch off has been going beyond the first dTV set in the house. It was fine to say that over 50% of UK households had digital TV, _but_ given that the UK average is 2.5 sets per household, what was going to happen to the analogue sets that were left? There might be a lot of unhappy people not able to watch TV the day after analogue switch off.

The latest figures bring good news to those worried about this. Around a quarter of new sales of Freeview went to homes that already have one digital TV. With the pricing of the Freeview Set Top Boxes (STB) starting from as little as £49 (~$95, ~€71), households must be finding the content on Freeview compelling enough to want also have it in the kitchen, bedroom or child’s room.

What isn’t clear from the figures, is if the original dTV set was Freeview, Sky or cable. We contacted Ofcom to dig a little deeper, only to find that they “don’t dig that deep” into the figures. One thing that did become clear during the chat, was that Sky household’s that purchase a second box are not broken out at all, but are just added to their overall subscriber base numbers.

Full Ofcom Digital Television Update – Q3 2004

NDS Threaten TiVo with DirecTV PVR

There won’t be much surprise to hear that the now Murdoch-controlled DirecTV is readying the launch it’s own PVR around Spring 2005, whose function mirrors TiVo. Added to this, NDS the creators of the rivals PVR, claim their unit will handle Pay Per View programming better – by charging for the content when it is watched, not recorded. This will give them the opportunity to speculatively tempt the viewer with lots of yummy content.

The divorce of DirecTV and TiVo has been long, protracted and painful to watch. Much like friends watching from the outside as a marriage crumbles, where everyone appears to know that it’s over, except the unhappy couple.

TiVo has already had experience of the Murdoch approach to their business, when the two ‘worked together’ to bring TiVo to the UK. It is sufficient to say that TiVo stopped selling their product in the UK after only selling 30,000 units. It’s likely that most of these, probably would’ve been brought directly from the US anyway.

The big problem for TiVo is that DirecTV is their largest single customer and it will seriously impact their business. We imagine that they’ve been expecting it since DirecTV sold its 55% stake in one lump and its vice chairman, Eddy Hartenstein, resigned from their board back in June this year.

When this news is combined with, in our view, the near suicidal idea that TiVo plan to ‘upgrade’ the software on their subscriber’s boxes to display popup banner ads when fast forwarding through the TV adverts, you have to think that TiVo is in serious trouble.

Times have changed, and what was once special about TiVo has now become commonplace, and sadly, they don’t appear to be able to add anything to their offering as magical as the original.

We’re dismayed to read in the news report that the new DirecTV device will not have the ability to skip through the adverts. While we’re not surprised that an integrated company like News Corporation want to stop their subscribers for skipping through a revenue stream, we’re saddened that a feature that was so much a selling point for the original PVR, is going to be withheld. We wonder what the reaction of the subscribers that currently have the TiVo box that will be ‘upgraded’ to the new system will be? Even if the reaction is bad and vocal, it’s highly lightly that this will be a mere blip in the media landscape stretching forward.

DirecTV
TiVo