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Buy Panasonic Stuff, Get Avatar
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 27, 2011 • 0 comments
Panasonic's exclusivity deal with the Blu-ray 3D release of Avatar has a new variation. Now you can buy a Panasonic Blu-ray player or compact system and get the hot disc. Previously it was available only to purchasers of Panasonic Viera TVs.

The BD 3D Avatar remains unavailable in stores.

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My, Netflix, How You've Grown
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 26, 2011 • 0 comments
Was it only yesterday when Netflix was a babe in the cradle, with giant Blockbusters and cable operators looming over it? My, Netflix, how you've grown. You've all but defeated Blockbuster and now you're bigger than the country's largest cable TV and satellite radio operators.

The latest Netflix quarterly earnings report shows 23.7 million subscribers. While this is short of estimates, it's still enough to propel Netflix past Comcast, with 22.8 million subscribers, and Sirius XM, with 20.2 million subscribers. This has got to make the cable industry in particular nervous.

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Will Feds Grab DTV Spectrum?
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 25, 2011 • 2 comments
A clash is shaping up between DTV broadcasters and other potential users of their spectrum. Broadcasters are getting ready to defend the spectrum they received in the DTV transition which concluded in 2009. But some in the federal government say much of that spectrum that would be better used for expanded cellphone networks and a new generation of wireless internet service.

What The New York Times describes as "an old media vs. new media lobbying battle" is now underway.

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Directors Oppose 60-Day VOD
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 22, 2011 • 0 comments
Twenty-three film directors have signed an open letter condemning DirecTV's Home Premiere video on demand scheme, which would make movies available on satellite video on demand 60 days after their theatrical runs.

Home Premiere "cannibalizes theatrical ticket sales," said the letter, which was published online by the National Association of Theater Owners and as an ad in Variety. The letter is aimed at four studios who have embraced the DirecTV plan including Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century-Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros.

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Discs Still Spinning
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 21, 2011 • 1 comments
Has streaming killed the shiny disc? The NPD Group says otherwise. A typical household spends 78 percent of its home video budget to purchase and rent DVD and Blu-ray. The 77 percent of consumers who report watching a movie on disc is unchanged from last year.

NPD's "Entertainment Trends in America" report puts streaming at 15 percent, with VOD and PPV comprising the remaining 8 percent. Spending on home video overall has dropped by 2 percent.

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Disc Rental Window Brings More Sales
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 20, 2011 • 1 comments
For more than a year, Warner Bros. Pictures has been experimenting with a 28-day window that delays DVD and Blu-ray rentals to the likes of Netflix and Redbox in hopes of boosting sales. The results are in: Best Buy says the window works as planned, especially in the first four weeks of a title's life.

What does this mean for Netflix and Redbox?

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Geek of the Week: Rob Sabin
News
Scott Wilkinson • Apr 20, 2011 • 0 comments
Rob Sabin, Home Theater's new editor, is this week's guest on the Home Theater Geeks podcast, where he talks about living on the real Jersey shore, his 25 years in the audio/video publication and installation business, his plans for the magazine and website, universal remote controls, 3D, streaming content versus Blu-ray, 4K displays, multichannel versus simulated surround, 3D-audio systems, and answers to chat-room questions. Check it out!
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Philips Sells TV Brand to Chinese
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 19, 2011 • 0 comments
Royal Philips Electronics, the Dutch conglomerate, is selling a controlling interest of its 80-year-old TV division to Hong Kong based TPV Technology Ltd.

Philips will retain a 30 percent interest and receive royalties, but this clearly puts the Chinese company in the driver's seat. The TV division's 4000 employees will be transferred to the new company and no layoffs have been announced.

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CE Recycling to Triple by 2016
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 18, 2011 • 0 comments
Recycling of electronic products will triple by 2016 thanks to the eCycling Leadership Initiative. The aim is to recycle one billion pounds per year by 2016, three times the amount recycled in 2010. That's enough to fill 88.9 billion cubic feet, the equivalent of a 71,000-seat NFL stadium.

How will this be accomplished? By improving consumer awareness of the existing 5000 industry-sponsored collection sites, increasing collection opportunities, and providing transparent metrics.

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Audyssey LFC Controls the Thunder
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 15, 2011 • 0 comments
The bass rampaging out your subwoofer may be thrilling to you but not to your neighbor. Short of making major structural changes to your home, how can you remedy this awkward problem?

Meet Audyssey LFC. It pulls off a miracle, cutting the excessive low frequencies that plague your neighbor, but without removing bass perception in the room where the home theater system is operating.

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Audio Industry Loses Pioneer Sidney Harman
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 14, 2011 • 0 comments
The man who put the Harman in Harman Kardon and Harman International has died at the age of 92. Sidney Harman was a true pioneer in the consumer electronics industry.

With his partner Bernard Kardon, Harman introduced the first audio receiver in the 1950s, the Festival D1000, combining the hitherto separate functions of power amp, preamp, and radio tuner. Shortly afterward came the first stereo receiver, the Festival TA230.

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DirecTV Folk Get HBO GO and MAX GO
News
Mark Fleischmann • Apr 13, 2011 • 1 comments
DirecTV subscribers who buy premium channels are in for a pair of new treats. They've gotten HBO Go and MAX GO, allowing instant access to a broad array of HBO shows and Cinemax movies.

On the HBO GO side, that means every episode of every season of selected shows. The service will launch with 1400+ titles from old favorites like The Sopranos to the new Game of Thrones. A Season Pass offers alerts to favorite programs.

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CALM Tech Surfaces
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 12, 2011 • 0 comments
The CALM Act was a great idea: Tame blaring TV ads by mandating technology that would keep them at approximately the same level as programming. Then the idea became legislation. Now the legislation has become technology. And before long, the technology will become products.

At this week's National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas, the technologies are surfacing at an exhibit called CALM Place. They include audio mixing, loudness monitoring, loudness control, loudness processing, program optimizing, and more. Eventually this stuff will find its way into program production and broadcast equipment.

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TWC and Viacom Tussle Over iPad App
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Mark Fleischmann • Apr 11, 2011 • 0 comments
Time Warner Cable and Viacom are in court over TWC's recently announced iPad app. Viacom, owner of CBS and other TV networks, says the cable operator has violated their licensing agreements. TWC sued back, asking the federal court to declare the iPad app legal once and for all.

Viacom isn't the only content power to oppose the TWC app. News Corp., Scripps Networks, and Discovery Communications have also objected. But Viacom has the sharpest teeth, demanding millions in damages.

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Cablevision App Uses Own Network
News
Mark Fleischmann • Apr 08, 2011 • 0 comments
Cablevision has followed Time Warner Cable's introduction of a live cable TV app with one of its own. But unlike the TWC app, which has some program producers crying foul over unauthorized internet distribution, Cablevision's app uses the company's own Advanced Digital Cable network.

Therefore, Cablevision says, it has the right to distribute programming to iPads "under existing distribution agreements." As a plus, iPad-loving Cablevision TV subscribers needn't get internet service just to use the app. It "allows the iPad to function as a television," says CEO Tom Rutledge.

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