TV business is not booming anymore as it used to be. Last year TV makers lost more money than ever before. And things do not seem to be getting better in sales. U.S. Flat Panel TV Shipments to Decline for First Time Ever in 2012 article tells that demand for flat-screen televisions in the U.S. is expected to decline for the first time ever this year, and continue falling for at least the next three years, according to a new report from IHS iSuppi. The market research firm projected that shipments of flat-panel TVs to the American market will decrease 5 percent, or two million units, to 37.1 million units in 2012. Shipments are expected to continue decreasing until at least 2015. Sales in the U.S. of flat-panel TVs are now driven by consumers who are replacing their older flat-panel sets with new models.
HDTV predictions for CES — and 2012 article predicts that small and medium screen HDTV prices will stabilize. The days of price erosion in the under-40-inch category will end as market demand picks up and the world economy stabilizes. TV makers can no longer afford to lose a billion or more dollars a year. The larger screens will continue to get cheaper. HDTV predictions for CES — and 2012 article points to a recent survey (by NPD DisplaySearch): U.S. consumers prefer bigger screens to smaller Internet streaming or 3-D capable TVs. The article predicts that the industry will respond with many 70-inch and larger sets for 2012.
HDTV predictions for CES — and 2012 article expects that at least one major TV brand will pull the plug on the U.S. market in 2012, either with a complete exit, or by selling its name to a Chinese TV manufacturer. Hi-Tech Retailers with their large stores are struggling because of notoriously narrow profit margin and the fact that retail shops are becoming showrooms where people check the product they then buy on-line.
Electronics expected to drive China’s 2012 exports article tells that uppliers are looking to home and personal electronics, and other high-value products to spur orders in 2012. Companies will introduce more add-ons, intelligent models to attract orders. Makers of electrical home appliances will emphasize aesthetics, performance and value add-ons to attract business and prop up margins, which narrowed in 2011 due to climbing material and labor costs. As for TVs, LCD-based models will be at the center of exports in 2012. Outbound shipments of LED, large-screen and smart TVs will increase in the second half of the year. The under-performance is due partly to economic uncertainties in the US and the EU. The two continue to be the primary destinations of most China-made products, although alternative markets such as Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region are growing in terms of export share.
Also new companies are pushing to TV and consumer electronics business. IKEA moves into consumer electronics with China venture. Sweden’s IKEA, the world’s largest furniture maker, is set to enter the consumer electronics market with a line of furniture with integrated connected television and sound systems. The furniture aims to solve the challenge of living room clutter of cords and remote controls. Uppleva range of home entertainment systems integrate a flat-screen full HD TV, 2.1 sound, and a Blu-ray player. The products are developed in co-operation with China-based TCL Multimedia. Uppleva will only be available in a few European markets to start with, but the UK and North America should see it in 2013. Generally speaking things like this are miserable failures, but let’s see what this turns out. So now my furniture won’t just go out of style. It will literally become obsolete and have interoperability issues.
OLED displays are becoming more common. HDTV predictions for CES — and 2012 article points out that in 2012, LG and Samsung will introduce the revolutionary OLED HDTV technology in the 55-inch screen size. OLED can produce high-definition images that outperform the best LED LCDs and plasmas. The most significant improvement is in contrast and large viewing angle (especially when compared to every LCD and LED LCD). All three remaining plasma makers (LG, Panasonic and Samsung) will continue to support the format with more emphasis on the larger screen models and product improvements as OLED sets will be very expensive for the next couple of years.
HDBaseT connectivity technology will try to push to market It represents a digital home networking alternative to standards such as HDMI, radio frequency(RF), coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA, presenting a feature set previously unavailable in the CE industry. HDBaseT’s ability to deliver up to 100W of power (over 100m, via a single LAN cable, without any additional power source) is actually very nicely aligned with trends in energy usage and demand. The power level is more than adequate for supporting today’s typical 40-inch LED TV, which requires 70W of power.
There is now a maximum permissible power limit calculated in relation to screen size, with an absolute maximum of 80W for any TV with screen size 50 inches or larger. It is expected that both LCD and LED TV monitors will soon be averaging approximately one watt of power consumption per inch of screen size. Regardless of screen size EnergyStar™ 6.0 is targeting a cap of 85 W for all screen sizes.
Innovations being employed to help meet current and future power consumption standards include LED backlighting. It which improves efficiency compared to CCFL backlights while also allowing thinner dimensions. There is currently a dramatic market shift toward LED backlighting that will see 10 times as many LED TVs built, compared to units with traditional CCFL backlights, by 2015. In addition, more efficient and simplified power supply designs are emerging.
3D TV is still hot. HDTV predictions for CES — and 2012 article expects that number of 3-D disc titles will grow, first-generation glassless 3-D will arrive and TVs with Full HD resolution with the passive 3-D.
Consumers are just gaining access to the 3D TVs when the next disaster is already on the way. Maybe the next revolution is Super Resolution HD-TV. Television technology is developing rapidly. We are entering post-full-HDTV resolution (1920×1080) era. Just few years ago full HD was considered the ultimate resolution that everybody were aiming to and was considered “enough”. No the trend seems to be that resolutions beyond full HD are becoming widely used. A number of the major TV makers will begin to offer large-screen TVs with resolutions four times that of HDTV: 3840 x 2160, otherwise known as 4K. Standard and high definition will be internally up-converted to 4K resolution. It is expected that there will be 4K HDTVs that include passive 3-D technology capable of displaying Full HD resolution with the passive 3-D.
New kind remote controls are coming. Look for remotes from a number of TV makers that will use voice, gestures, motion or other ways to better control the display device. LG has already announced its Magic Motion remote will incorporate voice control in select 2012 models. And of course, because of Siri on the iPhone 4S, expect the Apple iTV to take TV control functions where no set has gone before.
The connected TV will evolve. Top-selling brands are currently offering Internet-connected TVs with streaming and apps. Online video is overtaking physical sales article says that Americans are spending money on video streaming and downloaded film services, so much so that online sales there have overtaken physical ones. 2012 will be the first year that online films and streaming services will take in more money than sales of DVD and Blu-ray discs combined. There will be 3.4 billion legal and paid for movies watched in the US this year, around one million higher than hard copy sales. The year 2012 will be the final nail to the coffin on the old idea that consumers won’t accept premium content distribution over the Internet. Horror stories about so-called ‘piracy’ but they do not seem to be ringing true.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Power supply solutions for flat-screen TVs
http://www.eetimes.com/design/smart-energy-design/4371596/Power-supply-solutions-for-flat-screen-TVs?pageNumber=0&Ecosystem=communications-design
High-performance flat-screen televisions that deliver outstanding viewing experiences are also changing the way engineers design their power supplies
It should be no surprise, then, that TV performance is coming under intense scrutiny, not only by consumer groups but also by legislators; large screens, high-performance electronics and increasing usage have implications for the average household energy consumption that run contrary to demands for lower worldwide carbon emissions.
New Energy Star standards for televisions place greater emphasis on lowering power consumption when the TV is operating, in addition to existing restrictions on standby power. There is now a maximum permissible power limit calculated in relation to screen size, with an absolute maximum of 80W for any TV with screen size 50 inches or larger.
Innovations being employed to help meet current and future power consumption standards include LED backlighting, which improves efficiency compared to CCFL backlights while also allowing thinner dimensions. There is currently a dramatic market shift toward LED backlighting that will see 10 times as many LED TVs built, compared to units with traditional CCFL backlights, by 2015.
In addition, more efficient and simplified power supply designs are emerging. These not only reduce energy losses but can also offer a more cost-effective solution than first-generation LED-TV PSUs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intersil’s LCoS pico projector system shrinks size while cutting costs
http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/41737-Intersil_s_LCoS_pico_projector_system_shrinks_size_while_cutting_costs.php?cid=EDNToday_20120425
Microdisplays, including pico projectors, could be the New Big Thing in consumer electronics. A couple of examples of possible incarnations for tiny LED-based handheld projectors include:
Micron’s $99 Pop Video for the iPhone/Pod/Touch is basically the same size as the iPhone. Proponents say that sharing pictures and videos will take on a social dimension.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung reports record $4.46b profit for Q1 2012, thanks to smartphones and tablet panels
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/26/2978672/samsung-reports-q1-2012-earnings-4-46b-profit-on-39-9b-revenue
Samsung credits its IT & Mobile businesses for the strong showing, and specially mentioned its smartphone lineup: a press release says that “brisk sales of flagship Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II devices contributed to the company’s profitability.” As you’d expect, executives are quite bullish about smartphones to come, too, saying that they expect the upcoming “next Galaxy” device to be “our most successful smartphone ever” on an investor call. Later, a Samsung exec let the name of the phone slip out: it’s the Galaxy S III.
The company also says that its Display Panel business is seeing more demand, particularly for tablets, 3D and LED TVs and OLED panels for phones. Other businesses, like Samsung’s TV and appliances division, and the Samsung Semiconductor chip division, were up and down, but all are still producing profit for the company right now. In particular, the company says its high-end 7000 and 8000 series televisions saw a 50 percent increase in sales.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intersil’s LCoS pico projector system shrinks size while cutting costs
http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/41737-Intersil_s_LCoS_pico_projector_system_shrinks_size_while_cutting_costs.php?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Fun+Friday
Microdisplays, including pico projectors, could be the New Big Thing in consumer electronics. A couple of examples of possible incarnations for tiny LED-based handheld projectors include:
Micron’s $99 Pop Video for the iPhone/Pod/Touch is basically the same size as the iPhone. Proponents say that sharing pictures and videos will take on a social dimension.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Search of Apps for Television
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/business/media/developers-are-working-on-television-apps-but-tv-industry-is-wary.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
The same consumers who delight in navigating the iPad still click frustratingly through cable channels to find a basketball game. Their complaint: Why can’t television be more like a tablet?
While still in its early stages, the idea has taken off among tech-loving consumers, and companies are trying to satisfy them. Already, apps for Hulu Plus, Netflix and Wal-Mart’s Vudu streaming service, among others, are built into Internet-enabled televisions. Devices like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the streaming video player Roku let viewers watch apps that mimic channels. New sets by Samsung and others come with built-in apps loaded with television shows, movies and sports.
Apple has a video player called Apple TV with apps to Netflix, Major League Baseball and other content. Many media executives predict Apple will ultimately enter the television market in a more aggressive way, with either a new set-top box or an Apple-made TV set. Both would rely on apps scattered across the screen as they are on the iPad. Apple declined to comment.
“I’ve told my bosses, ‘This is beachfront real estate. Buy in now,’ ” Lisa Hsia, executive vice president of digital media at NBCUniversal’s Bravo channel, said of developing TV apps.
A model built around TV apps, however, could let viewers use favorite apps on the screen on an á la carte basis, thus bypassing cable subscriptions and all the extraneous channels they don’t watch. And therein lies the tension that has the television industry delicately assessing how to balance the current system with an Internet-based future that some feel is inevitable.
“The question that hasn’t yet been answered is whether television viewing will consist of a single app that mimics the pay TV bundle or a series of different apps that together form a content experience,” said Jon Miller, the chief digital officer at News Corporation, which owns Fox Broadcasting and cable channels like Fox News and FX.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
ABC seeks help for digital content sharing plans
“End-to-end digital file based work-flows” sought across radio, TV, web
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/07/abc_wants_digital_workflows/
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is seeking “ … business consultancy services for transition of file based content …”.
The Corporation has issued a tender for those services because it’s decided that digital change is coming and figures it needs help to plot a course away from tape-based media and current inefficient media storage practices.
The tender suggests that the job is not just about technology as culture change will need to be undertaken to move ABC personnel on from a mindset that views content as something stored on tapes to assets stored in digital media.
“The implications of content digitalisation for capture, ingest, access and browse, edit, production, post-production and play-out are significant not only in terms of how audio visual content is captured, but also in terms of how these files are moved around the ABC,” the tender says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research firm IHS iSuppli estimates the global Internet-enabled TV market will grow nearly 60 percent this year to 95 million sets, far outpacing the TV market overall, which is expected to expand by just 2 percent.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/07/net-us-google-lg-idUSBRE84602Y20120507
Tomi Engdahl says:
OLED to take 0.02% of TV sales through 2014
Liquid Crystal Domination
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/10/displaysearch_numbers_show_no_quick_success_for_oled_tv_tech/
Samsung may be keen to tout OLED as the future of television tech, but it’ll be a good few years yet before sales of organic LED screens come to match plasma and even CRT, let alone LCD.
DisplaySearch, a market watcher, this week forecast effectively zero growth for the TV business this year. Shipments of LCD TVs will be up seven per cent, it said, but that increase will be absorbed by an equivalent fall in shipments of CRT and plasma sets.
DisplaySearch reckons some 250m TVs will ship worldwide in 2012, pretty much the number that shipped in 2011 and, before that, in 2010.
OLED has taken and will continue to take a tiny, tiny slice of those sales – 50,000 sets or less, says DisplaySearch – new sets from Samsung and LG for sure
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Unveils World’s 1st 55” OLED TV For Mass Production
http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=14332
Samsung’s new OLED TV was a Best of Innovations Award Honoree at CES 2012, and has received media attention worldwide since its inception in early January.
Also at today’s 2012 Premium TV Showcase event, Samsung announced the strategy and revealed further detail across its new, large-screen 2012 premium Smart TV line.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
3D TV fails to excite, gesture UIs to flop: analyst
Apple, Sony, to pounce as connectivity craze catches
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/22/future_of_television/
3D television is not exciting global TV buyers, says analyst firm NPD.
While the firm notes that 3D now pops up in nearly 20% of global TV purchases for devices larger than 40 inches, Director of Industry Analysis Ben Arnold says “3D TV sales growth thus far has been more a function of the feature’s attachment to bigger screens than true demand for the technology.” Sixty eight percent of punters, he adds, think 3D is just “nice to have”.
Arnold also says 80% of punters, on NPD’s numbers, feel “wearing glasses is a hindrance to their adoption of 3D”
One new TV feature that does have that potential, he suggests, is connectivity.
“Sales of connected TVs are increasing (nearly 50 percent year-over-year unit growth in 2011) and connectivity is beginning to weigh into TV purchase decisions”
“Companies like Apple and Sony, owners of hardware and content assets, are best positioned to grow share in this market,
Arnold also pours cold water on any voice or gesture driven method for controlling the telly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TCL to launch motion-controlled Android TV first in China
http://www.edn.com/article/521879-TCL_to_launch_motion_controlled_Android_TV_first_in_China.php
One of the most commonly-held misconceptions about China (and its CE market) in the West is that the role of local vendors is to build cut-rate TV sets with fewer bells and whistles to offer the lower prices that Chinese consumers can afford.
Well, that “understanding” is turning out to be so wrong on so many levels.
First, according to an announcement from Hillcrest Labs (Rockville, MD) Wednesday, TCL—one of the leading consumer brands in China—will start this month shipping in China Android-based smart TVs featuring Hillcrest’s patented motion software, Freespace. The surprise here is that China gets first dibs on TCL’s gesture-controlled smart TVs. They will become available in other markets later this year.
Second, at a time when Google TVs by Sony or others have yet to take either the United States, Europe, or Japan by storm, TCL is eagerly positioning itself to mine the Chinese smart TV market.
Third, never underestimate the growing affluence of the middle class in China. According to a 2011 Accenture survey focused on usage and spending on consumer electronics technologies in eight countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and the United States), Chinese consumers were among the most enthusiastic purchasers of the latest consumer technologies including 3-D TV and smart phones.
Fourth, it’s important to recognize that as of the first quarter in 2012, TCL has become the first Chinese TV company to be ranked in the top five in global LCD TV market share, according to the latest market research report by DisplaySearch. The Chinese company didn’t make this rapid ascent simply by making no-frills TV sets.
Differentiation among smart TVs comes more from software rather than hardware. In this light, Hillcrest has offered just the right kind of help TCL needed to make its motion-controlled smart TVs easy, quick and at high quality performance.
Adding Hillcrest’s software to TCL’s flagship smart TV and android smart TV product line helps TCL set “a new standard for innovation in the Chinese market,”
At the core of Hillcrest’s Freespace natural-motion product line sits the Freespace Motion Engine embedded software. It is designed to be licensed for integration into a customer’s hardware, or it can be purchased as part of a pre-programmed Freespace Sensor Module, or a Hillcrest reference design product, said Hillcrest.
Motion data processed by the MotionEngine is delivered using a standards-based API and is compatible with USB, Bluetooth, ZigBee RF4CE, and a number of other configurable peripherals, operating modes and protocols. Hillcrest has pre-integrated the MotionEngine with many of the leading RF suppliers, such as Broadcom and Texas Instruments, according to Hillcrest.
Further, Hillcrest’s Freespace MotionEngine is based on inertial sensors that do not require “line-of-sight” to operate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HISTORY:
World’s first wireless TV remote rocked it like a ray gun
http://dvice.com/archives/2012/05/worlds-first-wi-1.php
The Zenith Flash-Matic from 1955 worked by using a beam of light directed from the remote towards the TV. The light connected to one of four photocells located in each corner of the TV screen to control the action. In the case of these early remotes it would be one of four things — turning the power on or off, the sound up or down (as the ad noted, for avoiding thosepesky commercials!) or moving the channel dial clockwise or counter-clockwise.
It’s evidence that even in the 1950s people were couch potatoes. It’s also evidence we were high maintenance about our electronics even then — previous remotes had been developed but had that pesky wire cord that kept it from taking off commercially.
The inventor of the wireless TV remote, Eugene Polley just passed away at the age of 97. He lived to see his invention move from the “ray gun” to universal remotes and giant flat screen TVs. Polley’s contribution to pioneering the development of the TV industry was recognized with an Emmy in 1997, which he shared with fellow Zenith colleague and engineer Robert Adler.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony and Sharp officially terminate LCD partnership
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/24/3040682/sony-sharp-terminate-lcd-display-joint-venture
Sony and Sharp have announced the end of their LCD joint venture, a partnership that was originally formed in 2009. Back then, Sony chipped in 10 billion yen ($126 million) towards Sharp Display Products Corporation and gained a seven percent stake in the company. Sony will be selling its shares back to the company and will be granted a full refund of its original investment.
The investment hasn’t fared well in an increasingly tumultuous TV market, and the writing on the wall came in March when Sony abandoned any further financing towards the collaboration.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Don’t Mean To Be Alarmist, But The TV Business May Be Starting To Collapse
http://www.businessinsider.com/tv-business-collapse-2012-6?op=1
In the first decade of the commercial Internet–the 1990s and early 2000s–there were frequent murmurings that newspapers were screwed.
The digital audience didn’t read newspapers, people pointed out. They visited web sites. They read articles here and there. But they didn’t put the stack of articles, photos, and ads known as a “newspaper” on their breakfast table and flip through the whole thing.
What’s more, the digital audience stopped using newspapers as a reference and source for commerce.
Those who said that newspapers were screwed were dismissed as clueless doom-mongers, at least by newspaper executives.
And lots of newspaper companies went broke or almost went broke
In other words, newspapers were screwed. It just took a while for changing user behavior to really hammer the business.
The same is almost certainly true for television.
television consumption has changed massively over the past decade, especially over the past 5 years.
the same thing has happened to the TV business that has happened to the newspaper business:
The user behavior that supported the traditional all-in-one TV “packages”–networks and cable/satellite distributors–has changed.
We still consume some TV content, but we consume it when and where we want it, and we consume it deliberately: In other words, we don’t settle down in front of the TV and watch “what’s on.” And, again with the exception of live sports, we’ve gotten so used to watching shows and series without ads that ads now seem extraordinarily intrusive and annoying. Our kids see TV ads so rarely that they’re actually curious about and confused by them: “What is that? A commercial?”
So, what are the key points of this shift in user behavior for the traditional TV business?
“Networks” are completely meaningless. We don’t know or care which network owns the rights to a show or where it was broadcast. The only question that’s relevant is whether it’s available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or iTunes. This means that one of the key traditional “businesses” of TV–the network–is obsolete.
The majority of what we pay our cable company is wasted. We get broadband Internet from our cable company, and we use that constantly.
We rarely watch TV ads, and when we do, we’re usually doing something else at the same time–like typing. Also, the ads seem startlingly intrusive, because we’re not used to them.
More directly, what this means is this:
The vast majority of money TV advertisers spend to reach our household (~$750 a year, ~$60/month) is wasted, because we rarely watch TV content with ads, and, when we do, we rarely watch the ads.
The vast majority of money we pay our cable company for live TV (~$1,200 a year / ~$100/month) is wasted, because we almost never watch live TV and we can get most of what we want to watch from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Ikea TV Is Coming — and We Should All Take It Seriously
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/ikea-tv-uppleva/
The company’s TV system, Uppleva, was first revealed in mid-April amid a wave of surprise, ridicule and WTF. “An Ikea TV? Who would want that?!” Such were the protests of hardcore gadget enthusiasts. But now new details have emerged, and we know much more about the TV, thanks to a video that was released on Friday.
The upcoming Uppleva is a Wi-Fi-ready smart TV. It features an LED-backlit display, full 1080p HD resolution, and 400Hz response time, along with standard accoutrements like USB and HDMI ports for connecting peripherals. But it’s not just a TV — it’s the anchor of a full-fledged media center, with a built-in Blu-ray/DVD/CD player, a 2.1 surround sound system, and extra storage spaces for tucking away cables and your extensive Blu-ray collection.
Indeed, one of the touted benefits of Uppleva is the fact that all those wires and cables are completely hidden from view.
“The idea is to sell complete TV solutions, where TV, sound and furniture are combined and integrated in a way that is really unique to the market today,” Uppleva project leader Marcel Godfroy says in Ikea’s latest product video.
The TV will go on sale in select European markets this month for a reported price tag of under $1,000
“It’s not interesting in a lot of ways, and interesting in a couple of ways,” IHS iSuppli analyst Jordan Selburn said of Ikea’s television. “Where it’s not interesting is from a tech perspective. They’re just taking a third-party TV and bolting it to a piece of furniture. But in another respect, that in itself is interesting: that Ikea feels that TV technology is mature enough that they can do this.”
Indeed. Ikea clearly believe that a TV’s unique selling proposition is no longer rooted in the display itself, something Selburn agrees with. With the exception of super high-end TVs, the differences in image quality among TV sets isn’t that great. At Ikea’s price point, differentiation can be found in distribution, convenience, and appearance. And these are all things that Ikea can capitalize on.
“The fact that there’s no technological breakthrough, but they feel there’s a good opportunity says something about [television] technology,” Selburn said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If You’re Expecting The TV Industry To Just ‘Collapse’, Keep Dreaming
http://www.splatf.com/2012/06/tv-industry-collapse/
The Internet has already changed the television industry significantly, and will continue to do so. But the idea that the web will cause the TV business to “collapse” is fantasy.
Henry Blodget has just written a wildly popular post called “Don’t Mean To Be Alarmist, But The TV Business May Be Starting To Collapse.”
Actually, it’s very similar to a post Henry — my long-time former boss! — wrote three years ago, called “Sorry, There’s No Way To Save The TV Business.”
In that post, Henry also laid out a significantly overhauled vision for the TV industry — things like “The cable companies will become dumb pipes, and they’ll get disintermediated.” — and predicted it would start happening “Over the next 5-10 years. And it will leave today’s TV industry looking like today’s newspaper industry.” Well… those 5 years are now 60% over, and those 10 years are now 30% over. But not much has changed since then.
The reality is that, yes, the TV industry will change over time. Some of today’s winners will become tomorrow’s losers, and new entrants may grow to dominate. But barring some unforeseen technical or creative revolution, it’s going to happen a lot slower than you think.
It is easy to complain that the cable/telco/satellite-dominated TV distribution system is inefficient, too expensive, or “ripe for disruption”, and many do. But that model is actually still very strong.
Also, a friendly reminder: The idea that whatever’s next is going to be significantly cheaper is wishful thinking.
A lot of the complaining about today’s TV business — the bundles, the nickel-and-diming, the DVR fees, whatever — is about its price.
Maybe you’ll be spending that $150 per month on Internet access and various video services instead of cable TV, but it’s not like your all-in living room bill is going to be $45 in a few years. Especially if you’re trying to remove advertising from the equation!
And as a TV user, it would be pretty great to see a company like Apple do something bold to mess with the TV industry’s power structure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ikea TV will let you buy stuff with its remote control
http://gigaom.com/video/ikea-remote-control-shopping-connept/
Imagine this: You’re sitting on your Ikea couch, watching a show on your Ikea TV, and a commercial break comes up, advertising Ikea’s newest outdoor products. You grab your remote control, press a few buttons – and voila – you’re the owner of a new Ikea lawn chair, to be delivered straight to your door.
The technology, which has been developed by a German company called Connept, will prompt users to press the red button on their Ikea TV’s remote control during select ad spots. The TV will then launch a browser window, prompting registered users to enter a password and confirm their order.
The exact details of the implementation of Connept on Ikea’s TVs is still unclear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Much Would The Average Person Pay For A Standalone HBO GO Subscription? About $12 A Month
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/05/hbo-go-without-hbo/
Two years ago, HBO introduced HBO GO, giving fans a way to access all of their favorite programming online, on tablets and mobile devices, and increasingly on connected TV platforms. For those of us who have had a chance to use it, HBO GO is nothing short of a revelation, as viewers can watch pretty much every episode of every HBO original series ever made, as well as a pretty good selection of new release movies.
The problem is that access to the services is limited to those who have HBO as part of their pay TV subscription: There’s currently no way to purchase the HBO GO component without spending upwards of $100 on cable or satellite.
But how much would people actually pay for HBO GO, if it were an option? Earlier this evening, web designer Jake Caputo tried to find out, by creating a website called takemymoneyhbo.com. The site implored users to tell it just how much they would pay for a standalone subscription to HBO GO, tweeting out whatever dollar value you said that you’d pay.
The average person would pay $12 a month, or about $145 a year, for online-only access to HBO content. But is that something HBO would be interested in? And is it really leaving money on the table?
HBO currently has about 29 million subscribers, and reportedly receives around $7 or $8 per subscriber per month. So HBO could, theoretically, get more per subscriber than it’s currently making. But that doesn’t include the cost of infrastructure needed to support delivery of all those streams, including all the CDN delivery and other costs that would come with rolling out a broader online-only service.
More importantly, it wouldn’t include the cost of sales, marketing, and support — and this is where HBO would really get screwed. Going direct to online customers by pitching HBO GO over-the-top would mean losing the support of its cable, satellite, and IPTV distributors.
Think about it: Every time someone signs up for cable or satellite service, one of the inevitable perks is a free six- or 12-month subscription to HBO. And those free subscriptions are rarely, if ever, cancelled once the trial period ends.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyst: Apple to debut TV set at WWDC
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/analyst-apple-to-debut-tv-set-at-wwdc/20693?tag=main;top-stories
This latest prediction comes from Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek, who estimates that the television will retail for around $1,250 and be called the iPanel.
Misek claims in his research note that Foxconn has already begun production of the television, and that it will launch in the second half of 2012. He further claims that carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Rogers, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom are testing the new TV in their labs.
Will Tim Cook unveil a television at this year’s WWDC keynote?
Analysts have been talking about an Apple television a lot lately. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster claims that Apple plans to announce a TV in December that will retail for between $1,500 and $2,000 and come in a range of sizes, from 42-inch all the way up to 55-inch. According to Munster, Apple will have this TV ready to ship early in the new year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
At last! Video ads on public restroom mirrors
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57449367-71/at-last-video-ads-on-public-restroom-mirrors/
If there’s one thing your bathroom experience has always needed, it’s ads on the mirrors. Finally, a company has come along to provide the technology.
I have become used to ads above the urinal.
However, now, I may have to watch video ads while I wash my hands and stare at my uneven eyebrows.
For the Los Angeles Times informs me that a company called Novo Ad has created the technological means to turn mirrors into electronic displays for ads.
The mirrors are, in fact, LED screens that enjoy a hard disk and some nifty software.
Their psychology, though, is irresistible. For as you approach the mirror, an ad begins to wrap its insidious tentacles around your insecurities.
Nova Ad says it is currently looking for American partners and imagines that its ads will appear in public restrooms in malls, hotels, railway stations and movie theaters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japan-based TV makers to mass produce large-size AMOLED panels in 2014
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120608PD209.html
Japan-based TV brands such Panasonic and Sharp will be mass producing large-size AMOLED panels as of 2014, giving them a platform to compete more with Korea-based AMOLED TV makers in 2015.
Sources said that Japan-based makers might have a chance of competing with Korea-based AMOLED makers, despite them having a stronger foothold in the industry, due to the TVs being priced too high, as well as a lack of awareness among the public.
Industry sources have also speculated about whether Taiwan-based manufacturers will be producing large-sized AMOLED panels by 2015, given that they already produce small-and medium-size ones.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcast moves beyond the TV set as 17% of consumers get network content on multiple screens
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/176830/broadcast-moves-beyond-the-tv-set-as-17-of-consumers-get-network-content-on-multiple-screens/
People who watch a network’s video online also spend 25 percent more time watching that network on their television sets, according to a new comScore study.
The results show that TV networks, on average, are reaching more than a quarter of their total audiences via mobile or Internet media, and 11 percent are digital-only consumers. Among news, sports and youth-oriented networks, up to 30 percent of the audience was reached through multiple devices during the five-week study.
Another interesting finding: 61 percent of consumers used the Internet at the same time as they watched TV at some point during the study. Nearly half of those used Facebook, specifically.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DirecTV could also deploy ad skip technology
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/11/us-media-tech-summit-directv-idUSBRE85A1KR20120611
DirecTV Group (DTV.O), the largest U.S. satellite TV operator, could deploy technology that would enable its millions of subscribers to automatically skip television advertising, its top executive said on Monday.
“We haven’t chosen to use it. It’s not clear to me there’s a raging demand from consumers for it,”
Similar ad skipping technology has become the focal point of several lawsuits and a countersuit filed last month pitting DirecTV rival Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) against CBS Corp (CBS.N), News Corp’s (NWSA.O) Fox, Comcast Corp’s (CMCSA.O) NBC Universal and other major media companies.
Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen, who controls the company, is using the threat of the ad skipping technology to gain negotiating leverage in discussions over carriage fees with broadcasters, analysts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
World smart TV sales surge
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/12/displaysearch_says_world_smart_tv_sales_surge/
Smart TVs – tellies with internet connectivity – accounted for almost 20 per cent of the televisions that manufacturers shipped in Q1.
More than 2.6m smart TVs shipped into Western Europe, and some 3.2m into China.
LG and Samsung may have been promoting their smart TV platforms of late, but in Q1, the number of smart TVs they shipped as a proportion of their total telly shipments were just 26 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.
Compare that to Sony: more than half of the TVs it shipped in the quarter – 51 per cent – were internet connectable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. Probes Cable for Limits on Net Video
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303444204577462951166384624-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwMjExNDIyWj.html
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging antitrust investigation into whether cable companies are acting improperly to quash nascent competition from online video, according to people familiar with the matter.
Cable companies provide both television channels and high-speed Internet access for many consumers in the U.S. With broadband Internet, consumers can watch individual programs or channels through online video services like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon, bypassing the cable company’s traditional bundles of channels.
Having invested billions of dollars building their networks, some pay-TV companies have shown little inclination to get out of the business of packaging television channels and become mere conduits for other companies’ data. Some major entertainment companies also have an interest in preserving the current model of television viewing because they want cable companies to take bundles of their channels, rather than just cherry-picking the most popular ones.
The Justice Department probe highlights how the shifts in decades-old patterns of television viewing are shaking the tightly regulated industry.
In its cable TV probe, Justice Department investigators are taking a particularly close look at the data caps that pay-TV providers like Comcast and AT&T Inc. T have used to deal with surging video traffic on the Internet. The companies say the limits are needed to stop heavy users from overwhelming their networks.
Internet video providers like Netflix have expressed concern that the limits are aimed at stopping consumers from dropping cable television and switching to online video providers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natural Experiments Show Media’s Effects on Families
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/06/natural-experiments/
A recent review by Dahl in the journal Family Relations uses the natural experiments to discover how media affects families.
For example, Dahl points to a study showing that due to the happenstance of Indonesia’s topography, some villages have better TV signal strength than others. Independent of how far these villages were from major cities, or any other factor the researchers could imagine, citizens of cities with better TV signals had less involvement in community organizations.
On the flip side, take a similar study of 180 villages in India – researchers watched as some of these villages got cable television for the first time. And as cities got this digital view of the wider world, acceptance of domestic violence decreased, women experienced more autonomy and the be-cabled villages had lower fertility rates than their otherwise equal but de-cabled counterparts. This paper’s decidedly more upbeat title is “Cable Television Raises Women’s Status in India.”
So the amount of media we consume certainly affects us in interesting and not always straightforward ways. But what about the content of the media we watch?
Dahl points to a study showing that as communities got soap operas, their rates of divorce rose and their rates of fertility dropped. Children born in Rede Globo communities were much more likely to share characters’ names. And those dropping fertility rates? While they dropped among all young women in the viewing demographic, they dropped most among women closest in age to the soap opera’s main characters any given year.
So how does media exposure affect families in the United States?
Dahl writes that, “each additional year of childhood exposure to television increased test scores during adolescence by 0.02 percent of a standard deviation.”
it’s still worth noting that TV doesn’t rot brains in the way that we as parents have all come to take as gospel. At least not in the general population.
But something interesting happened when researchers Gentzkow and Shapiro drilled down into this data — they found that in households with high parent involvement, additional TV exposure did, in fact, hurt test scores. But this decrease was offset by a dramatic increase in kids’ scores in households with lower levels of socioeconomic success.
Instead of media being universally good or universally bad for kids, “the effects of exposure to media are determined largely by the type of activities that are being displaced by television,”
Tomi says:
FCC: Let’s kill analogue early, fob diehards off with converter boxes
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/15/fcc_wants_to_relieve_msos_of_dual_viewability/
Every pay TV market has its idiosyncrasies, particularly for Multi System Operators (MSOs) such as Time Warner or Comcast in the US and Virgin Media in the UK. And in the US, one of these idiosyncrasies is the requirement that cable operators retransmit so called “must-carry” signals in both analogue and digital formats.
This means they still provide analogue access to a few universal public and also local broadcast channels, just as digital terrestrial television has been required to do until switch-off – at least in in some countries.
Now the US regulator, the FCC, is circulating a proposal that would distribute low-cost converter boxes to allow analogue customers to continue to view TV station signals, thus relieving MSOs of the burden of carrying them. The proposal, if passed, would come into effect on 11 December, 2012. The FCC is talking up the benefits of using the analogue spectrum for new digital channels and increased broadband.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ikea TV goes on sale in Europe, comes with DVR add-on
http://gigaom.com/video/ikea-tv-goes-on-sale-in-europe-comes-with-dvr-add-on/
Ikea’s Uppleva TV is arriving in select European Ikea stores and the company just shared some more technical data about the device, revealing that it will also be able to record programming on separately sold flash memory. However, some details are still unclear.
As part of Uppleva’s launch in Sweden, the company also shared additional technical data, including the following data points about the TV set:
LED
Full HD 1080p
400 Hz exercise indices (40-46 ’400 Hz MI, 32′ 100 Hz MI, 24 ’50 Hz MI)
Compatible with MP3 and MP4, DivX HD, and JPEG.
Inputs: 32-46 “: 4xHDMI, 2xUSB. 24 “: 2xHDMI, 1xUSB.
Ikea’s Swedish website also states that the company will sell a separate 8GB flash memory stick that will allow consumers to record TV shows as well as pause and rewind live programming. Of course 8GB isn’t all that much, so we shouldn’t expect a full-blown TiVo-like DVR functionality
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vendors have second stab at smart TV standard
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/20/lg_has_second_stab_at_world_smart_tv_standard/
LG and TP Vision today announced the formation of the Smart TV Alliance, a re-branded version of the partnership announced by LG, Philips and Sharp back in September 2011 at the IFA show.
Back then, the trio’s goal was to create a smart TV apps platform based on open standards – it uses HTML 5, CE-HTML, HbbTV and others – to publish the SDK and get other TV makers to back it. The SDK was duly released, but they have failed to attract broader support.
TP Vision is still backing the LG initiative, but until there’s solid backing from others the Alliance’s efforts to become a standard seem unlikely to pay off.
The benefits are clear: app makers can write one version of their code and have it run on a range of sets. But until the Smart TV Alliance standard becomes more widely supported, they’ll still have to write separate apps for Sony Bravias, Samsungs, Toshiba Regzas, Panasonic Vieras and so on.
Worse, there’s a ‘cake and eat it too’ element to the Smart TV Alliance specification. Today’s announcement also highlighted the work being done on SDK 2.0, due out by the end of the year and which developers “will be able to create applications for 2013 TV sets from participating Alliance members”.
Yes, 2013 sets – but not necessarily 2012 sets. The nature of the core components means there will be some backward compatibility, but don’t bank on it, the Alliance’s announcement seems to suggest.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LCD TV shipments slip for FIRST TIME EVER
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/20/lcd_tv_shipments_slip_for_first_time_ever/
TV makers are desperate for the Next Big Thing. It’s not hard to see why: even LCD TV sales are now falling. Year-on-year LCD shipments fell for the first time ever during Q1, market watcher NPD DisplaySearch said today.
It was a small dip – down just three per cent – but symptomatic of an industry in decline. Other technologies have risen and fallen, but LCD shipments have always continued to grow. Until now.
LCD dominates the TV business, accounting for 84.2 per cent of shipments in Q1 2012. CRT – still selling after all these years – was next, with a share of 9.9 per cent, almost double plasma’s 5.8 per cent share.
Plasma is hanging on because of demand for low-cost 2D models among cost-conscious consumers.
The TV market as a whole was down eight per cent year on year to 51m units, DisplaySearch said. Just over 43m of them were LCDs.
Among flat-panel telly makers, Samsung was the only one to increase its share of the market, experiencing year-on-year growth of nine per cent.
Sony and Panasonic saw the biggest declines, their shipments falling 21 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.
Tomi says:
No one watches TV, Nielsen, and you know it
Scraping social media doesn’t work either
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/23/tv_audience_measures/
Even in the modern world where there is more pay TV, there are few, if any, sources of professional video where consumers can know that they will encounter little or no advertising.
Pay TV networks such as Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable in the US – and Sky and Liberty Global in Europe – all carry the advertising which is sold into the channels they carry, and they add a sheen of their own advertising in the VoD, EPG or other portions of their content delivery.
Adverts are not only here to stay, but they are proliferating, and form a bedrock of revenue that prevents consumers from bearing the full financial cost of content creation.
And for as long as TV is watched every day within around 1.5 billion households globally, there will need to be ways of measuring the audience for programmes that are watched – and those which are barely tuned into – in order to put a value on that advertising.
This week, Time Warner Cable (TWC) put out a paper that attempts to make sense of new methods coming to market which try to put a different spin on the way TV audiences are measured.
Right now US networks are all subscribing to multiple audience measurements, and with good reason.
Facebook + new partner = next Nielsen?
Tomi Engdahl says:
1st live, international, satellite TV production shared, June 25, 1967
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/other/4376043/1st-live–international–satellite-TV-production-shared–June-25–1967
On June 25, 1967, the first live, international, satellite television production was shared with an estimated 400 million viewers.
The audience, the largest in television history at the time
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boffins program peripheral visions for ultra TV immersion
Viewers ‘feel’ explosions
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/25/boffins_program_peripheral_vision_for_ultra_tv_immersion/
Scientists have improved the immersive experience of watching telly, with projectors which extend our views into peripheral vision territory.
Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab have put together software which extends the image viewed on our tellies onto extra screens in a suitably blurry fashion to mimic what we see in our peripheral vision.
The system, called Infinity-By-Nine, is essentially Ambilight on steroids, with viewers perceiving the extra imagery as a natural extension of the primary content.
The team said tests revealed that viewers believed they were drawn further into the on-screen story
Tomi Engdahl says:
The OLED TV: Why won’t you die, already?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4375913/The-OLED-TV–Why-won-t-you-die–already–?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+on+Consumer+Electronics
I was admittedly flabbergasted a few months ago when I started hearing rumors about 55″ OLED TVs en route from Samsung and LG Electronics, along with the more recent whispers of an OLED partnership between Panasonic and Sony. After losing tons of money in recent years on LCD- and plasma-based displays (and the panels from which they’re derived), why would these consumer electronics manufacturers be dumping an abundance of additional R&D funding into an embryonic technology that offers limited (if any) benefit over the now-dominant LCD?
Soniera got the opportunity to visually audition the aforementioned LG and Samsung 55″ OLED prototypes at the show.
The Samsung 3D OLED TV with its running demo was very nice but definitely not in the stunning category like the LG 3D OLED TV in my opinion. The running demo was mediocre and that might be the source of the problem. One surprising technical point – the Samsung OLED is using a Low Temperature Poly Silicon LTPS Active Matrix backplane, which is very expensive to manufacture. This first model is designed for showing off their OLED TV technology and almost certainly will be sold at a loss…
His analysis of the LG set was more upbeat
The LG 3D OLED TV with its running demo was absolutely stunning – visually it was the most impressive TV I have ever seen.
The first generation of both the LG and Samsung 55 inch OLED TVs are predicted to cost $8,000 or more – so sales will be limited to early adopters with deep pockets. Like every other new technology the manufacturing costs and retail prices will fall over time. Eventually, the manufacturing costs for OLEDS will be lower than for LCDs because they don’t require backlights and other optical components. But that will take years …
Check out the 55″ LCD and plasma displays at Best Buy’s site, for example and you’ll find prices starting at less than 1/10th of that $8,000 figure. Suffice it to say that at $8,000, I doubt either manufacturer will find many (if any) deep-pocketed early adopters, especially in this tough economic climate.
There are compelling markets for OLED displays
But I flat-out see no credible path by which the OLED is going to make even a minute dent in the computer display and (especially) television markets. Long-repeated promises of coming-soon dramatic cost reductions have repeatedly evaporated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Panasonic chief says no to low-cost OLED TVs
LCD prices? Not for years
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/28/panasonic_chief_says_no_to_cheap_oled_tvs/
Cheap-ish OLED TVs? Don’t make me laugh.
No, Panasonic’s new president, Kazuhiro Tsuga, didn’t use those exact words, but they succinctly summarise comments he made in Japan earlier today.
Asked by reporters when he thinks OLED TVs will become as cheap as today’s LCD televisions, Tsuga said he doesn’t expect that to happen for quite some time.
hopes – that OLED will bring a whole new upgrade cycle and get punters buying pricey tellies again.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Targeted TV Ads: Silver Bullet Or Privacy Nightmare?
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/28/2048217/targeted-tv-ads-silver-bullet-or-privacy-nightmare
“The effectiveness of television, as an advertising medium and as a return on investment (ROI), has been constantly questioned since the arrival of the ‘digital marketing age.”
Targeted TV ads: silver bullet or privacy nightmare?
http://www.patexia.com/feed/targeted-tv-ads-silver-bullet-or-privacy-nightmare-20120627
The effectiveness of television, as an advertising medium and as a return on investment (ROI), has been constantly questioned since the arrival of the “digital marketing age.” Not surprisingly, those who are loudest with this concern are mainly high-tech technology companies that are either strong proponents of online advertising — like Google — and/or device hardware manufacturers — like Apple. These organizations hope to “improve the user experience” by introducing proprietary technologies – usually their own – that can integrate within the existing television environment.
Targeted advertisements have become commonplace on the Internet, but the television advertising model has not changed much in recent years.
Technology companies, while recognizing the importance of scale, are interested in improving the quality of the interaction between advertisers and potential customers, not just the numbers.
NUads will use the Kinect system to observe what’s going on in front of the TV and target ads accordingly.
For example, Microsoft plans to launch a new advertising program called NUads that aims to get viewers to actually participate in advertisements.
NUads not only make advertisements less boring for viewers, they also allow companies to receive real-time feedback on how many people are watching and interacting with the ads. Spots will be 30 seconds long and the first round will have polling capabilities, where the user chooses an answer to a multiple choice question. In Toyota’s campaign, called “Reinvented,” users will be asked what they would like to see reinvented.
While Microsoft’s approach to modernizing television advertising sounds harmless and fun, Intel recently announced a plan that has been met with a considerable amount of backlash. The company has been trying to “unbundle” networks and offer a pick-and-choose option for customers, but cable and satellite providers have been less than willing to comply
As a way to lure media content providers, Intel wants to integrate facial-recognition technology into the box so that it can target advertisements to viewers based on characteristics like age and gender. The company argues that the current Nielsen rating system is ineffective and outdated and aims to offer a better approach.
Regardless of their personal feelings, companies want to create a dialogue — an ongoing feedback loop — between advertisers and customers that has not traditionally existed in the past. This means that technical excellence in the television manufacturing space will move beyond hardware specifications outlining the display capabilities of that system. In the future, televisions will mirror the recent evolution of cell phones. Mobile phones, once simple devices for making telephone calls, now behave more like computers. Television will have a similar fate, but on the way there — much like the current developments in social media and mobile technologies — consumers can vote on such changes by using their wallets to support products that fit their lifestyle while protecting their privacy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony, Panasonic OLED partnership is official, aims for mass production in 2013
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/25/sony-panasonic-oled-partnership-is-official-aims-for-mass-prod/
The rumor that Japanese electronic giants Panasonic and Sony would team up on OLED HDTV technology has been confirmed by a press release, and the two plan to establish mass production in 2013. Together, they’ll be able to utilize the core and printing techniques that each has so far developed separately to roll out HDTV-sized OLED panels.
release notes each company plans to “develop and commercialize its own competitive, high-performance, next-generation OLED televisions and large-sized displays.”
Can this combination help them catch up to Korean counterparts Samsung and LG?
Tomi Engdahl says:
War On Standby: Do the figures actually stack up?
Will you stop turning the TV off at the wall
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/29/energy_saving_trust_report/
The War On Standby rumbles on: this week, courtesy of the UK government and “third sector” quangocracy, we heard yet again that gadgets left on standby suck vast, planet-wrecking, expensive amounts of energy from our electricity sockets.
It’s an idea which has gained a lot of traction over the years.
One of the great achievements of the human race – namely remote control, in particular the ability to walk into a room, flop or sit down, press a button of some sort and cause one’s technology to spring to life without any fiddling about – is apparently too expensive and damaging to be permitted.
Modern tellies use less than a watt of juice on standby – the latest ones less than a tenth of a watt. There are rogue 10W+ set-top boxes etc out there, but you’d need several duff gadgets at least to get up to 47 watts, let alone 81 – and it can’t be the case that the average household contains several such dodgy devices and leaves them on 24/7 when not in use.
The “low” figure of 47 Watts total standby power, we are informed, is calculated by adding up all the different bits of kit’s individual consumption while on standby and averaging across the sampled households.
Getting into detail, the report says that the typical AV site on standby consumes 17.8 watts and the computer site 9.3 Watts: total 27.1 Watts
So we can disregard the 47-watt figure and the lower annual standby consumption estimate from the EST: it was utter bunk to start with, and then was interpreted by the EST in a way which contradicted everything the full study said!
This was noticed by rather more serious power researchers quite a long time ago, but if the EST wanted to give some good advice they would tell us either not to buy cheap lights with power bricks or to turn them off at the wall – as opposed to the inoffensive new telly with its 0.1-watt standby draw.*
And also remember: If you see a news report on energy which cites the Energy Saving Trust or the consultants and contractors who prepared the reports – it’s pretty safe to ignore it.
Tomi says:
Brits upscaling their TV buys
Bedroom or living room, sets are getting bigger
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/30/brits_favouring_bigger_tellies/
British homes may be generally smaller than those of, say, the US or Australia, but the nation’s TV buyers are nonetheless increasingly keen on bigger and bigger tellies.
UK TV sales fall into two broad categories: small and large. It’s not hard to understand why. We buy small sets for bedrooms, bigger ones for the living room.
But within each band, buyers are clearly shifting toward larger physical screen sizes.
Small TVs – those of 25in or less – have accounted for around 38 per cent of television sales from 2007 onwards.
Tomi says:
Ten… monster tellies to suit all budgets
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/07/28/ten_monster_tvs_for_any_budget/
Top Ten kicks off at a modest £480, before reaching a wallet-busting £7,000.
The cheaper end of the market has become a bolt hole for plasmas. Invariably these are 720p panels, but that doesn’t stop them from being terrific bargains for canny buyers.
and these screens are surprisingly bright, thanks to those bigger pixels, and adept at handling motion. Of course, spend more and you will be handsomely rewarded…
Myles Sabbah says:
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Lavinia Muckerman says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Viasat starts 24-hour 3-D broadcasts as it entered into a partnership with High TV 3D -Channel.
According to the company’s High Content of a TV channel has been developed specifically to meet the 3-D format.
It is available via satellite.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/viasatin+3dkanavan+tarjonta+laajenee/a828177?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-13082012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
3-D: Where art thee?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4391153/3-D–Where-art-thee-
Back in mid-May, I noted that the display industry was experiencing an increasingly dire fiscal crisis due to underwhelming demand and plummeting pricing
3-D displays, either glasses-inclusive or glasses-free (i.e. stereoscopy), are another possible savior, which is why I devoted an April 2010 cover story to them. At the January 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, on the heels of the massive success of the movie Avatar, 3-D TVs were hyped like crazy by manufacturers drunk on self-fulfilling prophecies. And in the portable gaming space, Nintendo rolled out the parallax barrier display-based 3DS in early 2011. But neither product category has to date been a notable success.
As a recent Slashdot topic showcase entitled “Has the 3-D Hype Bubble Finally Popped?”, and referencing a write-up in Time Magazine, notes:
Revenue from 3-D films is also dropping, and while 3-D television sales are rising, only 14 percent of potential buyers think 3-D is a ‘must have’ feature.
There are seven types of display decoder technologies that deliver stereographic 3-D
it’s quite a reach for manufacturers to expect you to lock into a proprietary implementation. Even if the underlying technology is generic, such as passive polarization or active shutter, plenty of implementation customization opportunities exist to ensure that a set of glasses designed for one display won’t be usable on another one, either from a different supplier or even the same manufacturer.
Glasses-free stereoscopic display technology remains immature, even in small-dimension implementations such as the Nintendo 3DS, far from large-screen alternatives.
Computer animation-derived film material (such as recent Pixar films) is inherently more 3-D rendering-friendly than camera-captured content, and such titles have done comparatively well on average. Similarly, gaming content is inherently 3-D capable