MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.
Analysts and veterans of the International CES expect to see plenty of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions, new smartwatch uses, and a large section of the show floor dedicated to robotics. 2015 will be the first year CES gets behind 4K in a big way, as lower price points make the technology more attractive to consumers. Samsung, Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba will be big players in the 4K arena. OEMs must solve the problem of intelligence and connectivity before 4K will really take off. CES attendees may also see 4K TVs optimized for certain tasks, along with a variety of sizes. There will be 10-inch and 14-inch and 17-inch UHD displays.
4K is not enough anymore? 8K – finally come true? Korean giant LG has promised to introduce ehdan 8K TV at CES 2015 exhibition in January. 8K means a total of 33.2 million pixels, or 7680 x 4320 resolution. 4K video material fate is still uncertain, 8K video can not with certainty not available for a long time.
Sound bars will be a big issue at shows. One problem with new TVs — the thinner they are, the harder it is to get sound out.
Open file formats Matroska Video (MKV) and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) gets more widely used as Windows 10 To Feature Native Support For MKV and FLAC.
Watching shows online is more common now. More people are watching videos on smaller screens. You can use a tablet as personal TV. Phablets and portable televisions have taken off in China, Japan, and Korea, where many people watch videos during long commutes. Tablets now have become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that you can buy them for a specific application. Much of the innovation will be in software, rather than hardware — tuning the tablets to boot up like a television instead of an Android tablet
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. It seems inevitable that smartphones and tablets will replace the television in terms of time spent. Many metrics firms, including Nielsen, report on the rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps. Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets.
Qualcomm will push this year broadcast LTE. That will be picked up more and more by some vendors in tablets, so they can have broadcast TV signals, but it doesn’t have to be generic LTE.
There will be lots of talking on traditional TV vs new streaming services, especially on who gets which program material and at what price. While it’s possible to create a TV platform that doesn’t deal with live channels, smart TVs and game consoles alike generally try to integrate the content as best they can.
Netflix’s new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable to get its app included on set-top boxes of cable, fiber and satellite TV operators. Roughly 90 million U.S. households subscribe to cable or other forms of pay TV, and more than 73 million subscribe to the biggest five operators alone. That’s why Netflix has been working hard to team up with one of these major operators.
Google intends to integrate content best it can. Google Publishes ‘Live Channels For Android TV’ App Into The Play Store. G The “Live Channels for Android TV” app is unsurprisingly incompatible with phones and tablets, maybe because for some reason those markets are intentionally artificially tried to be kept separate.
Virtual reality video is trying to get to spotlight. Samsung’s new Milk VR to round up 360-degree videos for Gear VR article tells that Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality. Milk VR service will provide free 360-degree videos to anyone using a Gear VR virtual-reality headset (uses Galaxy Note 4). Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement as the company is looking at virtual reality as a potential growth engine at a time when one of its key traditional revenue sources — smartphones — has slowed down. The videos will also serve as a model for future filmmakers or artists looking to take advantage of the virtual-reality medium, as well as build up an ecosystem and viewership for VR content.
Although digital video is increasing in popularity, analog video remains in use in many applications.
1,154 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Electronics says new smart TVs in 2015 to run Tizen platform
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/01/us-samsung-software-idUSKBN0KA1B820150101
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday that all its new smart television products launched in 2015 will be powered by the Tizen operating system, marking a fresh effort by the company to increase the usage of the software platform.
Samsung demonstrated TV sets powered by Tizen at developer conferences last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Vincent / The Verge:
New tax rules for digital goods take effect in Europe, affecting apps, ebooks, music downloads, more
Apps, ebooks, and album downloads are about to get more expensive in Europe
New legislation is making internet companies fork out more tax, and consumers will likely pay the price
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/23/7433281/eu-vat-changes-digital-goods-europe
Sweeping changes to EU tax law could see the price of apps, ebooks, and MP3s raised throughout Europe by an average of 6.5 percent. The new legislation — known as Directive 2008/8/EC — comes into force on January 1st and is intended to shut down a tax loophole being used by big firms to charge less VAT (value added tax) on digital goods. Although not many individuals will be happy about the prospect of paying more for their games and movies, proponents of the bill say it will level the playing field between small and large companies and create a fairer market. Critics reply that the compliance costs will ruin small businesses.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Parametric Spherical Speakers Are Not A Moon
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/01/parametric-spherical-speakers-are-not-a-moon/
A good speaker enclosure is not just about building a box out of plywood and covering it with carpet
for a good speaker enclosure you need the right internal volume, the right size bass port, the right speaker, and it should definitely, certainly, not be a moon. [Rich] figured out he could do all of this with a 3D printer, resulting in the NOMOON: The NOMOON Orbital Music-Making Opensource, Openscad-generated Nihilator.
The NOMOON is available on the Thingiverse Customizer with variables for the internal diameter, the volume of the enclosure in liters, wall thickness, speaker hole, bass port, and wire holes. Of course a customized design is also possible with a stock OpenSCAD installation.
Project NOMOON – A Parametric Spherical Speaker Generator
http://nothinglabs.blogspot.fi/2014/12/project-nomoon-parametric-spherical.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Netflix hasn’t killed pay TV in Europe
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102294053
For the past two years, people have been declaring the death of traditional pay TV at the hands of digital download companies such as Netflix. But in spite of exclusively showing smash hits such as “House of Cards,” that moment has not yet arrived in the U.S. So what about Europe?
Netflix has continued to push aggressively into Europe in 2014 in its bid to beat pay TV giants such as Sky and Liberty Global, but analysts aren’t convinced that without a attractive “bundle” of broadband, TV and phone, this is unlikely to happen any time soon.
“I think there was hype in there about Netflix’s ability to destroy pay TV,” Richard Broughton, head of broadband media at IHS, told CNBC by phone.
“Available to watch on Netflix are increasingly exclusive titles that you can’t watch anywhere else. … We’re complementary to other services, not a replacement,” a spokesperson told CNBC by email.
“Just as traditional channels, we compete and differentiate through our content, offering titles people want to watch and offering those only on Netflix.”
“Netflix has a few high-profile titles that it bases its whole offer and promotions around. The depth in catalog in terms of recent content is relatively light. If you want those top TV shows you need the pay TV operators,” Broughton said.
And while Netflix has marched into Europe, pay TV operators have fought back trying to solidify their bundle packages of broadband, TV and phone offerings.
An increasing number of operators such as Sky and Virgin Media in the U.K. are offering packages to hook consumers into their ecosystem, making it difficult for Netflix to break their hold.
“You have definitely seen pay TV operators change their business models so (they) are not just delivering content,”
Netflix is not alone in the Internet TV space with services such as Hulu and Amazon’s own platform providing a challenge.
And traditional pay TV operators have also been jumping to the on-demand streaming bandwagon.
In the face of tough competition, Netflix has one solution—scale.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES: 55″ TV Thin as iPad Air
LG showing world’s thinnest panels
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325144&
At CES the world’s thinnest liquid crystal display (LCD) panel — as thin as an Apple iPad Air — will be shown by LG Display (Seoul, Korea). The display panel–just 7.5 millimeters thin — also features a tiny bezel just a few millimeters wide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
New details about Twitter’s upcoming native video tool: videos up to 10 minutes long, Twitter to host and provide videos stats, more
Details Unveiled For Twitter’s Native Video Player To Rival YouTube
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/02/details-unveiled-for-twitters-native-video-player-to-rival-youtube/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Digital music sales dropped 9% in 2014 while streaming surged 54%
http://mediagazer.com/#a150103p1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Netflix Cracks Down on VPN and Proxy “Pirates” — Due to complicated licensing agreements Netflix is only available in a few dozen countries, all of which have a different content library. — Some people bypass these content and access restrictions by using VPNs or other circumvention tools that change their geographical location.
Netflix Cracks Down on VPN and Proxy “Pirates”
on January 3, 2015
http://torrentfreak.com/netflix-cracks-down-on-vpn-and-proxy-pirates-150103/
Netflix is starting to block subscribers who access its service using VPN services and other tools that bypass geolocation restrictions. The changes, which may also affect legitimate users, have been requested by the movie studios who want full control over what people can see in their respective countries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mitchel Broussard / MacRumors:
Nielsen: song streaming in the US up 54% to 164B in 2014, song downloads down 12% to 1.26B, album downloads down 9% to 106.5M
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/02/us-music-streaming-2014/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Launched in March 2014, Vice News is one of the fastest growing news channels on YouTube with more than a million subscribers to date. It’s easy to see the growing appeal of online video, for advertisers at least. Three-quarters of adults watch an average of 115 hours of TV news a year compared with just 27 hours a year among 16- to 24-year-olds, according to the latest Ofcom research.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/01/virtues-of-vice-magazine-transformed-into-global-giant
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intelligent technology is slowly starting to be seen and heard more strongly in audio solutions. This is a good example of giving StreamZilla Android-based smart headphone, which will open the user the possibility to enjoy music more freely and even better sound quality.
StreamZilla with Wi-Fi access and aptX support
Headphones are rushing inside the 1.6-gigahertsinen Quad Core processor, with 96 kHz / 24-bit DAC
Currently, support is provided, inter alia, Pandora and Spotify.
Source: http://www.hifimaailma.fi/uutiset/astetta-alykkaammat-kuulokkeet/
STREAMZ are set to ship March 2015
http://www.streamzmedia.com/p-7-streamz.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Commissioner calls for the removal of country limits on Web services: “I should be able to watch football”
Andrus Ansip told the European Parliament on his speech that he would like to watch Estonian football is also working in Brussels
The European digital economy, European Commissioner and former Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, sacrificing, digital content distribution limited by the internal boundaries. Ansip has been talking about for some time now and the beginning of December at the speech it became clear also one of the reasons why country limitations piss off commissioners.
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/bisnes/122034
‘I don’t NEED to pay’ to watch football, thunders EU digi-czar
Bad news on the way for Sky Sports et al
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/09/ansips_love_of_football_drives_copyright_overhaul/
Europe’s new digital chief’s passion for ending geo-blocking has been explained: he’s missing out on his beloved Estonian football.
The European Commission’s VP for the digital economy and former Estonian prime minister, Andrus Ansip, has reiterated his determination to end so-called geo-blocking in every speech he has made since taking up the job last month.
His Tuesday statement to the European Parliament was no exception – but he went further, revealing that he’s fed up of not being able to watch Estonian football in Brussels.
“I don’t want to steal, but being realistic, everyone knows that I don’t need to pay. There are technological ways to watch without paying, and then creators don’t get any of my money,” he added, showing that he is at least familiar with VPN tunnelling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Roku to stream 4K Ultra HD Netflix on future models
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/4/7489449/roku-netflix-4k-streaming-ultra-hd-ces-2015
CES is a prime occasion for all parts of the TV industry to promote the slow but inevitable march to 4K becoming widely adopted, from TV manufacturers to content providers. This year, Roku is among the companies making 4K a priority — the company has just announced that it plans to support 4K Ultra HD streaming in future models.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MHL shows off new SuperMHL standard to let you share mobile videos to 8K TVs
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/06/mhl-shows-off-super-mhl-to-let-you-share-mobile-videos-to-8k-tvs/
The MHL Consortium is announcing a new SuperMHL standard today that will make it easier for people to transfer and view video on 8K displays.
SuperMHL is a new cable, akin to its rivals HDMI or DisplayPort, that can transfer data at high speeds and power a mobile device connected to it at the same time. You can plug a normal MHL cable into a smartphone, laptop, set-top box, streaming-media stick, or Blu-ray player at one end. And then you can plug the other end into a television or display with a resolution of 8K, which is the favored technology for the next generation of displays. The SuperMHL specification is a big deal for the infrastructure of future TVs, but it requires some explanation first.
“Rather than doing MHL 4, we decided that the brand new spec and new features deserved its own branding as Super MHL,”
The new UltraHD 4K TVs have four times as many pixels, with a resolution of 3840 x 2160. And the upcoming 8K TVs have a resolution around 7680 x 4320.
Samsung, for instance, is demoing the first 8K TV with built-in SuperMHL connectivity at the 2015 International CES, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.
SuperMHL can charge devices at a faster rate. The SuperMHL cable can supply up to 40 watts of power while charging, much more than current MHL products. The cable is also reversible, making it easy to plug into SuperMHL devices. And it can run in an audio-only mode if desired. The SuperMHL 32-pin connector is different from the original MHL connector. You can run six lanes of MHL channels over the SuperMHL cable at the same time.
SuperMHL can support other quality features, such as a wider color gamut and deep color support up to 48 bits. You can also display video on multiple MHL displays at the same time. At a minimum, SuperMHL enables you to view video at 4K or 8K resolutions.
The SuperMHL spec will be available for download at the end of January. The SuperMHL connector is slightly thinner than an HDMI connector
Supported source connectors include micro-USB, USB Type-C, and proprietary connectors. It will likely take years for a full transition to SuperMHL to happen, Tobias acknowledged. But he believes that the switch from 4K to 8K TV will happen relatively quickly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google drops Google TV, ports some devices to Android TV
http://www.slashgear.com/google-drops-google-tv-ports-some-devices-to-android-tv-06362807/
Google TV was always kind of there, but never really any good. After suffering with clumsy, expensive set top boxes and an almost total lack of support, Google has finally taken it off life support. Google promises that existing apps and services created for Google TV will live on, as will all Google TV hardware and software, but Developer tools have been pulled. Google is even porting devices as they can, saying “a small subset of Google TV devices will be updated to Android TV.”
The Android TV/Google TV team is now focussing all their energy on Android TV and the Google Cast platform which powers the Chromecast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Will Soon Support 360-Degree Video Uploads
http://gizmodo.com/youtube-will-soon-support-360-degree-video-uploads-1677627074
Look out YouTube fans: soon, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in videos that go all the way around. Google has just confirmed to Gizmodo that it will be adding native support for 360-degree videos to its streaming video service.
That means you should eventually, theoretically be able to take all the crazy footage you’re capturing with new cameras like the Ricoh Theta, Kodak SP360, Giroptic 360cam, VSN V.360, Bublcam, and more, and share those moments with your friends through YouTube. Assuming YouTube figures out a way to take the results from those rather differently shaped cameras and make them work. From what we hear, that’s the goal.
We don’t have any details from Google yet, only a statement from a YouTube spokesperson that provides a vague timeframe for when we might see the feature roll out
“we’re working to support 360 degree videos in the coming weeks.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s Walkman is Back, For a Whopping $1,200
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ces-2015/sonys-walkman-back-whopping-1-200-n280806
Sony said Monday it would launch a revived version of its popular-decades-ago Walkman franchise, this time with an ear toward appealing to high-end audiophiles. The device—called the Walkman ZX2, was announced at CES this week.
it’s designed to use a variety of different music file formats, including DSD, WAV, AIFF and FLAC.
For on-the-move music lovers who value the difference
http://presscentre.sony.eu/pressreleases/for-on-the-move-music-lovers-who-value-the-difference-1103184
Sony’s legendary Walkman® family gains a new flagship that’s specially made for serious music lovers. The High-Resolution Walkman® NW-ZX2 puts the exquisite musical refinement of Hi-Res Audio right in your pocket – taking you beyond CD quality for an unparalleled listening experience while you’re out and about.
Converting analogue sound to digital formats like CD and MP3 can compromise the purity of the original signal. Hi-Res Audio retains far more detail during the analogue-to-digital conversion process, for a more authentic, emotionally involving musical experience.
Serious music lovers will appreciate a generous 128GB of internal storage – plenty of space for your Hi-Res collection.
Dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) Wi-Fi compatibility lets you enjoy Hi-Res music stored on your DLNA home networ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Android TV sets from Philips, Sharp and Sony are coming this spring — Google’s years-long effort to get a foothold in the living room is finally paying off. The search pioneer has announced that TVs from Sharp, Sony and TP Vision (aka Philips) will all run Android TV when they arrive this spring.
Android TV sets from Philips, Sharp and Sony are coming this spring
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/06/android-tv-at-ces-2015/
Google’s years-long effort to get a foothold in the living room is finally paying off. The search pioneer has announced that TVs from Sharp, Sony and TP Vision (aka Philips) will all run Android TV when they arrive this spring. Both Sharp and Sony will have multiple 4K models using the internet-savvy software, and every single Philips set will ship with Google’s technology on board. You can also expect to see the operating system on Razer’s Forge TV game console this February, and Huawei is building an Android TV media player that arrives later this year.
The folks in Mountain View aren’t about to declare victory. Major brands like LG, Panasonic and Samsung have all conspicuously shied away from Android TV in favor of other platforms,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android Candy: Disney Everywhere, Even Android!
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/android-candy-disney-everywhere-even-android
Recently, however, Disney did a really cool thing and released an Android app that allows you to stream any movie you have purchased from the Google Play store, iTunes store or from a department store (assuming the store copy came with that seemingly gimmicky digital version).
If you install the app and connect it to your Google Play account, you’ll get a free copy of Wreck it Ralph, even if you haven’t purchased any movies in the past.
Don’t get me wrong, the movies still are completely crippled with DRM, but at least they are accessible from a multitude of devices. It’s the first time the “digital version” of the movies hasn’t been a joke—at least in my world.
To create your Disney account, head over to http://disneymoviesanywhere.com.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It seems that HDTV resolution and HD-SDI interface if being used also in CCTV applications:
HD-SDI/HDcctv Solutions
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/intersil/hd-sdihdcctv-solutions
Joe Hanson, Product Marketing Manager – Security Products, introduces Intersil’s HD-SDI receiver and transmitter devices. The TW6872 transmitter and TW6874 receiver.
A transmitter device that supports the three HD-SDI data rates of 270 Mbits, 1.5 Gbits and 3 Gbits per second.
receiver with adaptive equalizer, VC-2 Decoder and Audio
We have input a dirac compression capability that would compress the HD video down to 270Mbits per second . With that, we were able to double the distance of traditional HD-SDI transmission.
TW6874
Quad Triple-Rate (SD/HD/3G) SDI Receiver with Adaptive Equalizer, VC-2 Decoder and Audio CODEC
http://go.intersil.com/hd-sdi-video-solution-tw6872-4.html?utm_source=EEWeb&utm_medium=TechCommunity&utm_term=2014&utm_content=Content&utm_campaign=Intersil
Tomi Engdahl says:
Would You Wear These Virtual Reality Glasses on a Plane? (Exclusive)
http://recode.net/2015/01/04/hey-frequent-flyers-avegant-wants-you-to-watch-movies-on-this-thing-exclusive/
One of the lingering (and somewhat compelling) arguments against the latest wave of virtual reality headsets is style: As Valleywag’s Dan Lyons put it earlier this week, “Nobody wants to sit around for hours with those big fucking goggles strapped to their head.”
Avegant, a startup originally out of Michigan but recently relocated to Redwood City, Calif., is trying to create a video and virtual reality headset that can compete for style points with Beats’ stylish headphones.
“If it’s headphones, it has to be cool,” Avegant CTO Allan Evans said in an interview. “To be cool, it can’t look like I’m wearing a pope hat.”
“People love movies,” Evans said. “Where does that experience suck? Anytime you’re watching on your phone or tablet.”
Like other head-mounted displays — such as the Samsung Gear VR or upcoming Oculus Rift — Avegant’s Glyph sticks the screen directly in front of your eyes. However, the company claims its technology is less likely to cause eye fatigue
The other big difference is content: Although the Glyph has the head-tracking sensors to let users play 3-D virtual reality games (in a demo, I tried Sega’s Alien: Isolation and an unofficial VR version of Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts), Avegant is initially targeting the plane-bound traveler with nothing but time on her or his hands. The company says its HDMI port, with the right cables, will be able to take in and display content from phones, tablets, computers and game consoles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Media:
Facebook says video posts per person have increased 75% globally, 94% in US since last year
http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart TVs become next front in OS battle few asked for
http://www.zdnet.com/article/smart-tvs-become-next-front-in-os-battle-few-asked-for/
Summary:An explosion of operating system choices has appeared at CES 2015 — a shame that it is in an area where agility does not occur, and stability is key.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
David Cross’ new movie will be the first distributed in a pay-what-you-want BitTorrent Bundle
David Cross’ new movie will be the first feature film distributed in a BitTorrent Bundle
A Kickstarter hopes to bring the movie to theaters with pay-what-you-want tickets
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/7/7508239/david-cross-movie-hits-bittorrent-bundle-kickstarter-pay-what-you-want
David Cross brought his first feature film to Sundance last year, but rather than selling it to a distributor and having them release it, he’s decided to bring it straight to fans in two different ways. First, he’s going to sell the movie, a comedy called Hits, as a BitTorrent Bundle. This is the first feature film distributed over a Bundle (certainly not over BitTorrent itself…), and it’s going to be the first Bundle to use a pay-what-you-want model as well.
“Cross wasn’t satisfied with what movie distributors were offering”
Bundles are BitTorrent’s way of legitimizing the network it created, allowing artists to take advantage of the way it limits costs for distribution by spreading files out across a large group, while also making people pay for the content that they’re downloading. It doesn’t always make sense — if a seller can afford to distribute their file through a direct download, that’s going to be a much easier experience for most viewers — but it’s not totally illogical. In an instance like this, where Cross wants to do pay-what-you-want, he isn’t going to be losing money on bandwidth costs for every viewer who doesn’t pay. The Bundle for Hits is going to go on sale February 13th.
Even though he’s distributing the film online first, Cross still wants to see his film enter theaters. To that end, he’s launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund yet another distribution experiment: he wants to do pay-what-you-want sales for movie tickets. He’s looking to raise $100,000 so that Hits can make it into at least 50 markets. The money will go toward theater rentals and marketing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek Wins Sony as Best Friend, Guns for High End
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325213&
Hsieh used the occasion to disclose two things: introducing Japan’s Sony as MediaTek’s “most important friend,” whose partnership led to the development of the world’s first Android TV, and MediaTek’s unequivocal share in the global TV SoC market. He said that three out of five TVs in the world today are powered by MediaTek’s TV chips.
MediaTek and Sony struck a partnership deal in 2013, along with Google, to develop Android TV. Although MediaTek has been allied with Sony since 2009, this agreement was particularly important because the deal focuses on Sony’s high-end TV products. Hsieh explained, “MediaTek needed a great partner,” and this helped MediaTek boost its confidence. Previously, when Sony dabbled with Google TV, it was Intel who supplied TV SoCs to Sony.
Onstage, Sony’s Imamura related Sony’s high expectations for TV SoCs. “Sony’s Bravia TVs would need very high picture and sound quality, great design form factor, and ease of use for operation.” He added that by 2013, despite widespread doubts in the industry, “I already decided that 4K was going to be Sony’s future.”
To pull that off, Sony wanted a chip company with solutions to enhance color gamma and advance an engine for 2K-to-4K up-conversion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K off, Google Fiber: Comcast, Broadcom tout 2Gbps cable
Assuming streaming sites can keep up
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/07/4k_video_this_year_over_your_existing_connection/
By this time next year, we should be able to stream 4K video over home cable internet connections. That’s according to Comcast, which has promised a gigabit-broadband service using a modem designed by Broadcom.
The BCM93390 modem includes “the world’s first DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem system-on-a-chip,” referring to the new standard formally approved in October 2013 and which passed interoperability tests last month.
Comcast will offer the modem to its customers sometime in 2015
Tomi Engdahl says:
Television Businesses
Unbundling Cable TV: Be Careful What You Wish For
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/15/01/07/1814246/unbundling-cable-tv-be-careful-what-you-wish-for
Consumers have long complained about the practice of “bundling” cable services and forcing customers to pay for channels they don’t want — and an increasing number of “cord cutters” are voting with their wallets. But an article in the New York Times suggests that if cable companies are finally forced to unbundle their services it may actually result in higher prices and worse service.
What Rising Airline Fees Tell Us About the Cable Industry
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/upshot/what-rising-airline-fees-tell-us-about-the-cable-industry.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1
The day when people are no longer forced to pay for dozens of cable channels they never watch seems to be coming nearer. But subscribers may want to be careful what they wish for.
On Monday, the Dish Network unveiled a new web streaming service with a handful of cable channels, including ESPN. It is the latest move toward a world in which people assemble a bundle of TV programming options piece by piece (a little Netflix here, HBO’s new streaming service there, Dish’s new Sling TV for some sports) rather than send a monthly check to their cable company for dozens upon dozens of channels packaged together.
Eventually, cable companies may have little choice but to unbundle themselves, whether because of the competitive threat from various stand-alone streaming services or regulatory pressure.
But there’s another, more subjective dimension in which the rise of unbundled cable service may make us worse off. It’s possible for a market to become more economically efficient while becoming less pleasant for consumers. For a prime example, head to your nearest airport.
As fliers have learned all too well in the last decade, air flight has become unbundled.
In effect, the airline industry has unbundled, so that you pay only for what you want.
The rise of airlines like Spirit (where you even must pay to put a bag in the overhead bin) and Ryanair in Europe (a fee just to check in at the airport instead of at home) suggests the de-bundling trend isn’t changing anytime soon,
Any of those changes to debundle air travel, in isolation, gives consumers greater control over their flying experience and greater power to pay only for the things they care about.
But the combined effect of all these supplemental charges is to make air travel a grinding process in which a customer feels constantly assailed by upcharges and decisions that may not be stressful in isolation but make the experience unpleasant.
Consider: Consumers’ overall satisfaction with the airline industry is down 4.2 percent since 1994, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a period in which much of this unbundling has occurred.
What does any of this have to do with the unbundling of cable?
But for many more people, the result will probably be little or no reduction in total fees, combined with the hassle of making constant decisions about what channels you really want and which you don’t.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4G base station accused in vain of TV interference in Finland
TV Picture disorders anguish of thousands of Finns have at times overloaded telecom operators and Digita common frequency service telephone lines. Often faults cause was the rapid 4g mobile phone base stations that are fast rate built in different parts of Finnish.
“It seems to me that, whether the TV antenna system what the problem may be, it is accused of 4g masts,”
4g networks in the area is home to some 2.5 million households.
“Over the past year, only about 0.27 per cent of these have occurred in disorder cases that have been caused by a 4g network expansion work. In addition, the interference is only for those households with a radio antenna amplifier”, Niiranen says.
0.27 percent means 6 750 households.
“The problem is certainly more to the fore when the 4g network is being built in a sparsely populated area. There is a drastic antennas amplifiers, because the houses are located in the TV station’s viewing area peripheral countries,”
If the reason for it would have been a 4g network, the antenna should be mounted about 60 euro price filter. The problem arises when a strong 4G signal is emitted from an antenna amplifier, which is set to receive a weak TV signal. If 4g network interferes with the TV broadcast, it appears either in the image-blocking or transmission breakage completely. The fault may relate to all channels or only a part of the channels. Fast 4G network will be built in the 790-862 megahertz (MHz) frequency range. The television broadcasts on several frequencies, with a maximum of 790 MHz..The problems usually begin abruptly, when the base station is introduced.
Source: http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1420610207503
soccer training drills for u6 says:
Fantastic site. Lots of useful information here.
I’m sending it to several pals ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And of course, thanks on your effort!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get your special ‘sound-optimising’ storage here, hipsters
If you believe that, you’ll believe anything….
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/08/no_storage_medium_does_not_affect_sound/
Is it April already? I really cannot tell from this post, which poses the question: “Is it really possible that the sound quality of bit-identical audio files is influenced by their storage medium before being delivered to the hi-fi system’s DAC?”*
Well, if this is the sort music experts are spreading around, then I am going to kickstart a new product: AudioNAS – which sounds expensive because it is…
Look, believe what you want to believe, but if the storage system impacts on the sound of the files being stored there, there are horrible implications… because it means it is changing the data and, reader, that would be bad.
Listening To Storage
Listening tests reveal significant sound quality differences between various digital music storage technologies.
Article By Andrew Harrison and Stephen N. Harris
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Acoustic levitation just got better
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/07/non-aligned-acoustic-levitation-device
For decades, many a magician has tricked audiences with the apparent ability to make objects levitate. What’s lesser known is that researchers worldwide are actually using science to make things hover mid-air, and they’ve got some practical applications in mind for these gravity-defying stunts.
Back in 2012, in order to aid developments in drugs, scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory used sound waves to levitate single solution droplets containing different pharmaceuticals.
This upgraded version will allow researchers to break both the alignment of the transducer and reflector, and the need to keep a fixed distance between the two — all without the standing wave collapsing. This new methodology also means that the researchers can move the reflector around, and control the movements of whatever object they are levitating.
Tomi Engdahl says:
John Herrman / The Awl:
Facebook’s latest post on video growth shows intent to demote publishers to producers, with uncertain benefits
Territory Annexed
http://www.theawl.com/2015/01/everything-ends
Here is an update from Facebook about what “the shift to video”—that is, the sudden prevalence of auto-playing clips posted directly to the site—means to “creators.” (These updates are the closest thing to direct guidance from Facebook that many media companies, large and small, have ever received).
It is a straightforward post about how to get your videos noticed, and shared, on Facebook. One thing to keep in mind, for example, is that your video will probably be viewed primarily on phones, where it will play automatically but without sound.
“What the Shift to Video Means,” then, is that one major type of media is being pulled in-house by Facebook; it means that Facebook is not satisfied merely facilitating the spread of other publishers’ products. It’s not that such an arrangement is unprofitable—Facebook has made a great deal of money selling ads against links to media originally published elsewhere—it’s that the new vision, in which Facebook is not just theoretically but practically constitutes the entire internet, is potentially more profitable. Publishers, in Facebook’s view, are middlemen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sean Hollister / Gizmodo:
Oculus demos 3D positional audio with its latest Rift prototype at CES — Oculus Brings 3D Audio To Virtual Reality, And It Sounds Great
Oculus Brings 3D Audio To Virtual Reality, And It Sounds Great
http://ces.gizmodo.com/oculus-brings-3d-audio-to-virtual-reality-and-it-sound-1677845602
Sorry folks, there’s no new version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset at this year’s CES, and no word on when the fabled consumer version might appear. So why am I writing this post? The company has added 3D positional audio to its already mindblowing Crescent Bay demo, and it’s even better than before.
You’ve probably already surmised that the Crescent Bay just has a pair of stereo headphones attached, not a fancy surround sound system. What you might not know is that Oculus licensed a technology called RealSpace3D Audio from VisiSonics last year. Here at CES is the first time the company’s showing off the fruits of that deal, and I gave it a go.
Famed game and VR programmer John Carmack had been teasing for a while that positional audio would be a “force multiplier” for the feeling of presence you get from really good virtual reality, helping make the illusion of being someplace else that much stronger. Having tried it, I think I can see what he meant!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Re/code:
Twitter’s native video product launching within weeks, may have 20-second time limit — Twitter’s New Video Feature Is Only a Few Weeks Away — Twitter is planning to unveil its new video product in the next few weeks, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
Twitter’s New Video Feature Is Only a Few Weeks Away
http://recode.net/2015/01/08/twitters-new-video-feature-is-only-a-few-weeks-away/
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Vincent / The Verge:
HTC’s action camera can now stream live footage to YouTube
HTC’s action camera can now stream live footage to YouTube
The HTC Re goes one better than GoPro
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/8/7507271/htc-re-camera-youtube-live-streaming-goPro
HTC is making its periscope-shaped Re camera a whole lot more functional with a software update that lets users live stream footage via YouTube. The camera’s Android app will receive the update on January 9th, with iOS users having to wait until some time in the first quarter. Owners of the $199 Re will then be able to sign in to YouTube via the camera’s app and share links to private or public steams through the usual means — social networks, texts, or email.
Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that the Re can be used as a remote camera (it needs to be connected to a smartphone to transmit the footage), but it gives the device a real advantage in the casual end of the action camera market.
ergonomic design and capacity for “run-and-gun” filming — something that becomes even more effective with integrated live streaming.
Although the Re’s main competitor, the GoPro, can also live stream footage, the process isn’t as simple or as cheap. The easiest way is to send footage to third-party site Livestream.com using its iOS-only app, and even then, only the newer, more expensive GoPro models have the requisite Wi-Fi capability. (Older cameras have to be converted with a $79.99 adaptor.)
And at the cheaper end of the action camera market, devices like the $99 Polaroid Cube don’t offer live streaming at all.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Got a 4King big TV? Ready to stream lots of awesome video? Yeah, about that…
Where’s the bandwidth?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/09/4k_internet_stream/
While electronics giants are showing off their internet-connected 4K TVs, most people still do not have the web bandwidth to stream stuff in ultra high-def.
That’s the conclusion reached by the latest quarterly report [PDF] from internet backbone-manipulation outfit Akamai, which shows that only about 12 per cent of netizens have connections that would be able to reliably stream 4K video.
Akamai polled data gathered from its content-distribution network to put together an estimate of where on the globe service providers delivered speeds faster than 15Mbps – the bandwidth estimated for decent 4K streaming content, we’re told. Netflix and Amazon, for example, expect to stream 4K stuff between 10 and 16Mbps using HEVC compression.
The thrust of the Akamai study is that most consumers around the world can’t access enough bandwidth to stream 4K video.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2015: The good, the mad and the pointless
Coming to a living room near you – yikes!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/08/breaking_fad_ces_2015/
OS wars – to sofa the slings and arrows…
One of the interesting things about some of the TV announcements at CES has been the prominence given to the operating system. Opera has been banging on about its platform and app store for televisions recently. Roku has teamed up with some small players to build sets around their platform, and now others are making a fuss about the operating system, following LG’s leap into the fray with WebOS.
Now there are Samsung sets that are running Tizen, and Panasonic ones with Firefox OS, while Philips, Sony and Sharp are all going with Android.
To be fair, Google’s been trying to get something that works into the living room for a few years now; perhaps 2015 will turn out to be the year of both desktop Linux and a successful Google TV.
This may well be the year that 4K TV sets start to appear at slightly less than ridiculous prices
none of the sets unveiled at CES will be lacking an HDMI 2 port, which is at least a start.
the standards for broadcasting with UHD are still far from set. Some sets still lack actual HEVC decoders, and it’s not clear just how much 4K content there really will be.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux also captured TVs
Las Vegas consumer electronics CES was seen, of course, a whole bunch of new televisions. The surfaces are curved, precision growing all the time, but one trend is clear: the various linux-based operating systems have taken over the TV.
TV manufacturers are not just talking about Linux, but the trend is clear. Philips, Sharp, and Sony Vegas told the new models are based on Android. To be precise, it is AndroidTV to, which is bigger screens for an optimized version of Android 5.0 to that lollipop.
Samsung is trying to install Tizen to TV sets.
Panasonic, in turn, will bring the LIFE + Series 4K TVs inside the Firefox OS’s living rooms.
According to analysts, smart TVs market is still in a preliminary stage and is not yet possible to say which operating system you ultimately proves to be the best. It is clear, however, that this is one of the linux-based operating system.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2265:linux-valtasi-myos-televisiot&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sound Bar Reference Design Kit
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/cirrus_logic/sound-bar-reference-design-kit
The CRD-SB30Wx2 is a 30 W x 2-channel soundbar with 2 Vrms subwoofer line out offering Cirrus Framework applications library in ROM, and an additional certified Cirrus Framework applications available for download. It is based from the CS48520, thus DSP capable of supporting both 3rd party algorithms and standard processing.
The CRD-SB30Wx2 Sound Bar Reference Design/Turn-Key Manufacturing Kit includes all necessary design files (hardware, software, firmware, documentation) to enable from the beginner speaker driver/enclosure manufacturer who has almost no electronics design experience to be able to customize and manufacture a complete state-of-the-art 30W x 2 Channel Sound Bar in the shortest time to market window ever before possible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Holiday tech debugging
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4438276/Holiday-tech-debugging?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20150108&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20150108&elq=f4d013f075b94bb5882ada712c02187b&elqCampaignId=21069
“The truth is, I’m the luckiest person in the world today” (and like John, I hope you are too). But my usual litany of ongoing tech hassles has reached something of a baffling crescendo in recent weeks, and I therefore feel compelled to put cyber-pen to cyber-paper and share.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES Snapshot: ZTE’s Smart Projector Gets Brighter, Better Battery Life
http://recode.net/2015/01/07/ces-snapshot-ztes-smart-projector-gets-brighter-better-battery-life/
ZTE grabbed a lot of attention at CES last year when it debuted the Spro, an Android-based portable projector that doubles as a mobile hotspot.
It’s a hybrid product that combines the capabilities of a mobile hotspot, projector and Android device. It is designed for mobile professionals and even families who want to use it as an entertainment device (think movie nights in the backyard). ZTE said it got a lot of feedback from its customers after the first one, and the Spro 2 incorporates many of their requests.
For example, the projector’s brightness is now doubled from 100 lumens to 200 lumens and includes an auto focusing and auto keystoning feature
The Spro 2 is still running a customized version of Android 4.4.2, but ZTE has simplified the user interface
One other change worth noting is that the Spro 2 will be an AT&T exclusive, instead of Sprint. It will support the carrier’s 4G LTE network and can be used as a mobile hotspot for up to eight devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top Trends at CES 2015:
Drones and spycams. Watch out above! Drones were everywhere at CES, often hovering over attendees heads.
4K goes mainstream. We’ve been seeing UHD TVs for two years now, and last year, Netflix introduced 4K streaming for House of Cards and some other programming at CES. But without enough media to watch, it was a wait-and-see proposition. That part’s over. Unlike with 3D, 4K is something everyone can appreciate immediately, and without wearing dorky, uncomfortable glasses.
3D cameras and printers.
Lenovo, Dell, and Acer are among the PC manufacturers to unveil PCs with 3D cameras.
Virtual reality and curved screens. Granted, virtual reality has been a thing since the 1990s, and it’s been largely baloney throughout. But it’s different now.
The return of high-quality audio. I’ve been an audio buff for decades.
Now we’re seeing stereo systems that practically disappear into your room. Sonos was first with multi-room audio, but now everyone seems to have a solution, and where everything from showerheads to Christmas tree ornaments can deliver audio, it’s clear people are tired of seeing audio equipment mar their home décor—but they also want better sound quality.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2474841,00.asp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikon 360 project – 360 selfie
https://theta360.com/s/bkSdTaSesgqSBX2o3Xg01SGYK
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Samsung, Sony, Netflix, and others form UHD Alliance to standardize 4K content and delivery
Samsung, Disney, Netflix, and more team up to define Ultra HD and how you’ll watch it
The UHD Alliance will set standards for 4K content
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7493099/uhd-alliance-announced-samsung-disney-netflix-others-standardize-uhd-ces-2015
4K TVs were one of the big stories of CES last year, but even now, there remain questions about what you’ll be able to watch and how you’ll be able to watch it. It turns out, basically every company involved in this process — from content creators to TV makers — realize that this is a problem, and they’re teaming up to solve it. Samsung is today announcing that team: a partnership called the UHD Alliance, which plans to set standards for 4K content, terminology, and delivery.
Some huge names (and competitors) are all teaming up to do this. On the TV side, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp are involved. On the content side, there’s Disney, Fox, Warner Bros., Netflix, and DirecTV. Dolby and Technicolor are also included. “This is a game changer,” H.S. Kim, a Samsung displays executive, said while announcing the partnership. “Most importantly, for consumers.”
Kim says that the UHD Alliance’s goal is to establish a “healthy UHD ecosystem.” That includes making sure there’s content, making sure that the content looks really good, and figuring out how it’s delivered.
Samsung thinks that this is a critical time to create the alliance. Bill Lee, Samsung’s VP of TV, says that Samsung expects 4K TV ownership to quadruple this year
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES 2015: Ultra-High-Definition 4K TV over Copper
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1325246&
Sckipio G.fast enables telco delivery of 4K TV
Want to watch UHDTV? Try your telco’s copper. The first ultra-high-definition (UHD) content delivered to a 4K TV over existing twisted-pair copper infrastructure of telecommunication companies (telcos) was demonstrated at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015, Jan. 6-9, Las Vegas). Sckipio Technologies’ (Ramat Gan, Israel), which makes G.fast (pronounced gee dot fast) chipsets, claims DSL cannot deliver UHD 4K TV, but its G.fast ultra-broadband networks can over standard telco twisted-pair copper lines.
Demonstrated for the first time at CES, 4K TV can now be delivered from Netflix and other providers by simply swapping out consumers current equipment for a G.fast model, according to David Baum, CEO of Sckipio Technologies, in a press statement. Baum claims that up to 16 concurrent subscribers can be supported with 4K TV per telco distribution point.
The typical infrastructure uses fiber lines to deliver high-definition signals — 200Mbps per four subscribers — to a distribution point close to 16 subscriber homes. From there G.fast delivers the UHD 4K TV signal over standard copper lines for the last 400 meters (1,312 feet).
Tomi Engdahl says:
David Katzmaier / CNET:
4K TV makers push features like quantum dots, HDR, and curved displays to differentiate at CES — TVs at CES 2015 go beyond 4K — 4K is already old hat. The rapidly falling prices of 4K TVs are causing manufacturers push even more elaborate features to make a buck.
TVs at CES 2015 go beyond 4K
http://www.cnet.com/news/tvs-at-ces-2015-go-beyond-4k/
4K is already old hat. The rapidly falling prices of 4K TVs are causing manufacturers push even more elaborate features to make a buck. That’s why quantum dots, HDR and curved, bendable and ultra-slim TVs were so prominent this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Samsung, Sony, Netflix, and others form UHD Alliance to standardize 4K content and delivery
Samsung, Disney, Netflix, and more team up to define Ultra HD and how you’ll watch it
The UHD Alliance will set standards for 4K content
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7493099/uhd-alliance-announced-samsung-disney-netflix-others-standardize-uhd-ces-2015
Some huge names (and competitors) are all teaming up to do this. On the TV side, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp are involved. On the content side, there’s Disney, Fox, Warner Bros., Netflix, and DirecTV. Dolby and Technicolor are also included. “This is a game changer,” H.S. Kim, a Samsung displays executive, said while announcing the partnership. “Most importantly, for consumers.”
Kim says that the UHD Alliance’s goal is to establish a “healthy UHD ecosystem.” That includes making sure there’s content, making sure that the content looks really good, and figuring out how it’s delivered. The partnership is just getting started
Movie studios aren’t just interested because this will help viewers watch their content: the hope is that the alliance can help make video look better, too.
Samsung thinks that this is a critical time to create the alliance.
“Nothing but good can come from it,” Lee says of the alliance. “It’s just a great opportunity for the industry to rally around UHD.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Spotify Makes The Shift To Mobile With 52% Of Listening Now On Phones And Tablets
Why have Apple and Google suddenly gotten so interested in streaming music? Because it could rally people to iOS or Android since mobile is where they listen, according to new stats I’ve attained about Spotify.
Spotify Makes The Shift To Mobile With 52% Of Listening Now On Phones And Tablets
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/music-is-a-mobile-linchpin/
Spotify frequently touts its user and subscriber numbers: 50 million monthly actives and 12 million paying customers.
Well Spotify now says the cross-platform users that listen on both desktop and mobile average 150 minutes per day of listening. That comes as song downloads fell 12% in the US in 2014 while song streaming grew a massive 54% over the year.
Spotify says 55% of users connect their accounts with Facebook. That’s important, as Spotify needs people’s friend lists to make it easy for them to create a music social sub-graph of friends with similar taste.
With the looming launch of an iTunes streaming music service from Apple this year that I know hear is slated for early summer, Spotify is pushing on all fronts to get music listeners tuned into its service first.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s 4K-ing big right now, but it’s NOT going to save TV
High-res revs? You spoke too soon, screen giants
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/12/4_big_right_now_but_will_not_save_tv/
CES 2015 With CES in full swing, the industry’s favourite buzzword is cropping up all over the show floor and in the headlines. But the surveys and reports that are emerging still aren’t painting a picture of 4K’s success on the sales floor, as two datasets show that 4K has still yet to take off.
Both Futuresource Consulting and the CEA have released figures that do little to assuage the notion that the 4K marketing hype-train was released from the station too early – where it met an uninterested public, which was still getting its head around 1080p’s improved picture quality, and which baulked at the price tag.
The rapidly shrinking prices of 4K TV sets seem to confirm Faultline’s opinion that 4K will simply become a standard feature, and was only ever a USP (unique selling point) to a very small segment of the TV marketplace – given the high prices/lack of value in picture quality improvement, and the lack of content. Certainly, 4K is looking less and less like the next big thing.
Nonetheless, the CEA’s new study, “4K Ultra HD Update: Consumer Adoption and Awareness”, declares that it “underscores the marketplace growth and momentum for 4K UHD.”
The CEA’s study finds that “33 per cent of consumers may purchase a 4K Ultra-High Definition TV within the next three years.” Let that sink in.
Now for smart TVs, which are now becoming the norm rather than the exception, where the CEA found that “44 per cent of consumers indicate that they are likely to purchase a smart or internet-enabled TV in the next three years.”
We can almost rest our case on the 4K projection, but it’s worth noting that the smart TV projection ties in rather well with the seven-year refresh rate – meaning that the 44 per cent prediction is merely reflective of people buying new TVs to replace old ones and ending up with a smart TV because that’s the only kind sold.
It notes that shipments of 4K sets hit 11.6 million in 2014, up 700 per cent compared to 2013. But that percentage growth likely won’t repeat in 2015, and one country (China) accounts for 70 per cent of that total. Futuresource’s David Tett said “4K adoption is forecast to grow quickly from 2015 onwards, with over 100 million shipments projected in 2018, representing 38 per cent of the total TV market.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Cameras Are About To Go Mainstream
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/01/11/0329248/3d-cameras-are-about-to-go-mainstream
Vox’s Timothy B. Lee reports that everyday imaging is about to take a big step forward as 3D photography finally makes it to prime time. Technological advances in 3D processing algorithms have accelerated at the same time the equipment for taking these shots has become significantly cheaper. Those facts combined mean that we’re going to be seeing 3D cameras become much more prevalent very quickly.
3D cameras are about to go mainstream. Here’s why that’s a big deal.
http://www.vox.com/2015/1/9/7520967/intel-realsense-3d-camera
As our devices have more and better sensors, they’re going to be increasingly aware of the world around them, and will interact with the world and with us in more sophisticated ways.
Tablets and smartphones won’t just take pictures, they’ll be able to identify objects in a shot and judge their size and distance. Computers won’t just respond to taps on a keyboard or touchscreen, they’ll respond to gestures, voice commands, and the motion of people around a room. And vehicles — both on the ground and in the air — will increasingly understand the world around them and react intelligently to obstacles. This will mean smartphones that can take precise size measurements with a single click, personal drones that can take breathtaking aerial shots, and dramatically safer cars.
When we look at the world around us, our brains automatically build a 3D model of our surroundings.
The cameras on our digital devices don’t do that — they just take flat, 2-dimensional images. But that’s going to change soon.
Microsoft has been a big innovator in this area. The company introduced the Kinect sensor for Xbox in 2010.
Kinect is cheaper than a lot of other sensors, but it’s not cheap enough to become truly ubiquitous. Five years after Kinect was announced, a standalone sensor still costs at least $150.
Intel is trying to one-up Microsoft by building Kinect-like 3D sensors that are small and cheap enough to integrate into mobile devices. Intel announced the technology, dubbed RealSense, last year. And it has been aggressively promoting it at CES this week.
Intel has been vague about how much RealSense hardware costs, since they’re trying to sell to gadget makers such as Samsung and LG rather than the general public.
Being able to capture 3D images is pretty cool in its own right — Intel says you’ll be able to turn everyday objects digital models suitable for 3D printing, for example. But what makes technologies like the Kinect and RealSense really powerful is software that helps app developers recognize the people and objects in a scene.
With a RealSense-equipped tablet, you can take a photo of a room and have it automatically compute the size of objects in the shot. You’ll be able to automatically erase the background from a photo or video or apply different effects to the foreground and background.
Microsoft and Intel envision a future where people control their computers using gestures rather than keyboards or touchscreens. It’s not clear that this is something PC users actually want — keyboards and mice are pretty efficient input methods.
The most important applications for 3D cameras and sensors are for vehicles that navigate the world autonomously. Intel sees this as a major application for RealSense. In his CES keynote, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich demoed a drone equipped with six RealSense cameras that was able to navigate around obstacles autonomously.
Another technology being demoed at CES this week shows the potential of the technology. Airdog is a small, camera-equipped drone that can be programmed to follow you around and make a video of your surroundings.
Hardware companies will be working to improve the performance of 3D sensors while reducing their cost.