tv

There's a good piece by Saul Hansell over on The New York Times' "Bits" blog.

Hansell describes how Comcast is being criticized for low picture quality on certain broadcasts. That's interesting, especially in light of the contention between Comcast and DirecTV on this very issue, but it isn't the most important point in Hansell's post.

Hansell goes on to give a reasonable explanation of the basic issues involved, and mentions the likely future of cable TV: digital video distributed over Internet-like network switches. Instead of always sending every TV channel to every house, a … Read more

Imagine being able to watch movies or TV shows in high-quality, full-screen glory on your computer and being able to jump directly to a particular place in the video based on the transcript and click on a word in the transcript to pull up more information.

That's what Blinkx BBTV (Broadband TV) promises when it launches on Wednesday.

Blinkx is bringing the world of TV and DVD entertainment to the PC, but incorporating the interactivity of the Web to make it a richer experience. The service, which requires a small software download, is free of charge and free of … Read more

Soon after we heard the announcement of the LG Vu, we rushed over to the LG booth to take a look at it live and in person. The screen is indeed impressive--it measures 3.0-inch diagonally and displays 262,000 colors, and has a touch vibrating feedback (or haptic feedback) similar to that on the LG Glimmer and the LG Voyager. Its menu interface is almost identical to that of those phones as well. The four shortcut icons on the bottom of the standby page correspond to the main menu, AT&T Mobile TV, the contacts list, plus the … Read more

The DTV transition is less than a year away and as of January 1, 2008, Americans have been eligible to sign up for a $40 coupon to help purchase DTV converter boxes needed to receive new digital TV signals. While your instincts may tell you to sign up as quickly as possible, there's a strong argument to be made to hold off for a little while. Here's why:

1. The coupon expires in three months If you carefully read you the FAQ on the government's Web site, the program clearly states that the $40 coupons expire three months after they're shipped. That's unfortunate because we're guessing many people don't think much of it, and are just trying to sign up before they forget. Now you're forced into getting whatever DTV boxes that are currently on the market, even though...

2. Better, cheaper boxes are coming… Read more

I've made no secret of my love for turning PCs into HDTVs. All you need is a tuner that pulls down over-the-air HD signals. I've spotlighted a few bargains in the past, but usually you had to wait on a rebate. Not so the KWorld PlusTV ATSC 340U, which Buy.com has on sale for $34.99 shipped--no rebate required!

The PlusTV is strictly an ATSC/Clear QAM tuner, meaning you need to use its included antenna (or your own rabbit ears). However, if you're a cable subscriber and your cable company broadcasts Clear QAM signals (… Read more

AT&T said Thursday that it will start offering live mobile TV service from MediaFlo in May, but will anyone be watching?

AT&T first announced its partnership with MediaFlo in February 2007. Back then it said it expected the service to begin by the end of 2007. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Reuters the company waited until May to offer the service because it was "a brand new service on a brand new network, and two brand new devices."

The new service will operate on two new handsets, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access. … Read more

Updated 1:55 p.m. PDT with DirecTV's response.

DirecTV apparently had big trouble delivering ESPN2's coverage Tuesday morning of the season opener between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's, who are playing the game in Tokyo.

The number of reader comments to a 6:29 a.m. blog post about the outage by Amalie Benjamin, who covers the Red Sox for The Boston Globe, soared past 120 within a couple hours after the transmission failure began. The fans, naturally, are calling for congressional hearings on the matter.

While the problem seemed to have been remedied … Read more

The Chinese government, facing ever more international scrutiny, appears to be trying to restrict the gaze of its world audience during the upcoming Olympic Games. It has told broadcasters that it may bar live television shots of Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics this summer. The move looks to be a sign of the government's increasing unease following recent protests among Tibetans.

The ban would affect NBC and other major news outlets that plan to broadcast the games Aug. 8-24. Most broadcasters had expected to include live TV shots of the square.

Read the full AP story: "China Might Bar Tiananmen Broadcasts&… Read more

In case you haven't noticed, the Download Music crew is back in San Francisco after a massive week of music at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. We've been posting like crazy to Crossfade about some of our favorite shows; we picked a handful of top artists for our Best of SXSW playlist; and we cut a special SXSW episode of our weekly music show Crossfade TV as well, highlighting great performances by the likes of Duffy, Lou Reed, Ice Cube, Explorer's Club, These Are Powers, Enslaved, and Guilty Simpson.

Slide on over to CNET TV for … Read more