So far, practically all the digital transition "buzz" has been focused on avoiding the trauma that would be suffered by the "poor little old ladies" vainly wiggling their rabbit ears atop their 1975 Zeniths and getting no picture (or sound) on February 17, 2009.

Yes, I'm sure there will be a few of those. But there will be a lot more, and very vocal, "little old ladies" who already have digital reception capability (HDTV or otherwise) who will be shocked on Feb. 17th to find out they are not receiving one of there favorite DTV channels, and many...

How would you like to view an HD movie at home via Video-On-Demand (VOD) just a few weeks after its theatrical release, even before it's released on DVD and Blu-ray? Maybe your HDTV connections would not let you do it, despite the fact that you paid for the movie.

On May 9, 2008, the MPAA issued a petition to the FCC for a waiver of the SOC feature...

The infamous CRT rear projector, whether NTSC or HDTV, remains one of the greatest display products to have hit the consumer market. They lasted over two decades until the flat panel display phenomenon wiped them out. The same can be said of CRT direct view, the TVs we all grew up on. While big, bulky and heavy, these displays could deliver some great imaging, producing bright dynamic pictures and inky blacks in medium to dark ambient light environments. For rear projection, smaller sizes (below 50") could even perform well in brighter environments. CRT rear projection and direct view technology was used to drive the HDTV revolution out of the gate and along the way there were some really stellar videophile performers meeting most of the imaging science aspects of video standards. These products have a typical 10-15 year life span based on normal usage and CRT wear and tear. Before deciding to throw out this technology, you should reflect on the imaging performance you will be losing, ...

So you want to watch movies with Netflix "Watch Instantly", but you aren't thrilled about sitting in front of your computer to do it? Netflix and Roku have partnered to bring the Watch Instantly functionality to your TV. We have one of these players and have spent a week putting it through its paces.

The player can be purchased for $99.99 from the Roku website and requires...

The TV looks visually appealing and has a high build quality. There is a clear plastic frame that goes around the TV. The TV weighs 84 pounds (38 Kg) with the pedestal and measures 49.7" (126 cm) wide by 31.3" (79.5 cm) high by 17.7" (32 cm) deep (4.8" (12 cm) without the pedestal). We immediately took the TV off the default setting and changed it to cinema. Cox cable looked very bad. So bad that we recommended switching to satellite. Braden has Cox as one of his sources so his impression was that Cox does not look that bad on his TVs. It could be that this TV does not do well with compressed sources. OTA HD looked much better. In general OTA digital channels looked better than the SD coming from the Cox cable box.

We then popped in a Blu-ray disc...

The question has been raised regarding how good 1440x1080 resolution from HD camcorders is when compared to "full" 1920x1080 resolution devices. While it is technically accurate to say that 1920x1080 images contain more pixels than 1440x1080 images the actual appearance to the native eye is not as different as logic might make you think. And the choice of "1440" as the resolution in the horizontal direction in a "1920x1080" world is not an arbitrary number but carefully selected due to

Back in Episode #178 (June, 2007) we did a feature on the Vista Media Center. For that review we used an HP m8000n to run the Media Center. We talked about the features of the Media Center and how one could use the computer to run spreadsheets during the day and watch live TV or movies using an extender device at night. If you are not familiar with the features of the Media Center, that would be a good show to go back and listen to. We will only be covering specific features of the Media Center as they pertain to the DSM-750...

Frances Cripps died yesterday, May 8th 2008, at high-noon in Corvallis, Oregon. She was 93 years old. She had suffered a long illness.

Why is this news in HDTV Magazine, you should rightly ask? Frances was one of many unsung heroes who played key roles in furthering HDTV. Always far-seeing and an engineer by nature, she...