http://www.ecoustics.com/latest/news Latest news, updated every five minutes http://www.ecoustics.com/pcw/news/182653 New regulation is in line with existing measures, but will hasten the shift to energy-efficient televisions. Here's why. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:41:00 -0500 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-11128_3-10400958-54.html?part=ecoustics-cnet The California Energy Commission approves a measure to ratchet down power consumption of televisions sold in the state starting in 2011. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:31:01 -0500 http://news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/602373.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:30:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20972 In television's latest quest to discourage viewers from skipping ads, actors from NBC and ABC shows are appearing in character in commercials to interact with products in parallel story lines. This new kind of commercial further blurs the line between program and advertisement and comes as traditional product placements within shows, an early response to fast-forwarding, have become common.A series of spots that debuted this week weaves Palm Inc.'s Pre phone more deeply into the story line of two primeRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:26:40 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20944 Yahoo Inc. director Maggie Wilderotter plans to step down from the slumping Internet company's board at the end of this year. The resignation will leave Yahoo with 11 directors.The Sunnyvale-based company said Friday that Wilderotter is leaving to devote more time to her other responsibilities. Wilderotter is CEO of Frontier Communications Corp., which sells telephone, television and Internet services.Wilderotter joined Yahoo's board in 2007, a few month after she left an executive job at Microsoft Corp. She has been overseeing Yahoo's audit committee.Like other Yahoo directors, Wilderotter came under fire last year for the handling of a takeover bid from Microsoft. The sofRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20940 At this week's Intel Developer Forum, Intel formally unveiled "Sodaville," a new 45nm system-on-a-chip based on the comapny's Atom processor that's designed specifically to bring interactive, Internet-based services and content to televisions, set-top boxes, and peripherals like DVD players and DVRs. The chipset supports both Internet and broadcast applications, and has enough processing horsepower to handle both video and audio processing and 3D graphics in real time."Traditional broadcast networks are quickly shifting from a linear model to a multi-stream, Internet-optimized model to offer consumers digital eRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20938 Japanese electronics giant Toshiba has announced it's planning the first public showing of its long-gestating high-definition television with an embedded Cell processor at next month's Ceatec trade show in Japan on October 5. Toshiba has been quietly demonstrating prototypes of televisions with Cell technology since at least 2007, but has not made any concrete moves to bring the units to market. A public showing at Ceatec suggests the company is preparing to enter at least the Japanese market in the short term, although no pricing and availability information has been released.TheRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:20:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20909 Yahoo Inc. believes a lot of its good work has been overlooked by investors and the media so it's spending more than $100 million to get the word out to consumers directly.The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's Web site 15 years ago. Yahoo provided a peek at the 15-month blitz Tuesday in New York.The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is already approaching 600 million.Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged aRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:48:34 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20857 Cablevision Systems Corp. is bringing interactive banner ads to television, allowing viewers to order samples and brochures and even purchase products by clicking the remote on their TV sets.Banner ads will run at the bottom of select TV commercials, in collaboration with at least half a dozen consumer brand advertisers. When viewers click on the ad, the screen will shrink to a quarter of its size and the rest will feature product information.The ads will only let viewers order product samples, brochures and coupons when they start running in early October. By year's end, viewers will be able to save video ads, such as movie trailers, to watch later. Purchasing viaRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:49:48 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-17939_109-10352253-2.html?part=ecoustics-cnet If you're a television fan, you probably spend considerable time following your favorite shows. And if you're using these sites, you're probably doing a good job of it. Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:30:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20816 At this year's CEDIA expo, South Korean electronics giant Samsung has taken the wraps of its new LN65B650, a massive 65-inch LCD television sporting a 120 Hz refresh rate, 4 ms response time, and extensive connectivity options. Screen sizes over 50-inches have long been the realm of plasma sets, and Samsung is taking a chance by pushing LCD technology to that size—particularly since the LN65B650 relies on fluorescent backlighting rather than the currently-vogue LED backlighting for improved contrast and color reproduction. But Samsung thinks there's a market—and is willing to place a $5,999.99 price tag on the LN65B650 to prove it.Read | Permalink | Linking Blogs Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:45:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20772 The media world is certainly paying attention to streaming videos, and television manufacturers are keen to bypass set-top boxes and home theater PC setups and integrate online video support right into their sets. The latest is Mitsubishi, which has announced taht two 52- and 46-inch entries in its Diamond Unisen series of 1080p flat-panel TVs have support for Vudu streaming video built right in to the set—along with an Ethernet port for connecting to owner's home Internet connections.Later this month, the new Mitsubishi TVs will also gain support for Pandora, Flickr, Picasa, and (of course) YouTube. TheRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:40:00 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-17912_3-10330794-72.html?part=ecoustics-cnet U.K. car show co-host James May will spend weekend in house built almost entirely of Legos as part of his new television series. Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:12:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20745 South Korea's LG Electronics has announced that plans to launch a 15-inch AM OLED television next month, taking the wraps off the unit at the upcoming IFA trade show in Berlin, then opening up commercial sales for the unit in Korea in November. The company plans to bring the the unit to overseas markets in 2010…but at this point, no one is mentioning prices, and it's save to say the 15-inch OLED TV won't be cheap.A 15-inch television might not seem like that big a deal in a era where every electronics company (including LG—it's the world's second largest manufacturer of TVS) are pushing 30-, 40, and 50+ inch plasma and LCD displays.Read | Permalink | Linking Blogs Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:35:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20675 In its bid to expand beyond the universe of user-generated video, Google's online video sharing service YouTube has expanded its deal with Time Warner to bring programming clips from a variety of the company's cable television networks to YouTube. Time Warner networks CNN and HBO already post shorts and clips to the site, but the expanded deal will include additional material from CNN, as well as content from Cartoon Network and TNT.Neither company disclosed financial terms of the deal, but the companies will share in advertising revenue derived from the clips.Material on offer wiRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:00:00 -0400 http://news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/586146.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:40:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20658 New sales figures from industry analysis firm iSuppli show that while Vizio maintained its number-one position in U.S. LCD TV sales during the second quarter of 2009, South Korea's Samsung managed to close the distance, increasing its share of the market from 17.8 percent in the first quarter to 21.3 percent in the second quarter. Vizio also managed to increase its market share, but not as fast, expanding from a 21.4 percent share in the first quarter to 21.7 percent in the second quarter. Samsung and Vizio are now only separated by fourth tenths of a percentage point.Overall the U.S. market for LCD televisions improved durRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:10:00 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-17938_105-10309061-1.html?part=ecoustics-cnet As we wait for the possible arrival of a new Apple tablet and the giant marketing campaign that would accompany its launch, here's a look back at some of the television ads Apple ran for the Newton, its original tablet. Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:45:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20589 A new study from media analysis firm Ipsos MediaCT finds that Americans are watching more television and movies via Internet streaming than ever before—and the numbers have increased radically in just the last six months. But what's perhaps more surprising is how young adults have taken to Internet-based vide entertainment: the study finds that 30 percent of adults aged 18 to 24 have watched a full length movie online in the last 30 days—and over half (51 percent) have streamed a full-length TV show in the same time period.Overall, Ipsos MediaCT found that 26 percent of Americans have streaRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:45:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20574 What do Britons love? On the basis of a new study by government watchdog Ofcom, it’s definitely communication technology – mobile phones and broadband.Ofcom’s annual report reveals that while food remains the biggest priority, it’s closely followed by spending on mobile phone, the Internet, and TV. While 40% of respondents said they’d be willing to cut back on dining out and vacations, only 19% would cut back on mobile phone spending, 16% on cable or satellite television subscriptions, and 10% on broadband services.Ofcom's Peter Phillips told the BBC:"Despite the recession, people arRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:00:00 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-1023_3-10304575-93.html?part=ecoustics-cnet The News Corp. CEO, in a turnaround from several years ago, reportedly aims to charge for all his various news and television assets' Web content. Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:42:00 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-1001_3-10303225-92.html?part=ecoustics-cnet CEA President Gary Shapiro talks about the 25-year process of bringing the U.S. into the digital television era, and where we go from here. Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:30:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20558 Although Panasonic promised the capability in March of this year—and brought it to its Plasma Viera Cast TVs back in April—the company announced today that its Viera Cast Blu-ray players can now tap into movies and television shows via Amazon Video On Demand, without the need for additional hardware or gear, so long as the units have access to an in-home broadband connection. The capability is available for Panasonic's DMP-BD60, BD70V, and BD80 Blu-ray players, along with theRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20534 MSN in the UK has announced plans to launch a service that will let users stream full-length television shows at no cost.Funded by ads, the service is set to begin next week with around 300 hours of programming, which will be extended. The beta will include content from BBC Worldwide and ALL3MEDIA.The programs will be available to both PC and Mac users, in both WMV and Flash formats, and they’ll be streamed without DRM – but only to those with a UK IP address.The service will take MSN Video head-to-head with the BBC’s successful iPRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/20519 LG Electronics has announced it will be rolling access to Vudu's high-definition streaming movie service into its NetCast line of high-definition LCD and plasma televisions beginning next month—and existing LG Broadband TV owners will also be able to add the Vudu service to their existing sets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but adding Vudu service provides customers purchase and rental access to a significant catalog of high-definition titles in Vudu's HDX format, supporting 1080p resolution and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound."Our alliance with Vudu further demonstrates LG's commitment to delivering the ultimate HD viewRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:15:00 -0400