http://www.ecoustics.com/latest/news Latest news, updated every five minutes http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/17719 Next week's CEDIA Expo in Denver will see the introduction of the DVDO Edge video hub and processor, which aims to be the first and last question for bringing together a videophile's plethora of video sources, upscaling them to 1080p, and making them look their best on an HDTV display. The DVDO Edge will handle up to 10 video sources—six via HDMI 1.3 inputs and four analog inputs—and take all the video up to 1080p. What's more, the DVDO Edge offers precision de-interlacing, noise-reduction, detail and edge management, and claims to dramatically improve image quality using progressive reprocessing."MilliRead | Permalink | Linking Blogs Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16914 Plasma TV, Games Consoles Guzzle Power Australian consumer agency Choice took a look at the amount of power consumed by 16 common electronics devices, including notebook computers, stereo systems, DVD players, televisions and game consoles. And if you think you power bills are too high, you might want to look to your consumer electronics: the agency found that Sony's PlayStation 3 consumed the most power of the devices tested, followed closely by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and plasma televisions—even when idle and not in use. And the PS3 consumed 10 times the as much power as the Nintendo Wii.  Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16881 Australian consumer agency Choice took a look at the amount of power consumed by 16 common electronics devices, including notebook computers, stereo systems, DVD players, televisions and game consoles. And if you think you power bills are too high, you might want to look to your consumer electronics: the agency found that Sony's PlayStation 3 consumed the most power of the devices tested, followed closely by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and plasma televisions—even when idle and not in use. And the PS3 consumed 10 times the as much power as the NIntendo Wii. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16794 Westinghouse may not be the most-recognized name in the flat-panel television game, but they're doggedly trying to appeal to consumers who want straightforward, multi-functional entertainment. The new VK-40F580D tries to appeal to folks who want things simple, combining a 40-inch 1080p LCD flat-panel television with an integrated slot-loading DVD player and two HDMI inputs that can automatically detect when an external video source is activated.The VK-40F580D offers a 1,920 by 1,080-pixel resolution, an integrated NTSC/ATSC/ClearQAM tuner, and can function as a PC display at a variety of resolutions. The di Fri, 23 May 2008 15:15:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16560 Apple has announced that its iTunes media store will now offer downloadable movies for purchase on the same day they're released on DVD. Movies purchased through iTunes can be played back on widescreen televisions with the Apple TV appliance, iTunes-equipped Macs or PCs, on iPhones, and (of course) on video-capable iPods; new releases are typically priced at $14.99, while older titles sell for $9.99. So far, the same day releases will only be available in the U.S. version of the iTunes store."We're thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date wit Thu, 01 May 2008 10:20:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16404 MTV may have lost its reputation for actually playing music videos a decade ago, but the art form has recently found a new home on the Web. PluggedIn, a site backed by major record labels, officially launched on Wednesday, providing over 10,000 music videos in high quality for free.The site uses its own media player to support streaming HD-quality video, along with DVD-style navigation and links to artist profiles, of which there are currently over one million. Some of the fir Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:45:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16349 As further proof that HD DVD is dead but not forgotten, Shuttle launched a new home-theater PC this week that handles both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. The XPC G5 3101M includes a single combo drive to play discs in both high-def formats, plus conventional DVD discs.Besides the wide array of discs the 3101M will handle, it also gets a handful of other HTPC features including a TV tuner that handles DVB-T digital signals, an ATI HD 3450 256MB graphics card, and onboard 7.1-chan Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:45:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16337 Social networking giant MySpace has made a deal with ShineReveille to launch MySpace TV shows like Quarterlife and Roommates on DVD and broadcast television outside the United States, or create localized versions of the shows specifically for international markets. ShineReveille will also be able to market merchandise based on the series in international markets."MySpace provides the creative community with a launch pad to virally test and distribute content to the world's largest focus group," said MySpace's international director Travis Katz, in a statement. "MySpaceTV has quickly become Hollywood's digital playground and our relationship with ShineReveille Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:45:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/16296 Snip:"We reported on the first wave of 2008 camcorders with our recent review of the very good JVC GZ-HD6. That hard disk drive 1080p video maker did a wonderful job recording accurate colors that really popped off the screen of our plasma HDTV. In keeping with the trend away from DVD- and tape-based models, the new Canon Vixia HF10 saves video to 16GB of internal flash memory as well as optional SDHC memory cards (up to 32GB, the current maximum for the format; it will handle even bigger sizes once they’re available). Given there’s not even a HDD—God forbid a tape or disc—to weigh it down, the Vixia HF10 is unbelievably small and compact. In fact it’s just a shade smaller than the Sony HDR-CX7 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:29:55 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/15445 Although it has been a little overlooked in all the hubbub surrounding yesterday's Macworld Expo keynote announcements from Apple, 20th Century Fox movie studio has announced a new partnership with Apple that will enable purchases of selected Fox DVDs to get a digital copy of their purchase for use with iTunes. Dubbed "iTunes Digital Copy," the feature will enable iTunes users to put the DVD content into their iTunes library and watch it on their computers, or transfer it to video-capable iPods, an iPhone, or the Apple TV."One of the most requested features DVD buyers have been asking for is the ability to get the movies the Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:25:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/15315 Getting a jump-start on its Consumer Electronics Show unveilings, HP announced its latest line-up of desktop computers and monitors from Las Vegas on Thursday. New products include a performance-oriented slimline PC, home entertainment PCs, monitors up to 24 inches, and more.The Pavilion Slimline s3330f is HP’s attempt to cram the performance of a full tower PC into a package one third the size. It comes equipped with a dual-format Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player, TV tuner, and Nvidia GeForce 8500 graphics card with HDMI out, making it capable of Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:30:00 -0500 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-13845_1-9838566-58.html?part=ecoustics-cnet Forget the high-def DVD format war; the Coby upconverting DVD player, available from Buy.com for $34.99 shipped, will make your movies look a lot better on your HDTV. Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:56:00 -0500 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-13860_3-9837302-56.html?part=ecoustics-cnet The software maker creates a single business unit to handle its IP television, Media Center PC and HD-DVD efforts. Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:23:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/pcw/news/140602 A Qosmio multimedia notebook with a rewritiable HD DVD and two HDTV tuners will go on sale in Japan this week. Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:10:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/15021 A new UK study has determined that the big demand from next-generation broadband among consumers will be the ability to download DVD quality movies in five minutes. The study, conducted by Broadbandchoices.co.uk showed that it was an overwhelming feature picked by 61% of respondents. There was also great interest in downloading HD TV programs (48%), video calling (46%), home CCTV via broadband (42%), with – perhaps surprisingly – only 18% wanting HD gaming services. Many of these are hardly used currently, meaning that consumers seem to have interesting ideas about the possibilities o Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:00:00 -0500 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-10784_3-9819314-7.html?part=ecoustics-cnet Unlimited DVD-quality downloads for Mac, PC, and Linux, with TVs and portable devices on the horizon. Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:01:00 -0500 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-10784_3-9814133-7.html?part=ecoustics-cnet Korean electronics maker says it stopped selling TVs, DVD players, and portable music players and other devices in Japan because of meager profitability. Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:02:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/pcw/news/138373 Interactivity is supposed to allow you new possibilities between your TV and high-def movies, but are those features ready for prime time? Plus: The head of Paramount Studios weighs in. Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/14324 Snip:"After years of pretty stagnant camcorder sales of around 4-5 million per year, it’s expected close to 20 percent more will be purchased in 2007. To this observer the reason is pretty simple—HDTV. People are buying flat-panel televisions by the millions and really enjoy HD programming and higher-quality DVDs on widescreens. Standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio video really doesn’t cut it anymore—especially on a pretty flat panel display. Enter the many high-def camcorders now widely available. Walking into a big box retailer recently I saw over a half-dozen on view along with many less-expensive SD camcorders. This trend will continue as HD camcorder prices continue to drop to more reasonable le Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:52:35 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/14310 The PC and home entertainment center have been growing inexorably closer over the last several years – we play music, watch videos, TV programs and DVDs on our computers. But Microsoft wants more, which is why they’ve come up with several devices to connect your PC to your home entertainment center. Known as Extenders for Windows Media Center, these are different from the similarly-named Windows Media Extenders, debuted in late 2004. Those put a version of the Media Center interface on your television, using your home network. It didn’t catch on, but it did spark more research, and more successful work with the Xbox360.  Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/14277 Westinghouse Digital Electronics recently polled more than 1,200 consumers to ask them what features they most want to see in future HDTV televisions. The company plans to doll out insights from the polling a little at a time, perhaps to gleam more PR exposure from the poll or time the info to its own product announcements. (Who knows why? We just don't get the sense number-crunching is the cause for the delay.)In response to the question "If you could design a TV yourself, what would you add?" Westinghouse says the top answers included voice recognition, touch screen interface, a 120Hz refresh rate, wireless capability, energy conservation, built-in DVD players and DVRs, Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:30:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/14064 If you can’t quite decide which room in your house you would like to watch movies in, Epson has a new solution that should be a lot easier than sliding a TV from room to room every Saturday night. The company’s new MovieMate 50 and 72 projectors pack everything you need for a movie, including a DVD player, speakers and projector, into one portable unit.The MovieMate 50 places emphasis on ease of transport. Epson was able to trim its Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:15:00 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/4660-10620_7-6765558.html?part=ecoustics-cnet&part=ecoustics-cnet&subj=video The iPhone gets cheaper, MTV get desperate, and HD DVD gets a major bone tossed its way. It's Buzz! Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/13656 Snip:"The HP w2207 22-inch widescreen LCD monitor is quite attractive with its black and silver body and adjustable screen. The most aesthetic aspect of the w2207 is the glossy screen that uses HP's "BrightView" technology, which helps make photos and movies burst with lively color. Having a desktop monitor with a low-glare, glossy screen is great for people who work with Photoshop, iPhoto, CAD, or other programs that require constant, close-range attention to the screen. It's also great for DVD viewing and web browsing."Read the full w2207 review Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/news/13652 Helios Labs has announced its H2000 upscaling DVD player, designed as an affordable option to enable consumers to take standard resolution video in a variety of formats and upscale it to 720p or 1080i resolution for display on high definition-capable displays."H2000 offers the most HD upscaling options," said Helios Labs' CTO Roy Ping, in a statement. "You can let it upscale all your content to 720p/1080i, or you can allow it to output an unprocessed 480i/576i video signal and allow your TV/external video scaler to do the work. This will help customers maximize its performance and consequently, ensure you Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:30:00 -0400