HighDefinition-related stories
Posted Aug 3rd 2009 11:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Talk Show, Reality-Free
When the late night musical chairs began, I dipped my toes into their waters for the first time in many, many years. The only three shows remaining on my DVR are
The Tonight Show,
Late Night and
The Late Late Show, and only
Craig Ferguson is a must watch from beginning to end (I've actually cut
Tonight twice and put it back since Conan took over).
The real hook for me is Ferguson's monologue. While everyone's doing, "Hey let's look at the news. Setup. Punchline. Setup. Punchline. Setup. Punch me in the face I can't take it anymore!," Ferguson is doing a short stand-up routine every night. It's smart, it's clever, and it all flows so much more nicely.
I've also enjoyed his constant rants about how terrible his show is, what a horrible host he is, and how incredibly cheap CBS is when it comes to anything to do with
The Late Late Show. But now, long after all of his competitors got the upgrade, we're finally getting
Craig Ferguson in HD starting August 31, 2009. So he'll have one less thing to bitch about, at least.
Continue reading Craig Ferguson finally getting a little HD respect from CBS
Posted Apr 16th 2009 12:06PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, HDTV, Reality-Free
Does the thought of this face in 720 lines of crystal clear resolution make the soup you had for lunch a week ago rise in your gullet?
If so (you extremely shallow human being who will spend life alone until you die), then you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that Jimmy Kimmel's first foray into high definition television was quite an improvement.
He even showed his viewers just how beautiful the difference was by making the switch live on the air during Tuesday night's episode.
Continue reading Jimmy Kimmel dives face first into HD - VIDEO
Posted Feb 15th 2009 9:06AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, HDTV, Reality-Free
One of television's most beloved and historic television shows is undergoing a major change tonight.
Oh and it's also going to be in high definition too.
Tonight's episode of
The Simpsons will update their iconic opening sequence for the second time in its 20-year history.
Continue reading The Simpsons gets a new opening ... and it doesn't totally suck - VIDEO
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 9:25PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Super Bowl, Episode Reviews, Chuck, Reality-Free
(S02E12) "The cell is mightier than the sword, or the very large knife." -- Chuck
There were some funny bits in this episode of
Chuck. There were also some good bits of plot development. Still, for what was being promoted as a spotlight show, including the novelty of 3-D, it's hard for me to sing the praises of tonight's episode. It just left a lot to be desired. What it did leave me with is a headache.
Before getting into the particulars, let's get the 3-D thing out of the way. It was terrible.
Joel wrote about this a few days ago, and he was right. The 3-D glasses were cumbersome and lame. They also seemed too dark because instead of the effects popping, they just seemed murky and dim. I give NBC credit for trying to think outside the box, but 3-D is not the answer for how to make TV viewing more exciting. Compared to high-def, 3-D is not awesome, just annoying.
Continue reading Chuck: Chuck Versus The Third Dimension
Posted Jul 25th 2007 6:26PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, Lost, PVR Wire, Grey's Anatomy, Web, Ugly Betty
Tired of squinting at your PC to watch online video. ABC has updated its online video player to
support high definition (720p) video playback.
Right now there's not a huge selection of content available in high definition. You can watch a whopping one episode each of
Desparate Housewives,
Grey's Anatomy,
Lost, or
Ugly Betty at resolutions up to 1300x770.
You'll need a 2Mbps or faster internet connection, and even then you're not guaranteed crystal-clear playback. Just because the player supports HDTV resolutions doesn't really mean you're going to get HD quality over the internet. The faster your internet connection and the better your computer's specs (CPU, Graphics card etc), the better your results will likely be.
[via
Lost Remote]
Posted Jun 19th 2007 11:01AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, HDTV, PVR Wire
Is a series-ending black-out even more vibrantly black in high-definition? Well, subscribers of HBO and Cinemax will find out next year when the entire multiplex of pay-cable channels goes hi-def.
According to Bill Nelson, chairman and CEO of the networks, the conversion to HD for all 26 HBO and Cinemax channels will begin later this year and be completed by the 2nd quarter of 2008.
Continue reading HBO channels to go all Hi-Def by 2008
Posted Jun 6th 2007 11:30AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Software, TiVo
More than a year after the developer of
Galleon stopped working on the open source application for doing about 1,001 things with your TiVo,
a new developer has picked up the project.
Galleon lets you:
- Play MP3 files using Winamp skins, view album arts, lyrics, and other images for your music collection
- Listen to your iTunes collection
- View local weather forecasts
- Read RSS feeds
- Listen to internet radio including Shoutcast stations
- View your photos with background music and slideshow effects
And the list goes on. But with development ceasing last year, there was no support for high definition applications, making Galleon a bit less impressive on Series3 TiVo units.
Two updates were released this week. Galleon 2.3.1 doesn't include much in the way of new features, but
2.4.0 alpha is the first version to support high definition applications, like HD photos. This is an alpha, so expect some bugs, but it's nice to see someone pick up the Galleon torch.
Posted May 31st 2007 8:53AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, TiVo
After years of waiting, it looks like Comcast and TiVo are almost ready to launch TiVo service for Comcast set top boxes. During
TiVo's quarterly earnings call yesterday, CEO Tom Rogers announced that the
official launch will be around August.
The software is currently in limited trials. But in August, Comcast plans to launch a limited commercial rollout in parts of New England. Rogers says Cox Cable could be ready to offer TiVo software on its set top boxes by the end of the year.
At this point, TiVo is fighting the generic cable company set top box on two fronts. While sales of the $800 TiVo Series3 haven't been spectacular, Tivo is continuing to work on a lower-cost high definition unit. But if selling standalone boxes doesn't work out for the PVR pioneer, it looks like providing software to television providers may be a viable business model.
Posted May 12th 2007 10:01AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, HDTV, PVR Wire
I am now one of you. No longer will I be shunned at social events, ignored by family, and laughed at by world leaders. That bleak and dark time of my life is now over. Why, you ask? Well, as of a few short months ago I became one of the 24 million households that owns a flat-screen HDTV. Utopia is now within my reach.
I had no interest in purchasing one at first. It was the re-carpeting of our family room that actually planted the seed.
Continue reading One with the HD universe
Posted May 1st 2007 9:00AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, TiVo
So Gizmodo's
fanning the flames of the rumor mill by reporting that TiVo's could be prepping a $300 high definition personal video recorder. Sure, the Series3 HD TiVo launched at $800, but now TiVo's offered it at promotional prices
as low as $499. Is it too much of a stretch to think the company can offer a stripped down model for $300?
Maybe. Here's the thing. While TiVo CEO Tom Rogers did say back in March that the company is
looking into a lower-cost PVR, I'm just not sure we can expect them to release a device anytime soon that's going to dramatically undercut the sales of the their existing box. Because if you could pay $300 or $800 for boxes that do almost the same thing, which would you choose?
Continue reading Rumor mill: TiVo to launch $300 HD PVR
Posted Apr 26th 2007 3:31PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite
Cable provider Comcast says 535,000 customers
added either a PVR or HDTV to their orders during the first quarter of 2007, a 72% increase from the same period last year.
About 20 percent of Comcast's 25 million subscribers now have a high definition box, a personal video recorder, or both. Not that the two items are really related unless your a Comcast PR person touting the strong growth in sales of "new technologies." But Comcast doesn't break down the two figures separately in its financial reports, so that's about as specific as we can get.
About 38% of the company's digital customers (with video-on-demand, HD, and/or PVRs) are using high definition PVRs. That's about 5 million Comcast customers paying an average of $75 per month or more for video services.
Posted Mar 21st 2007 10:20AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire
One of the biggest reasons to use Windows Vista Media Center rather than Windows Media Center 2005 has always been the CableCard support. There's just been one problem. Nobody's shipped a machine that can actually handle CableCards yet.
It looks like Velocity Micro's
about to do just that. Velocity Micro's Chris Morley posted in the
AVS Forum that the company could ship their CableCard capable Grand Theater line of home theater PCs starting this week. You can expect that PC to set you back at least $2200. Systems can be configured to support up to 4GB of RAM, and up to 2.25TB of hard drive space, but a fully decked out system will cost you considerably more.
Velocity Micro's hardly the only kid on the block working on a CableCard ready system. We can expect to see similar announcements soon from the likes of Niveus, Okoro, and others.
Posted Feb 28th 2007 9:40AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire
So TiVo goes and
releases it's 8.1 software for Series3 hi-def boxes, and everything's just peachy, right? Now Series3 owners can do almost everything with their expensive TiVo units as Series2 owners can do with the boxes that TiVo had been pretty much giving away for free.
KidZone? Check. WPA support? Check. TiVoCast? Check. TiVoToGo? Umm... still waiting on that one. But let's back up for a second here. TiVoCast is pretty cool, right? Now you can watch your web video in high definition right?
Continue reading TiVo Series3 gets TiVoCast, TiVo doesn't really get HD
Posted Feb 15th 2007 2:17PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire
Remember the other day when we told you that hackers had
cracked the AACS copy protection scheme on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs? Remember how I said it probably wouldn't take long for someone to wrap the hack into an easy to use GUI?
Well, SlySoft is already out with a
beta version of AnyDVD HD, a program designed to remove copy protection and region codes from DVDs and HD-DVDs, allowing you to create a backup copy of your disc. Sure, it's not legal in the U.S., but SlySoft's not an American company, so there you go.
AnyDVD HD beta only works with HD-DVDs at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Blu-Ray support added soon. The final version will likely carry a hefty price tag. AnyDVD runs $49, meaning you can expect AnyDVD HD to run at least as much.
[via
Engadget]
Posted Jul 9th 2006 3:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Talent, HDTV, Web, Celebrities
TV Predictions has a regular column where they discuss High-Def. Not just the positive aspects of HD, but also a list of what looks good and what looks bad in HD.
I've noticed this too. Back in the old days of television (and by "old days" I mean two years ago) you would see attractive people on television and not give it a second thought. Or maybe even not so attractive people and not give it a second thought. But now with HD, you see everything oh so clearly, and it's not always a good thing. Guys who had some wrinkles are now revealed to have Grand Canyon-like crevices in their face. Women who you'd look at and say "hmm, she might have had plastic surgery" now leave no doubt that they have. Even soap opera stars, who are almost all uniformly beautiful and/or studly are revealed to be either craggly or wearing so much makeup they look like a wax figure.
Progess isn't all it's cracked up to be. I think Dave said that on NewsRadio once.
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