Daytona500
Latest
Daytona 500 will be broadcast in VR
Fancy seeing the Daytona 500 from the perspective of the pit crew? Now you can, thanks to a new five-year deal signed between Fox Sports and NextVR. The pair are planning to broadcast a series of major sporting events in VR, with the deal kicking off at this year's edition of the great American race. If you own a GearVR headset and a compatible phone, you'll be able to watch the race from the stands, starting line, middle of the infield and the aforementioned pit lane. In addition, the VR stream will have dedicated audio commentary and pop-up graphics telling you who's in pole position.
Must See HDTV for the week of February 17th: Winter Olympics, Daytona 500 and Strider
This is the final week of the Winter Olympics, with the closing ceremonies scheduled for Sunday night. Bob Costas is back (with less creepy demon-possessed eye infection stare) plus plenty of action including bobsled, short-track speed skating, hockey finals and of course, curling. Game of Thrones season three will hit the shelves on Blu-ray, so whether you're looking for a recap or just getting your first look in 1080p, now is the time. Racing fans can also look forward to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, while gamers can enjoy a remake of the classic game Strider on current and next-gen systems this week -- although honestly, many of us are just trying to finish off House of Cards before the spoilers become impossible to avoid or filter out. Usually we don't point out the late-night weekly shows, but tonight Jimmy Fallon takes over the Tonight Show chair from Jay Leno. Check after the break for trailers plus our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and gaming.
The racing line: Exploring NASCAR's technological dichotomy
His car was sent spinning skyward. Two tires, an engine and a cloud of other components found their way through the safety fence, injuring 28 spectators who were sitting trackside. When all was still, Kyle Larson's blue and white #32 Chevrolet Camaro was nearly ripped in half. This incident, which took place in the Nationwide race the day before the Daytona 500, plus NASCAR's seemingly knee-jerk actions to try and remove user-submitted footage of the crash from YouTube, painted for many the picture of a sport woefully ignorant of the times. The truth, however, is rather different. The V8-powered machines that circle endlessly, fruitlessly on-track are built with a flagrant disregard for, and indeed a stubborn reluctance toward, modern technology. However, the organizing body that governs those cars and will host nearly 40 events spread over 10 months this year is anything but oblivious. In many ways NASCAR is the most technologically progressive motorsport body on the planet.
Distro Issue 81: Exploring NASCAR's technological dichotomy
Despite adopting new hardware like the Gen-6 car, NASCAR has been reluctant to embrace the high tech when it comes to other facets of the sport. In the latest issue of our tablet mag, we visit Daytona to take a look at the split between history and progress that dominates the sport spawned by bootleggers. Before the checkered flag waves, Eyes-On has a glance at the Wacom Intuos5 touch, Brad Molen wraps up a month with the BlackBerry Z10 and IRL returns with a look at our personal wares. Buckle those seat belts, and head to the repository of your choosing to snag a copy for your slate. Distro Issue 81 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro in the Windows Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Must See HDTV (February 20th - 26th)
We may be living in the post-football era, but between Jeremy Lin, hockey and the Daytona 500 there's plenty for sports fans to chew on this weekend. Of course that's not all there is and there will likely be even more drama at the Academy Awards. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.FringeWe've completely lost count of the alternate universes and timelines at play in Fox's show at this point, but for sci-fi on network TV there aren't a lot of other options. The winter finale is this week and we're pretty sure Walter will say something funny, Pacey/Peter will figure something out at the last second and odds are 50/50 one of the Olivias will shoot someone.(February 24th, Fox, 9PM)NBA All-Star Weekend / LinsanityThe Jeremy Lin movement enters its third week and shows little sign of slowing down. Sure the New york Knicks point guard finally lost a game, but he put up some monster stats against the defending NBA champs over the weekend, and has already seen his name penciled in to Friday night's Rising Stars game as a result. It's a toss up over which game is more anticipated, that one or the main ASG Sunday -- or is it the Lin vs. LeBron showdown Thursday night?(All Weekend, TNT)Academy AwardsThe 84th Annual Academy Awards take place Sunday night and we're figuring this will takes its place on the list of Twitter/TV events, so either work on your @Tront style jokes or just plan to do something else for a few hours. We'll be watching to see who walks away with the Best Picture statue.(February 26th, ABC, 8:30PM)
Poll: Best HD sporting event this month?
Yeah we know March has laid claim to the Madness title, but for such a short month the sports lineup for February is out of control. Kicking off with Winter X Games 14 this weekend and leading into the Super Bowl, Daytona 500 and Winter Olympics there's more than enough reasons for us to stay inside and out of the cold than ever. So which event are you most excited to see? %Poll-41022%
DirecTV's NASCAR Hotpass, now in HD
DirecTV's NASCAR HotPass service just got better, since it will be available in high definition for the 2008 season. Subscribers get four dedicated driver channels with multiple camera angles and chatter from the driver to their pit crew, plus a fifth race channel that offers 13 different in-car driver audio feeds. The service kicks off with the Daytona 500 (free for all!), featuring drivers Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, and will be available throughout the Winston Nextel Sprint Cup Series season for $109, or $19.99 per-week.
This may be the best HDTV Sports Sunday yet
2006 really is the year high definition is taking over, and today's sports lineup proves it. Say what you will about NBC's HD Olympics coverage, the Daytona 500 is just kicking off and it may not even be the biggest event today. With speedskating and bobsled finals tonight, plus the always exciting ice dancing, the Olympics have a lot to offer, as well as some little thing called the NBA All-Star Game.Sure the Super Bowl got all the attention, but any of these events by themselves would be great, and to have all three on one day is mind boggling, luckily the 500 is so early, or I'd have some difficult choices to make with my DVR. Too bad the weather isn't better at Daytona as it's more impressive when it's not so overcast, hopefully it will clear up as the day goes on. Still, those wall mounted-cameras are for my money the most exciting shot in sports.But it has been a great weekend, because we've already had ongoing Olympics coverage, yesterdays Busch series race (was that in HD? I missed it) and the NBA All-Star Friday and Saturday night activities. Speaking of, did anybody else check out the Slam Dunk competition last night? I love Nate Robinson but Iguodala got robbed, his from-behind-the-backboard dunk was one of my favorite ever, plus JR Smith already did the behind the back dunk last year.
Free NASCAR preview in the iTunes Store
Attention, race fans (NASCAR in particular). There is a free, 20 minute preview of the upcoming Daytona 500 in the iTunes Store* [link]. Watch interviews with drivers, check out clips of 2006 "test cars" as well as never-before-seen archival footage. Did I mention it's free?The interesting thing to note here is that the clip is categorized under the heading NASCAR 2006 Races, which implies that more videos will be added as the season progresses.*Can we drop the "music" now? iTunes ceased to be exclusively a music store a while ago.[Via TuneVision]
