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28-percent of Americans now own an HDTV
You don't have look too awfully far to find at least a couple of pals who have made the leap to HDTV, and according a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics Association, over one-fourth of American households now sport a high-definition set. The pie chunk represents around 35 million displays in all, with more than half of 'em coming in at 40-inches or larger, and while these current figures might be satisfying, the CEA is estimating that another "16 million HDTVs will ship into the marketplace this year alone." Additionally, the survey found that just 86-percent of owners were "highly satisfied" with their purchase, while we assume the other 14-percent are still left wondering why they're watching large moving blocks instead of a legible image. Interestingly, traditional means of broadcasting weren't the only mediums getting utilized, as a substantial amount of customers were noted as actually turning to the internet to get their programming fix, which leaves us to ponder just how rapidly the broadcasting ways of days past will transform in the years to come.[Via TGDaily]
Panasonic CEO left CES to see Jobs introduce iPhone
As if Apple's spotlight isn't large enough lately, it appears they stole some of CES's 15 minutes with the announcement of the iPhone. Forbes is reporting that Yoshi Yamada, CEO of Panasonic, left CES on Tuesday and traveled 600 miles to see Steve Jobs' iPhone-unveiling keynote (perhaps he knew he was going to get his money's worth?). Even though CES is filled to the brim with gadgets and gizmos, Apple's fanatically-anticipated iPhone may have upstaged most of them: as Yahoo's Christopher Null told Forbes, "[It] is unfortunate that people are trying to get the word out about their products, and they're one-upped by Steve Jobs."Maybe CES will have better luck in 2008; we hear the CEA and IDG finally stopped playing phone tag and agreed on separate weeks for their respective festivals.
CEA's E3 replacement that never was
Today in a parallel universe, the Consumer Electronics Association announced their own gaming event in the ashes of E3. It takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center (the old home of E3) from July 11 to 14 with one day devoted to press, a day and a half devoted to trade audience, and a day and a half for the general public.The difference between this world and our own, however, is that the CEA decided at the last minute to cancel its plans for said expo. Prompted by Min-E3's recent announcements and the overlapping dates, Senior VP of Events and Conferences Karen Chupka decided that the industry did not need their help right now, but would consider returning if future intervention was needed. She then grabbed her bottomless purse and with her magic umbrella flew up and away from the gaming industry's villa at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane.The CEA, a trade organization best known for the Consumer Electronics Expo, had already reserved floor space for Atlantic Inc., Auravision, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel. The World Series of Video Games was to host an event that placed its 2006 champions against members of the press. Too bad the event is canceled; we would have made them cry over a game of Super Smash Bros. Melee.** Don't hold us to that.
Manufacturers, broadcasters heart DTV set-top boxes
Two major manufacturing and broadcasting trade associations both endorsed a plan to help the government ensure an easy transition to over-the-air Digital TV today, drafting a resolution to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA -- yeah, we hadn't heard of them either) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which counts as its members basically every manufacturer of electronics; and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), who has representatives from almost every television broadcaster; combined with the Association for Maximum Service Television, Inc. (MSTV), a more technically-focused group of local stations. The three organizations submitted a proposal for the NTIA to take into consideration as it attempts to make rules for providing digital converter boxes to the American public for receiving DTV after the February 2009 cut-off date for analog broadcasts.Some interesting sections of their proposal include not limiting digital-to-analog box coupons to strictly those who get their programming over-the-air (which should include those with satellite and an OTA antenna for local channels), and calls for both simplicity in the program, and the availability of low-cost, high-quality components. Waaait a minute, a call for plainly-marketed, well-built electronics at a low cost? What are we missing here? Oh right, Congress authorized five million dollars for educational campaigns, might as well get in on that now and put it to some good use. As an owner of an OTA set-top box, I can say they have huge potential for making the transition to DTV painless for even the most ancient of televisions, and will hopefully spur most Americans to buy a real HD-capable set, which in turn will push broadcasters and networks to produce all their content in HD so we don't have to worry about turning off channels during football.
New game convention by CEA to ease the loss of E3?
The Consumer Electronics Association has given thought to a new trade show due to E3's change. The Consumer Electronics Show, CES, was the biggest in the US prior to E3's 1994 birth. Now that things have altered slightly, the industry calendar shows a gap where a new show could be instigated. What's the purpose of this new show? Gary Shapiro, CEA's president and CEO, said: "Since ESA decided to eliminate the E3 event in its known format, we have been deluged with inquiries on whether we could fill the tradeshow needs of smaller video entertainment companies."So the new show will be primarily for showing off electronics of a smaller company? Those extra gadgets and consoles that found their home in the bottom of the E3 barrel get their own show, now? Not that it's a bad thing... getting the word out on new, less-marketed goods can be life-changing. It would be great if the smaller game developers showcasing at the event get picked up by larger companies for distribution -- didn't Bungie go through a similar process? Practically all smaller companies do and this may be a great event to jumpstart some new innovative game developers. What about you? Support the new show or nah?
CEA smacks down "thinly veiled attack" by RIAA on fair use
Sounds like consumers (and random people in toxic waste suits) aren't the only ones getting tired of the RIAA's antics. Consumer Electronics Association chief Gary Shapiro had some harsh words for the music industry the other day. He's particularly miffed at the RIAA's wild and fairly unrealistic expectations for an audio broadcast flag. Not only did they start pushing for the spec rather late in the digital radio game, potentially making current investments by broadcasters worthless, but they're not offering any help on the actual spec itself. "In short," says Gary, "the RIAA wants to stop consumers from doing what they've been doing since a tape recorder was first used to capture a song played over the air for private use." Shapiro says the CEA is plenty willing to play the DRM game, and limit "the mass indiscriminate redistribution of music over the Internet," but he says "The game of crying wolf [over piracy] is not only tiresome; it's harmful to consumers and innovation." We couldn't have put it better ourselves.[Via Ars Technica]
CEA to launch CES-like E3 replacement?
Since E3 decided to call it quits as the bespoke conference and reorg into something a little more intimate, a number of alternatives are starting to crop up in its place. The most promising prospect, however, comes from the CEA -- harbingers of the one true doombringer event, CES, and outspoken consumer advocates -- who have formed a committee to explore a CES-like event for games to take the place of E3. CE3, if you will. Of course, this does not mean they're committing to any such thing, but when your last event was attended by some 162,000 or so industry professionals and members of the media, let's just say that if they did decide to do a CE3 they'd have a helluva mailing list to work with.
Gary Shapiro and the CEA take a stand
We try not to get too political or alarmist here on Engadget -- especially when it comes to draft legislation that's yet to make it far in congress -- but Gary Shapiro and the group he represents, the CEA (you may have heard of them?), are taking a stand against big content in America. Sounds like someone's hearing all the whining we (all) do about the overly restrictive DRM and fundamentally adversarial posturing the content industry has consistently taken against consumers and their devices. A release issued by the CEA at Shapiro's behest calls for the immediate passage of bill H.R. 1201 (the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2005) by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, on behalf of the HRRC (Home Recording Rights Coalition). Shapiro's on a crusade now, people, to tackle what he perceives as some very serious issues plaguing the industry today, like big content's apparent enforcement of copyright as property law, and the "gross extension of copyright protection" keeping work from entering the public domain. Whether H.R. 1201 is actually going turn up roses we don't yet know, but it's not like there's anything to thing to stop the content companies -- and the CEA's many members -- from lobbying against this bill, especially megacorps like Sony that play on both sides as content and device maker.[Thanks, Alex C]
The DTV education continues
It seems that Circuit City was ahead of their time when posting notices to customers concerning the analog shutoff. We applaud them for it and are equally excited that the Consumer electronics Association is increasing efforts to get the word out.They are basically asking for labels on analog TVs and signs posted so that consumers understand that the TV's integrated tuner has a limited life span. The notice is long and I am sure that it will cause some confusion, but just like the Circuit City notice it will help sell some DTVs.Speaking of selling DTVs, the CEA is also predicting that 2006 will be the first year that DTVs outsell analog TVs. They also note that DTV sales are expected to see a 50% increase over 2005. via [Broadcast Newsroom]
DTV Pioneer awards
Is it me or do the same people win this thing every year? Some of the previous year's winners are obviously the true Pioneers in Digital TV.The biggest missing player in this year's nominees is DISH Network; I mean how many channels do you have to add to get nominated? I think they have done more in the last year than the 3 companies that were nominated, well maybe not three times as much as DIRECTV. My favorite is Lost, a nominee for the "People's choice" award. I think this is the best show on TV right now and it's one of the only shows that I watch 15 minutes after it starts, the rest of the shows get better with age on my HDTivo. I am a bit disappointed that none of my Representatives were nominated for "Best DTV Leadership", I guess I will have to email them to tell them they are slacking!
So it's really sports fans that are driving HDTV adoption
Or at least thats what the Sports Video Group's survey has uncovered (big surprise, with that name I really doubt the result was going to be most people get high definition for Discovery channel). The "Inside the mind of the HD sports fan" uncovered several statistics that will probably surprise very few of you. 39% of sports viewers are extremely disappointed when an event they want to watch is not in HD 22% will watch an event they otherwise would not have watched because it is in high definition Nearly 50% of HDTV owners cited sports as the reason for their purchase Hopefully the NBA is paying attention to studies like this, far too many times this season I've had to watch games in SD because they were not broadcast in high definition, or were not broadcast in HD nationally.
