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The 2010 Winter Olympics kicks off tonight in HD
The wait is finally almost over and tonight at 7:30PM Eastern the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics will kick off 14 days of Winter fun. There's a total of 835 hours of HD coverage spread across NBC Universal's various channels. With so many hours of HD coverage it really shows how far we've come since the first HD Olympics in Athens in 2004, when NBC broadcast one 24 hour Olympic HD channel with events were from the previous day, and only one commercial -- you know, the Sony "Chips and Salsa" commercial that was played ad nauseam. Our favorite way to keep up with the HD sports schedule is HDSportsGuide.com but we're also sure to check out as much of the coverage online at NBCOlympics.com as we can.
Panasonic's Lumix DMC-ZR1 catches Olympic fever
Well, it's Olympic season once again, and that can only mean one thing: a new round of tie-in products. One of the first to arrive on the scene is a new version of Panasonic's Lumix ZR1, which boasts an eye-catching red paint job complete with the official Vancouver 2010 logo. Otherwise, this one looks to be the same 12-megapixel point-and-shoot as before, with it packing an 8x optical zoom, a 25 mm wide-angle Leica DC VARIO-ELMAR lens, a 2.7-inch LCD, and the usual face detection and image stabilization features we've come to expect. No word on US availability for this one, but it looks like it's now available in Canada with an MSRP of $349.99 (or about $330US).
NBCOlympics.com using Silverlight 3, Smooth Streaming for Winter Olympics video
The Beijing Olympics broadcast benefited greatly from high quality streams available on the NBCOlympics.com website, and it looks like the 2010 Games in Vancouver will be no different. To that end, Microsoft's released server side enhancements like Smooth Streaming technology for adaptive streaming with Silverlight to keep the video streams moving smoothly, and even enable DVR-like features in a live stream without requiring dedicated video servers, all so viewers can get smooth 720p throughout the event. By then Silverlight 3 should be out of beta, which promises support for up to 1080p resolution, native playback of MP4 formats like h.264 and hardware graphics acceleration. Honestly we'd expect nothing less, and while word is CTV, HSN and others will be among the first to take advantage, we're waiting for Netflix to pick up the baton and deliver browser based PQ that rises to the level of Xbox 360 and other players, plus more HD.
