HDTV Recipients to Jump Sevenfold Within Five Years
About 280 million worldwide households will receive some form of high-definition television service in 2013, up from about 40 million last year, IMS Research said in a report last week. More than a third of the HDTV recipients five years from now will get the service from direct-to-home providers, with other services such as Internet protocol TV accounting for smaller shares of the market, IMS said.
MTV Launches International HD Channel in Europe
MTV Networks this month will debut an international high-definition channel targeting younger viewers and music fans. MTV Networks High Definition, which will launch Sept. 15 in much of Europe, will offer original programs such as an extreme sports show and a countdown as well as music videos, the Viacom unit said this week.
Toshiba Unveils Two Eco-Friendly LCD TVs at IFA
Toshiba unveiled two liquid-crystal display televisions at Berlin’s IFA conference that it says are ecologically friendlier. In addition to brightness-control improvements that cut carbon dioxide emissions, Toshiba’s 42XV515D model will be 19% lighter than its 2006 equivalent, the company says.
AT&T Runs HD VOD Trial on U-verse
AT&T has offered some of its U-verse fiber-optic television customers the chance to try out its high-definition video-on-demand service, Web site EngadgetHD.com reports. AT&T, which had 549,000 subscribers at the end of the second quarter, also offered a digital video recorder upgrade that gives customers the ability to record four shows at once, the Web site says.
WB Enhances ‘I Am Legend’ for Blu-Ray
Warner Bros. will re-release the Will Smith-starring “I Am Legend” on Blu-ray in December. The new offering will include hours of commentary from the film’s director and screenwriter as well as a separate disc with an alternate version of the movie, Web site Hi-Def Digest reports. The updated Blu-ray release, which will retail for $59.98, will have a dozen deleted scenes as well as a digital copy that can be played on portable video players, the Web site says.
Price, Perception Continue to Cramp Blu-ray Sales
Blu-ray player and disc sales will continue to lag their standard-definition counterparts by a considerable margin for the rest of the year because of higher prices and a perception that viewing experience isn’t substantially better, Wired reports, citing Josh Martin of technology consultant Yankee Group. Specification confusion and the after-effects of Blu-ray’s format war with Toshiba’s HD DVD also will hold back sales, the magazine says.