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Sensio delivers live 3D broadcasting technology to 50 more US theaters

by Darren Murph posted Dec 24th 2008 at 6:12PM


Sensio already partnered with JVC in the consumer 3D projection realm, and now it's looking to bring live 3D broadcasting capabilities to 50 more cinemas in the United States. The 3D cinema decoding technology will be used by Cinedigm Digital Cinema -- the same folks responsible for bringing the BCS National Championship to a slew of theaters in 3D. We're actually quite curious to see how all of this pans out; will 3D fanatics (like this guy above, obviously) rush out to view every big sporting event on the silver screen, or will HD feeds on their own big screen be good enough?

Philips and Magnavox brands licensed to Funai

by Darren Murph posted Nov 19th 2008 at 6:58PM


If you were a bit confused as to how Funai planned on boosting its Q4 numbers with sales of Blu-ray players, maybe this will clear things up. Effective January 1, 2009, Philips Consumer Lifestyles will "license its Philips and Magnavox brands to Funai for Blu-ray Disc players, DVD players, DVD recorders and home cinema products in the US." With the onset of the new year, Funai will take responsibility for the "manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sales activities" for all of the above mentioned items, and of course, Philips will receive royalty payments in exchange. The agreement is set to last for three years with a possibility of extension, and once the transformation takes place, Philips Consumer Lifestyles' "On The Go" portable wares will be the only ones it exclusively offers without any assistance from Funai.

XStreamHD licenses audio processing from ARC, resumes radio silence

by Steven Kim posted Oct 5th 2008 at 11:43PM

XStreamHD Media Receiver
When we last heard from XStreamHD, the company had grand plans on streaming movies via satellite to some boxes with great looking specs, Michael Douglas and a non-functional CES booth that failed to impress. Now we see that the company has licensed ARC audio processing for Dolby Digital Plus decoding, which presumably would come in handy -- if there were any content to decode. To be fair, there's still time for XStreamHD to meet its long-ago promised Q4 2008 release, but absent any of the "latest content from leading studios" the only audio that will get decoded is the sound of one hand clapping.

BDA granting 11 China-based manufacturers with Blu-ray licenses?

by Darren Murph posted Jun 1st 2008 at 9:11AM


We'd take all of this with a healthy dose of salt just now, but reportedly, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is looking to grant 11 China-based manufacturers with Blu-ray licenses. As we've already seen, select Chinese companies have long since been listed on the BDA's website of licensees, but according to recent reports, even more are being allowed to "undertake R&D, production and marketing of BD discs, players or drives." It's said that the 11 in question include TCL, Malata, China Hualu Panasonic AVC Networks and Desay, and that volume production is expected to begin from at least some of them as early as 2009. It'll definitely be interesting to see where this takes things, if these whispers are in fact accurate.

[Via HDTV Info, thanks gamedude420]

France not exactly rushing to adopt HD

by Darren Murph posted May 27th 2008 at 10:12PM

Talk about a let down. According to a new report from Variety, Daniel Bilalian -- France Televisions' director of sports programming -- has announced that "HD transmissions would not be available for this summer's Olympic Games on any of the pubcaster's channels." The article also notes that French networks in general have been slow to move towards high-definition, with only Canal Plus putting forth a proposal for premium HD transmissions (from pay-TV providers). Still, it's noted that private networks TF1 and M6 have "committed to airing at least 80-percent of their content in HD by the end of 2012," but it's not like we're really down with twiddling our thumbs for four more years waiting for it to happen.

Russound licenses iPort technology, aims to bring iPods into whole home systems

by Darren Murph posted May 6th 2008 at 9:39PM

As if the iPod wasn't ubiquitous enough, Russound has just licensed Dana Innovations' patented iPort concept and integrating technologies in an attempt to tie in Apple's darling with whole home AV systems. Apparently the company views said PMP as a "music server rather than a simple portable player," and now that the agreement is in place, we should see a slew of new kit designed with tight iPod integration in mind. Unfortunately, details beyond that are scant, but Charlie Porritt, Russound's vice president of sales, did note that the forthcoming products would be aimed at consumers "who treat their iPods as a primary source of entertainment in the home."

BDA not licensing Blu-ray technology to Chinese manufacturers

by Darren Murph posted Mar 7th 2008 at 5:02PM


When we posed the question of buying a Blu-ray player now or simply holding tight for prices to inevitably fall, we received a variety of responses. Still, just about everyone could agree that lower prices on standalone players would be excellent for consumers, but those delectable deep discounts may be quite aways off. According to Stan Glascow, the president of Sony Electronics, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) -- the group that maintains control over the BD standard -- has yet to license the technology to any Chinese manufacturers. In other words, prices are staying relatively high due to the lack of competition from China, not to mention the lack of another major format to keep things in line. Continuing future, he did admit that there would eventually be Chinese Blu-ray players on the market, but he did note that it didn't "need to drive that and hand the technology over" any time soon. So much for those Christmas in July (2008) wishes, eh?

[Thanks, Jake B.]

Update: For whatever it's worth, China Hualu Group Co., Ltd is listed on the BDA's website of licensees. Interesting. Thanks for the heads-up, Dave!

DTS licenses DTS HD Master Audio technology to ten IC producers

by Darren Murph posted Dec 28th 2006 at 4:05PM

Although Dolby's TrueHD may be a more well-known moniker, it looks like you'll be hearing (quite literally) a lot more of DTS in the coming months. The firm has landed a deal with no less than ten integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers to incorporate its DTS HD Master Audio and / or DTS HD High Resolution Audio technology (not to mention the DTS HD LBR and encoder / transcoder jazz) into forthcoming chips. These microchips -- designed by Analog Devices, Broadcom, Cheertek, LSI, Matsushita, MediaTek, NEC, Renesas, Sigma Designs, and Sunplus Technology -- will contain DTS's high definition audio standards and will eventually find their way into next-generation HD DVD and Blu-ray players, AV receivers, and pre-packaged home theater systems. Additionally, the technology could even slither into the PC and automobile markets. While neither specific end products nor release dates were mentioned, we do know that devices coming out "in 2007" will be sporting the new protocols, and hey, we've got no qualms when it comes to options in audio (or video).

CES: Blu-ray specification is done, full list of supporters and titles

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 6th 2006 at 9:52AM


Well, Blu-ray is done, which I'd hope it would be, what with them announcing players and content and all. If you're interested in licensing the Blu-ray technology you can get in touch with your local Blu-ray licensing agent and execute the secret handshake licensing agreement.

Also we've got the complete list of player manufacturers, computer software, and launch titles from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Lionsgate Home Entertainment Eagle Rock Entertainment, as well as the Japan only content announced so far.

Continue reading CES: Blu-ray specification is done, full list of supporters and titles





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