Chet Davis - Your Technology Tutor

Wal-mart Enters Online Entertainment Arena

Wal-Mart, the nations largest retailer,  plans to acquire Vudu, an online video service that offers movies to buy and rent through partnerships with makers of Internet-connected televisions and Blu-ray players.

The fact that Wal-mart has their eyes (and their pocket-book) on Vudu suggests to me they must be doing some things very well, and that Vudu stands poised for a successful future.

One of the primary factors that sets Vudu apart from another streaming video provider - Netflix - is the fact that Vudu is available without a monthly subscription or contract. You can rent or buy high definition and standard definition movies on what is essentially a pay per view system. As they put it "only pay for what you watch".

Ok - but how do you 'get' or access Vudu? There are two methods to access their movies & programs:
1. VUDU is now available built into products from LG and Mitsubishi (DVD players and TV monitors)

2. Or you can use a 'Vudu' box -- they have two models:

• The VUDU box ($149.00) may be purchased at Best Buy

• The VUDU XL model ($499.00), designed for high end home theaters, is available only through our authorized installers.

You can learn more about Vudu from their website:  http://www.vudu.com/

Samsung launches Blu-ray and HDTV app store

Many folks have heard of the Apps store that you can download applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  As of January 2010, there are more than 115,000 3-party applications for these portable media devices.

Well, Samsung is launching their own App store for their Blu-ray. Samsung launching an application store for select 2010 Blu-ray players, HDTVs and home theaters.

The website MYCE (My Consumer Electronics) reported earlier this week that "Samsung’s store is an upgrade to its existing Internet@TV platform, which launched last year as a strip of widgets running along the bottom of the television screen. These included Flickr, Yahoo and others. The new app store will include offerings from Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY and Vudu. More apps will be added later this year."

You can see several applications running on the Samsung TV above - these will be available from the Samsung Apps store later this year.

Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show)

The world's largest trade show for consumer technology just wrapped up it's annual showing in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This year the dominant news coming from the city of bright lights is/was 3D Television (or 3D Home-Theater as the industry is calling it)

You have likely seen the articles in your newspaper, seen news clips on TV and/or read news feeds on the internet.  I share today two different sources for you to receive your inoculation of Technology News. 

My favorite, is this concise summary of CES News is from CNET - they provide a nice 22-minute video sharing their awards, their favorites from CES 2010.  After (or instead of) watching the video - scroll down and you'll see the top picks, by category, of CNET CES Awards for new technology.  Click here to check out the CNET CES Page

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Now, if you wanted to see/learn about everything that showed at the 2010 CES, you would head over to Engadget.  They were named the official blog-partner of the the group that sponsors/puts on CES every year, the CEA (Consumer Electronics Assoc.).

Visit the CES section of the massive Engadget technology/gadget blog site here http://www.engadget.com/ces and you can scroll through copious quantities of technology reviews that were straight from the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

It is helpful that you can view their posts by day (the show ran Tuesday through Saturday) or use the Engadget search tab at the top of the page to read something specific by manufacturer or gadget.

Sony to Provide 3D Television (& Film) Coverage of 2010 Soccer World Cup

By Chet Davis

"For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup™, the action on the field at next year's tournament will be broadcast using the next-generation technology 3D" this news from FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or loosely translated - the International Football/Soccer Federation

 This announcement indicates that up to 25 World Cup matches will be produced in Sony 3D. There will be special public viewing options (which will be announced at a later date) and "Sony Pictures Entertainment will produce and distribute the official 3D film of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa after the event. "

You can read the entire Press Release from FIFA here: Sony Covers the World Cup in 3D

This article from PC World talks about Sony's plan to launch 3D-capable Bravia TV sets and Blu-ray Disc players as well as adding 3D to the PlayStation 3.

You can view a short (2-minute) video from Sony which introduces the Sony-3D concept on their website here:

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200909/09-099E/index.html

 

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is being hosted in South Africa from 11th June to 11th July 2010. And for those curious - the 'draw' with the decision as to which team would play each other was held just yesterday.  In the first round, Team USA plays against England.

For Soccer (Football) fans, the FIFA World Cup 2010 Web portal can be found here:  FIFA World Cup 2010

Question: When Can Your Video Become a Postage Stamp ?

Answer:  When you incorrectly mix aspect ratio.

Yesterday I shared some info and thoughts about the different aspect ratios of video/TV, the 4:3 and the 16:9 (or wide-screen).  Now on most contemporary TVs (and in conjunction with modern DVD players) you can playback a video in it's original aspect ratio using one of the many viewing options (Aspect or 1:1, Stretch, Zoom, etc).  My favorite and recommendation to others is to view your movies/videos in their original aspect ratio -- and if that means a different aspect ratio than your monitor you will have matte (black borders) added either at the top and bottom or left and right sides (see yesterday's post for more on this topic: Video Aspect Ratios: Understanding Pillarboxing & Letterboxing )

Today our topic is what happens if someone processes/edits a video, employing aspect ration correction but then that video is played incorrectly -- here is an explanation and some illustrations that detail the undesirable effects that could occur...

Postage Stamp

One of the undesirable possible effects is called window-boxing or the postage stamp effect.This occurs when an image appears centered in a television screen, with the black matte (borders) on all four sides of the image. This diagram will show the resulting effect.

First - we have a 4:3 (standard) video

• At far left with have the original 4:3 video
• In the center image, the 4:3 video has the pillarbox effect added to correctly view on a 16:9 monitor
• In the right image, the pillar-boxed video (16:9) now has letterbox effect added to view on a 4:3 monitor but with the previously added Pillar-box effect we now have a window-box or postage stamp effect.

 This next row shows a 16:9 (wide-screen) video with similar results

• At far left with have the original 16:9 video
• In the center image, the 16:9 video has the letter-box effect added to correctly view on a 4:3 monitor
• In the right image, the letter-boxed video (now 4:3) now has pillar-box effect added to view on a 16:9 monitor but with the previously added letter-box effect we now have a window-box or postage stamp effect.
  

Ultimately, you want your audience to use the version that fits the aspect ratio of their TV - if they are using wide-screen, hopefully they will access a wide-screen original and not the letter-boxed version.  And your audience viewing on a 4:3 monitor should access your standard aspect ratio work from the original (not pillar-boxed) version.