If you're looking for a DVD to pick up this week, you've got about a zillion versions of "Walk the Line" to choose from. I'll probably just stick with "Newsradio".
Newsradio - The Complete Third Season
NFL Super Bowl XL - Pittsburgh Steelers Championship DVD
Microchip 3-in-1 TV Tuner - A Cheap Chip for All Types of Devices
So, the other day I was refrigerator shopping with my wife at Best Buy when we ran into this beauty. Yep, we found a $3200 fridge with a 13.1" cable-ready LCD TV. The only thing I can say about that shopping experience is that wives can be so unreasonable.
Still, I have no plans to give up on having a fridge with a TV. In fact, it won't be long till it'll be cheap enough to put a TV tuner in every device. According to Gizmodo, Microtune is getting ready to roll out a cheap and tiny TV tuner:
They call this little hotshot “three-in-one” because it can handle garden-variety NTSC TV signals, ATSC (which encompasses all the HDTV standards), and then digital cable-ready (DCR) standards, too. All this TV tuning goodness for $3 apiece? Remarkable. Coming soon to a video-capable device near you.
Maybe I can get one of the chip thingies implanted right into my head? Guess I better start shopping for a helmet like Al Franken's.
Nielsen Media Research Top 10- Broadcast Primetime- Week of Feb 13 - Feb 19, 2006
Oops, I'm running a little late with last weeks rankings. The Olympics did a little better, but overall the overall numbers of people watching TV went down. Either people were outdoors or watching cable, I guess.
BROADCAST PRIMETIME- Week of Feb. 13 - Feb. 19, 2006
*Rank is based on U.S. Household Rating % from Nielsen Media Research's National People Meter Sample
**A household Rating is the estimate of the size of a television audience relative to the total universe, expressed as a percentage.
As of September 20, 2004, there are an estimated 109.6 million television households in the U.S. A single national household ratings point represents 1%, or
1,102,000 households.
***Total viewers includes all persons over the age of two.
Used with permission:
Nielsen Media Research, Inc. The Information contained herein is the copyrighted property of Nielsen Media Research, Inc. Unauthorized use of this copyrighted material is expressly prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
The upcoming TAV-L1 television is no ordinary goggle box. See, Sony’s latest HD set has one hell of a swish party trick up its sleeve that’s guaranteed to leave your house guests gawping with tech envy. In audio mode the unit looks like a stylish single-stand speaker, but tap the touch-sensitive front panel and the speaker grill seductively slides down to the floor to reveal a plush 32-inch HD-ready Bravia LCD display! We’ve seen it in action and frankly it’s agonisingly cool.
Plus, the speaker grille is interchangeable so you can customise it to suit your surroundings. Adding an extra sprinkle of chic to the proceedings is the smooth slot-loading CD/DVD player situated in the top of the telly. As for sounds, it’s discreetly equipped with 2.1 stereo, outputting 50w per channel, and is smuggling a hefty 100w subwoofer onboard.
The TAV-L1 will debut in the UK around May and should retail for around $6000UD.
Personally, I'm not that thrilled with the design. For the same price, you can get a larger screen HDTV and have a nice custom cabinet made if you really need to hide the screen.
It looks like Fox is trying to catch more of the youth market with it's new channel "My Network TV", which debuts in September. According to Businessweek:
My Network will build its prime time around a "telenovella" model. It's two prime-time shows, Desire and Secrets, slated to debut in September, will run every weeknight for one hour, completing an entire story arc in a 13-week season.
Desire is about brothers fleeing the Mafia, who tussle for the love of a woman engaged to a third man. Secrets offers ambition, backstabbing, and excellent clothes set against the backdrop of the fashion industry. Presentations for these shows revealed that Fox's understanding of what viscerally attracts viewers -- especially younger ones -- remains undimmed: The shows promise to be steamy. Stars for both shows, all remarkably young and remarkably beautiful, were trotted out at the event.
Geez, I must be getting old because those "crapnovellas" sound terrible. I guess it's time for me to start blaming crappy TV on the youth of America. So as Joe Pesci would say "You yutes stop watching crappy TV, so that the networks will write better stuff". Well said Joe!
Toshiba has a new mid-range projector, the TDP-T95U. According to Toshiba:
Toshiba's TDP-T95U projector is a sleek and travel-friendly projector designed for presenters who expect and demand quality, flexibility and performance at a tremendous value. The TDP-T95U features incredible brightness with 2,200 ANSI lumens, brilliant XGA (1024 x 768) resolution and a razor sharp 2000:1 contrast ratio. Thirty-degree digital keystone correction automatically engages without manual adjustments. Its flexible connectivity and fast, easy operation ensure flawless presentations and larger-than-life images virtually anytime, anywhere.
The Toshiba TDP-T95U Conference Room Projector supports TV (NTSC, PAL, SECAM), HDTV/DTV, and RGB signal inputs. Input terminals include 2-video (1-RCA, 1-S-Video), 5 audio (1x stereo mini-jack, 2x RCA for Video, 2x RCA for S-video), and 2 RGB for multiple input sources. Automatic Digital Keystone correction (+/- 30 degrees) is also supported.
For $1300, the TDP-T95U might be something to look at for those of you who are thinking about a projector.
For those people who feel they need to control the world comes the TV-B-Gone Universal TV Power Remote Control Keychain. The device is pretty simple:
Simply press the button and the remote runs through a sequence of codes until it shuts virtually any TV off May take up to 69 seconds for the TV to turn off, but most TVs will turn off within the first few seconds Range: 20 feet to 50 feet, depending on the make and model of the TV Turns TVs both on and off.
Mitch Altman, the creator of TV-B-Gone states on his website:
How much of the TV that you watch do you really like a lot? If you could choose whatever it is that you'd like to be doing right now, anything at all, what would it be? Was your answer, “Watch TV!”? Whatever your answer was, my wish for you is that you have time in your life to do it. Please make time in your life for what you really like. Better yet, please make time to do what you love. Wouldn't that be great? Don't know what you love? Try out a few things, see what happens.
Me, my life got so much better from watching TV less (I haven't actually had a TV since 1980!). As a result, I had enough time to invent TV-B-Gone®! My idea was to give others a similar chance – so I created a fun way to get the message out there that turning a TV on or off really is a choice. Anywhere, anytime. Please, go out there and choose.
Wow, thanks Mitch, what would we do without you? All we need now is a bunch of smug people walking around turning off TVs in sportsbars. I'm sure he'll donate some of his sale proceeds to the poor smuck in the hospital that got smacked in the head with a dozen Corona bottles for shutting off the TV during the big game.
So if you carry the TV-B-Gone around, please use a little common sense and most of all a little courtesy.
Last month we mentioned a review over at HomeTheaterMag.com of the NeuNeo HVD2085 1080p Upconverting DVD Player. Overall, the review was pretty positive. Well, TVSnob reader Grant Z. has sent us a review that offers a differing opinion of the NeuNeo HVD2085.
HVD2085 Player Skips & Stutters Its Way Into the Garbage Bin!
I've purchased the subject player and have viewed it on the following sets at 720p and 1080i ( 1080p never worked ) over component video:
I've set up the subject player using the THX optimizer test patterns for contrast and grey scale. I've observed the following serious problems, or deficiencies:
on source video that is dark like; room interiors, caves, night the video this player produces is an unwatchable mass of black with very little visible detail ( observed in several movies but very noticeable in Raiders of the Lost Arc opening scenes, etc ).
player will not display 1080p on my 1080p capable toshiba 72MX195. No help on this problem ever arrived from the socalled Neodigit technical support. They blamed the toshiba 72MX195, DLP TV and just had no clue as to what to do.
player "skipped" a minute of the arrival in venice in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. It did this repeatedly. I was not able to watch that minute of the movie. Then, through out venice, and after, the movie would stutter over seconds of video. It would also lose video and audio sync ( voice and mouth movement would not match ).
Update: Skipping and stuttering is a very serious problem with this machine. The move FARGO was unwatchable. Whole sections of this movie were skipped over by this machine. I call it the players undocumented DVD random scene editing feature.
I am astonished at how badly the HVD2085 player performs on video that is dark. Of the several DVD players I've had ranging from $25 to $600, i.e.: several toshibas, an apex, a koch, and the panasonic RP-91, this NeuNeo player is by far the worst I've ever seen when it comes to reproducing blacks and dark scenes in general. The remote is weak, difficult to use, and generally the worst remote I've ever tried to use.
Conclusion: Avoid this player and this company.
Contacting Neodigits technical support was equally frustrating. I sent them an email, waited for two weeks, and received no reply. I finally received a reply to an email the seller of this player sent on my behalf.
Please note that the views of the reader's review do not necessarily reflect the views of TVSnob.com
We thank Grant for sending us his review. If you have the HVD2085, have you had the same experience with the HVD2085? If so, please leave a comment or better yet, send us your own review.
2006 Winter Olympics TV Schedule for Tuesday, Feb. 21
Tuesday, Feb. 21
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Men’s hockey: Latvia vs. Kazakhstan; Switzerland vs. Italy; Finland vs. Germany; Canada vs. Czech Republic), 5:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
MSNBC — (Live: Men’s hockey: Latvia vs. Kazakhstan; Switzerland vs. Italy; Finland vs. Germany; Canada vs. Czech Republic; Sweden vs. Slovakia), 5:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
USA — (Biathlon Men’s Relay Final), 6-8 a.m.
USA — (Live: Men’s hockey: USA vs. Russia), 2-5 p.m.
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Men’s hockey: USA vs. Russia), 2-5 p.m.
Congratulations to Nicholas Hofstede for his simple but elegant winning entry based on variations of a LCD TV pixel theme:
Nicholas will receive a $50 Amazon gift certificate and our undying gratitude for a job well done.
So thank you to everyone who participated in the logo contest and stayed tuned as we’ll be taking the design direction that Nicholas set and finishing out the entire new TV Snob.com design soon.
2006 Winter Olympics TV Schedule for Friday, Feb. 17
Friday, Feb. 17
USA — (Women’s Snowboard Cross (live); Men’s curling match; Women’s curling: USA vs. Russia (live); Hockey USA Women’s Semifinal (live); Bobsled Two Man Training Runs), 4 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Women’s Hockey USA Semifinal), 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
MSNBC — (Live: Women’s Hockey Semifinal), 3-5:30 p.m.
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Women’s Hockey Semifinal), 3-5:30 p.m.|
NBC — (Cross Country Men’s 15km Final), 4-5 p.m.
CNBC — (Men’s curling: USA vs. Switzerland), 5-8 p.m.
Nielsen Media Research Top 10- Broadcast Primetime- Week of Feb 06 - Feb 12, 2006
As we mentioned yesterday, the Olympics are kind of a bust this year when it comes to TV ratings. For the rest of the Olympics, I promise to do my part and watch the Games 24 hours a day (not that I was going to do anything but watch TV, but it sounds more noble this way).
BROADCAST PRIMETIME- Week of Feb. 06 - Feb. 12, 2006
*Rank is based on U.S. Household Rating % from Nielsen Media Research's National People Meter Sample
**A household Rating is the estimate of the size of a television audience relative to the total universe, expressed as a percentage.
As of September 20, 2004, there are an estimated 109.6 million television households in the U.S. A single national household ratings point represents 1%, or
1,102,000 households.
***Total viewers includes all persons over the age of two.
Used with permission:
Nielsen Media Research, Inc. The Information contained herein is the copyrighted property of Nielsen Media Research, Inc. Unauthorized use of this copyrighted material is expressly prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
We're pretty excited here around the Blogpire. Over the past few months we've been cooking up a new site to bring to you - ReallyNatural.com. If you need tips on living naturally (Birkenstocks not required) - then this is the site for you. ReallyNatural.com is your resource for product reviews of all of those consumer food, health and beauty, and household goods marketed as 'natural', 'organic' and 'environmentally friendly'.
HTDude has pointed out that Dish Network has added these new HD channels:
ESPN2 HD
Universal HD
HD Locals
Family Room HD
Gameplay HD
Treasure HD
World Cinema HD
WorldSport HD
and Major Network Affiliates where available.
Add that to their existing 18 HD channels and you've got quite a few HD choices.
I swore I'd never go back to Dish network but now that they're starting to build a nice collection of HD channels, I might have to rethink that decision.
2006 Winter Olympics TV Schedule for Thursday, Feb. 16
Thursday, Feb. 16
USA — (Live: Biathlon Women’s 7.5km Sprint Final; Men’s curling: USA vs. Sweden; Tape: Men’s Snowboarding Cross), 6-11 a.m.
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Men’s hockey: Finland vs. Italy; Czech Republic vs. Switzerland; Sweden vs. Russia; Slovakia vs. Latvia), 6 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
MSNBC — (Live: Men’s hockey: Finland vs. Italy; Czech Republic vs. Switzerland; Men: Sweden vs. Russia; Slovakia vs. Latvia; Canada vs. Germany), 6 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
USA — (Live: Men’s hockey: USA vs. Kazakhstan), 3-6 p.m.
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Men’s hockey: USA vs. Kazakhstan), 3-6 p.m.
NBC — (Cross Country Women’s 10km Final; Speedskating Women’s Team Pursuit Semifinals; Speedskating Men’s Team Pursuit Semifinals), 4-5 p.m.
CNBC — (Women’s curling: USA vs. Sweden), 5-8 p.m.
In this day and age, a $5 remote just doesn't cut it anymore. Heck, it probably won't be too long till the remote can watch the TV for us. Until then, if you want one heck of a remote, you'll want to check out the Philips RC9800i Touchscreen Remote. Robert over at HomeTheater.About.com has a nice review that states:
The Philips RC9800i is an infrared wireless remote controller that is 5-inches wide, 4-inches high, with a 3.5-inch color LCD touch screen and a series control buttons.
The RC9800i features 32MB of internal memory and an internal database with remote control codes for over 1,100 brands of audio and video components. The database can be expanded through software upgrades via the RC9800i's USB interface, in conjunction with a PC.
In addition to its larage database capacity, the RC9800i can also learn remote control commands by interfacing with original remote controls.
The RC9800 is also compatible with audio/video home networking control functions via Wi-Fi connectivity.
The RC9800i can control components individually or by group activity.
The RC9800i also offers Electronic Program Guide (EPG) interface capability.
This is a pretty sweet remote, just ignore the fact that it costs as much a 77 Chevy Nova with a serious oil leak.
Between 8 and 9 p.m., when the tape-delayed, mostly men's figure skating Games coverage was holding the interest of about 16 million viewers, "Idol" was amusing nearly 27 million by dashing the dreams of roomfuls of Ashlee and Usher wannabes.
Among the 18-to-49-year-olds that NBC targets, "Idol" more than doubled the ratings of the Games.
It's got to be hard for an Olympic athlete to know that more people care about "American Idol" than what they're doing. I really think that loud mouth morons like Bode Miller turned off a lot of viewers. Hey Bode, if you're going to make yousef the focus of the Olympics, win something!
2006 Winter Olympics TV Schedule for Wednesday, Feb. 15
Wednesday, Feb. 15
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Men’s hockey: Sweden vs. Kazakhstan; Canada vs. Italy; Finland vs. Switzerland; Germany vs. Czech Republic), 5 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
MSNBC — (Live: Men’s hockey: Sweden vs. Kazakhstan; Canada vs. Italy; Finland vs. Switzerland; Germany vs. Czech Republic; Russia vs. Slovakia), 5 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
USA — (Live: Women’s curling: USA vs. Denmark), 8-11 a.m.
USA — (Live: Men’s hockey: USA vs. Latvia), 3-6 p.m.
UNIVERSAL HD — (Live: Men’s hockey: USA vs. Latvia), 3-6 p.m.
NBC — (Speedskating Women’s Team Pursuit; Short Track Speedskating Women’s 500m Semifinal), 4-5 p.m.
CNBC — (Men’s curling: USA vs. Italy), 5-8 p.m.
NBC — (Alpine Skiing Women’s Downhill Final; Freestyle Skiing Men’s Moguls Final; Short Track Speedskating Women’s 500m Final, Men’s 5000m Relay Semifinal and Men’s 1000m prelims; Luge Men’s Doubles Final; Nordic Combined Team Final: Ski Jumping Large Hill; Cross Country Women’s Team 4x5km Relay), 8-11:30 p.m.
NBC — (Speedskating Men’s Team Pursuit; Medals Plaza Award Ceremonies), 12:05-1:30 a.m.
Amazon DVD Releases Coming February 28, 2006
Continue reading: 
Saturday, Feb. 25
Toshiba has a new mid-range projector, the 
Last month 
Tuesday, Feb. 21
