Philips 3D WOWvx video spot

GreenDrive GPS

GreenDrive is a GPS application developed by Road-Guard that works by suggesting the most economical driving style to the driver. When you’re too slow or too fast it’ll tell you to speed up or break so you’re always driving close to the optimal speed for fuel efficiency.

With GreenDrive’s patented "Horizon Prediction" technology, drivers not only achieve real fuel savings (reportedly up to 15-25%), but they also do their bit for the environment, reducing traffic pollution emissions and producing less CO2.

GreenDrive can be installed on GPS navigation devices or GPS powered cell phones.

Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision

A combination of high-tech wireless glasses and advanced software, GeForce 3D Vision automatically transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D.

Just slip on the stylish glasses and pair them with an NVIDIA GeForce GPU and a "GeForce 3D Vision-Ready" display to experience characters and environments come to life on the screen.

In addition, you can watch 3D movies and 3D digital photographs in eye popping, crystal-clear quality.

Multimedia Grand Challenge

What problems do Google, Yahoo, HP, Radvision, CeWe, Nokia and other companies see in the future of multimedia?

The Multimedia Grand Challenge is a set of problems and issues from these (and other) industry leaders, geared to engage the Multimedia research community in solving relevant, interesting and challenging questions about the industry’s 2-5 year horizon for multimedia.

The Grand Challenge is initially presented as part of ACM Multimedia 2009. Researchers will be encouraged to submit working systems in response to the challenge to win the Grand Challenge competition!

Can you solve these problems?

Panasonics's 10-bit 4:2:2 camera

Panasonic unveiled the world’s first "affordable" professional camcorder with 10-bit, 4:2:2, individual frame recording and native 2.2 megapixel imagers.

The AG-HPX301E imager incorporates advanced 1/3” 2.2-megapixel 3-MOS technology to acquire full native resolution HD images. Superseding the compromise of 8-bit, long GOP, 4:2:0 recording, the HPX301E provides master-quality, 10bit, 4:2:2 individual frame capture using AVC-Intra 100 and 50 codecs and let you record in a choice of HD video formats. Moreover, it records also in SD frequencies in interlinear and progressive mode. The camera also supports 1080/23.98PsF output (via HD-SDI) for use in high-end movie production.

The HPX301E will be available in March at a suggested list price of 9.500 euros.

See the press release.

Nokia cooperates with ST-Ericsson

Yesterday in Barcelona, at the Mobile World Congress, the new ST-Ericsson joint venture announced an important partnership with Nokia to provide the Symbian Foundation with a reference platform based on ST-Ericsson’s U8500 single chip.

The chip, which combines ST-Ericsson’s well-proven application processor and state-of-the-art HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) Release 7 modem, will enable the wide adoption, across the industry, of feature-rich, multimedia 3G Smartphones.

The U8500, which relies on the Nomadik application-processor technology, integrates the latest SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) ARM dual-Cortex A9 CPU in a platform supporting Symbian Foundation software. The chip is the first device enabling full High-Definition 1080 progressive-scan camcorder functions together with high-end 3-D graphics acceleration.

Read the press release.

The Pirate Bay trial

The second day of a trial in Sweden in which operators of The Pirate Bay website are facing charges of copyright infringement opened with a victory for the defense. Responding to opening remarks by defense attorneys on Monday, prosecutors acknowledged that Pirate Bay had not copied any films or CDs itself. It then agreed to drop roughly half the charges.

Continue reading on the IMDb.

HDTV is worth every cent

HDTV finally comes to Springfield. This week, The Simpsons inagurated the new HD 16:9 format, with the first makeover of the opening sequence in 20 years. You can see it in the following YouTube video, and note Bart's chalkboard punchline "HDTV is worth every cent".

Browser chip for TV

Should televisions be able to get access to the Web? And if they should, how should they?

Gordon Campbell, formerly Intel's first chief corporate marketing officer, now works at Personal Web Systems, a company which is ready to ship its first product, a $150 adapter that will attach to televisions to make them fully Internet-enabled.

Read the article on the International Herald Tribune or The New York Times.

H.264 Corrigendum 1

Corrigendum 1 to Recommendation ITU-T H.264 (2007) was approved on 13 January 2009 by ITU-T Study Group 16 and it is available free of charge in PDF and Word formats on the ITU-T website.

Corrigendum 1 provides a significant number of minor corrections, clarifications, consistency improvements and formatting improvements drafted in response to accumulated errata reports collected since publication of the 2nd edition, dated 2005-03.

Analysts on Blu-Ray future

Quoting from Home Media Magazine:

Depending on who is talking, Blu-ray is either evolving steadily as the high-definition sequel to standard DVD or a pricey consumer electronics curiosity.

J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan said he believes Blu-ray unlikely to be a significant near-term catalyst for packaged-media sales going forward considering the economy.

In a consumer survey conducted in December by a third-party vendor, just 62% of respondents were familiar with Blu-ray, and of those, more than 50% said they had no plans to buy a BD player in the next 12 months. This compared to 20% who indicated an interest in purchasing a player and 6% who already owned a BD player.

Among BD consumers, 4% said they intended to replace their collection of standard DVD with Blu-ray once the titles became available. Khan said the fact that only 14% of BD consumers intended to replace their DVD libraries underscored his position.

“The replacement of VHS libraries with DVD was a strong catalyst for the [home video] industry over the past decade,” Khan said in a research note. “For now, at least, it does not appear consumers intend to repeat the cycle with Blu-ray.”

However, a separate study from SNL Kagan found that despite BD’s sluggish start, the next-generation high-definition packaged-media format would attain nearly 60% market share in 2014 and generate $13.1 billion in revenue. The Monterey, Calif.-based research firm said BD market share would soar to 73.8%, or $15.6 billion in revenue by 2017.

“Blu-ray will be the driving force behind the video retail market throughout the next decade,” said Wade Holden, analyst at SNL Kagan. “The current economic climate, however, will slow the growth of this new format and likely keep it from reaching the heights that it may have [reached] in better times.”

Indeed, J.P. Morgan analyst Khan said his consumer study found price to be the primary deterrent to wider consumer adoption of Blu-ray. He said 42% of respondents would consider BD if the price rivaled DVD, even in the current economy.

In a comparison of the top 50 BD and standard-DVD movies on Amazon, Khan found the average price for a new BD release to be $23.90 compared to $17.91 for DVD. Library titles averaged $20.23 for BD and $10.66 for DVD.

The analyst determined that the average 33% price premium for Blu-ray movies over DVD was actually 29% on a weighted-average basis when factoring that the most in-demand releases such as The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Iron Man and Transformers in BD were priced just 12% above DVD.

“We expect Blu-ray discs to drive some incremental sales, but think it’s unlikely their contribution will drive significant out-performance in the coming 12 months,” Khan said.

Monsters, aliens and Chuck

Danish company colorcode3d.com's 3D system was used together with 130 million ColorCodeViewers (with 3D glasses) during the Super Bowl XLIII transmission last Sunday to promote the new DreamWorks 3-D movie, Monsters vs. Aliens.

This was followed up by a double episode of first ever 3-D television series "Chuck", broadcast in US television on Monday night.