televisions

DietTelevision: The mother of all diet sites

A new diet site and social network is launching this week: DietTelevison. It looks like a good resource for people trying to lose weight. It has a ton of diet-related information, as well as a social network to give dieters a support group.

As an information source, it's very rich. You select your tolerance for various diet aspects (your affection for bread or for meat; your preference for affordable or restaurant-friendly plans, for example), and the site then gives you a list of diets that matches your wishes. While the site doesn't have arrangements with the people who … Read more

Reports: Thorny antipiracy treaty is dead for now

A divisive treaty that digital rights groups, consumer electronics companies and librarians have warned would gut the public's home and fair use rights to television signals appears to be on its deathbed.

For years, a United Nations committee has been attempting to craft a treaty designed to give TV and satellite broadcasters, cablecasters and, depending on whom you ask, Webcasters extra latitude to combat piracy of their signals.

But now we're hearing reports from the final day of a weeklong meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization panel in Geneva that those efforts have collapsed, at least for … Read more

Politicos propose 'family-friendly' cable mandate

Just last week, a federal appeals court called into question an earlier finding that pop icons Cher and Nicole Ritchie broke indecency rules by uttering the "F-Word" and "S-Word" on broadcast TV awards shows a few years ago. On Thursday, politicians on Capitol Hill responded: with a proposal for new regulations aimed at promoting a more "family-friendly" selection of cable and satellite TV content.

With enthusiastic endorsements from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and parent advocacy groups, Reps. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) on Thursday staged a press conference to unveil … Read more

Toshiba puts off SED TV again

BEIJING--SED TV just can't get off the ground.

Toshiba said it would postpone the launch of surface conduction electron emitter display (SED) TVs from a planned launch in the fourth quarter. This time the delay is because Canon, its partner in SED, will not be able to supply displays to meet the original schedule. A specified time for the launch cannot be stated at this time, Toshiba said.

Last October, it was all systems go for SED TVs, which have better picture quality than LED TVs but are just as thin, according to advocates of SED. Toshiba showed off … Read more

Enjoy the power of the Pioneer PDP-5070HD

Many years ago, I was unfortunate enough to experience one of life's grandest tragedies. Well worn, and battle scared my television decided to change occupations and become a paper weight. Almost immediately I noticed that my house had become engulfed in an eldritch silence. Emergency plans were created and deployed. I tried going outside, and even reading a book, but nothing could fill the void left by the loss of my glowing friend. I only wish I had an opportunity to replace it with one of the many, increasingly affordable, plasma TV delights such as the Pioneer PDP-5070HD. Fortunately, … Read more

San Francisco TV station Slings the news

The Slingbox is known best for its ability to let consumers watch their home TV channels remotely using a laptop or smart phone. But a local San Francisco news station has found a way to utilize the trapezoid-shaped set-top box to cheaply and easily deliver live news, traffic and weather updates wirelessly back to its studio.

The news operations director at CBS 5, Don Sharp, devised a way to replace more than 20 of its cameras affixed to the tops of local bridges, freeways and buildings that use microwave technology to relay video back to the station with smaller cameras … Read more

HBO knocks boxing match video out of the YouTube ring

HBO has requested that YouTube pull down footage of Saturday night's championship boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya, according to a Los Angeles Times report on Tuesday (free registration required). A YouTube user had uploaded the broadcast from Las Vegas, originally shown live on HBO's pay-per-view channel, in a relatively high-quality format later that weekend. That was understandably problematic for HBO, which plans to show a rebroadcast of the match this coming Saturday.

The video was removed from the legally embattled YouTube around 4 p.m. PDT on Monday, replaced with a notice … Read more

CableCard goes mainstream on July 1

On paper, CableCard sounded pretty great. Instead of a cable box, your local provider would give you a small smartcard--the exact same design as a PCMCIA card--that would fit into the back of your TV (or DVR). In theory, you were getting the benefit of "the good old days" of analog cable with a digital makeover--just plug the wire into the back of the TV, and you'd get access to all of your digital and HD channels. In reality, CableCard has been plagued with problems. The existing technology is one-way, so you don't have access to … Read more

Toshiba TV makes change less scary

Change can be a scary thing. Crave still remembers its first day at gadget school. It was scary and we missed our mum. Changing televisions is just as daunting: your trusty old screen discarded like yesterday's paper and a new upstart put in its place. The good news is Toshiba doesn't want to scare you, it wants to help--and that's what the Regza 37X3030 is all about.

Toshiba's X-series televisions are 1080p ready, which is great, especially if you have the equipment needed to make the most of it. The 37X3030 is, as you may have … Read more