hi-def

Facevision releases budget Skype-certified HD Webcam

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LAS VEGAS--A year ago, Facevision introduced the first Skype-certified HD Webcam, the FV TouchCam N1, that was capable of streaming high-definition video over the Internet, turning video chat into a much better experience. It was one of a few HD Webcams at the time.

For this reason, the FV TouchCam N1 was rather expensive, costing around $120 when first released (it now has a street price of about $100).

Today, the company announced and demonstrated at CES 2011 a new version of the Webcam that offers the same capability but at a significantly lower cost, the TouchCam V1 720p HD … Read more

Vimeo: 1080p video coming by end of the month

New York-based video service Vimeo announced Wednesday it will roll out 1080p video (also known as "full HD") to its members by the end of this month.

In order to upload 1080p clips, users will have to be members of Vimeo's paid Plus service, which costs $10 a month, or $60 a year. Though anyone can view a 1080p video regardless of whether they're a free or paid Plus user.

The company also announced that it has expanded its recently introduced mobile offerings, letting users pick which of their videos they want to be viewable on … Read more

Silicon Image introduces next-gen home AV wireless networking technology: LiquidHD

One of the holy grails of consumer electronics is to create a wireless networking solution that works seamlessly behind the scenes to link together all your home AV, PC, and mobile gear throughout your house. Silicon Image, the company that brought you the HDMI standard, is on a quest to find that grail and the horse its riding is named LiquidHD.

The folks from Silicon Image are talking up the new technology at CES this year and the basic concept goes something like this: You have a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 connected to a TV in one room and … Read more

Futuresource: Hi-def disc market doing well

According to a recent report by Futuresource, a consulting company that did a survey on how many of us copy DVDs a while ago, the high-definition disc markets in both the U.S. and Europe continue to perform very well, thanks to the fact that the world shifted to one format--Blu-ray--at the beginning of the year.

Currently, taking only big titles into account, the share of total sales being taken by Blu-ray has already hit 5 percent to 6 percent. By the end of the year, this share is estimated to be more than 10 percent. With many hot title … Read more

Inching closer to wireless hi-def video

The backers of Wireless Home Digital Interface plan to announce they are officially banding together Wednesday. But we're still months, or even a year from true, interoperable devices that can send high-definition video between themselves.

Wireless Home Digital Interface, or WHDI, sends uncompressed, high-definition video signals over the unlicensed 5-Gigahertz band. The backers of it say its immune to obstructions like walls and can deliver a signal that covers an entire home--that means setting up a set-top box in a basement and connecting it wirelessly to a 1080p TV in an upstairs bedroom.

But we've been hearing this stuff for years. … Read more

Super Hi-Vision: Hi-def goes even higher

It's no secret that the Japanese are into their high definition televisions--they've been able to watch HD for years now. They even had an analog transmission for HD in the late '80s, beating the rest of the world by some considerable margin. It's no surprise then that they quickly got bored of HD and came up with something called Super Hi-Vision, which is even better.

Super Hi-Vision pictures are made up of 33 million pixels, transmitted 60 times per second with a frame size of a staggering 7,680 x 4,320 pixels. Super Hi-Vision has … Read more

CES: Fooling your senses: bass-shaking chairs, ultra high-definition, and now, 3-D plasma tvs

As if reality were too mundane for you, many of the vendors at this year's CES would like to sell you a chair that vibrates in synch with your home theater system, a ultra-thin Hi-Def TVs that defies reality in terms of fidelity, clarity and color and now, televisions that attempt to be 3-D. Not satisfied? How about high-definition cameras? While I can't show you a picture of what 3-D TV image looks like, it's nowhere as cool as you may think.

The people in the picture look like the SIMS and kind of resemble animated diorama. … Read more