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Consumers have embraced digital media, primarily content such as music, photos and video. They generate their own content, transfer their analog data to digital formats, and download media from the Internet. The percentage of U.S. households with platforms for image and video capture, as well as mus...

Movie fans will soon have yet another way to get online content through their televisions. Netflix has signed a deal to offer video streaming through a new LG Blu-ray DVD player. The device marks Netflix' third online-to-TV partnership and will be the industry's first Blu-ray system to offer instan...

Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony have joined forces with Amimon, a developer of wireless home digital interface technology. The companies have pledged support for the creation of a new interoperable industry standard for audio, video and control that could connect multiple high-definition ...

Pioneer unveiled a new optical disc Monday that could theoretically hold the entire contents of the average consumer's hard drive plus some -- if it were rewritable. The Japanese electronics manufacturer has created the world's first 16-layer disc that squeezes 25GB on each level. The disc, however,...

A new study shows the majority of Americans still on dial-up Internet access are keeping the slow connection by choice. The Pew Internet and American Life Project's "Home Broadband Adoption 2008" report finds only 55 percent of Americans are now using high-speed broadband connections -- up 8 percent...

It already dominates the Internet -- why not the TV? Probably Google wasn't thinking exactly in those terms when it conceived the idea for Google Media Server, its latest addition to a ballooning product line. But planting a foothold in a medium in which it so far only dabbles is clearly the driver ...

Sony's Blu-ray won the battle of high-definition DVD formats, but its PlayStation 3 gaming console has been losing the war over networked home entertainment. That will change this summer in the U.S., promised Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, during a Tokyo press conference. Sony ...

OPINION

Learning From Contrasts

Last week I was in Japan doing a deep dive on Panasonic, a firm I've observed for decades but never really got to know until recently. I've studied Apple in depth since the '80s and I find the contrasts between the firms and their key founders Konosuke Matsushita -- for whom Panasonic was originally...

Microsoft and HP are teaming up to develop the high-tech home of the future. The two companies revealed their Innoventions Dream Home at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., this week. The home features some of the newest developments in communications technology and is now open for public tours. Located ...

HP has a new way to bring all your home media together in one central place. The company introduced the HP MediaSmart Connect system Tuesday. MediaSmart Connect is essentially a wireless server that aggregates content from various sources around your home and makes it all accessible via your high-de...

STARTUP TO WATCH

ZeeVee Builds New Bridge From PC to TV

When startup ZeeVee launched its ZvBox last month, it entered a fray in which high-profile contenders have already found success elusive. The ZvBox aims to let consumers watch any Internet TV, online video or computer content on their home high-definition TVs, and it marks one of the latest attempts...

The Netflix Player by Roku, a television set-top box that streams play-on-demand videos and movies from mail order DVD rental titan Netflix, launched late last month to generally wide acclaim. In fact, Roku reportedly sold out two weeks after its launch, though the company has said it has shipments ...

What is a high-end entertainment system? That question can be answered in a variety of ways. For some people, "high-end" means systems bought at a specialty retailer, e.g., Bang & Olufsen, Tweeter or Ultimate Electronics. For others, price determines a high-end entertainment system -- $5,000, $1...

Is Blu-ray Worth It?

When HD-DVD maker Toshiba conceded the high-definition DVD format war in February, Blu-ray's backers may have hoped that sales of the Sony-championed format would see a big boost. However, while Blu-ray may have triumphed over HD-DVD, sales for the device have not exactly skyrocketed. An April 30 re...

Sony Electronics and the six largest U.S. cable companies have signed an agreement that paves the way toward allowing consumers to view interactive digital and high-definition video services on "two-way" devices without a set-top box, the companies announced Tuesday. The agreement lays the groundwor...

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