A collection of stories tagged 'tv' from Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/ Copyright 2006 RoomforMilk.com. RoomforMilk is not affiliated with Slashdot.org. Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:45:23 EST Today, Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience for Xbox Live. The list of new features includes the streaming of TV shows and movies through Netflix, the ability to install games to the HDD, an avatar system, and the Community Games platform. The launch itself was shaky at first, but most issues have been smoothed out. Sony-owned Columbia Pictures immediately pulled their movie selection, though it may return when a licensing deal gets worked out. Halo 3 developer Bungie pointed out that not all games will run faster when installed to a HDD because of the way the games already interact with the drive.Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26282 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/HzPqUiM35IM/article.pl Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:05:00 EST The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Second Report and Order that establishes rules to allow new, sophisticated wireless devices to operate in broadcast television spectrum on a secondary basis at locations where that spectrum is open. It's the first time we have access to clear specifications for these devices, dubbed TVBDs — 'TV band devices' by the FCC. The published guidelines allow manufactures to create protocols and build compatible devices, which could be available in 18 Months, according to Larry Page. The full PDF text of this Second R&O is published on the FCC site."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26265 http://rss.slashdot.org:80/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/jQzRrcQu0-U/article.pl Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:05:23 EST Monty Python seems to have done the right thing. Instead of issuing take down notices of their videos on YouTube, they are doing it better themselves with their own YouTube channel. They are putting all their clips (including snips from their movies) up in a decent resolution, with the only caveat being a link to buying the movies and TV episodes from Amazon."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26264 http://rss.slashdot.org:80/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/gdLsqeoXB5o/article.pl Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:05:19 EST The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Second Report and Order that establishes rules to allow new, sophisticated wireless devices to operate in broadcast television spectrum on a secondary basis at locations where that spectrum is open. It's the first time we have access to clear specifications for these devices, dubbed TVBDs — 'TV band devices' by the FCC. The published guidelines allow manufactures to create protocols and build compatible devices, which could be available in 18 Months, according to Larry Page. The full PDF text of this Second R&O is published on the FCC site."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26259 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/jQzRrcQu0-U/article.pl Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:05:06 EST Monty Python seems to have done the right thing. Instead of issuing take down notices of their videos on YouTube, they are doing it better themselves with their own YouTube channel. They are putting all their clips (including snips from their movies) up in a decent resolution, with the only caveat being a link to buying the movies and TV episodes from Amazon."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26258 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/gdLsqeoXB5o/article.pl Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:05:01 EST A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as 'very happy' spend more time reading and socializing. 'TV doesn't really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does,' says researcher John P. Robinson. 'It's more passive and may provide escape — especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.' Unhappy people also liked their TV more: 'What viewers seem to be saying is that while TV in general is a waste of time and not particularly enjoyable, "the shows I saw tonight were pretty good."' The researchers analyzed two sets of data spanning nearly 30 years (PDF), gathered from nearly 30,000 adults, and found that unhappy people watch an estimated 20 percent more television than very happy people, after taking into account their education, income, age, and marital status — as well as other demographic predictors of both viewing and happiness. 'TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It's habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26184 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/TOK1bG8uNiU/article.pl Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:05:03 EST LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes pleaded guilty to charges of price fixing in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. They pleaded guilty to fixing the prices on LCD screens used not only in their products but also in other products such as Apple's iPods. The three companies agreed to pay $585 million in fines. Perhaps this will cause the price of our TVs to drop?" The New York Times also has a story on the outcome of this case.Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/26125 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/hUgvCh4voJw/article.pl Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:05:06 EST The LA times and the Associated Press report that the FCC v. Fox Television Stations case is being heard in the Supreme Court. The FCC policy would impose a heavy fine on use of 'indecent' words on broadcast television, which Fox and others are claiming is a violation of free speech. The case was appealed after being ruled in Fox's favor in a federal appeals court in New York. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia support the FCC policy of censorship." Here's a transcript (PDF) of the oral arguments.Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25986 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/5AEKvrhULIw/article.pl Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:05:07 EST Inventor Mitch Altman explains why he open-sourced his TV-B-Gone kit, the original stealth keychain fob for defeating TVs in public places. The title of the article is 'Patent-B-Gone' and perhaps the most interesting fact is that Mitch's brother is a patent attorney, but he still decided to release an open source hardware version of the TV-B-Gone, with pretty impressive results."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25957 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/X0v9kVC8uys/article.pl Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:05:10 EST An anonymous reader asks "What information sources and social networking sites will you be using to supplement the election coverage on TV next Tuesday? I am ready with a big HDTV with Comcast, a Mac mini, and and an Xbox 360. I also have two laptops (one good for websites and one for streaming video), an old-school Blackberry, a 'regular' cell phone, a Nokia N810, a Squeezebox, and finally Sirius Satellite Radio. Which websites should I watch for live county results? I already know about the Twitter Vote Report for tracking and reporting voting issues and I already watch 'CNN Reporters' on Friendfeed for the national flair. What other Twitter accounts should I follow? Which urgent ones should I send to my phones? Which YouTube accounts or keywords I should subscribe to in Miro? What are the most popular sites for posting 'on-scene' videos — iReport, Flickr, something else? I know most local Fox affiliates are great about streaming, but is there a page that lists all of the streams, in case I need to quickly focus on one city or area? Basically, how would you configure all those gadgets?" This reader might find some guidance in what to focus on, when, in a video produced by reader (and data modeler) Bruce Nash that lays out a predicted timeline for when the media will call each state, depending on when the polls close and how tight each race is expected to be.Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25921 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/G99jwlV-zgg/article.pl Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:05:08 EDT PC Mag has a story about why the 'white-space' spectrum that will be freed when TV broadcasts switch to digital should be available for unlicensed use. This would allow it to be used to deliver broadband connectivity in rural areas and create a 'third pipe' alternative to the cable/telco duopoly. The FCC is scheduled to vote on this November 4th. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has filed an emergency appeal to block this vote. If the NAB succeeds, the issue will be kicked into next year. Which would mean a new FCC, Congress, and Administration."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25893 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/QbZ_qYqiZJg/article.pl Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:05:08 EDT Who could forget the :CueCat, the amazing device that would bring 'convergence' between the real world and the online marketing Utopia of the late '90s? Belo, the Dallas-based newspaper and TV conglomerate, spent millions of dollars on the project, only to be ridiculed from the start and eventually becoming a sort of poster kitty for the Dot-Com Bust. Well, the device's inventor and chief cheerleader, J. Jovan Philyaw, didn't forget. His patent application, in progress since 1998, has finally been granted. The story comes from a Dallas alternative weekly, since the local Belo paper is still smarting from its $40-million-dollar black eye."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25878 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/HJcXWm1ckTc/article.pl Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:05:02 EDT A couple of years ago, we dumped our cable TV, and don't have much luck getting old-fashioned broadcast where we live. That's fine — we can download or netflix almost anything we want to see, and it is great not to pay the Comcast tax every month. Problem is, now I want to watch the election live, complete with talking heads, pundits, glitzy graphics and all the rest, rather than reading about it on a website. So, is there any way to download network TV / CNN / MSNBC in real time — I don't mind paying. And yes, we could visit friends, but ideally our kids would watch the first part and then go to bed — and a sitter would be expensive if we have to wait until late for the result."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25851 http://rss.slashdot.org:80/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/eiti8TaSm6I/article.pl Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:05:24 EDT A couple of years ago, we dumped our cable TV, and don't have much luck getting old-fashioned broadcast where we live. That's fine — we can download or netflix almost anything we want to see, and it is great not to pay the Comcast tax every month. Problem is, now I want to watch the election live, complete with talking heads, pundits, glitzy graphics and all the rest, rather than reading about it on a website. So, is there any way to download network TV / CNN / MSNBC in real time — I don't mind paying. And yes, we could visit friends, but ideally our kids would watch the first part and then go to bed — and a sitter would be expensive if we have to wait until late for the result."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25848 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/eiti8TaSm6I/article.pl Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:05:09 EDT The fictional town of Eureka (from the TV series by the same name) is going to potentially become a real life town as the University of Queensland, in Australia, plans to build a multibillion-dollar "brain city" dedicated to science and research. The city, hoping to hold at least 10,000 people is looking to attract 4,500 of the brightest scientists from around the world to live and work there. The city is planned to be built west of the city of Brisbane, in Queensland. While not funded by the Department of Defense (like the TV series), the potential for such a community is very interesting and exciting."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25801 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/VCT6TWJVCQc/article.pl Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:05:01 EDT Ars Technica reports that the debate between broadcasters and white space supporters has intensified after each side recently made inflammatory comments and suggested that science would vindicate their position. Several organizations are pushing to delay the upcoming white space vote, in part because it takes place on the same day as the US presidential election. We recently discussed Google's claim that a test of this system was rigged to fail. From Ars: "The broadcasters contend that adjacent channel interference would be significant even at the 40 mW level proposed by Kevin Martin. In fact, they claim that such a device would interfere with digital television signals when the viewer is 25 miles from the television tower and the whitespace device is 10m or less from the TV set. At 50 miles from the television tower, a whitespace device within 50m from a set could allegedly cause interference. The broadcasters also want several safeguard requirements put on the technology that go beyond the new, lower-power transmission levels."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25764 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/qwpQgex_Jms/article.pl Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:05:03 EDT Wired has an interview with Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism, which discusses how businesses could make money off of piracy, rather than attacking people in a futile attempt to suppress it. And some of his ideas are gaining traction; work is underway on a TV show called Pirate TV, which he describes as 'two parts Anthony Bourdain, one part Mythbusters.' (Heroes executive producer Jesse Alexander is on board.) Also, Mason is pretty good about practicing what he preaches in that you can pirate his book on his own website."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25693 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/NzD__j4klTU/article.pl Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:05:05 EDT Traditional peak power hours — the time during the day when power demand shoots up — run from 4 pm to 7 pm when air conditioning begins to ramp up and people start heading for malls and home but utilities are now seeing another peak power problem evolve with a second surge that runs from about 8 pm to 9 pm when people head toward their big screen TVs and home computers. 'It is [not] so much a peak as it is a plateau,' says Andrew Tang, senior director of the smart energy web at Pacific Gas & Electric. '8 pm is kind of a recent phenomenon.' Providing power during the peak hours is already a costly proposition because approximately 10 percent of the existing generating capacity only gets used about 50 hours a year: Most of the time, that expensive capital equipment sits idle waiting for a crisis. Efforts to reduce demand are already underway with TV manufacturers working to reduce the power consumption in LCD and plasma while Intel and PC manufacturers are cranking down computer power consumption. 'Without a doubt, there's demand,' for green PC's says Rick Chernick, CEO of HP partner Connecting Point' adding that the need to be green is especially noticeable among medical industry enterprise customers."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25672 http://rss.slashdot.org:80/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/fLlUbMCnW_A/article.pl Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:06:22 EDT Traditional peak power hours — the time during the day when power demand shoots up — run from 4 pm to 7 pm when air conditioning begins to ramp up and people start heading for malls and home but utilities are now seeing another peak power problem evolve with a second surge that runs from about 8 pm to 9 pm when people head toward their big screen TVs and home computers. 'It is [not] so much a peak as it is a plateau,' says Andrew Tang, senior director of the smart energy web at Pacific Gas & Electric. '8 pm is kind of a recent phenomenon.' Providing power during the peak hours is already a costly proposition because approximately 10 percent of the existing generating capacity only gets used about 50 hours a year: Most of the time, that expensive capital equipment sits idle waiting for a crisis. Efforts to reduce demand are already underway with TV manufacturers working to reduce the power consumption in LCD and plasma while Intel and PC manufacturers are cranking down computer power consumption. 'Without a doubt, there's demand,' for green PC's says Rick Chernick, CEO of HP partner Connecting Point' adding that the need to be green is especially noticeable among medical industry enterprise customers."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25650 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/fLlUbMCnW_A/article.pl Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:05:00 EDT It's rare that that a copyright case is heard in the Australian High Court, let alone a case heard by all seven sitting judges. At stake is a small company IceTV (which we discussed when it launched four years back) taking on Australia's largest television station, the Nine Network, over the copyright status of the weekly broadcast schedule. That is, the schedule itself, not any synopsis or description of the individual programs. Users of PVRs such as MythTV will be well aware of the hassle it is the get a reliable program schedule stream to use for recordings. The saga has gone on for more than two years with Nine unsuccessfully suing IceTV, but later winning on appeal. At issue is whether a list of facts like an electronic program guide is a 'compilation' protected under Australian copyright law. This has implications for the copyright status of many publicly available databases and the limits to which the information can be distributed."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25626 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-M2Q0wOwt54/article.pl Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:05:02 EDT The Telegraph reports that people over 55 who were brought up watching a monochrome TV set are more likely to dream in black and white, even years later. New research suggests that the type of television you watched as a child has a profound effect on the color of your dreams. While almost all under-25s dream in color, many over-55s, all of whom were brought up with B&W sets, often still dream in monchrome. The study, out ot Dundee University, used a small number of subjects under 25 or over 55 and the results suggest that '... there could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed... [B]efore the advent of black and white television all the evidence suggests we were dreaming in color.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25625 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/3G7n3c87cf8/article.pl Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:05:06 EDT For those of us that no longer have a television, live TV events can be a challenge to watch. Fortunately, tonight's Presidential Debate has attracted the attention of most US broadcasters, many of whom will provide online viewing options. Leading the way is Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp, who will stream the Fox-branded feed tonight — assuming they worked out the bandwidth issues that came up during the second debate!"Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25542 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/8WApTiCgeoA/article.pl Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:05:09 EDT The international amateur satellite organization AMSAT is reporting live reception of TV images directly from the orbiting ISS via the ARISS-SSTV project. The images are said to be preparations for the upcoming visit to the ISS by Richard Garriot (W5KWQ), which will provide images from space as part of the Windows on Earth project."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25503 http://rss.slashdot.org:80/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Rt2nf-jjPI8/article.pl Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:05:35 EDT The international amateur satellite organization AMSAT is reporting live reception of TV images directly from the orbiting ISS via the ARISS-SSTV project. The images are said to be preparations for the upcoming visit to the ISS by Richard Garriot (W5KWQ), which will provide images from space as part of the Windows on Earth project."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25496 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Rt2nf-jjPI8/article.pl Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:05:11 EDT While the Apple rumours posted yesterday highlight some of the most commonly talked-about opinions, a writer for CNet UK sat down with Mahalo's Jason Calacanis, who told CNet he knew for a fact that Apple is developing fully networked LCD TV sets. As the writer points out, Apple dropped 'Computer' from its company name for a very good reason."Read more of this story at Slashdot. http://www.roomformilk.com/launch/25440 http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/00kkyBY3qPc/article.pl Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:05:08 EDT