Sky HD Reaches 90k Orders

Sky has quickly reached 90,000 users subscribed to HD. But only 36,000 have got the equipment installed.

Europe's First Internet HD TV Broadcast

During the World Cup The Netherlands experienced Europe's first internet transmitted HDTV broadcast.

The firm Amino which makes IPTV set-top-boxes were the company selected by Lijbrandt Telecom BV to supply the boxes for the first ever HD IPTV service.

The STB's also offer internet access, TV and telephony services via a broadband connection.

Look's good for the future.

Pioneer 50 inch Plasma TV - PDP - 5000EX

There's talk of Pioneer launching the World's first 50" 1080p plasma TV. The PDP - 5000EX is due to land on our shores in June.

This new plasma TV has the PUREBLACK Crystal layer which improves brightness and loweers power consumption.

We're awaiting further information and will post here when we have it.

If you're looking to buy the PDP - 5000EX we recommend you try Kelkoo to compare prices or No Queues.

Also try:
Comet

Pioneer proprietary technology that makes 1080p possible includes:

Deep Waffle Rib Structure makes each cell deeper to increase overall phosphor area for a brighter image. By casing each cell with horizontal ribs, Pioneer diminishes light leakage from neighbouring cells for sharper, more accurate images. A new T-shaped electrode prevents misfiring of individual cells despite the fact that each individual cell is half the size as previous generations, enabling Pioneer to maintain its sharp, bright accurate images when reproducing at a native 1080p resolution.

The PUREBLACK Crystal Layer sandwiched between the plasma glass and the individual light cells conducts energy more efficiently so each cell is charged and discharged at a faster rate, improving contrast and brightness while using less energy. Swift charge and discharge of individual pixels results in an extremely smooth transition from colour to black for blacker blacks and increased detail in dark scenes.

High Quality Up Conversion to 1080p minimizes interlacing motion artefacts of 1080i and increases the resolution of a 720p signal.

New PURE Drive 2 HD Signal Processing delivers low noise, high contrast and natural colour images. The High Precision Video Scaler receives and displays 1080p HD native resolution.
The Direct Colour Filter reduces ambient light reflection and heightens colour reproduction through the elimination of an extra layer of glass for sharper, crisper and more vivid images.
Enhanced ISF C 3 capability allows a certified calibrator to perform advanced colour calibration with never-before-achieved simplicity, accuracy and reliability. It includes a detailed gamma selection with eight steps.

Terminals on the display include Digital HDMI, DVI (HDCP), component and composite inputs.
Availability

The Pioneer PURE Vision Black PDP-5000EX will be available in June 2006.

Sky Unveils HDTV Service

Sky subscribers will be able to watch the World Cup in HD this summer. But ... there's a catch. Sky hasn't concluded negotiations with ITV which will broadcast around half of the matches.

To be able to watch it you'll need one their boxes, well you wouldn't expect anything different. This box will cost £299 and you'll have to pay an extra £10 a month on top of your standard charges.

Within the box there'll be a hard drive which will allow you to record up to 30 hours of HDTV programs and will go on sale in a week or so with installationbeginningng in May.

ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are launching a very limited trial that will only reach 500 households in London. And don't expect HDTV on Freeview anytime soon - there are serious bandwidtconstraintsts.

The Future of Sky HD

Digital Spy had a meeting with a Sky executive to discuss the future plans of Sky.

They said they've not totally decided on what format they'll be delivering the picture quality in. They commented that movies are better in in 1080i but sports are better in 720p. So they may end up doing some auto conversions.

There will be two 100% HD moveil channels (9 & 10). Sky One will be simulcast with some content will be up-converted SD with the true HD content being marked with a logo. Sky Sports HD that will be a mix of the other 4 sports channels.

Another angle on what Sky was saying was that they've got very high standards in terms of the quality of the broadcasts and the set-up of the units in people's homes. They say that their engineers are going to check everything and make sure the systems will get the best out of Sky's broadcasts.

Also mentioned was the probability that in a short while Sky will be offering upgrades so that people can have up to 4 Sky+ boxes in their homes!!

They're also thinking about the ability to set up reminders/recording remotely - primarily by sms or even online.

I must admit, now I'm so glad I turned from NTL to Sky, the future's bright, the futures in the Sky.