Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV: Via Slashdot
Whiteox writes about an Australian researcher named Renata Pronk, who has discovered that octopuses prefer HDTV. She recruited 32 gloomy octopuses from the waters of Chowder Bay. Previously, researchers have reported little success when showing video to octopuses. Miss Pronk's insight was that the octopus eye is so refined that it might see standard PAL video, at 25 fps, as a series of stills. She tried HDTV (50 fps) and her subjects reacted to the videos of a crab, another octopus, or a swinging bottle on the end of a string. A further discovery is that octopuses show no trait of individual personalities, even though they exhibit a high level of intelligence. It would certainly be possible to quibble about the definition of "personality" employed, and whether Miss Pronk had successfully measured it.
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HD or Standard Def? One in Five HDTV Owners Don't Know the Difference: Via PC World
If it's flat and has a big-screen, it's high-def, right? Apparently, a lot of HDTV buyers think so.
A recent survey by the Leichtman Research Group (LRG) shows that 18 percent of HDTV owners think they're watching high-definition shows, when in fact they're viewing standard definition programming. The findings are based on a telephone survey of 1302 U.S. households. This is LRG's sixth annual study on the topic.
Given the general consumer confusion surrounding HDTV-all those mind-numbing specs like 1080p and HDMI aren't easy to grasp-it's no surprise that many buyers are still clueless. Standard content that's stretched to fill the entire screen may look funny, but at least the picture's big. Problem is, buyers may start to wonder why they abandoned their tube TV for a pricey set with a worse picture. read more... »
FCC Delays Vote On Cable TV Regulation - Via Slashdot:
Tech.Luver recommends a story unfolding at the FCC, where Chairman Kevin Martin delayed a vote on a report that would open the door to more agency control over the cable television industry. Analysts say that Martin lacked support to pass the measure. read more... »
Techbits: Online video use on the rise - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK - One in five online Americans view video over the Internet on any given day, thanks to speedier Internet connections and a wider selection of clips, a study finds.
Young adults watch in greater numbers and often turn to humorous clips, while all other age groups use video predominantly for news, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
On a typical day, 19 percent of U.S. Internet adults watch some form of video. News ranked first and comedy second overall. read more... »
Digital television received in four out of five UK homes: Over 80% of households in the United Kingdom now receive digital television services. That is over twenty million homes. Most of the growth comes from Freeview. Nearly two million digital terrestrial television receivers were sold in the first quarter of the year, while cable and satellite added around 175,000 subscribers. read more... »
DVR viewers push ad ratings up - USATODAY.com:
Among things the report revealed is that many DVR viewers do not fast-forward through ads. The viewer total for broadcast network ads goes up 32% when DVR watchers within three days are included, according to Nielsen.
[...]
"After a six-month delay, The Nielsen Co. on Thursday released the commercial ratings data that has been much-awaited by ad and media companies.
The new data rates just the commercials in the show and also now includes viewing on the digital video recorders now found in 17% of U.S. homes. read more... »
Nielsen: DVRs behind viewer drop (Reuters):EW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Digital video recorders are a leading reason for the slide in television viewing this year, Nielsen Media Research said Thursday read more... »
The Slingbox Pro: Information Leakage and Variable Bitrate (VBR) Fingerprints: "[Today’s guest blogger is Yoshi Kohno, a Computer Science prof at University of Washington who has done interesting work on security and privacy topics including e-voting. — Ed]
If you follow technology news, you might be aware of the buzz surrounding technologies that mate the Internet with your TV. The Slingbox Pro and the Apple TV are two commercial products leading this wave. The Slingbox Pro and the Apple TV system are a bit different, but the basic idea is that they can stream videos over a network. For example, you could hook the Slingbox Pro up to your DVD player or cable TV box, and then wirelessly watch a movie on any TV in your house (via the announced Sling Catcher). Or you could watch a movie or TV show on your laptop from across the world.
Privacy is important for these technologies. For example, you probably don’t want someone sniffing at your ISP to figure out that you’re watching a pirated copy of Spiderman 3 read more... »
NBC's Sunday Ratings Hurt By No HDTV?: "NBC's Sunday Ratings Hurt By No HDTV?The network suffers low ratings after going to three non-HD shows on Sunday nights.By Phillip SwannWashington, D.C. (April 23, 2007) -- NBC's decision to eliminate High-Definition programming on Sunday night could be giving the network low ratings.Since the beginning of March, NBC's Sunday night lineup has featured three shows that are not broadcast in high-def: read more... »