Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

We are all slowly becoming aware that as of February 9, 2009 we are going to see a switch from analog broadcasting to digital only, which, as we here already know, that means some people are going to wake up very confused as to why they are not able to watch TV. I am sure lots of you out there are looking after and taking care of those who are less than familiar with this situation, however just in case you are speaking a little to geek for them to truly understand, here comes Florence Henderson, yup, Carol Brady to save the day. I am sure she can speak in a little more down to earth terms, so sit your parents in front of the computer and hit play. While the video itself is slightly entertaining, they could have made it really fun to watch by offering up Carol Brady in the old Brady kitchen. Keep reading to check out the video below.

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Many TV stations are working hard to make popular shows available for streaming on their site, a bunch have already used this technology, and now TBS is going to do it with popular show, Seinfeld. TBS already has Family Guy episodes up for streaming on their website. Since many people manage to get videos, or TV shows illegally, these stations loose a lot of potential revenue. By making shows available to be streamed, they are gaining a bit of that lost revenue back, plus it isn’t illegal. 

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Do you still use “rabbit ears” to watch your television shows? Was your TV manufactured before March 2007? If so, in case you weren’t aware, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to move all TV broadcasting into the digital spectrum, thus making all analog TV receivers inoperable after February 17, 2009 without a digital converter box. To help spread the news, the FCC is making it mandatory for retailers to inform consumers of the plan to switch from analog to digital signal by labeling televisions that would be obsolete in the new year. Unfortunately, some retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears, Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City (among others) have forgotten to the apply the “consumer alert” label to applicable analog television equipment. As a result, the FCC has issued $3.9 million in fines to the offending stores after warning them 30 days in advance.

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Are you desperate enough to do anything just to own a 50-inch plasma TV? So desperate that you’re willing to give up sex for 6 months? Surprisingly, a new survey estimates that more than 25 million Brits find this proposition reasonable. No mate, this is not a joke!

Conducted by electrical retailer Comet among 2,000 respondents, about half (47%) of British men surveyed said yes to celibacy while only 35% of British women shared the same sentiment. It turned out vanity is the root of this craziness. In the words of the company’s Commercial Director, Bob Darke: 

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It seems to me that the concept of 3D has been around for as long as I can remember, but it has never really got beyond the novelty stage, especially with the requirement to wear those stupid glasses all the time. Well both Phillips and Samsung are looking to change all that at this years CES as they both show off televisions that can screen 3D without the need for the glasses.

As an added bonus it looks like the technology also adds depths to traditional 2D TV which will enhance the quality and make it more lifelike.

Now of course this only works if films are made in 3D, but recent animated children’s films have had success in the box office, and major directors are working on 3D films for 2009. On the downside many experts warm against watching 3D films as they can be disconcerting to watch and cause headaches and nausea.

To see a three-dimensional image on a flat television screen, the viewer’s right and left eyes need to see slightly different images, taken from different angles, to trick the brain into thinking it is seeing a 3D object.

It is unlikely that we will see the TV’s, that work via a special lens on the screen, any time soon as they are still very much for the commercial market, but when they do hit the stores we can expect to pay up to $8,000 for them.

Via [Telegraph]

We’ve got to say, EchoStar (owner of DISK Network) has not had a good couple of weeks.  A couple of weeks ago, they paid out $90.6 million to TiVo for patent infringement, and this week, they’ve agreed to pay $100 million to network affiliates (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox) so they don’t shut off “distant network channels.” According to the press release, “Distant channels are ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox network channels that originate from a market outside the community in which the subscriber lives.”

With the announcement, EchoStar has now reached settlements with almost 800 channels and hopes to be done with the 9 long years of litigation.  I cannot possibly imagine how relieved their lawyer is.

Quick Fact: EchoStar has paid out about 1.3% of their 14.33 billion market cap in just 2 weeks.

In his interview with New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel shared a lot of his thoughts regarding the company’s future.  He mentioned that Yahoo is an internet company and is not interested in producing TV shows.  “Television does a very good job...” He then went on to talk about how if Yahoo is going to do something revolutionary in video, “[It] better look like something new. This medium better take advantage of its assets, take advantage of what it does well. ... If what we do looks like television, then we’re making a huge mistake.”

If Yahoo is going to get into the market of distributing TV shows, it seems that Semel would feel more comfortable if other companies do all of the work for them (smart man!) and they simply license it.  I could definately see NBC, ABC, and CBS signing on with Yahoo to have some of their channels distributed on the web.  Maybe there will be some tie-in with their recent purchase of what is now dubbed Yahoo! Go for on-demand content.

In the interview, Semel also dropped some numbers.  He mentioned that there are 1 billion people on the internet today… 500 million of them “touch Yahoo at least once a month"… and 250 million of them “have accounts with Yahoo.”

[Direct link to the video]

Read [New Yorker]