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HDMI Licensing, LLC, the licensing entity behind the High-Definition Multimedia Interface networking technology that is commonly used to provide a secure digital connection between digital TV sets, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players, is working to ensure that television programmers will be able to deliver upcoming 3D broadcasts to new 3D-capable HDTV sets.

The organization, which licenses its technology to over 900 consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers, announced late Wednesday that it is making the 3D portion of its latest HDMI specification, version 1.4, available for free public download on its Website so that television networks and transmission vendors can get the necessary information to deliver compatible 3D pictures to new 3D sets.

Such companies haven't traditionally been licensees of HDMI technology, and thus didn't have access to the confidential specification that identified 3D formats. But they need to know how the 3D parts of HDMI work to ensure that early 3D broadcasts are viewable, says HDMI Licensing president Steve Venuti, which is why the organization is making the information freely available.

"I see it as a necessity because HDMI is leading the market in supporting 3D at home," says Venuti. "These companies don't want to pay to get the spec, but they need it to understand how 3D will work in the marketplace."

The HDMI Consortium also plans to include multiple broadcast 3D formats in an upcoming specification, version 1.4a, to ensure that HD sets and set-tops can display networks' nascent 3D programming.

HDMI Licensing, founded by a consortium of Hitachi, Panasonic Corporation, Philips, Sony, Thomson (RCA), Toshiba, and Silicon Image, had already addressed the growing momentum behind stereoscopic 3D technology by including 3D gaming and movie (Blu-ray) formats in HDMI version 1.4, which came out last June. But that specification didn't include broadcast 3D formats, explains Venuti, mainly because the organization didn't expect television networks like ESPN and pay-TV operators like DirecTV to move to launch 3D by mid-2010.

"We've really seen a rush of 3D devices, but when we when launched 1.4 in June, it was very unclear what formats would drive content to the home," says Venuti. "So we mandated a game format and movie format, and said if you build a system with HDMI, you have to have them. But we left out a broadcast format, because we didn't know where the market was going with that. Since then, broadcasters have stepped up the game quite a bit, and there's been a lot of movement in the HDMI Consortium to match the 3D release of broadcasters."

In fact, in December the HDMI Consortium announced that it would ease some of its licensing restrictions to allow existing late-model set-tops to deliver 3D broadcasts to new 3D HDTV sets, without having to support the mandatory movie or gaming formats in HDMI version 1.4. Specifically, it decreed that set-tops with HDMI version 1.3 could receive a firmware upgrade that would enable them to connect to a new 3D set with HDMI version 1.4 to display a number of 3D HD broadcast formats. That is how satellite operators DirecTV and BSkyB plan to deliver 3D to their existing high-end set-tops. Venuti said that Sony PS3 game consoles can support 3D in the same way.

"That's going to enable the existing infrastructure of source devices to pump 3D content, and you're going to need a 3d-enabled TV to view it," says Venuti.

The HDMI movie format that will be used by new 3D Blu-ray players specifies the delivery of two full 1080-line-progressive/24 hertz (1080p/24) pictures, one for each eye, which requires a significantly higher bit rate than normal 1080p/24 video. But the "frame-compatible" broadcast formats that HDMI Licensing is currently addressing are designed to work within the existing bandwidth for HD transmission by using spatial compression to reduce the horizontal or vertical resolution of the picture. That is a compromise that networks and pay-TV operators can currently live with, as adopting "full 3D" would require doubling the bandwidth used to deliver HD to the home.

The 3D compression techniques described by HDMI Licensing as "informative formats" include Frame Packing; Field Alternative; Line Alternative; Side-by-Side (Half); Side-by-Side (Full); Left + Depth; and Left + Depth + Graphics + Graphics-depth. The organization also announced in December that it will add the "Top/Bottom" frame-compatible technique, which ESPN plans to use for its 720p 3D HD pictures, to the updated 1.4 specification.

Venuti says the HDMI version 1.4a specification, which will make the support of such broadcast formats mandatory in new 3D-enabled CE devices, should come out soon. He notes that a pay-TV operator's set-top could support as little as a single broadcast format, such as 720p top/bottom, but that 3D sets will have to support all broadcast formats to ensure interoperability.

"We hope that will provide leadership and guidance to the broadcast world," says Venuti. "We don't expect it to be the way to deliver 3D content forever. But at the least, it's a minimum way to support interoperability."

 By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable

Intel has designs on the nascent home energy management business, following Google, Microsoft, Apple, Panasonic, and dozens of smaller tech companies.

Intel last week launched a Web site dedicated to its Home Dashboard Concept, a touch-screen display designed to help families control and reduce energy use. The Atom-based device will let people record video messages to other family members and, through third-party applications, let people look up information on online yellow pages or track packages over the Internet.

Intel's Intelligent Home Energy Management Proof of Concept is an 11-inch touch screen that works like a remote control for home energy. The switch at the top lets people turn a home to 'away' mode, automatically adjusting security, thermostats, and cutting off stand-by power.

(Credit: Intel)

For Intel, the energy dashboard is another attempt to crack into the consumer electronics market. "Computing in the home is going to be a lot more than just the PC," Intel CEO Paul Otellini said during a brief demo of the energy dashboard at CES.

Seeing a potential new revenue source, other tech companies are jockeying into home energy management with different technology approaches, a situation that's creating a crowded market of suppliers and myriad choices for consumers. Pike Research forecasts that there will be more than 28 million energy displays installed by 2015, with 11 million people accessing home energy data from Web-based dashboards and 2.6 million from mobile phones.

A patent application from Apple, unearthed last week, described a system to optimize power for a network of electronics, such as laptops, solar chargers, and iPods.

Apple characteristically is taking a somewhat unique approach, relying on a power line standard that would allow a dedicated Apple device to efficiently send power to plugged-in devices. Consumers could track electricity use and get ideas on how to reduce consumption through a small LCD screen, according to the patent.

Microsoft and Google have developed Web applications for tracking home energy use, although they differ significantly in features.

Microsoft is seeking to partner with utilities installing smart meters to offer its Hohm application to customers, who can get online access to utility bills and real-time snapshots of electricity use. For every consumer, though, Hohm provides recommendations on how to cut electricity and gas consumption, based on a lengthy questionnaire.

Google's PowerMeter, by contrast, is geared mainly at surfacing usage information to help consumers find ways to cut back on bills. It has signed on with a few utilities and smart meter makers to offer the energy-tracking dashboard through smart meters. It also offers that data through a home-monitoring device called The Energy Detective (TED) from Energy Inc., a company that 3M's venture arm invested in last week.

Whole-home monitoring
Intel's home energy dashboard is a more sophisticated version of existing whole-home monitoring products, such as TED. But Intel's approach suggests one route for getting the energy data promised by the smart grid without having to wait for smart meters to be installed and fully activated.

The Home Dashboard Concept is an energy-efficient OLED touch screen hung on a wall that acts as a hub to manage and monitor a network of devices. Intel recommends that people purchase smart plugs which, through a wireless network, will allow the central console to monitor and control devices. Once plugged in, people can see how much power TVs and other major appliances use, and set goals for reducing use.

Intel's home energy dashboard concept would use smart plugs to connect appliances to a central console for energy monitoring and control.

(Credit: Intel)

Because the dashboard device is a Wi-Fi hub, it can get recommendations on how to reduce energy use from the Internet, according to the Intel demo. People click a switch to turn the house to "away" mode, turning all stand-by power off and adjusting the thermostat.

Using the home energy dashboard, a household could save 30 percent on electricity bills, according to Chris O'Malley, a marketing manager at Intel's embedded and communications group.

Although Intel's dashboard is still a concept, a number of other start-up companies, such as Control4 and OpenPeak, are already planning similar products, released either through utilities or appliance companies such as GE and Whirlpool.

For all the activity, though, there remain questions about how much consumers are willing to pay to better manage home energy and whether Intel or any other tech provider can make money helping consumers save money.

Blog By: Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog.

The Crestron ADMS was presented the EH TOPS Award for best Media Server during the recent International Consumer Electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas. Dozens of vendors responded with submissions to the TOPS Awards (formerly EH Product of the Year Awards), and EH editors were joined by a distinguished team of industry professionals to single out the best technology, products and services for the connected home.

More than a media server, the Crestron ADMS is the next generation of content delivery and home entertainment. ADMS takes you into a whole new intermedia universe, where it no longer matters where content is located. Whether it's on the Web, in the ADMS hard drive, one of the companion Blu-ray changer or NAS drives, a home or network computer - ADMS brings you not only the content you know about, but related material you didn't even know existed, all at lightning speed. With a single user interface and exclusive WorldSearch® technology, one search is all it takes.

WorldSearch enables you to explore the ADMS environment by title or keyword, browse cover art and scroll through a graphical collection of titles and sources from which to playback, download, rent or purchase - all on your HD display. To make it even easier, Worldsearch organizes and displays results based on relevance and quality. All the best content providers are natively hosted in the ADMS, so you don't need to navigate Internet sites or re-size video windows. Just make your selection - such as a YouTube® video - and it automatically fills your widescreen display without any cropping, in clean and crisp 1080p HD.

The ADMS also has a built-in Web browser that lets you surf the Web, check email or watch live streaming video in HD without leaving the ADMS environment. "For all its unique features, the ADMS has already been dubbed 'the ultimate content machine,'" observed Vin Bruno, Crestron Director of Marketing.

Link Your House congratulates Creston on the this Award, and is proud to be a Crestron Dealer representing their fine products.

Websites and cable TV channels are packed with news from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But with thousands of exhibitors spread out through several convention halls and hotels, there are always lots of stories that go overlooked. Here are four we found especially exciting:

Energy-saving innovations: The electronics industry has come up with some entirely new products that help save energy without sacrificing convenience. One of our favorite examples is the Klipsch LightSpeaker (www.klipsch.com). The LightSpeaker combines a 2.5-inch speaker with a powerful LED lamp. It fits in a standard recessing lighting fixture, and it installs just like an ordinary light bulb. A wireless transmitter sends sound from an MP3 player, a TV, etc., to the speakers, and a remote dims the light and controls the sound. Klipsch says the LightSpeaker’s efficient LED consumes only 10 watts but puts out the same light as a 65-watt incandescent bulb. A package with two LightSpeakers, a transmitter, and a remote costs $599.

Another great green product is the Regen ReNew Audio Dock (www.regenliving.com). The dock has a solar panel/battery pack that you can hang in a window to change. Place the charged panel in the dock, insert an iPhone or iPod, and you can listen to music for up to 60 hours on a single charge. A backup power supply assures the ReNew will never fall silent. The solar panel/battery pack costs $199 and the Audio Dock costs $249.

Skype on your TV: Lots of people now sit in front of their computers when they want to make video phone calls through Skype. Now LG (www.lge.com) and Panasonic (www.panasonic.com) make it possible to see and hear distant family and friends from the comfort of your couch. Both companies will soon offer Internet-enabled TVs with Skype built in. Using Skype through these TVs should be super-simple. As with many new laptops, the TVs feature a built-in camera and microphone. And you’ll enjoy a much bigger picture than you’re probably getting on your computer monitor or laptop.

Ciao, CDs: More and more consumers are using less and less “physical media” (i.e., CDs and DVDs). Instead, they’re streaming their audio and video entertainment from the Internet, through home networks, or from iPods and smartphones. Many new products at CES were designed specifically to suit these trends—they don’t even have CD slots. One that caught our eyes was the Pure Sensia (www.pure.com), a desktop audio/video system that looks almost like a big Easter egg. Each end of the Sensia has a speaker, and touchscreen fills the middle. The $349 Sensia plays any of thousands of Internet radio stations, and also streams content from computers and hard drives that are connected to your home network. The only concession to old-fashioned media is the built-in FM tuner.

Alpine (www.alpine.com) and Sony (www.sony.com) took the bold step of launching new auto sound head units that have no CD capability. You get your music from a docked iPhone or iPod, or from the units’ AM/FM tuners.

Pencil-thin TV: TVs are rightly getting lots of attention at this year’s CES, but our favorite new models—the Samsung 9000 series—got a little lost in all the hubbub about 3-D and Internet connectivity. According to Samsung (www.samsung.com), the 9000 series TVs measure only 0.3 inches thick, which is about the same thickness as a pencil. An ingenious stand (which doubles as a wall mount) provides all the connections. Not only is this slim, silvery set incredibly sexy, it also includes a touchscreen remote control/video screen that lets you keep tabs on the ball game while you’re watching the latest DVD. The sets are 3-D capable, so when the new 3-D Blu-ray Disc players come out later this year, you’ll be ready.

The days of learning about your electricity consumption once a month are the on the wane.

Driven by consumer interest in energy and utility smart-grid programs, home energy information displays are poised to enter people's kitchens and living rooms in large numbers over the next few years, Pike Research forecast in a report on Thursday.

Home energy displays show you the juice (photos)

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The research company predicts there will be 28.1 million users of energy displays by 2015. About half of the users will have actual devices, while more than 11 million will access that information from Web-based dashboards and 2.6 million from mobile phones, according to Pike Research.

The purpose of these displays is to guide consumers in lowering their energy consumption. Simply making people aware of their electricity use will drive people to make behavior changes to cut their utility bills and environmental footprint. Studies have found that a combination of more detailed information and utility-run incentive programs can help consumers shave between 5 percent and 15 percent off their bills.

For example, a display might show that electricity usage is above normal at a given moment and send someone to turn off unused electronics. Getting historical data and information on different appliance usage, too, can lead people to make adjustments. More advanced home energy management systems will allow a person to program heating and cooling and to participate in utility efficiency programs to cut energy use during peak times.

Still, since many of these products are still not on the market, it's not clear how effective they will be at improving home energy efficiency and whether consumers will continue to use them regularly.

There are already a number of home energy monitoring devices which can cost anywhere from less than $100 to a few hundred dollars. But the field is getting crowded with a number of providers from very different fields. The smart-grid stimulus program is expected to result in over 1 million homes getting these displays for free from utilities.

Both Microsoft and Google offer Web dashboards, although their functions vary. There are also dozens of companies, including a number of start-ups, which make devices or software to run on displays.

In many cases, information is gathered through a smart meter, which has a two-way communications link with the utility. But in many smart-grid programs, utilities are not making detailed energy usage available to consumers in real time, in part because of security concerns, says smart-grid executives.

Although the home networking standards are still in flux, many energy information display companies are developing gateways using home Internet connections to read existing meter data and software to provide efficiency recommendations to consumers.

 Martin LaMonica

Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld

On Thursday, the company released Apple TV 3.0 software. The updated software offers a new main menu interface that provides direct access to rented and purchased movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, photos, and YouTube videos. Your content (My Movies, for example) now sits at the top of lists instead of at the bottom. Once you drill down into secondary menus, however, the interface is the same as before.

The Apple TV now supports Genius Mixes as well, a new feature of iTunes 9 that also works on some iPod models.

For photos, the latest software adds support for iPhoto ‘09’s Events and Faces (but not Places) features.

Finally, Apple says you can now listen to thousands of Internet radio stations and tag stations for later listening. You could in fact listen to Internet radio on the Apple TV previously, you just had to put the stations in a playlist.

The software is a free update for all Apple TV owners.

Google Inc. started out 13 years ago as a simple search engine, but it has grown into a behemoth that has shaken up dozens of industries, including computers and cellphones.

On Wednesday, it jumped into the music industry.

The Mountain View, Calif., Internet giant unveiled a music search feature that lets users play millions of songs for free with an option to buy or rent them from several online music stores.

Although not a direct threat to Apple Inc.'s hugely popular iTunes store, the new feature is expected to bolster the music services that compete with iTunes.

The move was applauded by the music industry, which has been struggling against piracy that has siphoned off billions of dollars of potential revenue from musicians and recording studios.

The industry is hoping the search feature will direct users to legitimate digital music outlets and in turn help them compete with free but often unauthorized sources of music.

"We're trying to get consumers to interact with some of these more legitimate services," said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony Music Entertainment.

"Having Google step up and support this is a positive development."

Google formally rolled out the much anticipated search tool Wednesday at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood with scheduled performances by rock groups OneRepublic and Linkin Park.

But Google, which last month accounted for about 70% of Web searches in the U.S., said it wasn't interested in competing with digital music retailers such as iTunes and Amazon.com Inc.

"We're not in the music business per se," said R.J. Pittman, Google's director of product management. "We don't license the music nor sell the music directly on Google. We are merely a music search feature."

But in steering millions of Internet users to its partner sites, Google is indirectly boosting the sites' abilities to compete with iTunes, which was responsible for 69% of U.S. digital music sales in the first six months of this year, and 35% of all music sales, including physical albums, according to market research firm NPD Group Inc. Amazon, the second-largest player, accounted for 9% of digital music sales and 10% of overall music sales.

Up-and-coming start-ups such as Lala Media Inc. as well as longtime players such as RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody have tried to gain an edge over iTunes and Amazon by offering lower prices or different features.

Lala, for example, lets buyers listen to an entire album once free of charge before they buy. It also sells Web-only songs for as little as 10 cents a track, and downloadable MP3s for 89 cents.

iTunes typically charges 99 cents or more per song. Rhapsody, in comparison, gives subscribers unlimited access to more than 6 million songs for a monthly fee.

Millions of people already use Google to look for music on the Internet and learn more about bands.

The search engine last week accounted for 30% of referral traffic to music-related sites, according to Experian Hitwise, a firm that tracks Internet traffic. At any point, two of the top 10 terms searched using Google are music-related, Pittman said.

With the new tool, the song that's being sought would appear on Google's search page. A search for Coldplay, for example, would yield the band's album cover art alongside four popular songs that users can play once free of charge. Once a song has been played, they will be able to hear only a 30-second sample.

To hear more, users would need to click to one of Google's music partners, including Lala, Rhapsody, Pandora Media Inc., Imeem Inc., and News Corp.'s MySpace Music.

"Technology has made music more affordable and more instantaneous than ever," said Bill Nguyen, co-founder of Palo Alto, Calif.,-based Lala. "Google is helping people to find and listen to what they like with virtually no effort. When you make it easier for people, they tend to buy more music."

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