Link Your House

The PSX-2 is an AV iPod dock with built in automation for the iPod that provides high-end music server functionality via any programmable control system and a TV. Enables functions like play more from this artist, shuffle my jazz, alphabetically search and the intuitive ability to create a play list for a party from any keypad or remote control on their TV set.
Browse on screen (MX-6000 or TV)
Automate via proprietary features
Customize – hundreds of discrete codes Compatible with all URC remotes.

On TV Content Selection and Browsing with Cover Art
Having cover art, artist and title information on the TV is convenient, fun and natural. It provides the interface for any control system to display content selection choices.

Synchronize iPod Content with PC or Mac
The PSX-2 includes PSXLink software for both Macs and PCs. Any new content you add to your iTunes library can be synchronized to the iPod in the PSX-2 without ever removing it.

TV Screensaver Always Displays Cover Art and Artist & Track Info
With other music servers, screen savers force you to press a button to view the Cover art, Artist and Track info. PSX-2 utilizes your album cover art and now playing info in the screensaver mode. Now you can see what’s playing on TV without pressing a button, and without risking burn in on your Plasma TV!

With 3-D movies popping up more frequently at the cinema, several companies are working through significant challenges to make 3-D viewing available in the home too.

Satellite-TV operator British Sky Broadcasting PLC is preparing to debut a 3-D television channel in the U.K. next year that will require specially-equipped TV sets. The venture may be the most ambitious yet toward a large-scale 3-D television rollout, which remains absent from most big markets outside of Japan.

In the U.S., satellite-TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. and cable network owner Discovery Communications Inc., among others, are working on or exploring 3-D offerings, spokesmen said. Though 3-D TV programs have appeared sporadically for several decades, the media companies are hoping new 3-D technology can transform the medium from its gimmicky past into a viable experience for the home.David Naranjo, director of product development for Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, predicted the U.S. could see its first high-definition 3-D channel as early as next year.

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British Sky Broadcasting has filmed some sports matches in 3-D trials, as well as a performance of 'Swan Lake,' above.

But bringing 3-D programming into the living room comes with several obstacles. Some programming, including Sky's, will require expensive 3-D-ready television sets. There is still no agreement on a standard format for broadcasting or storing movies and TV shows on discs. And 3-D glasses are needed in most versions under development. Some media companies aren't eager to invest in 3-D technology so soon after upgrading to high definition production, while others, such as Sky, have used their investments in digital HD to move forward with 3-D.

High-definition 3-D-ready TVs currently fetch between $1,000 and $5,000 in the U.S. Mitsubishi, Samsung Electronics Co., and Hyundai IT Corp. already offer 3-D-ready HDTVs, which require separate stereo glasses and infrared emitters. Mr. Naranjo estimates there are five million sets now installed in the U.S. that can display 3-D programming. Sky executives say they expect to see the first 3-D-equipped TVs in the British market next year. Like theater owners who see 3-D films such as this month's "Final Destination" and James Cameron's forthcoming sci-fi epic "Avatar" as a way to lure more customers to their big-screen cinemas, TV operators see the format as a way to strengthen their hold on consumers. Wendy Aylsworth, senior vice president of technology at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Technical Operations, predicts 3-D will be the "next big thing in television" despite the seven or so formats vying for industry support.

"Everybody has an interest in getting it there," she said. "Studios see more content being sold, TV manufacturers see more television sets being sold, and distributors see more viewers." Ms. Aylsworth said she expected 3-D TV programming to be widely accessible in the U.S. by 2011.

Sky executives so far haven't specified what programs will be offered in 3-D or the cost of the subscription service. In the U.K., the company's most important content comes from a deal to air soccer matches in England's Premier League. Sky has already filmed soccer, boxing, and rugby matches in 3-D trials, as well as a performance of "Swan Lake" by the English National Ballet.

Its decision to move forward with 3-D programming came as the company found a way to use existing HD cameras and delivery systems to create a high-quality three-dimensional feed, said Gerry O'Sullivan, director of strategic product development at Sky.

Sky plans to film and deliver its own exclusive 3-D content using existing HD set-top boxes used by more than 1.3 million of its pay-TV customers in the U.K.

News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, holds a 39% stake in BSkyB.

To film the 3-D footage, Sky will use a special rig with two normal HD cameras, one capturing video for the right eye and the other for the left. Producers will then package the two feeds together so that home set-top boxes think they're playing normal HD video. With the glasses and a special TV, however, the images will appear in 3-D.

Sky's transmission format, which requires bandwidth capable of handling the equivalent of two hefty HD feeds, is likely too large for competing cable providers to offer. Some British rivals fear that Sky will set a de facto standard for 3-D formatting that will be impossible for others to match, said Richard Lindsay-Davies, director general of Digital TV Group, an industry association for digital television in the U.K.

In the U.S., the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers is working on a standard for 3-D TV broadcasts, as individual companies explore their own options. Discovery, for instance, said it is working with manufacturers including Panasonic and Sony Corp. to refine technologies for shooting in 3-D. It is considering making a 3-D test episode of one of its series, such as slow-motion photography showcase "Time Warp," executives said.

Discovery executives are also considering what it would take for viewers to adopt the technology. "It's something that intuitively everyone would like," said David Zaslav, Discovery's chief executive. "But the question is will it be exciting enough that people will go through the trouble of wearing TV glasses at home?"

As a flood of DLNA-certified televisions hit the market, the Digital Living Network Alliance is taking its message of interoperability among consumer devices to consumers themselves, hoping to build awareness of how DLNA certification makes it easier to connect TVs, PCs, and other digital media devices in the home.

“The first DLNA-certified TV was in 2006,” said Scott Smyers, chairman of the DLNA’s board of directors and senior vice president at Sony (NYSE: SNE). “Over the course of a couple of years, we ended up with a couple hundred certified TVs. Then over the last three months, we have tripled that. What I believe that represents is a clear recognition that network connectivity is important to consumers, now it’s a checkbox on the list of what they expect.”

The very rapid uptake in using the Internet for content delivery has made Internet connections to set-top boxes and televisions more popular and DLNA represents a standard approach to doing that. More than 400 TV models have been DLNA certified in the past three months, bringing the total to 699 models. DLNA, an industry consortium of more than 200 technology companies from consumer electronics and mobile device makers to service providers, sets connectivity standards and offers certification that devices meet those standards so that consumers know those digital media devices and services will interoperate.

In addition to TV sets, among other devices currently DLNA-certified are a number of digital cameras and camera phones as well as game consoles such as the Sony Playstation 3, Smyers said. With so many devices coming onto the market, the DLNA, which has been working since 2003, is now turning its focus from being a business-to-business organization to one that reaches out to consumers.

“With this blip in TVs, we are almost on the late side, but we decided last year to start taking our story to retailers and through them to consumers,” Smyers said. “The time is right for consumers to understand DLNA.”

A new marketing director and public relations agency is charged with helping raise that visibility so that consumers know to ask for DLNA-certified TV sets or understand what it means when a TV set is advertised as DLNA-certified, Smyers said.

“If retailers understand this, they can create an island in their stories with these devices, where all the stuff is connected so that consumers can see the value,” Smyers said.  

Service providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon are part of the DLNA and its Content and Service Provider Task Force, and have an opportunity to use the availability of new devices to their advantage, Smyers said.

“The model is changing,” Smyers said. “ The access to content provided over the Internet, which is all on-demand and improving in quality, is growing. Internet connections are becoming capable of supporting a very viewable stream.”

Unless they want to try to block that stream – a strategy which is doomed to failure, Smyers said – service providers need to try to vary their own products to add value.

“I think they are doing the right things,” Smyers said. “Now that they are getting competition for broadcast services from the Internet, they are stepping up to try to vary their products. You are going to see a lot of different things and a lot of experimentation. The traditional model of hook up your box to your TV and sell your service is gone.”

The high-end installation market is another one being impacted by DLNA and other changes in digital media, Smyers said.

“There already is an industry of professional installers that put in high-end equipment, speakers in the wall and wires and home theaters,” Smyers said. “They have tended to be very expensive. But with digital, bits is bits – if you can get the bits from the source to the big screen TV, you’re set. The price for the installs is going to come under some pressure. You can get a really good system buying a commodity 1080p TV with Ethernet running to your entertainment center. Consumers are responding to that and going for more commodity equipment rather than premium one-off type of equipment that they pay an installer to set up for them.”

Service providers have a role to play in the market, particularly when they install their own premium TV services such as AT&T’s U-verse and Verizon’s FiOS, Smyers said. Sony and other consumer electronics makers have a potential role as well. Sony offers a Backstage service that, for an additional fee, provides professionals to install equipment and get it working.

“We have learned that if you help consumers toward that, the time invested is pretty minimal, but return rates go down and consumer satisfaction goes way up,” Smyers said.

Samsung has announced its new 8500-series HDTVs, featuring local-dimming LED backlighting and Yahoo's Widget Engine for accessing Internet-based content.

Samsung has formally announced its new 8500-series HDTVS, featuring local-dimmer LED backlighting that helps boost the units' dynamic contrast ratio of 7,000,000:1—plus the 8500-series features the Yahoo Widget Engine to tap into Internet-based content like news, weather, video, and services like Flickr.

"For consumers who are looking for the ultimate HD centerpiece and high-level performance in their home theater, the Samsung 8500 Series delivers break-through quality and design," said Samsung Electronics America's senior Vp of visual display marketing John Revie, in a statement "The 8500 Series underscores Samsung's dedication to providing a full range of HDTVs that not only achieve the highest levels of picture quality, but also provide unique and immersive entertainment experiences."

The 8500-series sets feature Samsung's Auto Motion Plus frame interpolation technology to back up the units' 240 Hz refresh rates; the units also offer Samsung's Wide Color Enhancer Pro for vibrant colors and a "Natural" mode that's designed to optimize display settings to play to the strengths of LCDs while modeling the richness of a plasma display.

The 8500 series also feature Samsung's Medi@ 2.0 suit, enabling users to tap into Samsung's Internet@TV offering developed in conjunction with Yahoo: it can tap into a wide range of Yahoo news and information services, as well as popular online destinations like Twitter and YouTube. The technology also offers wires and wireless DLNA compatibility to tap media from PCs on a home network, and two USB 2.0 connections enable users to tap into media stored on external devices. The sets also feature 4 HDMI inputs (three in back, one on the side), 1 component input, 1 Ethernet connection, 1 optical output, and 1 PC input.

The 8500-series sets will be available in August, with the 46.9-inch unit carrying a suggested price of $3,599.99, while the 54.6-inch model will go for $4,499.99.