High-definition flat panel televisions get cheaper every day, but for most people they still aren’t considered a cheap purchase. Tack on the cost of Blu-ray players, movies and HD cable, and you can find yourself saddled with bills as you transition from standard definition to high-definition.

So what if you’re someone who wants to watch the big game in HD, but without skimping on the basic luxuries like food and clothing? Well, we’ve found some options for you.

For one, the government postponed the date when broadcasters switch to digital TV signals to June 12 from February. That means that we’ll likely see TV manufacturers and retailers continue to discount new flat panel TVs to lure those of us who haven’t yet upgraded from the bulky old-school tubes.

Read the rest of this post

Reed Hastings is prowling CES for deals. Already, in the past year, the CEO of DVD rental service Netflix Inc. has cut at least a half-dozen partnerships with consumer electronics makers to make a Netflix service that streams movies and television shows over the Internet watchable on television sets via game consoles, digital video recorders and other gadgets.

This week at CES, Netflix announced Korea’s LG Electronics will let viewers tune into the Netflix service through an upcoming line of HDTVs. A Netflix deal also announced this week with another television maker, Vizio, could be even more interesting because some of those sets will be able to get onto the Internet wirelessly, a technology that will make it much easier to get online than sets with only wired Internet connections.

“I think it will double or triple the percentage of people who have those devices and hook them up to the Internet,” Hastings said, over a cup of gelato at a café in the Venetian hotel.

Read the rest of this post

With sports fans still getting used to their high-definition television sets, the National Football League is already thinking ahead to the next potential upgrade: 3-D.

Next week, a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders will be broadcast live in 3-D to theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. It is a preliminary step on what is likely a long road to any regular 3-D broadcasts of football games.

The idea is a “proof of concept,” says Howard Katz, NFL senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations. “We want to demonstrate this and let people get excited about it and see what the future holds.”

Read the rest of this post

You thought it was bad getting tossed aside for another woman? Try getting rejected for an MP3 player.

A new dating series based on the notion that “boys love their toys” will pit girls against gadgets in an attempt to answer that age-old question: hottie or hot HDTV? In a twist on the reality TV staple “For Love or Money,” Playboy TV’s “Gadget or the Girl” will make contestants choose between a weekend getaway with a girl of their choice or a surprise high-tech toy.

The gear will range from a 60-inch plasma TV to an arcade game machine, but the guy won’t know what his prize is until he opts for either the gadget or the girl.

Read the rest of this post

DISH Network (DISH) shares are down sharply this morning after the satellite TV company reported some disturbing subscriber data for Q2.

For the quarter, the company posted revenue of $2.91 billion, right in line with expectations, and profits of 75 cents a share, nicely above the Street consensus at 60 cents.

But the company also noted that it lost 25,000 net subscribers in the quarter. In a 10-Q filing with the SEC this morning, the company blamed the surprise drop in subscribers on “weak economic conditions, aggressive promotional offerings by our competition, the heavy marketing of HD service by our competition, the growth of fiber-based pay TV providers, signal theft and other forms of fraud, and operational inefficiencies at DISH Network.”

Read the rest of this post

There is a lot of money being spent trying to turn Internet video into something it’s not. It’s not TV. It’s certainly not going to be HDTV. What is shocking about the entire attempt to turn the Internet into a TV/HDTV distribution medium is how much people lie to themselves about what is actually happening.

First of all, 100 percent of the Internet video that you see offered on the net as HD is not HD. Plain and simple. What is HD video? HD Video is video you can watch on a screen of ANY size and say … “that looks good, almost as good as it can get.” What is currently being passed as HD [on the Internet] is video that looks pretty good because it’s being played on a small PC or laptop screen–and for the big timers, even a 17-inch screen. Well guess what–everything and anything coded at 2MBS and above is going to look good on a small screen.

Read the rest of this post