Can YouTube take on television ?
Posted Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 3:48 pm by Jason Cartwright
YouTube just announced with a blog post, that they are bringing loads or new original content via new YouTube channels. The new channels will be created by well-known personalities and content producers as well as some of the most innovative up-and-coming media companies and some of YouTube’s own existing partners.
The first of these new original channels will appear on YouTube starting next month and continuing over the next year. They’ll be available on any internet-connected device, with all the normal interactivity and social features of YouTube built right in.
While no details of financial arrangements between YouTube and content creators has been detailed, Google do reference their partner grants program announced in July. So is this the IPTV platform to challenge traditional over-the-air broadcast and Pay TV services ? For more information and to sign-up for updates, head to http://www.youtube.com/creators/original-channels.html
Television 4, the new Freeview channel you don’t want
Posted Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 2:46 pm by Jason Cartwright
Normally more free TV channels is a good thing, we have recently been through an explosion of new channels, so one more is a good thing right ? Well the reason the other new channels like 7Mate, Go, GEM and One have been a welcome addition to the Freeview OTA lineup, is because the programming has been interesting.
While no channel can keep everybody in a diverse audience happy 100% of the time, generally we can find channels that regularly program shows we enjoy. While the newest Freeview channel – Television 4, is marketed as 4me, covering categories of Shopping, Education, Finance and Lifestlye, essentially it’s a channel loaded with infomercials.
Television 4, or digital channel 64 launched to all homes in Regional NSW, VIC, ACT and the Gold Coast. Those of you in the cities, don’t stress, your really not missing much. Coming up this afternoon is Brand Developers, Surfing Aus, Commsec Entrepeneurs, Danoz and Brand Developers again. Not exactly a stunning lineup for launch day.
Update
Despite the channel now being live for over a week, Television 4 still doesn’t have guide data, meaning that there is no way to set DVRs to record shows.
More info on Television 4 at Brand New Media.
Sorry North East VIC, I made you rescan your channels
Posted Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 6:01 pm by Jason Cartwright
Since the start of February 2011, I’ve been unable to get the GO! channel and guide data for GEM had stopped updating. As TiVo is my set-top-box / PVR, I turned to TiVo support for assistance on the issue and emailed them on February 18th. Strangely not everyone in the area experienced the issue. Fast forward 2 weeks and finally a response from TiVo arrives in the inbox.
Hi Jason,
Apologies for the long delay, we have been investigating this issue since 4 February. Channel 9 has doubled up on triplets in your region and this has caused this cross-wiring and loss of EPG data. Channel 9 acknowledged the issue on 16 Feb and have promised to implement a fix tomorrow morning. The data should be available on the TiVo as of this Friday.
I am very sorry for the long delay in the fix, it was a struggle to get Channel 9 to even believe there was an issue in the first place. Thank you for your patience.For any future enquiries related to this issue please reply to this message leaving the reference number in the subject.
Regards,Hybrid TV Level 3 Support
WIN are trying to market this as an ‘upgrade’ but in reality the required re-scanning is just a fix for this issue. Affected channels include WIN, GO! and GEM.
You can check out WIN’s Rescanning guide PDF for details of how to perform the ‘upgrade’ for your TV/STB.
More @ TV Tonight
Behind the scenes at Channel 9
Posted Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 1:00 am by Jack ColaSince I have never been to a TV studio before, I always wondered what it is like behind the scenes. After watching a video by Ch 9 apologising to viewers for their massive watermarks on some news stories because Channel 7 steals their content, I noticed some other behind the scenes videos of the Channel 9 studios that were quite interesting to watch.
Behind the scenes for filming 9 News
This is a great video showing you what it is like in the control room, on the news floor, and in remote locations when recording the 9 news.
You can also watch part 2 here.
GTV 9 Melbourne
Behind the scenes of the soon to be demolished GTV 9 studio.
Control Room for Hotseat
This is a brief tour behind the scenes of HotSeat and in the control, and audio room.
24 Hours in TCN 9 Studio 1
A wonderful 24 hour view of life in a studio.
Before the show of Weekend Today
A brief summary of what the morning before Weekend Today is like.
Behind the scenes of TCN 9 Studio 2
This studio is for shows such as the Footy Show and Funniest Home Video’s.
About the Teleprompter and Control Room in QTQ 9 Brisbane
Ever wondered how the teleprompter or Autocue works? This video shows you how.
Behind the scenes of Studio 9 and Hey Hey It’s Saturday
What to know what the scenese look like behind Hey Hey It’s Saturday?
Channel 9’s Basement
It’s amazing how much old things they have stored away.
The Props at Channel 9
Go for a walkthrough of some of the props that have been used at Channel 9
The Set of Channel 9 News
This is a video of the studio of channel 9 news. It also explains the giant seagull appearance, and the “Gold Room”.
Tour of Studio 1 in Richmond
A tour of Studio 1 and the stage for ACA.
I would just like to thank Channel 9 for creating all these wonderful video’s of what it is like behind the scenes on television. You can watch more video’s from Channel 9 by visiting their YouTube Channel.
Sorry Boxee Box, D-Links cheating on you, introducing Iomega TV.
Posted Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 11:19 pm by Jason Cartwright
Digital Trends has a great post about a brand new hardware device from D-Link. While we seen a dedicated hardware set-top box with a cute-angled design from D-link in late 2010, D-Link aren’t stopping there. The Iomega TV set-top box has one significant difference – local store. Available in 1 or 2TB versions, the price is likely to be more expensive than Boxee Box, but both run the same Boxee software.
Another similarity is the remote with qwerty keyboard on the back. One advantage of coming second is that you can improve on what came before you. The front of the remote at first glance is more complex, but any boxee box user will see it as better functionality. The inclusion of a dedicated Home button is a big deal, something really missing from Boxee Box, at times you can be 4-5 levels deep with the only option available being the back button.
While the Iomega TV box is certainly not as sexy, unique or conversational as the Boxee Box, Iomega focus more on function, rather than form. It’s expected the latest Boxee-running set-top box will start at a recommended price of US$229.99, but that’s with no storage. Expect an the 1 and 2TB versions to be priced at $299.99 and $349.99 respectively.
Its expected the device will go on sale in the US in February, lets hope for Boxee fans that’s an international launch so there’s some competition in the market. Oh an by the way.. a ‘feature’ of the Iomega is that it will stack on top of your existing home entertainment gear.
Like most announcements this week, expect more detail to be released as CES officially starts, later this week.
Image source: Ubergizmo.com
Update
Ubergizmo has all the specs on the device, head over there now to get the details.
More @ Digital Trends
Samsung misses the point, makes light 3D glasses
Posted Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 12:46 am by Jason Cartwright
Samsung have just released press shots of these new ‘light’ weight’ 3D glasses. On a new Japanese website samsungtomorrow.com they claim the glasses are the lightest ever 3D glasses. Thanks to the magic of Bing Translator, English speaking individuals can read the news as well.
Made by luxury glasses manufacturer Sihouete and weighing in at just 28 grams, they are really light, well done. The problem is, the weight of the glasses has nothing to do with the reason people aren’t lining up in droves for 3DTVs. Even the most enthusiastic 3D supported has to admit all of the glasses (these included) are ugly. Can someone please get Oakley on the phone ? Its unlikely that you’ll ever look cool wearing glasses inside, but there’s a long way to go before you don’t look like a tool.
There’s even a 50/50 weight distribution to avoid pressure on your nose. Samsung, you really have pulled out all the stops here. The Samsung 3D glasses do have one redeeming feature, the ability to auto-detect wether your wearing them and automatically power them on or off. This conserves battery life, that’s right, get used to charging your glasses.
Samsung may not be the only ones with 3D glasses announcements this week, with CES 2011 about to get underway. 3DTV is sure to be, yet again, a big theme of the show.
Via Gizmodo
