Harmonic Distortion

May 8, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

A calendar hangs crookedly on the side of a refrigerator. In the top flap picture, a wide-eyed kitten clings desperately by its two front paws to a tree branch. Below is the grid for February 2009. The 17^th is sloppily circled in what appears to be red lipstick.

Suddenly the front door to the house bursts open. Dick Cheney, dressed in his hunting vest and safari hat and carrying a shotgun, strides purposefully into your living room. He pumps, aims and fires. A deafening blast rings out.

Cut to an old boxy analog TV, its tube reduced to smoking, smoldering and sparking shards of greenish glass and wiring.

Cut back to Cheney. He's grinning his twisted grin that lo...Read More

April 30, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Anynet. Aquos Link. Bravia Theatre Sync. Easylink. EZ-Sync. NetCommand. Regza Link. RIHD. Simplink.

Brand names for unified multicomponent remote-control systems, right?

Nope. They're lies.

In case you don't recognize the names, they are company-specific schemes enabling HDMI-connected components to talk to each other. Press "play" on a compatible DVD player, for instance, and the HDMI-connected A/V receiver and HDTV automatically switch to their correct settings.

But these clever trademarked sobriquets imply that each is a proprietary system, that only connected components from the same manufacturer speak the same digital language.

But these are not proprietary systems. They all converse in CEC, Consumer Electronics Control, a standardized set of HDMI-enabled control protocols.

According to Steve Venuti, president of ...Read More

April 23, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Since we're in the TV business, it's doubtful you know this week is TV Turnoff Week. And if you knew, you probably have the same visceral reaction about TV Turnoff Week as a KFC executive would have upon hearing about a visit from PETA.

How do I know about TV Turnoff Week? I heard about it on the radio. You can cut the irony with a rabbit ear antenna.

Irony aside, the whole idea of turning off your TV for a week is beyond absurd on a more levels than the set of "Deal or No Deal."

Before we get to the absurdity, where does this TV Turnoff idea come from?

TV Turnoff Week is brought to you by the Center for Screen-Time Awareness (CSTA), formerly the TV-Turnoff Network. Founded in 1994, CSTA describes itself as a "nonprofit organization that provides tools for people to live healthier lives in fun...Read More

April 15, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

You tell your wife you're going to complete that honey-do chore. You know she doesn't believe your bored "I'll get to it" response as you lie sleepy and askew on your sofa savoring a Bud. And she knows that you know she doesn't believe you.

So she nags … er, reminds you. Constantly. And the longer you lie on the sofa not doing what she wants you to do, the more intense and frequent the nag … er, reminding, becomes. Finally, the remind … oh, forget it – the nagging – becomes worse than the actual task. So you put the game on pause, pull on a pair of pants and sneakers and, muttering obscenities under your breath, you crankily complete your assigned task.

Kevin Martin is a terrible wife.

At CTIA earlier this month, FCC chairman Martin ...Read More

March 28, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

As I was saying, the federal government has harvested (so far) $19.56 billion from the analog TV spectrum auctions last week.

But only $1.15 billion has been allocated to the converter-box program.

I said this was wrong that the government should be piling up these profits and then making consumers pay even a few dollars to buy a converter box, and I was right.

Or, at least Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) agrees that I'm right.

"I do not believe there will be enough money dedicated for the purchase of these converter boxes," Rep. Boucher told me earlier this week. "At the current pace of demand for the boxes, the initial fund, designed to fund coupons for 30 million converter boxes, will be exhausted Aug. 1." Boucher told me he and others lobbied long and hard to fund...Read More