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Panel Session Debates Quality and Containers

Following the talks by Semenza and Hsieh, there was a panel session that was introduced by Paul Gray who asked, “Why UltraHD?” Looking at TV by region: * China – there is no clear winner in terms of local TV set brands – they are all fighting. The makers are showing competence compared to Japan … Read more

The Market for Wearables

Paul Gray talked about wearable electronics. Until the first world war, watches were kept in the pocket, and wrist watches were seen as “effeminate”. However, the need for accurate time keeping during the war meant that wristwatches were adopted and 10 years after the end of the war, 98% of watches were wristwatches. The electronics … Read more

QD Vision Bullish on TCL Demo

QD Vision was at IFA on the booth of one of its customers, TCL of China. TCL was showing a 55″ prototype TV using the QD Vision technology to give >100% NTSC colour gamut coverage. We had a discussion about Rec 2020 – there was talk that a Blu-ray committee meeting at IFA was looking … Read more

Wearables Panel Session

Simon Forrest from Imagination, Ruth Hutchinson from Fitbug and Ulrich Schulze-Althoff from Medisana joined the panel session on wearables. Simon Forrest is from Imagination Technologies which believes it has lots of the elements needed to be successful in wearables. Ruth Hutchinson is Business Director of Fitbug, which has been working since 2005 with companies and … Read more

Exertis to Acquire Sweden’s CapTech

Exertis says it is to acquire CapTech Distribution AB, Sweden’s largest independent technology distribution business. The company said last year that its strategy was to expand its geographic footprint across Europe as it aims to become the leading IT distributor in Europe. CapTech focuses on IT hardware and AV systems.

Fujitsu Decodes HEVC, Encodes H.264

The MB8AL2030 (aka HD62) is a SoC supporting HEVC decoding, from Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe. It is intended for use in home entertainment and in-care infotainment systems. An H.264 encoder is also built in. The chip supports a 3D graphics engine to accelerate 2D/3D OSD generation, vector graphics, anti-aliasing and video effects. Built on an ARM … Read more

Intel Enters Octa-Core Market With Enthusiast Chips

Intel’s Haswell technology has finally reached the highest-end markets that the company operates in. Three chips, known collectively as the Core i7 Extreme Edition, have been launched for overclockers and other enthusiasts. Intel claims that the chips offer a 20% performance boost when used for UltraHD video editing, and 32% for 3D image rendering, versus … Read more

Efficient STBs Save Americans Almost $170 Million

Around $168 million in energy bills has been saved by American consumers using energy-efficient set-top boxes, according to a new report (the Voluntary Agreement for Ongoing Improvement to the Energy Efficiency of Set-Top Boxes 2013 Annual Report). The Voluntary Agreement, which was introduced in 2012, has seen average STB power consumption fall by 14% compared … Read more

Automotive Panels Come From CPT’s Small/Medium Shift

At Touch Taiwan, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) president Lin Sheng-chang said that the company plans to increase its automotive display shipments by 33% this year. 7.5 million units were shipped last year, meaning that around 10 million will be shipped in 2014. The move is a result of a focus shift to small- and medium-sized … Read more