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ZDNet Author Biography: Sean Portnoy started his tech writing career at ZDNet nearly a decade ago. He then spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. He received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.; more about Sean Portnoy »

ZDNet Resources

Sonos touchscreen remote on the way?: With competition coming from the likes of Cisco/Linksys and Yamaha, Sonos looks to be making a bit of an upgrade to its multi-room audio solution. A new remote has been spotted by UK blog Automated Home, the first from Sonos that is a touchscreen model, instead of using a scroll...; Tags: Touch Screen, Yamaha Corp., Sonos, CR200, Keyboards, Monitors & Displays, Hardware, Peripherals, Components, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-07-03
The Wall Street Journal shows the limits of its HDTV knowledge: I can't really argue with some aspects of a new Wall St Journal story titled "Lower Price Tag for Plasma TVs Comes at Price, but if you already have some knowledge about HDTVs, don't expect much illumination from the article. There are several minor gaffes and omissions...; Tags: Wall Street Journal, Plasma, Knowledge, HDTV, LCD, Monitors & Displays, Hardware, Components, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-30
Supreme Court rebuffs Hollywood's attempt to block remote DVR services: The consumer hasn't often won in Washington when its interests have squared off against Hollywood's, thanks in part to the industry's strong lobbying efforts. But one institution where lobbying money doesn't come into play is the Supreme Court, and Monday's session dealt an indirect blow to the entertainment industry when...; Tags: Hollywood, U.S. Supreme Court, Digital Video Recorder, DVR, Digital Video, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-29
Research firm challenges supposed popularity of HD-DVD format: The recent survey by Harris Interactive, which suggested that HD-DVD continues to be roughly as popular as Blu-ray, has met with some controversy over its methodology. In fact, I received a lengthy e-mail from Adams Media Research's press representative strongly refuting the Harris study's findings. At dispute...; Tags: HD-DVD, Harris Interactive, Blu-ray, Hd Dvd, DVD, Consumer Electronics, Sales Strategy, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sales, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-27
Vizio spills the beans on its Internet TV plans: While Vizio was one of a number of TV makers showing off networked TVs at CES in January, the company was mum on details about them when it announced its 2009 lineup a couple of weeks ago. Now, the company, which recently became the top TV...; Tags: Internet TV, Vizio, Showtime, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-24

Holy Betamax, Batman! Blu-ray is still barely beating out HD-DVD: It appears Blu-ray being the "winner" of the high-def DVD wars early last year hasn't led to mass adoption—or even delivered a knockout blow to the "loser," HD-DVD. According to a study just released by market research firm Harris Interactive, more consumers have a dedicated HD-DVD player (11 percent) than...; Tags: Sony Betamax, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, Hd Dvd, DVD, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-22
Sonos killer? Yamaha unleashes MusicCast2 multiroom audio system: Unless you want to do a custom install, Sonos' Music System is generally seen as the top product for delivering audio to multiple rooms in your house. Cisco has made a play in this market with its Linksys by Cisco Wireless Home Audio system, and now Yamaha is...; Tags: Yamaha Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., MusicCast2 Network Music System, MCX-RC100 Network Music Commander, Home Entertainment, Digital Music, Digital Media, Media Players, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-20
Popcorn Hour C-200: Hot, buttery media streamer: Streaming media devices for your home theater are quickly becoming a dime a dozen, so any company that doesn't already have a big name needs to stand out in order for anyone to pay attention. Popcorn Hour certainly has a moniker that's easier to recall than...; Tags: NetFlix Inc., Dolby Digital, HDMI, Video, Popcorn Hour C-200, Corporate Communications, Consumer Electronics, Digital Media, Marketing, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-18
FCC says transition to digital TV has been fairly smooth: If you're reading this, you probably weren't impacted by last week's official transition to digital TV signals, but there was concern that many people would be without their usual programming and raise a big fuss. According to the FCC, any disruption of service was not widespread, though there were over...; Tags: FCC, Digital Television, Federal Government, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Government, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-16
LG begins shipping first HDTVs with built-in Netflix capabilities: Streaming media devices are a good idea, but a better idea is baking those features straight into your TV. While TV manufacturers have been pretty slow about integrating online services with their sets, they've finally started figuring out it's not too tough to add an Ethernet...; Tags: NetFlix Inc., Plasma, built-In, LG Electronics Inc., HDTV, Streaming Media Device, TVs, Web Site Development, Tv & Home Theater, Web Technology, Managed Hosting, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Internet, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-14
Wal-mart's Father's Day deals: $128 Blu-ray player, $398 37-inch LCD HDTV: Love it or hate it, you can't deny that Wal-mart knows how to stick a thumb in the eye of its competitors. It enjoys offering deeply discounted products around holidays, especially big ticket items like electronics. Last year, it offered a $128 Magnavox Blu-ray player as a "door breaker" on...; Tags: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., HDTV, LCD, Blu-ray, Monitors & Displays, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Hardware, Components, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-11
Toshiba announces its first LED-backlit LCD HDTVs: Readers of this blog know that LCDs using LEDs instead of fluorescent tubes for backlighting are the wave of the future for the HDTV industry. Their superior contrast ratio and lower power requirements are the perfect answer to plasma's image quality advantage and energy-slurping tendencies. Samsung and Sony...; Tags: Light-emitting Diode, Toshiba Corp., Vizio, Engineering, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-10
Harman Kardon introduces its first Blu-ray player for $499: Harman Kardon is one of the most respected names in home theater products, primarily for its audio lineup, though it's also offered DVD players in the past. The company has finally decided to stick its toe into the Blu-ray pool, announcing its first unit in the BDP 1....; Tags: Home Theater, Digital Audio, Blu-ray, Harman Kardon, Home Entertainment, Consumer Electronics, Tv & Home Theater, DVD, Ethernet, Digital Music, Digital Media, Personal Technology, Networking, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-09
LaCinema Classic Bridge turns your hard drive into a media player: After rolling out some new devices to extend its Cinema lineup, LaCie is now going help you out with media files that you already have on your existing storage drives, whether internal or external. The new LaCinema Classic Bridge serves as a conduit between your hard drive and an HDTV...; Tags: Hard Drive, LaCie, Video, Media Player, LaCinema Classic Bridge, Home Entertainment, Corporate Communications, Cable, Tv & Home Theater, Media Players, Network Technology, Digital Music, Digital Media, Personal Technology, Marketing, Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics, Networking, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-08
Digital TV conversion figures: 5 percent switch to cable, 8 percent buy new HDTV: As the transition to a 100-percent digital TV landscape officially comes at the end of the week, market research firm Knowledge Networks has crunched some numbers to find out that about a quarter of TV households were impacted by the switch. Despite what seems like the near-ubiquity...; Tags: HDTV, Digital Television, Cable, Converter Box, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-07
Pricing gap shrinks between top-tier, value HDTV makers: With the recession still slogging on, it's hard for premium TV manufacturers like Samsung and Toshiba to keep market share at significantly higher prices than "bargain" brands like Vizio and Westinghouse. So it should come as no surprise that a new report from market research firm iSuppli finds that the...; Tags: Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Pricing Strategy, Pricing Gap, Vizio, Pricing, Marketing Research, Marketing, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-04
YouTube XL: Designed for viewing on HDTVs: Between game consoles and home theater PCs, there's more and more viewing of YouTube clips on large-screen TVs all the time. In response, Google has just created the new YouTube XL interface for watching videos on HDTVs. The design approach to YouTube XL...; Tags: YouTube Inc., HDTV, YouTube XL, Corporate Communications, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Marketing, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-03
AMD announces ATI Theater HD 750 "HDTV on a chip": Some owners of home theater PCs HTPCs want as much of the same experience as a typical cable user as possible, which means they need to install CableCards into their systems to access scrambled digital channels and the like. For those whose TV needs are less demanding, a PC with...; Tags: HDTV, ATI Technologies Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Chip, Chipsets, Cable, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Network Technology, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Telecommunications, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Networking, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-02
Microsoft beefs up Xbox 360's entertainment offerings with 1080p HD streaming: It hasn't beat out the Wii, but Microsoft's Xbox 360 is doing fine in second place in sales of the current generation of videogame consoles. It helps that it costs quite a bit less than the PlayStation 3, though a lot of that price difference comes in the...; Tags: Microsoft Xbox Live, Video, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox, 1080p, Entertainment, Game Players, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-06-01
Asus will launch budget O!Play media streamer at Computex: Asus revolutionized the laptop industry with the launch of its Eee PC netbooks roughly a year ago, and now it's hoping to strike gold twice with a new low-priced media streamer that will be introduced at the massive Computex show this week. According to Hardware.info, Asus will debut the unfortunately...; Tags: ASUS, Computex, Video, O!Play, Media Streamer, Corporate Communications, Ethernet, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Marketing, Networking, Hardware, Sean Portnoy; Blog posts 2009-05-31