high-def

1080p streaming not coming to Netflix this year

Editors' note, 4:30 p.m. PST: Netflix now claims that it incorrectly acknowledged 1080p streaming in the company's 2010 development road map. A Netflix representative has clarified that the company plans to bring 5.1 surround and closed captioning to its streaming HD videos later this year, though 1080p Watch Instantly is not on the books for this year. The text below is the original story, based on earlier conversations and e-mails with this Netflix representative.

Netflix subscribers with HDTVs and streaming boxes have something big to look forward to in the coming months. CNET has learned that … Read more

Vimeo: 1080p video coming by end of the month

New York-based video service Vimeo announced Wednesday it will roll out 1080p video (also known as "full HD") to its members by the end of this month.

In order to upload 1080p clips, users will have to be members of Vimeo's paid Plus service, which costs $10 a month, or $60 a year. Though anyone can view a 1080p video regardless of whether they're a free or paid Plus user.

The company also announced that it has expanded its recently introduced mobile offerings, letting users pick which of their videos they want to be viewable on … Read more

YouTube to get high-def 1080p player

SAN FRANCISCO--At the NewTeeVee Live conference on Thursday, YouTube director of product management Hunter Walk announced that the video-streaming service is getting a new high-quality streaming option: full HD, or "1080p" resolution. The current "high-quality" option, when available on YouTube videos, is 720p, referring to the number of horizontal scan lines that make up the image.

Walk said the new resolution, as well as a new full-screen player, will roll out to all users within days.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen announced high-quality YouTube viewing at NewTeeVee 2007. He also said, then, that YouTube stores all video … Read more

Rise of the high-def Netbooks

It sometimes seems as if Netbook makers are engaged in a dangerous race to the bottom, pulling out all the stops to get their products on shelves at slightly lower prices than the next guy. While $499 used to be the Netbook starting price, that quickly slipped to $399, and now $299--or less, if you get a subsidized unit as part of a mobile phone carrier's data plan contract.

Even Netbooks that cost $100 to $200 more than that typically offer only better construction and nicer designs--they're often virtually identical under the hood to the least expensive systems, with an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP, and a 160GB hard drive.

One new area where Netbooks have been able to offer a clear reason for stepping up to a more expensive system is with a high-definition display. The typical 10-inch Netbook screen is 1,024x600--which is readable, but often cramped for scrolling long Web pages or working on office docs.

A recent trend in Netbooks, available in both 10.1- and 11.6-inch screens, bumps the resolution up to 1,366x768. The difference is clear when trying to read an online article without excessive scrolling, or doing a lot of cutting and pasting on a Word doc or spreadsheet. It also works well for 720p HD video content--although your mileage may vary, depending on the source, compression, and media player app. Netbook hardware can't always handle the strain of smooth HD video.

We've had five Netbooks with 1,366x768 screens cross our Lab bench recently. The Sony Vaio W and Dell Mini 10 (the latter is also available with a standard 10x6 screen) are both 10-inch models, and each cost around $500--a healthy premium over non-HD Netbooks.

Asus' Eee PC 1101HA and Acer's Aspire One 751h were less expensive 11-inch Netbooks, but both used the z520 version of Intel's Atom CPU, which led to annoyingly slow performance (the Asus did offer some onboard overclocking for its wimpy processor, but that's a Band-Aid approach).

We found the most satisfying HD Netbook experience in an unexpected place. Gateway's 11-inch LT 3103u cost only $379, and used an AMD L110 CPU, which gave us a smoother overall experience (albeit at the expense of battery life), along with 2GB of RAM and a larger 250GB hard drive.

Check out the details of each of our 1,366x768 Netbooks below. But beware, as we've pointed out previously, none of these systems include the free Windows 7 upgrade you'd get with a mainstream laptop purchase. … Read more

Blu-ray not yet finding a home on PCs

Blu-ray players are becoming a hot item in the living room, but they have yet to attract much attention in the office, according to a new report from iSuppli.

The market research firm found that 3.6 percent of PCs shipped in 2009 will feature Blu-ray players. By 2013, the company expects 16.3 percent of PCs to sport a high-def drive. During that period, DVDs will still reign supreme.

"BDs won't be replacing DVDs as the primary optical drive in PC systems through at least the year 2013," Michael Yang, senior analyst for storage and mobile memory at iSuppli said in a statement. "They eventually will find success, but during the next five years, that success will be limited in the PC segment."

iSuppli believes that Blu-ray's lack of adoption in the PC market is centered on two main factors: a relatively small number of available movies and the cost of adding a Blu-ray drive to PCs. iSuppli said its findings suggest consumers will be more likely to add Blu-ray drives to their PCs once the cost of those drives decreases.

Although the results weren't ideal for the Blu-ray Disc Association, iSuppli said that they're not uncommon. According to the company, new media formats in PCs have enjoyed success only when the cost has decreased to a suitable level. That success also depends on whether or not consumers feel the technology's value proposition is high enough.

iSuppli cited the 3.5-inch floppy's 15-year lifespan as proof that consumers will use media as long as they perceive value. Currently, those same consumers believe there is more value derived from DVD drives.… Read more

iTunes rolls out high-def movie downloads

As expected, iTunes customers (Windows|Mac) can now buy and rent films in high definition, Apple said Thursday.

Customers can buy hit titles for $19.99 and rentals will cost $4.99. Rentals will be available a month after a film is released on DVD. Prior to this offer, high-def films were only available for rental.

The high-def quality movies are compatible with Macs and PCs. But iPhones and iPods can still only play films in standard definition, the company said. Each high-def film comes with a standard-def copy to play on Apple's handhelds.

"Customers have made HD … Read more

Where should you upload your HD footage?

If you got an HD-capable digital camera or camcorder over the holidays, you might be wondering which Web sites can handle those massive files you've been recording. Over on Webware, we put six big video-hosting sites head-to-head to see which one handled HD video the best.

Included in the comparison is how big your files can be, how much each service costs, and most importantly, how pretty each one looked. The results might surprise you.

Read the story.

Which HD video Web service is the best?

Around this time last year we put together a comparison of various video sites to determine which ones had the best overall quality and user experience. Since then, high-definition-capable digital cameras and camcorders have taken off, and several major video hosts have rolled out official support for wide-screen, super high-quality Flash video in response. So we think the time has come to take another look at what these sites are offering now and crown a new leader in the realm of HD video.

The six sites we're putting head to head are: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, DailyMotion, SmugMug and Blip.tv.

What's being tested

Quality. For our tests, we looked at detail on two levels--both still and in motion. For the still, we used a shot of our corner Italian restaurant. From our test footage you should be able to read everything on the front awning.

For the motion element, there were plenty of cars and pedestrians outside our offices that would have made good test subjects. In this case, we went with a bicycle since it falls somewhere in between the two.

In last year's tests, we were able to do a neat mouseover trick to show you each site's original quality from the same part of a clip. We've done that again this time, but since the videos are too wide for this page, we're only doing it with a portion of the clip. While the player size on each service was different, we viewed each video at the maximum full-screen resolution (1280 pixels wide), in order to preserve the original quality.

Value. Some of these services aren't free. So what we wanted to find out is: for those that cost money, is the charge worth it?

What's NOT being tested

Unlike the last time we did this, we're not taking upload times into account, since everyone's connection is a little different. Likewise, we're not quantifying processing times, since the clip you're uploading at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday night will probably get processed faster than the same clip at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning. We have, however, noted the respective size limits at each site, which can be incredibly important. HD video files are big, even if you're talking about a relatively short clip.

All the services we used processed our videos within about 10 minutes. The one exception was Vimeo, which took nearly three hours from the time it finished uploading to show up live on the site. This could have just been a bad time to upload, and keep in mind that paying users of Vimeo's Plus service get their videos sent to the front of the queue.

About the test footage

To get a decent test shot, we went with a consumer-friendly, pocket-sized capture device. In this case it's the recently released Flip Mino HD (CNET review). It captures really good-looking video in 1280x720 resolution at 30 frames per second. It doesn't shoot in 1900x1080, also known as "full HD," but we're assuming that most folks are going to be using devices that shoot 720p anyway.

The footage is just a hair over three minutes long, which is about the standard for Web video, and has not been changed from its original camera formatting. It encompasses fast motion (the cars whizzing by), fine detail (local restaurant signage), and plenty of ambient sound.

You can find each version of the video at each site: Blip, DailyMotion, Facebook, SmugMug, Vimeo and YouTube.

The results

… Read more

Make watching the Super Bowl super

The Super Bowl is one of the must-watch TV events of the year, and it can be a complete viewing experience.

On The Early Show on Tuesday, CNET TV Senior Editor Natali Del Conte presented super ways to make watching the big game as good as it can be for the serious living-room fan, showcasing some high-tech gadgets providing premiere ways to watch.

She also showed those who don't want to purchase anything how to make the best of what they already have:

The serious splurge: Panasonic 65-inch Premiere This model is the Ferrari of televisions, and it only began shipping last week. It is sold only through really high-end retailers, and it cannot yet be ordered online. It has a professional studio-quality monitor and the richest black detail of any TV on the market. The plasma technology offers clear motion reproduction, deeper blacks, and a wider viewing angle.

Price: $9,995

There is no CNET review yet for this model.

The more affordable: Vizio 37-inch television This model is not only affordable for a flat-panel TV, it gets great reviews from technology sites and magazines. It has accurate gray-scale and primary colors. This model also has one of the most important things that you should always look for in an HDTV--more than one HDMI port. This one has three, in fact, as well as one PC output. If you are looking for a solid and advanced LCD at a decent price, this is it.

Price: $730… Read more