Ihr könnt den Netcast auch auf iTunes  abonnieren!

However, although carrying the HD ready label, the display only shows a resolution of 1024×768. This means, a widescreen picture can only be shown with a resolution of less than 720 pixels in height, which disqualifies the display for the HD ready label set by the EICTA (European Industry Association for Information Systems, Communication Technologies and Consumer Electronics). To me this is bogus! Retailers, however, have to refund you with the money if you decide to take the display back to the store.

I enjoy listening to MikeTechShow at www.miketechshow.com. Mike recently featured Windows Home Server. I am running an Acer Easystore H340 with WHS and love it. However, I cannot find a way to stream SD and HD videos. Downloading in no problem; But I would like to sit in a hotel and just stream stuff off my Home Server without having to wait for the download to finish. Yes, it will need to buffer, but I won’t have to wait 30 minutes until being able to start watching an episode of Big Bang Theory.
You can listen to the question and Mike’s answer (which unfortunately doesn’t go far enough) on the 08-06-09 Podcast of MTS, starting at minute 13:25.

Some bars are already equipped with the new signs. You can find information on the new packages and prices at http://info.premiere.de. Good to see sky is offering more HD channels. However, I don’t believe in a recovery of Premiere/sky at these prices.

Cable and satellite are digital already, now the terrestrial signal followed. The U.S. government has issued coupons, deducting $40 of the purchase price of a digital converter box, which allows people to keep their old tube TV without sitting in front of a black screen after 12 June.
Public service announcements have been informing people for months, so almost everybody should be aware of what is happening.

Stations that switched voluntarily in February described, that they weren’t flooded with calls of uninformed customers that were hit with the switch by surprise, which was an early indication for a smooth transition. Terrestrial TV in Germany is fully digital since 2008, with most cable users still receiving analog TV.

• http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10477499&nav=0RaPTZdd
• http://www.dtv2009.gov

Coverage like this might actually drive HD penetration in German households from the Early Adopterphase into the Early Majority phase. Exciting! Especially as the information give was more accurate than I expected.

The article psopsects an increasing number of HD channels, including existing offers such as the pay-TV offer from Premiere (soon to be Sky), Arte HD, and Anixe HD as well as new HD channels from ARD & ZDF (PBS, only showcasing HD atm), RTL & VOX, Sat1 & ProSieben, Eurosport HD, and MTV.

The minimum package Sky Welt (Sky World) will go for 17€. For another 16€ each, the packages Sport, Film and Bundesliga (Premier League) can be added. Sky cinema will add movie premieres.

Now: For another 10€ Sky wants to broadcast 6 channels in HD! This would mean a 100% increase of German HD channels

- Sky Cinema HD (if booked with a film package)
- National Geographic HD
- History HD
- Discovery HD
- Disney Cinemagic HD (if booked with a film package)
- Sky Sport HD (if booked with a sports package)

All packages together will be available for 60€.  Existing customers will not be able to cancel, but will be transferred to the respective new packages (upgrade optional).

This is so exciting! Finally HD is kicked off in Germany. Let’s hope people will see the advantages of HD and understand they will need to pay for it. They got me with 6 HD channels.

Launch: 4 July

http://info.premiere.de/inhalt/eng/medienzentrum_news_uk_27052009.jsp

HDTV Pocast

The podcast is in English and has about 45000 unique listeners a month. You can listen to or even better subscribe to the show at www.htcurrents.com. It’s call in show #4. Enjoy!

The manual assumes, that you have an HDTV set and an A/V receiver with at least 5.1 speakers. Below this setup, an optimization would not make sense, as you need all the above to get a real theatric experience. However, only owning the components does not bring the cinema into your living room. Let’s assume you fall into one of the following scenarios:

HDTV set, 5.1 receiver (no HDMI), 5.1 surround sound system

In this scenario, you can connect the PS3 to the TV using HDMI. For sound, you can use an optical cable (toslink) to connect your PS3 to the receiver. In the PS3 settings, you will need to select HDMI as the video output method and optical / toslink bitstream for audio output. Please note that you will not be able to get HD sound (the PS3 will actually give out a warning stating this), as the toslink cable does not support the high data rates of True HD or DTS Master Audio. You will, however, get 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS and your receiver will show up the respective logo. There are hardly any receivers that don’t have HDMI but do have HD audio anyways.
Upgrade possibility: HDMI receiver with support for HD sound.

HDTV set, 5.1 / 7.1 receiver (HDMI), 5.1 / 7.1 surround sound system

This one is easy: HDMI from the Playstation to the receiver, then another HDMI form the receiver to the TV.

- If your receiver supports HD audio, you need to select HDMI PCM in the audio output dialog of the PS3. The console does not support HD audio bitstream over HDMI. If you correctly choose PCM, your receiver will not light up the HD sound logos, but you will indeed receive HD sound, as the decoding is already done in the PS3 and the sound is then passed on to the receiver.

Upgrade possibility: 7.1 receiver, 7.1 speakers

- If your receiver does not support HD audio, you can select HDMI bitstream as the audio output method. The DD / DTS logos will light up on the receiver, but there will obviously be no HD sound (the PS3 will tell you that as well).

Upgrade possibility: HD receiver with HD audio

Product suggestions (for a good start):
Onkyo TX SR 606 – A/V receiver with HDMI and HD audio ~450€
Tuefel Kompakt 30 – very basic 5.1 speaker set ~150€
Cabling: Don’t overspend! Almost any cheap HDMI 1.3 cable will do

Please note that these recommendations are for beginners – You’ll need to spend more for high-end!