But the item that made me scratch my head was the question that asked consumers to catagorize certain items as necessities or luxuries. Twice as many men than women said that an HDTV is a necessity. The scores were only 20% for men versus 10% for women, so at least it’s a minority . However, I have a hard time coming up with a way to justify an HDTV as a “necessity”. It is also worth noting that men were more inclined to think a given item is a necessity than women, including high-speed Internet connections, a personal computer, an MP3 player, or a dishwasher. (Okay, I can almost see a dishwasher as a “necessity”, but it’s hard to see the others as anything but a luxury, or at least optional.) The one category that more women thought was a necessity than men was a landline phone (69% to 63%).

So the take aways here are that (1) men like shiny, sparkly things more than women when electronics are involved, and (2) our consumer society seems to have a strange definition of what “necessity” means. I have a hard time putting an HDTV on the same footing as food and shelter, but maybe I’m the one who’s out of step here.

Now comes a study from Futuresource that predicts 500 million high-speed broadband home connections worldwide by 2010. About 60% use telephone connections such as DSL, and about another 20% use cable television connections. The study singles out India for much of the predicted growth, jumping from about five million subscribers today — about 2% market penetration — to nearly 25 million lines by 2013.

Also watch for data throughput rates to increase. According to Futuresource, the average U.S. home broadband connection maxes out at 2.7 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads. In Europe, the average in Sweden is 14 Mbps — more than five times as the U.S. average — but even Sweden is left in the dust by Japan and South Korea where the average is a blistering 30 Mbps.

As broadband reaches into more homes at faster speeds, expect to see new services to appear and demand for existing srevices to grow. As a result, the way we get our news and entertainment content is likely to change dramatically.

What do you get for this extra fee? The service includes 22 channels including Cartoon Network Mobile, Disney Channel, DisneyXD, Discovery Kids, USA Network, Discovery, Animal Planet, SCI FI, Lifetime Television, Adult Swim Mobile, ESPN Mobile, NFL Network, CBS College Sports Network, FOX News, CNN Mobile, MSNBC and AccuWeather. (Yup, I copied and pasted that list from the press release.) Clearly, there’s something for just about everyone there. The system is an aftermarket add-on, with LCD panels that strap onto the back of the front seat headrests, headsets for the backseat viewers, and a 12-volt power plug. A rooftop antenna receives the signals from a satellite; the programming also includes 20 additional audio channels. The system buffers up to two minutes of content and is designed to provide uninterrupted playback even when the signal is lost by going under bridges or tunnels, or it is blocked by tall buildings.

I find this interesting on a number of counts. First, it means that passengers won’t actually have to look at any of the places that they visit, which I think is probably their loss. I remember the games we’d play to entertain ourselves on long car rides when I was a kid, and I worry that watching another episode of Sponge Bob is not likely to have the same effect. On a more positive note, this service could serve as a bellweather for mobile TV services in general. If people really want the latest information from Sports Center or Weather Channel or news headlines while out and about, it may show up in the demand for these car rental units. And the Avis experiment could give people a taste of the benefits without having to make a long term commitment, which could lead to people signing up for similar service for their cell phones or other mobile devices.

If you want to try out the AT&T CruiseCast, make a reservation with Avis for a car at Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Tampa or West Palm Beach. (Yup, another cut-and-paste.) Let me know how it works out for you at alfred@hdtvprofessor.com.

So here we are, halfway through 2009, and I’m wondering where Blu-ray stands. According to the NPD Group, first quarter 2009 sales for Blu-ray players in the United States reached 400,000 units. That sounds impressive until you consider that DVD players and recorders sold more than 142 million units worldwide two years ago in 2007, according to InStat. It’s not clear if the NPD numbers include Sony Playstation sales, but it’s almost certain that the InStat figures don’t include the millions of desktop and notebook PCs that include DVD drives.

Pricing remains a problem for Blu-ray, especially in the current dismal economic climate. Walmart made waves by offering a Magnovox Blu-ray player for less than $130 a few weeks ago for Father’s Day, but today their best price is just under $180. Compare that with less than $30 for a progressive scan DVD player today at Walmart, or less than $50 for an up-converting model (which you shouldn’t need if your HDTV has a decent scaler in it). In short, you’re being asked to spend up to six times as much for a Blu-ray player, or $150 over the price of the standard DVD player.

A huge portion of the Blu-ray players in U.S. homes are Playstations, which I believe distorts the numbers as I don’t expect that many of these are used as a Blu-ray movie platform. Many consumers have made it clear that upscaled standard DVD movies provide adequate image quality. And even if you do want high-definition movies and video content, you already have many options to get them streaming over the Internet from Amazon, Hulu, and other sources. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a new player and movies — either purchased or rented — when you get the same content for much less over the Internet?

I continue to believe that Blu-ray has been fighting the past war, and is the wrong solution for the next challenge. Yes, Playstations and other devices will help prop up the Blu-ray sales figures, but the technology is too late to catch this wave, and the standard DVD will remain dominant until the Internet is ready to replace the little plastic discs forever.

Hastings co-founded Netflix, and expects that revenue from the rental of physical DVD discs will start to decline in as little as four years from now. Faced with a certain end to the business that now generates the bulk of the company’s revenues, he has the opportunity to set a new course for Netflix, and he’s working hard at it.

Clearly, the answer is to replace sending physical discs through the US Postal Service with streaming electronic versions of the movies across the Internet. (What will the Post Office do without those half-billion DVDs to deliver each year?) The company is already well on its way with its online service, offering subscribers on-demand access to about 12,000 movies and other videos at no additional charge. According to the WSJ article, about 20% of the 10 million subscribers now use that service on a regular basis.

But Netflix has more than 100,000 titles in its physical collection. Why can’t it just digitize them and start streaming? The answer is that the company does not have the rights to do that. So the current task is to negotiate with the movie studios and other content products. The problem is that the cable and satellite networks already have agreements for the electronic distribution of movies, and it may be hard for Netflix to generate enough revenue to compete with the licensing deals offered by these competitors.

Maybe one way to apply some leverage is to generate some pull. Just search the HDTV Almanac and you’ll find lots of entries about new devices — from set top boxes to flat panel HDTVs — that can connect to the Internet and stream the Netflix titles. Even Windows Media Center now includes a Netflix option on its menu. As more and more of those 10 million Netflix subscribers start using the service, it may create revenue opportunities that will help the company put together an offer that even the studios can’t refuse.

The key point here is that a widescreen 24″ LCD panel has pixels that are about 0.27 mm across. That’s about 94 pixels per inch. How small is that? The Apple iPhone has 163 pixels per inch, so the dots that make up the image on these TVs are only about 70% larger than on the phone.

So what does that mean in terms of how you use it? In order to see the detail available on this screen when it’s showing high definition content (and assuming your vision is good), you’d need to sit no more than about 70% further from the TV than the viewing distance you use for the iPhone. I estimate that most people hold their phone at about 20 inches or less when viewing detailed content on the screen. 170% of that distance is about 34 inches. (In my book, Professor Poor’s Guide to Buying HDTV, my formula recommends about the same distance for a 24″ 1080p HDTV.) That’s less than 3 feet away. Sure, you could get one of these for the kitchen or to put on the wall at the foot of the bed, but you won’t be able to see the available detail. It would be like trying to read a newspaper from 15 feet away. Or your cell phone.

The bottom line here is that these are personal TVs, to be viewed by one person at a personal distance. A TV like this might be an excellent choice for a dorm room where they can serve double duty as a computer monitor (and if the computer is connected to the Internet, you can also gain access to lots of great video content that is available there). But don’t expect to get a high-def experience viewing a screen of this size from the couch across the living room.

This new service is fourth generation – or “4G” — will be offered with a 4G-only card in the “Metro” package, or in a “Nationwide” version that includes a card that works with both Comcast’s 4G and Sprint’s 3G network, using the slower connection for coast-to-coast coverage when out of range of the faster connection. The 4G service provides up to 4 Mbps download speeds, nearly three times faster than the 1.4 Mbps offered by 3G service. Comcast will offer bundled wired and wireless service starting at $50 a month; existing “triple-play” customers will be able to add the wireless service to their subscription for as little as $30 more per month.

There are no signs that Comcast is planning to abandon the content delivery side of its operations, but this move to provide high-speed wireless Internet connections in major markets shows that it’s serious about the “pipe” side of the business. It has also stolen a march on its competitors that could translate into a lasting advantage. If people start to depend on the Internet more and more for their entertainment content, Comcast may be in the best position to meet the demand for mobile connections.

This new lawsuit again pits the content providers against new technology. Instead of putting an expensive set top box in every subscriber’s home, Cablevision wants to create individual storage on their central servers. Subscribers choose what is recorded, and they can then play that back on demand when they want. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had decided that this new service was functionally the same as having a VCR at home, and so should be allowed. By deciding not to hear the appeal, the Supreme Court let that ruling stand.

The networks are worried that that this recording will allow subscribers to skip the advertisments in the broadcast content, which is a reasonable concern. This will likely cause the networks to seek higher fees from cable companies, as they lose advertising revenues (which could make cable subscription costs rise even higher). It could also accelerate the move to product placements within the programming itself. Watch for more conspicuous logos on the cars, computers, beverages, and other consumer items that appear on your favorite shows. (Did you really think that the Idol judges all love Coca Cola that much?)

This also has implications for set top box manufacturers. If the TVs have cable connections built in, and the DVR functions can be handled back at the cable company’s home office, there’s not much need for a separate box. And consumers are likely to appreciate reducing the part count and resulting clutter. Add streaming movies from the Internet, and you don’t even need a DVD player. So it’s possible that this court decision could reach out and touch a lot of aspects of the home entertainment market.

While the motion blur reduction and the LED backlights are nice, the part that really caught my interest were the three sets that will have VIA: VIZION Internet Apps. These 42″, 47″, and 55″ sets connect directly to the Internet through a wired or wireless Ethernet connection. This connection supports widgets that can show you information such as weather forecasts, sports scores, or stock prices, much like some sets from other brands. VIA also makes it easy to access other content on the Web, however. VIZIO had already announced services including Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster on Demand, Netflix, Pandora, and Rhapsody. Last week, the company announced new support for additional connections, including Twitter, eBay, Facebook, Revision3, Showtime, and Vudu. This means that you’ll be able to access an enormous amount of streaming content – much of it available in HD resolution — directly from the Internet without the need for a separate computer or set top box. The user interface for selecting the different services is easy to use and customizable, so you can choose which ones you want to have available.

Perhaps the best part of this is that VIZIO is not charging extra for the VIA feature. The 55″ VF551XVT with LED backlight and 240 SPS is slated to ship in September with an MSRP of $2,199.99 (which is an aggressively low price for an LED backlight model of this size). When the VIA-enabled VF552XVT ships in December, it will have the same price. The 42″ model with the VIA support (and 240 SPS but no LED backlight) SV422XVT is scheduled to ship in November with an MSRP of $1,199.99.

VIZIO is stepping up its game with increased performance and added features while maintaining its competitive price position.

So what’s the point of this decision if it doesn’t stop Sharp from selling its products in this country? I checked with a patent litigator at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. According to the MLA attorney, the President (which in this case really means the United States Trade Representative who will advise Obama) has 60 days to make a decision about the order, which he has the authority to override on policy grounds if he chooses. On the other hand, if the President takes no action, then the order becomes enforceable. Until then, Sharp is allowed to import and sell its products as usual. Moreover, the ITC has decided not to require any additional bond during the Presidential review period.

So what’s going to happen next? Is Best Buy going to have to start pulling Aquos HDTVs from its shelves? Nobody knows for certain at this point, but apparently a separate complaint by Sharp against Samsung for patent infringment is also making its way through the ITC. One possible outcome is that the two companies will come to some sort of a cross-licensing agreement for their patents, and they both will continue to have access to the United States consumer market. As always, stay tuned….