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Streaming HD

DRM Streaming HD Blu-ray

UltraViolet: Gone, And Best Forgotten

UltraViolet's shutdown announcement nearly vanished unnoticed into a spam folder - a fitting metaphor for a service most users had already abandoned. The digital content locker promised seamless access to purchased movies across devices, but its clunky registration process drove customers straight to Netflix and Amazon Prime instead. With major studios already gone and 30 million largely inactive accounts, its quiet death reveals how quickly even well-funded digital ecosystems can become irrelevant. The real question is what that means for today's streaming services.

Pete Putman •
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OTA Set-Top Boxes (STBs) Streaming HD OTA HD & Antennas

Useful Gadgets – Channel Master Stream+ OTA/OTT Media Player

Channel Master's Stream+ defies the traditional set-top box mold with its compact, puck-like design that blends over-the-air reception with Android TV streaming. Supporting HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, and codecs including HEVC H.265, this diminutive sidecar tuner punches well above its size. Voice control works smoothly for streaming navigation, though OTA channel switching via voice has quirks worth knowing before you buy.

Pete Putman •
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Blu-ray Market Trends & Analysis Streaming HD

Blu-Ray: On The Endangered Species List?

Physical media is losing ground fast. Ultra HD Blu-ray players are selling at roughly two units per hundred 4K TVs purchased, while streaming subscriptions surpass 100 million worldwide and codec advances keep closing the quality gap. Futuresource projects global Blu-ray player shipments will shrink from 72 million to 68 million by 2023. Whether disc-based formats can survive a market increasingly defined by broadband delivery and disposable hardware is a question worth examining closely.

Pete Putman •
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Market Trends & Analysis Smart TVs Streaming HD

LeEco: Today Vizio, Tomorrow the World?

LeEco's acquisition of Vizio for $2 billion signals far more than a hardware deal. The Chinese tech giant - already selling TVs below manufacturing cost to drive content subscriptions - is building a global ecosystem spanning smartphones, streaming, electric cars, and cinema production. With a rumored Netflix partnership and aggressive U.S. expansion plans, LeEco isn't just buying American market share. What it does next with Vizio's distribution muscle could reshape how Americans buy and watch television.

Ken Werner •
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Market Trends & Analysis Streaming HD Cable HD

Cord-Cutting: A Slow And Steady Drip, Drip, Drip

Pay TV companies risk losing $1,248 annually per departing subscriber, yet cord-cutters report growing satisfaction the longer they stay away. A new survey finds 83% of cord-cutters access nearly all desired content without a cable or satellite subscription, while cord-nevers spend just $71 monthly on broadband and streaming combined. The real future of Comcast, Time Warner, and other major providers may already be written - and it has nothing to do with channel bundles.

Pete Putman •
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Streaming HD Market Trends & Analysis OTA HD & Antennas

To Cut, Or Not To Cut: That Is The Question…

Cord-cutting accelerated sharply in 2015, with 1.13 million U.S. households abandoning pay TV - four times the prior year's pace. OTT services like Netflix and Hulu are driving that exodus, while conventional cable revenue growth stalls. Meanwhile, Vizio is quietly removing built-in ATSC tuners from its SmartCast Ultra HD lineup, rebranding televisions as tuner-free displays. Whether that move signals a broader industry shift - or a costly miscalculation - deserves a closer look.

Pete Putman •
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Market Trends & Analysis Streaming HD Satellite HD

By The Numbers – Or Maybe Not

Conflicting data on cord-cutting reveals a murkier picture than headlines suggest. Dish Network hemorrhaged subscribers while TDG Research reports consumers are actually less likely to cancel pay TV than a year ago. Meanwhile, digital video spending quietly surpassed physical disc sales for the first time through nine months of 2015. The real question isn't whether cord-cutting is happening - it's which numbers you choose to believe, and what the next quarterly report will actually reveal.

Pete Putman •
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4K Ultra HD LED TVs Streaming HD

Dolby Vision Will Soon Be Available in a Consumer TV Set

Dolby Vision is finally coming to consumer televisions, and VIZIO's Reference Series is leading the charge. The RS65-B2 pairs a 384-zone full-array LED backlight with quantum-dot technology, hitting 120% of DCI-P3 color gamut at a $5,999 price point that marks a genuine industry milestone. Immediate access to Warner Bros. and Netflix Ultra HD titles sweetens the deal considerably, and lower-cost Dolby Vision sets may not be far behind.

Ken Werner •
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Market Trends & Analysis Smart TVs Streaming HD

What Will Apple Do Next?

Apple's next revolutionary product may not exist. From the overhyped iWatch to persistent Apple TV set rumors and far-fetched car speculation, analyst predictions keep missing reality. Apple succeeded by refining products people already wanted - iPod, tablets, smartphones - but no amount of software magic creates demand for the unnecessary. The new Apple TV streaming box is solid, not groundbreaking. What Apple does next in connected cars may matter more than any consumer hardware announcement.

Ken Werner •
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Market Trends & Analysis Streaming HD Cable HD

Trends: Ignore Them At Your Peril

Broadband subscribers at major U.S. cable providers just outnumbered pay TV subscribers for the first time ever - a milestone most industry watchers missed. Cable giants are losing video customers while Netflix surpasses 50 million worldwide subscribers, dwarfing even Comcast's base. The DVR, triple-play bundles, and traditional channel packages all face an uncertain future as households quietly rewire their entertainment habits in ways that will reshape the entire industry.

Pete Putman •
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Market Trends & Analysis 4K Ultra HD Streaming HD

Well, Whaddya Know!

Summer may be slow, but a few stories demand attention. Millennials are watching less traditional TV than ever, Aereo's copyright gambit collapsed spectacularly, and UHD TV shipments are quietly doubling month over month despite persistent "too expensive" headlines. LG and Vizio are already slashing 4K prices aggressively, and Samsung, LG, and China's big six are racing to dominate a market that analysts expect to hit 14.5 million units by year's end. The real story is just getting started.

Pete Putman •
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Streaming HD Politics & Policy HDTV Broadcasting

Humpty Dumpty Strikes Again!

Aereo's Supreme Court defeat exposed a brazen attempt to redefine technical terminology - labeling entire broadcast receiver systems as mere 'antennas' to dodge copyright law. The 6-3 SCOTUS ruling correctly identified Aereo as functionally equivalent to a cable TV system. Now, in a stunning reversal, Aereo is petitioning courts for a compulsory license as exactly the kind of cable system it spent years insisting it was not. Lewis Carroll would be proud.

Pete Putman •
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Market Trends & Analysis 4K Ultra HD Streaming HD

Time For A Game Reset!

Six months into 2014, the consumer electronics landscape is shifting fast. Sony TV revenue jumped 30%, 4K shipments hit one million per month, and Netflix now drives 34% of all evening Internet traffic. Streaming is outpacing optical disc in both eco-friendliness and adoption, while Cisco projects 4K IP video traffic will surge from 0.1% to 11% by 2018. A mid-year reset reveals an industry accelerating toward a very different future.

Pete Putman •
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Streaming HD HD DVR Consumer Education

Stuffing Your Brain With Video

Binge viewing has quietly become the dominant way Americans consume television, with 81% of adults watching multiple episodes in a single sitting. DVR technology keeps expanding to match demand - Verizon's new set-top box records 12 simultaneous channels with 200 hours of HD storage - yet 41% of recorded content is never watched. Emerging HEVC H.265 compression could shift the balance decisively toward streaming, but one stubborn obstacle still stands in the way.

Pete Putman •
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DTV Transition Streaming HD

HDTV Expert - Aereo And The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Aereo's Internet retransmission service, which re-encodes terrestrial digital TV broadcasts using AVC coding over IP, faces mounting legal and technical scrutiny as a 10th Circuit judge ruled its operation indistinguishable from a cable company under the 1976 Copyright Act. The service's antenna-per-subscriber architecture, while designed to sidestep copyright liability, likely contributed to catastrophic buffering failures during the Oscars and Golden Globes broadcasts. For cord-cutters, alternatives like the Channel Master DVR+ with dual tuners and USB-expandable storage, or Hauppauge WinTV USB receivers, may offer more reliable local HD reception without the legal uncertainty.

Pete Putman •
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