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Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote Introduces New Design with Full-Color Touch Screen, Intuitive Button Layout Winner of CES Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Award

LAS VEGAS –(Business Wire)– Jan. 5, 2008 Today at the Consumer Electronics Show, Logitech (SWX:LOGN) (NASDAQ:LOGI) unveiled the Harmony(R) One advanced universal remote control, marking a significant leap in the evolution of the best-selling line of Harmony remotes. Offering the same one-touch, activity-based control as other Harmony remotes, the Harmony One makes controlling home entertainment even easier with a full-color touch screen, an intuitive button layout and an exceptionally comfortable user-friendly design. The product has received the CES 2008 Design and Engineering Award: Best of Innovations in Home-Entertainment Accessories.
As home-entertainment systems become more sophisticated and complex, people are often frustrated and overwhelmed by the need to have multiple devices, the frequent necessity for family members to have written instructions to control the system (otherwise known as a cheat sheet) and the growing number of remotes on the coffee table. And, according to industry research, more and more families will face this problem. IMS Research’s report, “The Future of High-Definition TV – 2007 Edition,” forecasts strong worldwide growth for HDTV over the next four years (nearly 148 million HDTV households by 2011). And in the U.S. alone, consumer spending on digital-living products is on track to hit $300 billion in 2010 (Parks Associates, “Digital Living Forecast,” Dec. 2006).

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And the winner is Sony’s Blu-ray. In a shocking move, Warner Bros. Entertainment has decided to produce movies in only Blu-ray format beginning in May. That leaves Paramount as the last major studio to make HD DVDs.

In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

Just when you thought HD DVD was making some progress, Warner deals a fatal blow to the format. And right before CES begins in Las Vegas too. The news was so shocking to the HD DVD promotional group, that they canceled their pre-Consumer Electronics Show Press Conference. With almost no studio support left, who will buy a HD DVD? It doesn’t even matter who has the better format now. In the end, the studios made the decision for the consumers – or maybe it was the consumers who made the decision with their wallets.

This year at the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas, three companies will be showing off wireless HD technologies. The largest of the three is WirelessHD, a consortium of the top Asian electronic companies like Sony and Toshiba along with Intel will announce the blueprint for a new chip that can transmit HD from a set top box to your TV.

The technology uses a virgin band of the radio spectrum, around 60 gigahertz. That lets it avoid interference from other wireless networking gear and allows for extremely high data transfer rates, according to John Marshall, chairman of WirelessHD. Unlike other wireless TV solutions, WirelessHD won’t need to compress the signal, which can result in a loss of quality.

To satisfy concerns by the Motion Picture Association of America, the organization of Hollywood studios, WirelessHD has intentionally limited the range of the technology.

“What WirelessHD has done is that we’ve made sure that the technology can cover a whole room — even a large room, up to 10 meters (30 feet) — but we’ve used techniques that make sure that it can’t leak into the apartment next door,” Marshall said.

That also means the signal won’t reach from the living room into other rooms in the same home.

This all sounds great until you get to the line that reads the MPAA has “intentionally limited the range.” Basically killing the idea of watching HD from the living room in your bedroom. Maybe if they limited crap like Music & Lyrics from coming out more people would go to the movies.

[via CNN]

If you don’t own a digital TV or HDTV, and don’t plan on getting one by February 17th, 2009 then you might want to check out the Federal Government’s TV Converter Box Program. The feds has started taking requests for a subsidized coupon of $40 to help offset the cost of buying a TV converter so you can continue to receive over-the-air broadcasts. If you haven’t heard at midnight on February 17, 2009, most television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to all digital. The move will free up airwaves for use by emergency responders plus a portion of the spectrum is going up for sale via a public auction. The coupons will begin mailing on February 17th of this year and will be available until the date of the switch or when they run out funds.