Capria TV

ABI Research released some highlights of its recent research on HDTV adoption and the viewing habits of Americans. While 41% of Americans have HDTV’s, only about half of those HDTV receive any sort of an HD signal. While it might not be too surprising that only one out of Americans can view HDTV in all its glory, it’s shocking that another one out of five think they are watching HD when they are just watching a blown up SD image.

Lay the blame at the feet of the cable companies. I’ve been to several living rooms where what’s sold as HD looks indistinguishable from an up-converted standard definition DVD. This isn’t something I want to be pondering at 2:00 AM as we’re perfecting the look of my next HD production. 

Any journalist who has ever written anything even slightly critical of Apple has suffered the wrath of the small, but vocal Apple zealotry. The same goes for the Red camera. In days gone by Media 100 users could get quite agitated as well. Among my colleagues it’s a running joke. If you want to boost your numbers, criticize Apple or Red. Today’s Boston Globe featured an interesting blurb on the phenomenon. Farhad Manjoo has released some excerpts of his forthcoming book, True Enough. 

Rainer Standke, longtime participant on the FCP-L and Avid-L2 mailing lists, editor, and software developer, has released XMiL Sequencer. This handy utility allows editors to import file-based camera originals, such as QuickTime movies created from Red’s R3D files, into Avid environments while preserving all necessary metadata. 

Anyone making a living in video would do well to read this special report on the future of advertising by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. It succinctly explains how television advertising rates continue to rise even as viewership declines dramatically. Even before the writers strike threw an anvil to an industry trying to tread water, the numbers were telling:

For the first 11 weeks of the 2007-08 television season, prior to the effects of the fall 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Nielsen data show viewer declines for the crucial 18-to-49 age group of 19.4% for NBC, 16.7% for CBS, 10.5% for ABC and 28.6% for CW. Only Fox improved, with a 3.4% gain.

The trend is clear. Broadcast television is fading. Audiences are gathering information and getting entertained elsewhere. With broadband penetration now over 50% in the US, web video may be at a long-awaited inflection point.

Avid’s finally taken the action many have been calling for. It’s decided to simplify its product line, dropping Xpress Pro and lowering the price of Media Composer. Details here.

The consensus in various forums and mailing lists is that this is another example of too little, too late from Avid. I respectfully dissent. Too late? Only time will tell. Back in May 2006 I suggested it was time to put Xpress Pro out to pasture to gasps from Avid marketing types in the audience. Too little? That’s harder to say. By maintaining its distance from Final Cut Pro in terms of pricing, Avid is saying that it doesn’t compete on price with Final Cut Pro. Now Avid has to articulate its justification for that strategy.

A Pew Internet and American Life Project survey on mobile and wireless usage contains few surprises. Traditional television’s importance to the average American is diminishing while dependency on mobile phones and internet access grows. For the first time, a majority of Americans with mobile phones said the devices would be very hard to give up, yet only 43% said television would be hard to give up.