Misplaced remote controls might soon become a thing of the past. Hitachi "Gesture" TV allows you to use your hands to do everything from change channels, navigate menus and even turn the TV on or off [video].

How does it work? Hitachi's image sensor, already integrated at the bottom of its own flat-panel TV, captures the motion. By simply waving a hand in front of a TV, a user can turn on the TV. By moving a hand up and down, he activates a menu display. To adjust volume, the viewer makes circular movements.



Don't get too excited yet. Last September, Hitachi showed off something they call "Gesture" TV at CEATEC, the Japanese consumer electronics show. A more impressive and responsive prototype was then shown at CES this past January. The prototypes require you to be pretty close for the image sensor to work. Close enough to the TV in fact that it might just be faster to just push the power button rather than use a special choreographed hand motion. Hopefully in a few years we'll be able to wave goodbye to remote controls.


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Labels: ces, gadgets, tech news

UPDATE: Paramount spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone made this statement in response to reports that Paramount is abandoning the HD-DVD format: "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD-DVD format." The statement didn't specify if Paramount would also produce Blu-ray DVDs in addition to HD-DVDs. It will be interesting to see how this story pans out.

According to the Financial Times, Paramount is going to drop their support for Toshiba's HD-DVD after Warner Brothers pulled out of the HD-DVD camp last Sunday night. This will most likely put the final nail in the coffin of the HD-DVD format and end the biggest home entertainment format war since Betamax vs. VHS.

I just gave the bad new to one of the guys in the Toshiba booth at #CES. He wasn't happy. Their HD-DVD focused booth looks a little silly now.

Why the sudden switch? Why did Paramount go over to Sony's Blu-ray so quickly? Insiders are saying that a clause in Paramount's contract allowed the company to drop HD-DVD in the event that Warner Bros decided to back Blu-ray.

Paramount currently distributes DreamWorks Animation films and many believe that DreamWorks will probably follow Paramount over to the Blu-ray camp.




Blue-ray Members:

• Warner Brothers
  
• Walt Disney
• 20th Century Fox
  
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Paramount (rumor)
  
• DreamWorks (rumor)
• Sony Pictures
• Sony PlayStation
  

HD-DVD Members:

• Universal Studios
  
• The Weinstein Company
• Microsoft Xbox
  

Paramount would have been a major content producer for HD-DVD. Paramount has several major blockbusters being released this year including the latest installment in the Indiana Jones franchise.


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Labels: ces, events, tech news, video

While I'm getting over jet lag and waiting for the press office at CES to open so I can pick up my badge I thought I'd blog about the DVD format wars...

Last night, on the eve of the CES, Warner Bros. delivered what may turn out to be the decisive blow against the HD-DVD format.

Warner Bros. one of the largest publisher of DVDs in Hollywood, announced it will back the rival Sony-developed Blu-ray format exclusively starting on June 1, 2008. This means 5 of the top 7 movie studios have all gone Blu-ray.



Obviously the Warner Brothers announcement made the HD-DVD group (Toshiba/Microsoft/Intel) crap their pants. In fact Toshiba canceled a scheduled press event and claims to be "quite surprised" by the decision.

I don't know why people even argue for HD-DVD. Blu-ray has more storage. A dual layer Blu-ray disc can hold 50 GBs compared to HD-DVD with only 30 GB. Isn't more better?


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Labels: ces, events, video