It Pays To Be Green - Literally

If just the warm fuzzy glow knowing that you saved the planet isn't enough to convince you to trade-in or recycle, perhaps cold, hard cash might be what you need.

We all have a pile of old, obsolete, or non-functioning electronics gear lying around, right? Seriously, it's not just me, right??? While disposing of them responsibly is good, getting money for your trash is better.

To the rescue, there are a bunch of companies that offer decent money for still-functioning iPods, laptops and more. The gear still works, but you want something newer, brighter, and shinier. They'll also take your non-functioning gear, but that doesn't pay nearly as much. Some will give you information about charity sites that want your old gear, or connect you with an electronics recycler. 

Keep reading for more information about these innovative companies.

Samsung to Circuit City: Payback's a Bitc. . .

Circuit City has a long list of problems -bankruptcy and store closings are probably tops. Well, Samsung just added to their worries.

According to a U.S. bankruptcy court filing, Samsung is demanding that Circuit City return nearly $74 million in consumer electronics. Merry Christmas.

Although Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 protection back in November, Samsung claims that the stores were insolvent at the time they received the goods.

What makes it worse is . . .

TiVo/Amazon HD? Oops, Our Bad

A few observant users over at EngadgetHD spotted something interesting on their TiVo screens. When they looked at the Video On Demand screen for Amazon's streaming service, they noticed an interesting option. Suddenly, there was an option for "Available in High Definition." Cool, right?

Not so fast. This was just a test. According to TiVo's PR firm...

Tweeter: Another One Bites The Dust

 This one is personal. Tweeter, and its stores, HiFi Buys and Sound Advice, are no more. Gone. Someone hacked their site today, but now there is nothing. "Server not found." They announced bankruptcy last year - notable to me locally as the HiFi Buys Ampitheater here in Atlanta reverted back to its original name, the Lakewood Ampitheater. I met my SO at my local HiFi Buys. As true home theater lovers geeks, where will we celebrate our anniversary?

But, this has deeper, serious implications . . .

Yule Log and More Holiday Gifts in HD

Who needs a real fireplace when you can enjoy a faux fireplace - in HD no less? Did everyone grow up in areas that broadcast Yule Logs? WPIX in NY City had it every year when I was growing up. It wouldn't be the holidays without it. Now, HD VOD systems from Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Comcast are offering the traditional classic Christmas Yule Log, burning brightly in HD from iN DEMAND.

Also in iN DEMAND's gift bag . . .

Did you or didn't you?

  The dust has settled and 99.99% of us have survived Black Friday and Cyber Monday for another year. So, with the economy in the dumper, were you enticed out of your home for any crazy tech deals this year? Give it up... Begin the healing or continue the revelling by letting us know how you wrenched that LCD TV out of an elderly widow's hands or how you clawed your way over the less fortunate to score the last digital camera. Where'd you go, what time did you get there, what'd you score?

I picked up Blu-ray copies of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man for $14.99 each at Wal-Mart, and didn't even have to scream a single obscenity.--John Sciacca

Survey: How much more will you pay?

Studios: Your Blu-ray pricing is making the discs unsaleable! I love home theater. And I own a Blu-ray player. So, when Pixar's Wall-E came out on disc, I headed down to Wal-Mart on launch day to pick up the movie on Blu-ray. But when I saw the ginormous price disparity between the DVD and the Blu-ray, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I am NOT going to spend $19.99 more for the Blu-ray experience. Not...gon....doit. So, how much more would YOU pay for a Blu-ray? I'm thinking a $5 premium over DVD is fair.--John Sciacca

TiVo Guilt?

Come on. 'Fess up. How much stuff do you have backlogged on your TiVo? Me? I've got 27 shows in a folder called "Everest," 34 episodes of House, and a stack of movies that I record whenever HBO or Showtime has a free preview weekend. When it looked like my TiVo might be dying, I went into a panic when I realized how many movies I had stored, unwatched, for years. Sure, I meant to get around to Hotel Rwanda, was waiting for just the right time for The Aviator, and the rainy day that would be perfect for March of the Penguins. Seems like I'm not alone.

CNN is reporting that more and more people are experiencing something called "TiVo guilt," where TiVo owners feel overwhelmed and guilty about the about of content stored, unwatched on their DVRs.

See what industry experts say about this "condition" . . .

Denon: World's First Universal Blu-ray Player

Did you buy into SACD? Stocked up on every new DVD-Audio that came out? Been wondering what the heck you were gonna do with those discs if you upgraded to Blu-ray?

Denon's new DVD-A1UD to the rescue! Claimed to be the world's first universal Blu-ray player, the DVD-A1UD can play Blu-ray, SACD, DVD-Audio and boring old DVD video. It will have a Profile 2.0 update with BD-Live capabilities.

Keep reading for as much information that we could glean from Denon's Japanese website.

Boston Planning DTV Day, December 9th

Sure, you can say you're prepared for the DTV transition, but is your whole city? Wilmington, NC has already done a full test switch, literally pulling the plug on their analog TV. Boston isn't going quite that far, but the city is doing a full-on assault on the analog airways to make sure folks are, if not prepared, educated.

All TV stations and cable providers are joining in this educational initiative to make sure consumers aren't left in the dark after the official kill-date of February 17, 2009.

To raise awareness, the DTV Day will take this approach:

Makin' a List, Checkin' it Twice

Grab a pencil and paper - it's time to make a list. What are the top ten things you are wishing for this year? The results of a recent CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) survey will surprise you. Blew me away, actually.

Black Friday has come and gone, along with the first full weekend of holiday shopping. 25 million more people hit the stores than did last year. Most folks were out buying clothing (how boring!) while 36% were buying consumer electronics. The survey indicated that four of the top ten items of those surveyed were electronics devices.

See what else was on the list, and more interestingly, see where electronics fell on the list.

Pioneer Displays 400GB Blu-ray-playable Optical Disc

Already bored with dual-layer discs?  Plain old Blu-ray passé? Then we've got news for you! Pioneer is showing off a 16-layer 400GB optical disc. Each layer on this read-only optical disc has 25GB of storage. Pioneer was showing it off at the IT Month Fair in Taipei.

Pioneer is sayng this disc is playable on Blu-ray players and could be available before 2010. Rewritable discs will be out 2010-2012, and 1TB discs by 2013.

Keep reading to see what Pioneer had to say about the new format.

Roku Hiccups

Did you pick up a new Netflix Roku player on Black Friday? Have one waiting under the tree? You better check on it, because it's not feeling too good. Roku owners have been experiencing a bug. A bad bug at that.

Seems like owners are reporting a severe loss of video quality - less than half of what they had before. Some have even said that the video stream is so bad that it is unwatchable.

What's up with that?

Sooloos Ensemble System: MP3 Player on Crack

You think your 120GB iPod is hot stuff, right? Think again. Sooloos, maker of high-end home networking and entertainment systems, just announced a lower-cost digital music management / storage / playback system with a terabyte of storage. Lower-cost if you consider $7,900.00 a bargain.

The Sooloos Ensemble System can store compressed and FLAC (lossless) files or both. You can rip about 2,400 albums in both formats, so you have high-quality files for listening at home, and MP3 files for on the go.

But, the Ensemble is more than just storage . . .

Samsung Streaming HD Netflix

Before you head out Friday morning, (or Thursday night, for that matter) for your Black Friday shopping spree, you might want to put a Samsung Blu-ray player on the top of your list. Aren't we nice — giving you a head-start so you can shop around for the best deals?

Samsung just announced that their two new BD-Live 2.0 Blu-ray players will have access to the ever-growing library of HD content on Netflix. It will require a firmware update, but well worth the minimal effort. According to Samsung, the BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 are among the first stand-alone players to connect directly to the Netflix HD library.

Do we have to mention you'll need to connect the player to the Internet? That goes without saying, right? What else does Samsung have to say about this?

Atlantic Records: For First time, Digital Outsold CD

We knew this day would happen, and oddly enough, the world is still spinning. Legendary music label, Atlantic Records just reported that digital music revenue has surpassed compact disc sales. Yikes!

Atlantic has said that digital sales, which include downloads from places like iTunes and Amazon.com, plus cellphone ringtones generated more revenue than CD. Atlantic's parent company, Warner Music Group, reported that digital sources only accounted for 27 percent of their American revenue last quarter.

While those numbers might be startling, these from a New York Times story are more sobering . . .

Creative Labs Vado HD Pocket Camcorder

Not ready to plunk down five grand on Canon's latest camera with HD capabilities? Creative Labs comes to the rescue.  Joining the ranks with Kodak and Flip Mino HD, the Vado HD 720P pocket video camcorder is the latest mini with HD capabilities. Plus, for $199.99, what's not to like?

Although it's not Full HD, the 720p capabilities should look great for most home-movie situations. It comes with an HDMI cable, but the built-in USC connector is the first thing that will catch your eye. 

Keep reading for more pics and specs.

HDTV Study: Got HD?

A new study of HDTV owners reveals rather surprising results. Frank N. Magid Associates polled first-time HDTV set owners.  Of the households who just purchased HDTVs, 41 percent don't have any way of viewing HD content from their cable or satellite provider.  Compare that to the 80 percent of long-time HDTV owners who already have HD cable or satellite.

Are consumers just confused about HD, and do they think that the the DTV transition is suddenly going to upgrade their service to HD?

Keep reading to see what the folks at the company who conducted the survey thinks.

TiVo On The Go

TiVo has offered remote scheduling via cell phone for a while now, but it wasn't exactly a simple process, and it wasn't available to everyone. Until now. TiVo just launched TiVo Mobile, a free website optimized for the mobile phone market. It's easy to use from any mobile platform, carrier or browser.  Woohoo!

Next time I forget to record Boston Legal, I'm covered. Not only can I see what's on, I can program my home TiVo to record, from anywhere.

Plus, it's not restricted to TiVo subscribers. Anyone can log on and browse through the guide to see what's on TV through any Internet-enabled phone.

So, where do you point your browser?

Best Buy's TiVo HD/HDTV Bundle

There are ghosts in my machines. I'm convinced of it. Two weeks ago, my trusty 32-inch CRT TV started to fail. The picture would go green, then black and white, and then the death roll. Grrr.  Off to Best Buy to start researching what I wanted.

Not two days after that, my TiVo started in with me. The program would just freeze for a few seconds, randomly. No matter if I was watching live TV (although continually buffered) or playing back from the drive. Uh-oh. It was time to start watching all the movies I had archived on it. Was there a conspiracy in my home theater?

Now I have to wonder if Best Buy has a hand in this. They just announced a new special - save $100 on a TiVo HD DVR when you buy an HDTV. Did they sabotage my home theater? I think so!

Keep reading for the details on the deal.

Blockbuster On-Demand

Blockbuster has yet another way to get their movies into your home.  And this one looks like it could make a bit of a splash. Blockbuster has been losing the battle with Netflix, with hundreds of stores shutting down recently. Their subscription service let them compete head-to-head, and consumers liked having movies delivered to their home.

However, when Netflix unveiled their Roku box that let consumers stream to a box that could be viewed on their TVs, Blockbuster only had Movielink.  Movielink is a great download service, but it confined the movies to a computer - a PC at that - it still is not Mac-compatible.

Blockbuster's brand new on-demand service will rely the MediaPointTM digital media player, on a box made by 2Wire Inc., and it will be similar to the storage device supplied by Vudu.

See how much this pay-per-view box will set you back.

Hellboy II: The Chat Recap

Don't you wish your life had TiVo? I do. A few weeks ago, we told you all about the first BD-Live chat with the director of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro. The chat, accessible only through Universal Studio's BD-Live server was on November 23. And I missed it. Darn it.

Luckily for me, and you, the folks at Engadget caught it. The 50 preselected questions were sprinkled through a viewing of the movie, and as the director himself said about Blu-ray releases and extras, "the perfect home theater experience."

Keep reading for a link to complete coverage of this ground-breaking event.

Small LCD HD TV Wars

In a smackdown of very small proportions, HANNspree and Westinghouse are battling for your dollars and shelf-space. Neither name is a heavy-hitter in the US television market, but they do have some interesting new products.

HANNspree just introduced the world's first 28-inch LCD TV with Full HD 1080p capability. The set has two HDMI ports, and a VGA port makes it easy to use as a computer monitor. It will set you back $499.99 - not bad for Full HD.

Looking for something just a touch cheaper? See what Westinghouse is introducing.

DLO HomeDock HD Comes Home

So, you've downloaded a ton of HD movies and TV shows to your iPod or iPhone. Good for you. So now you have a really great picture on a really tiny screen. Not exactly what the developers of HD had in mind, now, is it?

DLO is finally selling their oh-so-elegant solution. The HomeDock HD is the ideal interface between your iPod/iPhone and your home theater system. It will connect your iPod to an HD TV via HDMI with upscaling to either 720p or 1080i. It is compatible with all dockable iPods.

Keep reading for more specs on the HomeDock.

NFL in 3-D, Coming to a Theater Near You

Already bored with your Sunday football game in HD? Ready to turn it up a notch? Ready to turn it up 3 notches? Are you ready for some 3-D football? Lucky industry insiders in LA, NY, and Boston will get an interesting opportunity to check out next Sunday's game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders at local 3-D theaters. Not the most exciting lineup, but hey, it's in 3-D!  That's got to add a lot to the game.

This is being called a "proof of concept" by the NFL, wanting to get the idea out to the industry to see how much interest there is. Previous attempts at 3-D football were successful, but this will be the first live feed.

See who's invited to the event.

Netflix's $1 Million Contest: Highly Recommended

So, when it's late at night and you can't fall asleep, have you ever wondered how Netflix knows what movies to recommend to you? I know I have. Netflix has a system called Cinematch that picks movies it predicts you'll like, but Netflix wants to get better at predicting what you'll like. No, they really want to get better at it - to the tune of $1 million.

Netflix is offering that prize to anyone who can improve the Cinematch algorithm and make it 10% more accurate. Sounds easy, right? Well, the contest started in October 2006 and no one has claimed the price yet. In fact, it's become quite the little hacker community of computer and statistical wizards working on it. Over 30,000 teams worldwide are working on the problem.

Every day, teams are submitting their attempts to the Netflix Prize page and Netflix can instantly compare it to Cinematch - and then they can see how they're ranking against the competition.

What's the hang up? Seems like Napolean Dynamite is the problem.

YouTube with HD Video - Hulu Beware

The one claim - okay, one of a few claims - that Hulu had over YouTube was the quality of the video. But, crafty YouTube viewers have scrounged around and found a few HD-quality videos mixed into the regular, pixelated, sputtering content we all know and love.

This new content is most likely real HD 720p, H.264-encoded mp4 files, better than the previously viewable "high quality" content.

This new material will require a faster connection and more powerful PC than before, but if you have the ability, it should be impressive, and give YouTube the quality-hike that they need to compete with Hulu in the eyes of Hollywood.

Keep reading for the hack needed so you can watch either the high-quality or 720p videos.

AT&T U-verse May Hit NC in December

Who doesn't love a juicy rumor? Especially one that has real facts backing it up? Rumors are flying around North Carolina that AT&T's U-verse may be coming, specifically to Cary, NC, as early as December. That's just days away!

Local North Carolinians are reporting that they've been seeing an unusual number AT&T service vans rolling through their neighborhoods. Ads are popping up, U-verse cabinets are being spotted, and the service folks are talking. Sometimes it just takes walking up to the service-person and asking what the heck they're doing in your neighborhood. The driver said that U-verse was targeting December for the Cary, NC area.

Now, the question is . . .

As Falls Hollywood . . .

Most of the nation is looking at Wall Street, Capital Hill, and Detroit, but our eyes are on Hollywood. As the economy tanks, people tend to look to the entertainment world to create a diversion.

A report in the New York Times shows exactly how the movie business is being effected by the economic downturn. Movie tickets are going up, but the real Hollywood dollars have long depended on DVD sales. Surprisingly, as more and more people stay home, those sales aren't increasing.

Sales of DVDs are down by 4 percent, mostly coming in October, when the economy was the bleakest.

According to the NYT story . . .

Vizio Going Long in '09

Vizio is looking to expand from a new-comer in the TV market to leading player in the home theater world. They're introducing a new product line destined to turn your sporting viewing into a super-event. 

120Hz is the latest buzz word, and Vizio's line wouldn't be complete without one. Their latest 55" 1080p LCD comes loaded with 120Hz Smooth Motion. Oooh. Silky smooth.

They have a new Sound Bar and a wireless subwoofer, which are both designed to complement the Vizio flat-panel TVs. Vizio is also releasing three small HD LCD sets, to give folks options as the digital transition gets closer.

One last bit of news is a 26" multimedia monitor with Full HD+, ideal for gamers.

Keep reading for the complete release on these new products.