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TECHNOLOGY by Marauder

TECHNOLOGY

Of the 83 million U.S. homes with at least one PC, up to 2 million are used to mastermind home theaters. A PC can be configured with a DVD and Blu-ray player, as well as a digital archive for storing movies. PCs also can record television shows, with one hour of HD programming taking up about 6GB, according to this analysis. MSNBC (8/4)

One of HP’s home theater PCs, the Pavilion Elite m9300t, starts at $800. Dell and Sony, as well as other manufacturers, also have home theater PCs on the market.

According to a study by IMS Research, the total number of households with access to HD video programming via broadcast, cable, satellite or IPTV will reach 255 million in 2013. The report also predicts $46 billion in revenue from Blu-ray discs in 2013, with the market growing as more PCs add Blu-ray drives. Broadcast Engineering (8/5)

Blockbuster will begin testing 50 DVD rental kiosks to compete with Redbox, which rents DVDs for $1 per night. Blockbuster plans to roll out 10,000 kiosks over the next 18 months. The kiosks are designed for DVD rentals, but could include digital downloads and sales of movies in the future. The Hollywood Reporter (8/5) , Variety (8/4)

Motorola, joining a growing list of companies in offering software-development kits to cable companies and developers, has made its kit to create interactive-TV applications based on CableLabs’ tru2way platform commercially available. The company was mum on the price for the DevPlatform, but asserts that it costs less than similar available products. Multichannel News (8/5)

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