Rebecca Day

CEA and ESPN are sponsoring National 3D Demo Days, a weekend of 3D TV programming Sept. 10-12, at retail locations nationwide. ESPN programming for the event includes pre-recorded coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, X Games 16, an NCAA football telecast of Boise State vs. Virginia Tech from Sept. 6, 2010, and footage of the Harlem Globetrotters shot at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports facility in Orlando, Fla. The showcase event is the live Sept. 11 telecast of the NCAA football game between Ohio State and Miami at 3:40 p.m. EDT on ESPN 3D. Participating retailers can be found at www.digitaltips.org. “Each retailer will promote the event in their own way but we have been working with them on print and in-store ads, press promotion and online promotion,” a CEA spokeswoman told us. A scan of the DigitalTips website revealed Best Buy as a participating retailer across virtually all states, CompUSA and Tigerdirect.com in certain states -- along with the regional chains Fry’s, Listen Up, Video & Audio Center -- and Starpower Home Entertainment Systems. Specialty audio/video retailers also participating include Audio Craft in Cleveland, Sound World of Wausau in Wisconsin, The Sound Room in St. Louis and Stereo Barn in Sinking Spring, Pa. Noticeably absent from the list of retailers was hhgregg, which cited 3D in its earnings webcast last week as an important part of its video mix and profitability going forward (CED Aug 6 p3). “We are promotional regarding 3D now and will continue to be throughout the holiday season and beyond.,” Jeff Pearson, vice president of marketing at hhgregg, told us. “We will be partnering with manufacturers in store, in print and on TV.” CEA will promote National 3D Demo Days through national and regional public relations and marketing efforts and is hosting a satellite media tour promoting 3D technology at ESPN’s headquarters the week of the event, along with a webcast for reporters highlighting the event and CEA’s latest 3D market research. CEA will also pitch the event, along with information about 3D TVs and surround sound, to media outlets within the surrounding areas of participating retailers, it said.

Fujifilm unveiled what it called the first digital camera that can capture HD 3D movies, following the company’s debut last year of the first digital camera to take 3D stills. Due in stores next month, the $499 Fine Pix REAL 3D W3 shoots 3D HD at 720p resolution and 2D HD at 1920 x 1080 resolution. The camera packs its own 3.5-inch widescreen autostereoscopic 3D LCD viewfinder for 3D playback from the camera, without glasses. The camera has a built-in mini HDMI port which allows consumers to play back content on “most” 3D TVs, the company said. “Fujifilm doesn’t want to comment on specific models as they don’t want to be seen to be showing favoritism to one over another,” a spokesman said in response to our query about which TVs are compatible with 3D video shot using the camera. “Suffice it to say that Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG all make compatible 3D TVs (basically any current model with HDMI version 1.4) and any PC that runs or supports Nvidia’s 3D Vision system."

Gefen, a supplier of home theater accessories for custom installation, is heading to the CEDIA show next month hoping to broaden dealer support for a new approach to multi-room audio/video distribution to address needs not being met in the market by existing multi-room AV solutions. “We wanted better control over HDMI signal path,” said CEO Hagai Gefen, citing challenges and “a lot of confusion” over the implementation of HDMI. “The main issue is the way everybody is conceiving audio/video distribution -- that the signal goes through the [AV receiver],” he said.

At the same time that Samsung scaled back industry projections for 2010 3D TV sales, the company ratcheted up its own commitment to 3D, bringing its 3D lineup to a total 35 products for the year, the company said Wednesday at a news conference at the Samsung Experience store at New York’s Time Warner Center.

Comcast and Blockbuster created a marketing partnership to allow Comcast subscribers to order DVDs by mail and to let Comcast market its triple-play services in Blockbuster stores, according to a blog post on the ComcastVoices website. The DVD-by-mail service will be integrated with Comcast’s movie offerings, and when consumers search for a movie title at www.comcast.com/dvd, they'll be given viewing choices including a disc by mail, on-demand, online and premium TV channels, the cable company said. Subscribers who choose the mailed DVD option can return discs by mail or to Blockbuster stores.

Mozaex added a 3D option to its line of disc players and media servers, claiming it’s the first company to offer a Blu-ray 3D multi-room solution. Mozaex CEO Douglas Kihm told Consumer Electronics Daily that the servers ship with “only licensed decrypting tools for playing back Blu-ray Discs and DVDs” and not with unlicensed tools that allow playback from a server. Regarding the difference between Mozaex’s approach and those of Kaleidescape and RealNetworks servers that were the subject of copy-control lawsuits brought by the DVD Copy Control Association, Kihm said Mozaex’s products don’t ship with unlicensed decrypting tools. “We ship our products only with licensed decrypting tools for playing back physical DVDs and Blu-rays,” he said.

A new remote base antenna from LiteTouch enables the company’s existing wired lighting control system to be managed wirelessly, part of an effort to cull sales from its existing customer base amid the falloff in new home construction, the company said. To get dealers on board, the company is sending out project names and equipment lists in a starter package for an upgrade sell, making LiteTouch the latest custom electronics company that’s trying to train dealers how to mine for business in the existing-home market, it said.

Premium features and easing pressures on average selling prices in the appliance and video categories offset significant declines in small electronics and camcorder sales for fiscal Q1 2011 at hhgregg, the company said Thursday in its Q1 earnings call.

Glitches in 3D implementation at the home theater level have prompted test equipment company SpectraCal to upgrade its HDMI test device with 3D features to help integrators identify issues more easily in the field, the company told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Smartphones with bundled navigation are taking a bite out of the personal navigation device (PND) market, Garmin executives said Wednesday on the company’s Q2 earnings webcast, and the company’s stab at the smartphone market has fallen short of expectations.