The lack of standards in the 3D world “is a real problem,” said Alan Young, chief technology officer of SES World Skies, during the keynote presentation of Content & Communications World in New York Wednesday. In the absence of industry-wide standards, SES World Skies has developed a 3D TV industry test platform for 3D infrastructure, formats, compression technologies and displays to measure 3D performance in a lab environment, Young said.

Dolby is pushing to make Dolby Digital Plus the chosen format for surround-sound audio in the connected TV world. Vudu already incorporates 5.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus audio in its streaming movie service, and Dolby plans additional content aggregator announcements “very soon,” Craig Eggers, Dolby’s senior manager, consumer electronics partner marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Eggers would not comment on specific aggregators or whether Dolby Digital Plus will be part of the Google TV announcement, set for after our deadline Tuesday.

E-waste programs run by manufacturers or the state contractor would get recycling credits if they exceed the shares that they are required to collect and recycle in a calendar year, under a bill drafted by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The draft e-waste bill is for introduction in 2011, the department said. A few lawmakers have shown interest in sponsoring the bill, and they may end up changing the bill to add devices to the list of electronics products covered by the law, a department official told us.

Dish Network late this year will launch EchoStar’s 700U Slingbox integrated with its ViP 922 satellite receiver/DVR and have it available as an add-on module for two other HD set-top boxes, an EchoStar spokesman said.

A new GAO report found that broadband availability is similar across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, including the U.S., but adoption varies more and is influenced by cost, income, computer ownership and other demographic factors. Increasing adoption in the U.S. won’t be easy, but recommendations in the FCC National Broadband Plan are consistent with the approach adopted in a number of other OECD countries, GAO found. The report was prepared at the direction of the leaders of the House Commerce Committee.

Samsung will pay Lexar Media parent Micron Technology $275 million “during the next couple of quarters” as part of a cross-license deal, Micron CEO Steve Appleton said in an earnings call last week. Under the 10-year agreement, Samsung agreed to pay Micron $200 million by this Tuesday, $40 million by Jan. 31, and the rest by March 31, Micron said in a filing at the SEC. The license was described by Micron as “a life-of-patents license for existing patents and applications, and a 10-year term license for all other patents."

Sony Online Entertainment publicly showed the character creation feature of its coming PS3 and PC game DC Universe Online for the first time Friday, at the New York Comic Con convention. The feature allows players to design the hero or villain avatars they select to play the game.

ST. LOUIS -- Amid forecasts that HTSA dealers’ total 2010 sales will drop below $400 million, after a 20 percent decline to that dollar figure in 2009, association executives are urging dealers to build solutions around Apple products, more-affordable home control and mobile electronics. “You need to have as many arrows in your quiver as you can,” Executive Director Richard Glikes told Consumer Electronics Daily.

The efforts to harmonize the registration requirements of state e-waste laws for cost and administrative efficiencies will face “implementation challenges,” said Executive Director Jason Linnell of the National Center for Electronics Recycling. NCER is leading the effort through the 25-member Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse that includes 11 state agencies and several industry players. Twenty-three states have enacted e-waste laws, mostly based on producer responsibility. California is the only state to have a law that funds recycling through a consumer fee on new devices.

TOKYO -- With Japanese government approval almost certain, NTT DoCoMo will begin its next-generation digital mobile broadcasting service in 2011 starting in Tokyo and Osaka, spokeswoman Naoko Minobe told us Friday during a tour of the company’s showroom.