LAS VEGAS -- Another, smaller standards battle is shaping up at the Advanced TV Systems Committee between Samsung and LG. Each has helped develop technology that lets TV broadcasters devote their entire DTV channel to mobile service. ATSC is working to standardize the technology in an update to its mobile DTV standard, which caps the amount of bandwidth a station can devote to mobile service. Not all broadcasters are interested in devoting their entire channel to mobile, but some of the 700 MHz spectrum auction winners are, said Ion Media CEO Brandon Burgess. “We would not go anywhere near full channel, HD is important,” he said. “Qualcomm won’t admit it but they're studying it, and Dish is doing more than studying it."

LAS VEGAS -- Most people who viewed 3D telecasts or highlight reels of Masters golf came away so impressed that they think the jump to 3D from HD will “be a bigger transition than it was from SD to HD,” said Dan Holden, chief scientist at the Comcast Media Center in Centennial, Colo. At the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering Conference on Saturday, he said Comcast plans to deliver 3D content in an “over-under” format at half the resolution per eye of full HD, which won’t require adding bandwidth. He thinks most other cable companies will do the same, he said.

A trial of “eco-friendly” FiOS set-top boxes is among green initiatives Verizon unfolded Monday as part of the company’s 2010 sustainability program aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of its operations. Verizon said it teamed up with Motorola for the pilot in select FiOS markets. Verizon hasn’t joined the Energy Star set-top box program for service providers. Only four providers, including AT&T and DirecTV, have offered to buy or deploy enough Energy Star boxes to qualify for certification for the set-top box program that started in January 2009.

3D trial runs continued Thursday in New York with Time Warner Cable’s presentation of the first round of the Masters golf championship. Camping out in temporary tent space in its own Time Warner Center in Manhattan, the cable giant used the invitation-only event to demonstrate the capabilities of the fledgling technology to guests.

The first 3D TVs that SEAL Solutions will carry in its first showroom, in Islandia, N.Y., are from Samsung, CEO Christopher Wyllie told Consumer Electronics Daily Thursday at the showroom’s grand opening. A 55-inch Samsung 3D TV will replace the 55-inch Samsung set that is now in the showroom, he said.

With a final liquidation in the wings, defunct retailer Circuit City has sued several CE suppliers seeking more than $15 million it claims to be owed for chargebacks and other debts.

Electronic Arts and Hasbro are developing online games that will parallel the October launch of the Hasbro- and Discovery-owned channel The Hub, Chip Lange, senior vice president and general manager of EA’s Hasbro Division, told us in an interview.

The FCC announced Wednesday the launch of a small business broadband adoption public-private partnership, linking Score, the Small Business Administration’s volunteer arm, and “private partners,” including AT&T, Best Buy, Cisco, Constant Contact, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intuit, Microsoft, Skype and Time Warner Cable.

LONDON -- Sony and FIFA have an ambitious plan to bring 3D broadcasts of World Cup soccer to homes and public venues and 3D clips to retail stores, they said at a news conference here Thursday. Sony also said it will capture footage of key matches on a Blu-ray 3D disc.

Many CE executives said they see the recent GAO report exposing flaws in the Energy Star program (CED March 29 p3) as a tempest in a teapot that will have little impact on public perceptions. But some say they worry that state lawmakers and environmental groups will use the program’s flaws, exposed in the report, to push for more energy efficiency mandates.