Cable operators support seven principles to let subscribers buy video devices from retailers that could connect to any pay-TV provider’s service, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said Friday. The plan could be the base for FCC inter-industry efforts on retail video devices, he wrote Chairman Julius Genachowski at http://xrl.us/bgyb38. The National Broadband Plan will recommend a move toward so-called gateway set-top boxes (CED Feb 22 p7). CEA said the principles are “good."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nintendo of America said at the Game Developers Conference that it isn’t overly concerned about Sony Computer Entertainment’s fall launch of the PlayStation Move motion control system that SCE America said will be akin to a new platform debut. Nintendo also still has no plans for an HD console or stereoscopic 3D, Cammie Dunaway, NOA executive vice president of sales and marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Wii hardware supplies, meanwhile, are still not matching demand despite improving this month, she said.

A proposal for recycling or sanitary re-use of 3D eyewear by public venues was among a trove of patent applications we found from 3D developer RealD. Its U.S. patent filing 2008/0151370 describes the difficulties of cleaning or recycling eyewear among theater operators, as well as the potential health hazards when patrons wear glasses previously used by others. Instead, RealD’s application proposes sending previously-worn specs to a central facility to be cleaned for re-use, or recycled if they're damaged or otherwise deemed unreclaimable.

There appears to be sustained interest in the e-waste issue in the states this year, with as many as eight considering legislation. That was about the same number that had legislation introduced in 2009, according to environmental groups. Most of the 2010 bills prescribe some form of producer responsibility and none is “going toward the advanced recycling fee model,” said Jason Linnell of the National Center for Electronics Recycling. Twenty states and New York City have enacted e-waste laws.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The PS3 hardware supply woes that have plagued Sony Computer Entertainment America since the $100 price cut it initiated in late summer will wind down within the next few days, John Koller, the company’s director of hardware marketing, told us at the Game Developers Conference Wednesday. SCEA, meanwhile, said at a news conference that the PlayStation Move PS3 motion controller will cost “under $100” as part of a starter kit that will also include the existing PlayStationEye camera and an unspecified game when it ships this fall.

Coinstar’s Redbox will expand Blu-ray rentals across its kiosks by July as it upgrades software to enable variable pricing, CEO Paul Davis said Thursday at the Wedbush Morgan conference in New York. Many of details of the Blu-ray program haven’t been finalized, including pricing and assortment, Coinstar officials said. But Blu-ray titles will be carry a 30 to 40 percent premium to standard DVDs, which rent for $1 per day. Redbox has tested variable pricing with standard DVDs, with some renting for $1.50 per day, while others go for $2 with $1 charged each additional day, Davis said.

Distributed Transmission System technology has become highly politicized since the CTIA and CEA suggested that it could be used to reclaim some of the spectrum used in the TV band, industry executives and engineers said. The technology, also known as a single frequency network, lets stations use multiple synchronized transmitters to supplement the one on their main tower. It was approved by the FCC in the lead-up to the analog cutoff. Broadcast executives have panned the technology and the criticism is growing. Now a group of engineers is setting out to prove that the DTS won’t work. The CTIA-CEA proposal “did not fully understand the application, and that is what has gotten some of the broadcasters’ backs raised over this whole thing,” said Jay Adrick, vice president of broadcast technology for Harris, which sells some equipment for DTS.

Wal-Mart is saddled with inventory of large-screen TVs after over-buying the sets for the holiday season, Collins Stewart analyst John Vinh said in a research note to clients.

A videogame console uses as much electricity as two refrigerators if it isn’t powered down after use, and mandatory standards may be needed in addition to voluntary industry efforts to curb the devices’ energy use, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was told Wednesday. The committee was considering four energy-efficiency bills including the Green Gaming Act of 2009 (S-1699), which would require the Department of Energy to study the energy use of game consoles and decide whether standards are needed.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After dominating CES in January, 3D isn’t playing much more of a role at this week’s Game Developers Conference than it did at the 2009 GDC, with Nvidia again one of the few companies scheduled to discuss or demonstrate applications of stereoscopic 3D. But it was possible that Sony Computer Entertainment America -- one of the most prominent backers of the technology in the game arena -- would say something new about its 3D strategy at a news conference to be held after our deadline. Microsoft and Nintendo have expressed little interest in stereoscopic 3D games.