By Andrew Eisner

The government will be sending many of you a check for $600 or more. Sure you could do the responsible thing and pay off some of your credit card debt but the government is asking you to go out and stimulate the economy. Making an extra payment on your credit card would be downright unpatriotic. So what are you waiting for, go out and treat yourself to a brand new gadget.  read more »

 

By Andrew Eisner

It's that time of year again; sixty five men’s college basketball teams in four regions around the country begin playing on March 20th . The women’s teams start their playoffs on March 23rd . More importantly though, is this going to be the year you watch the games in HDTV ?
By March 27th it’s down to the sweet sixteen teams, the final four on April 5th and finally the championship game on April 7th in San Antonio , Texas . There's still plenty of time to use Retrevo to help select the best value in HDTV , find an HD provider, install your set, and sit back and enjoy the games.  read more »

Toshiba has thrown in the towel and it looks like Blu-ray will be the one and only high definition DVD format for the time being. Is it time to buy a Blu-ray player? Maybe not. 

The Blu-ray group has been a little behind on approving the Profiles that provide features like picture in picture commentaries, and intenet connectivity. Since the features haven't in place on the players the studios haven't been including them in the discs. To make matters worse it hasn't been possible to upgrade firmware on older players. All that should change but it should take another couple  read more »

By Andrew Eisner

Will you need to replace your TV in 2009 or will you be able to use a government issued coupon to purchase a digital TV converter box?

Just about one year from now on February 17, 2009 analog TV signals will be turned off and only digital TV signals will be transmitted over the air. This is the biggest change to standard TV signals since color TVs were introduced over 50 years ago. What does this mean for you and other TV owners? Retrevo.com offers this overview of what you need to know and just in case you want to use this event as an excuse to bring your TV or Grandma’s TV up to 21st century standards, Retrevo has recommendations for the best values in TV sets and DVD recorders including HDTV LCD TVs, DVD recorders, and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs).  read more »

The HD DVD camp is reeling from the Warner Brothers announcement to distribute Blu-ray only discs as of June 2008, . Warner is one of the largest DVD producers and could significantly change the balance in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war. In reaction, the HD DVD group cancelled a big press event at CES. To make matters worse rumors have Apple's new Macbooks sporting Blu-ray DVD drives. This has got to have the Microsoft camp riled up and huddling with Toshiba to plan a counter attack. On the other hand I think it was Bill Gates who said this will probably be the last physical media format  read more »

Everyone talks about 1080p vs 1080i but you don’t hear much about HDTV audio standards. In case you haven’t kept up with what all those Dolby and DTS logos on the DVDs, players, and TV sets, here’s a brief run down.  read more »

By Andrew Eisner

Retrevo offers this overview of the new HDTV programming languages on high definition DVDs

Along with 1080p resolution and lossless audio compression, high definition DVDs are coming with special feature material using interactive programs based on languages like Java and Javascript. Blu-ray discs will be using a Java based platform called BD-J while HD DVD discs use a platform called HDi.  read more »

Retrevo recommends the best LCD TVs and Plasma TVs for watching this year's Super Bowl and other fast action HDTV programs.

Sunnyvale, Calif. (PRWEB) January 3, 2008 -- For the price football fans would have to pay for one premium seat at the Super Bowl they can buy a big screen LCD or Plasma HDTV they can watch all year long. Retrevo analyzed Plasma TV and  read more »

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This year, the hot new feature in HDTV just might be "motion control motion enhancement," or MEMC. MEMC chips can help reduce blurring in fast-action programming like sports. This has been a differentiation between Plasma TVs and LCD TVs. Plasma TVs have had fewer problems handling fast moving subjects than LCD TVs.  LCD TVs have countered with faster refresh rates (120 Hz) and faster pixel response times (8 ms. and lower).

MEMC promises to narrow the gap further. MEMC has been used for some time in the compression and decompression (CODEC) schemes but is  read more »

If I was shopping for a reaonably priced HDTV and wanted to get the best bang for the buck, I would seriously consider passing on "Full HD," or 1080p and go for a 42 or 50 inch LCD or Plasma TV. First of all most people can't even see a difference between 1080p and 720p at distances greater than 8 or 9 feet. Secondly most programming coming over the air on cable or satellite is 720p or 1080i. High definition DVDs are the only reason right now to spend the extra bucks for 1080p. Retrevo's new Value Engine scientifically analyzes thousands of products along with features and prices to produce a Value Map that makes it very clear that 720p LCD and Plasma TV sets offer the most bang for the buck.  read more »