40Tech

We don’t often cover news stories here at 40Tech, but this one bears mentioning. A recent FCC decision now allows the movie industry to disable analog outputs on your equipment in certain situations. Say what? Yes, you heard that right- in some cases, a content provider can reach in and mess with your gear. What is the practical effect of this? It really has three ramifications, two of which are bad.

If you haven’t already heard, or discovered for yourself: Monster cables are a rip off — especially when it comes to the world of high definition digital cables. Salespeople at your local electronics store (and Monster itself) will do their best to convince you that, to get optimal video and audio quality out of your new hi-def system or video card, you need that top of the line, $150 6-foot hdmi cable. What most probably won’t tell you is that the store gets a much higher profit (and salespeople get more commission) on your expensive cable purchase than they do from your new LCD TV or Playstation 3. What they also won’t tell you is that you will get the exact same results from a $10-$20 HDMI cable that you will from it’s super-expensive counterpart…

  Recently, I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the beta of real-time video-sharing service, Redux. So far, the experience has been awesome! Redux has provided me with an easy way to discover and share video from all over the web. By connecting me with multiple users and groups sharing all manner of [...]

Over at Technologizer, Harry McCracken recently contemplated whether Comcast’s On Demand Online service was reason enough to stick with Comcast, if you are considering dropping your television service.   On Demand Online is a Hulu-like service still in development that, once released, will allow Comcast subscribers to view shows and other content online.  There are at [...]