FLASH FORWARD Creative and Technology News for Today... and Tomorrow Blockbuster Feeling Blu The nation's biggest video rental company has weighed in on the next generation format war. Blockbuster has announced that they will exclusively carry Blu-ray DVDs to sate their customers' hi-def appetites. Sales of both formats have been underwhelming to say the least, but this move could spell the death knell for HD DVD. YouTube Coming to Apple TV and IPhone Apple announced that it's bringing the Internet's most popular originally-created content from YouTube to the living room and your pocket. Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user's widescreen TV. And the IPhone will connect directly to YouTube via the on screen menu for wireless streaming on the go. Hearst-Argyle Inks Online Video Deal with YouTube Hearst-Argyle Television has announced an agreement with YouTube to distribute and monetize select video content from five of its television stations on dedicated YouTube channels. Content will include news, weather, entertainment, and original local programming. The stations involved in the deal include: WCVB, Boston, WMUR, Manchester, NH, KCRA, Sacramento, WTAE, Pittsburgh, and WBAL, Baltimore. Mobile Phone TV Expansion Sprint, Cingular and Verizon Wireless all now provide video content services. Sprint was first to offer mobile TV in the U.S., starting with its 1KTV service in early 2003. Cingular and Verizon jumped on the bandwagon with MobiTV and VCAST. All deliver a similar mix of on demand content, although Sprint and Cingular do offer live television as well. Some estimate that mobile video services in the U.S. will generate revenues of $5.4 billion by 2009, with over 20 million Americans subscribing. Where Are TV Viewers Going The CEA revealed in a recent report that more and more viewers may be using simple off-air antennas to watch HD signals that are far superior to those offered by cable and satellite. This is a good sign for the future of terrestrial TV broadcasting. Now if only broadcasters would get the word out about that far superior and FREE, over-the-air HD. Panasonic Ships 16GB P2 Card Panasonic announced the delivery of its new 16GB P2 card ($900). The new P2 card doubles the storage capacity and recording time of its previous P2 solid-state memory card. The reusable 16GB card gives P2 camcorders recording capacity comparable to, and often exceeding, tape and disc-based systems (40 minutes at native 720/24p in DVCPRO HD). Panasonic also announced plans to release a 32GB P2 card ($1,800) by the end of the year. Comcast Unveils Wideband Initiative Comcast recently introduced an ultra high-speed service-up to 160 Mbps- that will be used for movie and video delivery with next generation cable modem technology.  Comcast also intends their wideband technology to give them a lead in the telco video assault. Comcast emphasized on-demand services especially VOD. Say Hello to RED Following an engineering delay and field testing on the set of Wanted in Prague, the new tapeless, high def, Red One Camera is available for sale through the website www.red.com. As opposed to most high-end HD cameras that have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color sub-sampled video at up to 30fps, the RED ONE delivers 12M (that's million) pixels at up to 60fps and records 12 bit native RAW. That's more than 5 times the amount of information every second. Steven Soderbergh has already committed to making his next two movies with RED. Printer friendly version