Today's High-Def Headlines

TiVo Takes Hit From HDTV Growth - USA Today
TiVo's failure to anticipate how quickly consumers and retailers would fall in love with HDTV products added static to a fuzzy financial picture. The digital video recorder pioneer said late Wednesday that it took an $11.2 million write-down in the quarter ended in July for leftover standard DVRs. That drove results far below its guidance and analyst forecasts.

Philips Chief Says HD Video Catching on 'Somewhat Slower' Than Expected - IHT
High-definition video viewing is developing slower than the industry had expected, held back by a lack of HD content and competition between rival standards, the chief executive of the largest European consumer electronics company said Wednesday. But the executive, Rudy Provoost, of Philips Consumer Electronics, said the Blu-ray format developed by Philips and Sony is prevailing in its battle with a competing format called HD DVD developed by Toshiba, NEC and Microsoft.

Harmonic Adds 'Full HD' Compression - MCN
Harmonic has added support to its video-encoding platform for the 1080p high-definition format -- but the feature is available only in MPEG-4 format, which most digital-cable set-tops in the field today don’t support. The company said its DiviCom Electra 7000 platform will encode 1080p HD video at 24 frames per second, in MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (H.264) format, through a firmware upgrade.

Philips Unveils Aurea 1080p LCD TV - TWICE
Philips formally announced at the IFA Show in Berlin its new “Aurea” LCD TV technology which builds on the company’s Ambilight rear-panel lighting system for select LCD TVs by extending the surrounding light to the front of the screen. The system builds on the Ambilight experience by placing a lighting array into the face of the TV frame to “Seduce by Light” those watching programming on the screen.

DirecTV Debuts Local HD in Minn. Market - MCN
DirecTV Wednesday began offering local HD programming to customers in the Mankato, Minn., TV market, according to officials. The nation’s largest satellite provider had made KEYC, KARE, KMSP and KSTP available in HD. With the addition of Mankato, DirecTV now offers local HD broadcast channels in 61 cities, representing more than 70% U.S. TV households.

Big Ten Network Scores Insight Deal - MCN
The Big Ten Network has added depth to its distribution roster, finalizing a carriage deal with Insight Communications the day before the fledgling service kicks off. The agreement, details of which were not disclosed, calls for Insight to carry Big Ten Network on its Classic service (its version of analog basic) in Columbus, Ohio and Evansville, Ind. Moreover, the operator’s Digital 2.0 service (digital basic) will offer the network in its Kentucky markets of Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and the northern part of the state. All told, Insight said the service would be available to some 640,000 customers.

NEC Display Solutions Introduces Full-Line of Stylish, Versatile Flat Panel Displays at CEDIA Expo 2007
NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading stand-alone provider of LCD desktop and commercial large-screen LCDs, plasma displays and projectors, announced today a full portfolio of large-screen residential displays for every need and every feed of the house. The MultiSync Residential, PlasmaSync Residential and AccuSync Multimedia Series of displays will be unveiled for the first time at CEDIA Expo 2007.