Keeping terrestrial TV broadcasting relevant will require “making it more mobile, making it more on demand, personalizing it more and making it more interactive,” said Kutzner, who has chaired several ATSC 3.0 working groups.  “We do need to deliver higher quality, and we certainly need to make it more efficient.” ATSC 3.0 will be targeted at both fixed and mobile receivers, and will need to encompass “state-of-the-art compression,” Kutzner said. It also will need to be “fully converged with broadband” and it will need to be upgradable to keep pace with fast technological developments, Kutzner said. “Looking ahead,” ATSC 3.0 is “likely to be a complete replacement” for ATSC and ATSC 2.0, “and so it does need to be worth the effort in terms of time and expended resources,” he said.

To accomplish these goals ATSC 3.0 is looking forward to the new High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) being developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group, with the first version expected to be published in January. HEVC is expected to be twice as efficient as today’s MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec. That is vital if 4K & 8K video is expected to work over terrestrial broadcast, but it would also be a major advance for ‘standard’ 1080p HD video. Of course, HEVC content will require new hardware to support it.

The article also covers UHDTV delivery over IP, the possibility of using Blu-ray as physical media for UHDTV, and James Cameron talking about the adoption of 3D. Check it out.

First up, Special Holiday Deals on Select LG Home Entertainment Products. Save on 25 different HDTVs, three different Blu-ray Disc players, and three different Home Audio Systems.

Or maybe you’d prefer a Free Family Pack of 3D Glasses with Select LG Cinema 3D LED HDTVs with Smart TV. Five LG 3D HDTV models to choose from.

Or a free LG AN-MR200 Magic Motion Remote when you buy an LG Infinia 42LV5400 42″ 1080p HDTV with Smart TV.

Next up, Save Big on Select Sony HDTVs. Seventeen different models to choose from.

Of perhaps Great Savings on Select Panasonic HDTVs. Sixteen models to choose from!

Next, Save up to 45% on Select HDTVs. HDTVs from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony – 102 different models to choose from!

Maybe Big-Screen HDTVs for $999 or Less. LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, TCL, Toshiba, VIZIO and Westinghouse, 42 models all together.

And to feed those HDTVs content, Blu-ray Disc Players and Digital-Media Devices Under $100. The Apple TV and TiVo Premiere are in there along with the Roku 2 family and Roku LT. Blu-ray Disc players from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, VIZIO, and Toshiba, and streaming devices from Iomega, Western Digital, Patriot, Netgear, and the aforementioned Apple, TiVo, and Roku boxes.

And for those Blu-ray Players, save on thousands of TV shows and movies on Blu-ray and DVD.

Now, if you want to create your own content, there is this special: Instant Savings on Select Sony Camcorders. Eighteen different models to choose from – from the $89.99 Bloggie to the $399.99 HDR-XR160.

If still photography is more your thing, get a Free DSLR Backpack, Memory Card, and Tiffen Filter with Select Canon Rebel DSLR Cameras. Thirteen different camera models to choose from.

Or perhaps you prefer to Save Big When You Bundle Select Canon DSLRs with Qualifying Canon Lenses and/or Printers. With seven different cameras to choose from.

Amazon certainly has your entertainment electronics needs covered.

Anyway, Amazon’s Black Friday Week sale is in full swing. It actually started on Monday and runs through next Monday. They have deals all over the site, so I’m not going to try to list them all.

But I did want to focus on the deals in Movies & TV. They have specials on DVD, Blu-ray, and Amazon Instant Video – thousands of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs at up to 67% off. Check it out.

There are new specials each day, so be sure to check back in.

In addition to the current sale, they’ve also published a preview of what they’ll be offering on Black Friday – in stores and online.

In stores only you’ll be able to grab a Sharp LC-42SV49U 42″ Class LCD 1080p HDTV for $199.99, a Toshiba BDX2150 Smart Blu-ray Player for $39.99, a 15.6″ Samsung Laptop with an Intel Pentium CPU, 4GB RAM, and a 320GB HDD for $299.99, and the one I think is the most tempting, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Android tablet for only $249.99.

Also available in stores, the HTC ThunderBolt 4G LTE on Verizon for free with a 2-year activation and the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 Blu-ray just $9.99. These will also be made available online – the Thunderbolt on Thursday and the Blu-ray on Friday.

They’ve listed specials that will be available online starting Thursday, 11/24, without revealing the prices. There will be deals on the Dynex 32″ Class LED 720p HDTV, a 15.6″ Gateway Laptop with Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB RAM, and a 320GB HDD, the Dell Streak 7″ Android Tablet, a Dell desktop PC with Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, and an 18.5″ widescreen LCD monitor, the FujiFilm FinePix AX350 16MP Camera, a Mr. Coffee 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker, the Tritton AX120 Headset, and the Nintendo Wii Console with New Super Mario Bros. Wii Game and Music CD. Check back Thursday for the pricing.

There are yet more deals, way too many to list here, so check out their webpage for the full listing. More HDTVs, laptops, PCs, phones, tablets, cameras, hard drives, flash drives, washers & dryers, PlayStation 3, games, etc.

Via Blu-ray.com.

But don’t expect a UHD sets to be on the market any time soon. For now it will only be used for special events. For example, there are plans to cover some of the 2012 London Olympic Games in UHDTV for display at other venues. If UHD displays do come home, they most likely won’t be for displaying UHD images, but rather for glasses-free 3D. I was fairly dismissive of glasses-free 3D sets in my rant about the current state of the industry a little while back, mainly because of the compromises required for them to work. But the more pixels on the display, and the more pixels per inch, the more ‘sweet spots’ can be created, allowing for a wider viewing angle. That means less need to sit in specific locations relative to the screen to perceive the 3D effect.

Now, you may think that a 7680×4320 display much be huge, but that’s not necessarily the case. It is a factor of pixels per inch. Consider the iPhone’s retina display with 326ppi. At that density a UHD display would be only 24.5×13.25 inches, that’s only a 27 inch display. Now, that’s an extreme example, but it just goes to show that a UHD display can be scaled to different physical sizes using today’s display technology. Of course, it wouldn’t come cheap.

Ignoring the displays, how would you even get a UHD image? 16 times the pixels would mean, worst case, 16 times the data for the same quality image – all else being equal. Now, in the real world it doesn’t quite work that way since neighboring pixels will share data and it isn’t a linear scale, but let’s go with the worst case for now. How would you ever get that much data? You’d be looking at an 800GB Blu-ray, which is far more than even lab versions have hit.

The good news is everything doesn’t have to be equal. The other recent news is that the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC), a cooperative effort between the International Telecommunication Union and Moving Picture Experts Group, is making progress on the standard for High Efficiency Video Coding, aka H.265. This is expected to be the successor to today’s champ, H.264. The first draft is expected to be released in February 2012, with a final standard in January 2013. H.265 takes advantage of the growth in processor capabilities. It is more computationally intensive than H.264, but should provide compression 25% to 50% better. That could mean that an H.265 UHD image would only have eight times the data as an H.264 1080p image. And with real world compression aspects factored in even less. That starts to bring things into the realm of possibility. Back in 2008 Pioneer demonstrated a Blu-ray disc capable of holding 400GB on 16 25GB layers. And BDXL, which is already a commercial product, holds 100GB/128GB on three or four ~33GB layers. And work is underway to push Blu-ray all the way to 1TB. So by the time UHD displays are viable for the home, we’ll probably have a Blu-ray disc capable of holding UHD content. Streaming? Does your ISP offer Gigabit connections?

But H.265 will have a more immediate impact. You don’t have to be encoding UHD to use it. That 25-50% savings applies to all content. And with mobile data plans all heading to tiered pricing, bandwidth caps on home broadband, and the explosion of streaming HD content, every bit helps. Just think, for the same amount of data you could have up to twice the run time. Of course, even once H.265 is finalized it will probably take a year or two for it to make it into silicon and then into new devices. And you will most likely have to buy a new device to use it. Most devices, like set top boxes and smartphones, implement video decoding in dedicated silicon. So you’d need new hardware to support H.265. Powerful PC CPUs and graphics cards might be able to do it with a software update, but otherwise it means a replacement.

UHDTV from Broadcasting & Cable. H.265 news from Multichannel News via Zatz Not Funny.

The Mel Brooks Collection on Blu-ray contains nine of the best films:

• Blazing Saddles
• Spaceballs
• Young Frankenstein
• High Anxiety
• History of the World Part I
• Robin Hood Men in Tights
• Silent Movie
• To Be or Not to Be
• Twelve Chairs

Personally I would’ve included The Producers, his Academy Award winning first film, even if it meant bumping To Be or Not to Be, since he produced and starred in the latter, but neither wrote nor directed it as he did the others. The set omits two of his later films, Life Stinks and Dracula: Dead and Loving It – frankly, that’s no great loss. You can’t make a classic every time, and those two films prove it, IMHO.

Still, nine hilarious films in one set, and Amazon is offering them for 57% off – just $42.99 instead of the $99.99 MSRP. I’m picking one up for myself.

• Sony BDP-S380 Blu-ray Disc Player for $92.88
• Sony BDP-S480 Blu-ray Disc Player for $99.96
• Sony BDP-S580 Blu-ray Disc Player for $130.04
• Sony NSZ-GT1 WiFi-Enabled 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Featuring Google TV for $235.04

And, for some reason, Amazon is including the Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi for $78.00, despite the fact that it isn’t a Blu-ray player.

I think this is an incredible film, a classic, and worth owning. And this is a great deal – the full three-disc collector’s box set for just $3 more than the two-disc set of the two cuts of the film. But act soon, the offer is only good this week.

Features include:

• VIERA CAST™ (Wi-Fi Ready) Enjoy great web entertainment on your HDTV
• True Cinema Surround Deliver cinema quality sound to each seat in your home theater
• Advanced Bamboo Cone Speaker Enjoy much more responsive sound
• Full HD 1920/1080p Playback
• Integrated Universal Dock for iPod/iPhone with Music/Video/Photo Playback

Product description below:

VIERA Cast – Enjoy great web entertainment on your HDTV
VIERA Cast’s assorted online content just keeps getting better – in addition to popular content such as YouTube and Picasa, it now offers Pandora Internet Radio, Netflix streamed movies, exciting sports from FOX and Twitter communications. No PC required.

Cinema Surround – Reproduces Realistic Movie Theater Surround Experience
By using a combination of real and virtual speakers, a more natural and smoother sound can be enjoyed. You’ll notice the difference, epecially in an action scene – you’ll feel like you’re sitting in the center of a true cinema theater.

Advanced Bamboo Cone Speaker – Clear, Beautiful Vocals
With the new bamboo cone speaker, the sound becomes much more responsive. Vocals are more pure and cleaner, and the dialog is crisper and easier to understand than ever before.

Audio Return Channel – Simple Connection with HDMI Cable
The New ARC feature allows receiving audio signals from the TV on top of the preexisting HDMI function of sending audio/video signals to the TV with just one cable. This will simplify the connection by eliminating an audio cable connection between the TV audio output and the main unit’s audio input.

FORMATS:
Bluray-ROM/-RE/-RE(DL)/-R/-R(DL)
DVD-RAM/ROM/-R/-RW/-R(DL)/+R/+R(DL)/+RW
CD/-R/-RW
SD/SDHC

RECEIVER SECTION:
Selectable Speaker Layout
Whisper-mode Surround
Dolby Digital Decoder/Pro Logic II/TrueHD/Digital Plus/Digita
DTS-HD Master Audio Essential/High Resolution Audio
Digital Amplifier
True Cinema Surround
7.1ch Virtual Sound with 5.1ch
Dynamic Range Compression

INPUT/OUTPUT:
HDMI Out
Video Out
3.5mm Audio Input
Ethernet Terminal
2 Optical Digital Inputs

VIDEO SECTION
Deep Color
Digital Noise Reduction
High Precision 4:4:4
1080/24p Playback
P4HD
x.v.Color

Item ships in mftr. carton.

Next up, through September 10, save on four Panasonic Blu-ray players. You save on the DMP-BD75, DMP-BDT110, DMP-BDT210, and DMP-BDT310. The 75 is a fast booting 2D player and the 110 is a 3D, WiFi-ready player, while the 210 & 310 are both 3D players with integrated WiFi.

We wrap up with three promotions on gear from LG Electronics. The first deal is on select 2011 LG HDTVs. There are 31 models to choose from, with screens from 22″ up to 60″, and plasma, LED, and LCD display types. This promotion runs through September 10, 2011.

Second, also running through September 10, sale on select LD audio and video devices. Save on the LG BD630, BD640, and BD670 Blu-ray players, the LG LHB326, LHB336, LHB536, and LHB976 Blu-ray Home Theater Systems, and the LG LSB316 sound bar.

Finally, through October 1, 2011, get a free family pack of 3D Glasses with Select LG Cinema 3D LED HDTVs with Smart TV. There are two 47″ and two 55″ 1080p 3D sets to choose from, the key different being 120Hz or 240Hz refresh.

That’s all for now.

I’d probably jump on this myself, except I already own both Iron Man films on Blu-ray.

First up is a deal on select LG 2011 Home Entertainment Products. There are 32 products to choose from, 28 HDTVs, two 720p front projectors, and a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray home theater. Note that the overview page doesn’t show all 28 HDTVs, so be sure to check out the subpage for the full selection.

Next up, get two free pairs of 3D glasses and a Blu-ray player with the purchase of a select Samsung HDTV. You get two pair of Samsung SSG-3100GB 3D Active Glasses (MSRP $169.99) and a Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (MSRP $159.99) when you purchase one of six LED 1080P 3D HDTVs in 46″, 55″, and 60″.

Lastly we have two promotions running on Sony products. The first is on Sony HDTVs, with twelve to choose from. They’re all 1080p and all but one are LED (the one is LCD), eight are 3D, and screen sizes range from 32″ to 60″.

And lastly, a deal on Sony Blu-ray players and home audio systems. You can choose from the Sony BDP-S380, BDP-S480, or BDP-S580 Blu-ray players – and they erroneously SMP-N100 Streaming Player under the Blu-ray category as well. There are also eleven (twelve counting the streaming player) home audio products to select from. Sound bars, home theater systems, A/V receivers, speakers, and a universal remote – a decent set of options.

Free Sharp 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Player (Shipping Extra) with Sharp AQUOS 60” Class LED-LCD 1080p HDTV.

5% – 20% Off Select HDTVs.

$369.99 Lenovo IdeaPad Laptop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 15.6″ Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive

$329.99 Toshiba Satellite Laptop / AMD E-Series Processor / 15.6″ Display / 3GB Memory / 320GB Hard Drive

5%-40% Off Select Digital Cameras and Camcorders, Plus Free Shipping.

Free $75 Gift Card with 250GB Xbox 360 Console.

$10 Off Madden NFL 12 (Game Guide) when you buy Madden NFL 12 for Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii.

$9.99 Sale on Select Blu-ray Titles.

Features include:

• VIERA CAST™ (Wi-Fi Ready) Enjoy great web entertainment on your HDTV
• True Cinema Surround Deliver cinema quality sound to each seat in your home theater
• Advanced Bamboo Cone Speaker Enjoy much more responsive sound
• Full HD 1920/1080p Playback
• Integrated Universal Dock for iPod/iPhone with Music/Video/Photo Playback

Product description below:

VIERA Cast – Enjoy great web entertainment on your HDTV
VIERA Cast’s assorted online content just keeps getting better – in addition to popular content such as YouTube and Picasa, it now offers Pandora Internet Radio, Netflix streamed movies, exciting sports from FOX and Twitter communications. No PC required.

Cinema Surround – Reproduces Realistic Movie Theater Surround Experience
By using a combination of real and virtual speakers, a more natural and smoother sound can be enjoyed. You’ll notice the difference, epecially in an action scene – you’ll feel like you’re sitting in the center of a true cinema theater.

Advanced Bamboo Cone Speaker – Clear, Beautiful Vocals
With the new bamboo cone speaker, the sound becomes much more responsive. Vocals are more pure and cleaner, and the dialog is crisper and easier to understand than ever before.

Audio Return Channel – Simple Connection with HDMI Cable
The New ARC feature allows receiving audio signals from the TV on top of the preexisting HDMI function of sending audio/video signals to the TV with just one cable. This will simplify the connection by eliminating an audio cable connection between the TV audio output and the main unit’s audio input.

FORMATS:
Bluray-ROM/-RE/-RE(DL)/-R/-R(DL)
DVD-RAM/ROM/-R/-RW/-R(DL)/+R/+R(DL)/+RW
CD/-R/-RW
SD/SDHC

RECEIVER SECTION:
Selectable Speaker Layout
Whisper-mode Surround
Dolby Digital Decoder/Pro Logic II/TrueHD/Digital Plus/Digita
DTS-HD Master Audio Essential/High Resolution Audio
Digital Amplifier
True Cinema Surround
7.1ch Virtual Sound with 5.1ch
Dynamic Range Compression

INPUT/OUTPUT:
HDMI Out
Video Out
3.5mm Audio Input
Ethernet Terminal
2 Optical Digital Inputs

VIDEO SECTION
Deep Color
Digital Noise Reduction
High Precision 4:4:4
1080/24p Playback
P4HD
x.v.Color

Item ships in mftr. carton.

The system includes:

• Philips Blu-ray Home Theater Main Unit
• (5) Satellite Speakers with Attached Speaker Wires and Color-Coded Connectors
• Subwoofer with Speaker Wire and Color-Coded Connectors
• Remote Control
• (2) AAA Batteries
• FM Antenna
• AC Adapter
• Quick Start Guide
• User Manual

It supports BD-Live and Full HD 1080p. Not a bad system to take to the dorm, it is about that time.

First up, I’m not sure I’m sold on Sharp’s Quattron technology or not. I haven’t seen a set in person in conditions where I can really judge it. Basically they added a yellow pixel to the standard red, green, and blue pixels and claim in provides sharper colors. But in any case, you can get the Sharp LC40LE830U Quattron 40-inch 1080p 120 Hz LED-LCD HDTV for $649.98. That’s 41% off of the $1099.99 MSRP, a $450.01 savings.

Now, on to less specific deals. Through August 27th, Amazon is offering deals on select LG consumer electronics products. The selection includes two 720p front projectors, five network connected Blu-ray players, and thirty one HDTVs. The Blu-ray players are the BD630, BD640, BD650, BD670, and BD690. The two lower end models are connected, with the BD640 having WiFi. The BD650 and BD670 are similarly a wired/wireless pair, with the addition of 3D and Smart TV. And the BD690 has WiFi, Smart TV, and a 250GB drive for storing media including Vudu downloads. The HDTVs are a mix of ten plasma, sixteen LED, and five LCD, some with 3D support.

Sticking with LG, Amazon has another promotion running through October 1st. This one is offering a free family pack (six pair) of 3D glasses with the purchase of one of five select LED 3D sets. The sets are available in 47″, 55″, and 65″ sizes and each includes four pairs of glasses.

Switching to Sony, through August 27th save on select Sony BRAVIA HDTVs. Thirteen sets to choose from, LED & LCD, nine with 3D. Sizes from 32″ to 55″.

From Sony over to Samsung, where through September 3rd you can get a free Blu-ray Disc player and two free pairs of 3D glasses with the purchase of a select HDTV. The player is the Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray player, which carries a $159.99 MSRP (and currently stickers for $114.28). The glasses are the Samsung SSG-3100GB 3D Active Glasses which carry an MSRP of $169.99 (and a $43.79 sticker) – and that’s per pair. There are six LED 3D sets to select from, in 46″, 55″, and 60″ sizes.

And finally, for a complete change of pace, save up to 50% off select HP printers. Twelve Photosmart, Officejet, and Officejet Pro printer models to choose from.

Enjoy.

More into staying home that road tripping? Well, you can enjoy the stay more with a new HDTV and Blu-ray deck, right?

Save on select Sony HDTVs. There are thirteen 1080p LCD & LED models to choose from, ranging from 32-inch to 55-inch, nine of them 3D.

Save on select Panasonic HDTVs and Blu-ray players. There are two 32″ 720p LCD sets, a 32″ & 37″ 1080p LCD, a 32″ & 37″ 1080p LED, and a 42″ 1080p plasma set, and three Blu-ray players to choose from.

Save on select LG HDTVs. This promotion has the most choice, with 34 LCD, LED, and plasma models to choose from. There are 720p and 1080p sets ranging from 22 to 60 inch, twelve of them 3D. There is also a promotion for free additional 3D glasses with five LG HDTV models.

All three promotions run through August 20th, 2011.

The prices now are ¥24,980 160GB and ¥29,980 32GB in Japan, €249 160GB and €299 320GB in Europe, and $249.99 160GB and $299.99 320GB in the US. The Japanese prices include tax.

I bought my 60GB original model when they dropped the price to $500. No regrets, it’s been an excellent Blu-ray deck – and I even play games once in a while. The PS3 is still one of the best Blu-ray players out there, and they still keep enhancing Blu-ray support in the software updates.

You can pre-order a box set of the complete seasons 1-4 for $139.99 (30% off the $199.95 MSRP), or you can pre-order individual sets for seasons one, two, three, and four for $48.99 each (also 30% off the $69.95 MSRP). And remember Amazon has pre-order price protection – if the price drops at any point before release you’ll get it for the lowest price, even if it increases again before the release date.

I’m sorely tempted by this, but I already have the complete series (including PK Wars) on DVD. Maybe I’ll put it on my Amazon Wishlist… but HD… must resist!