Hasta La Gadget!

At its pre-CES press conference today, Sharp introduced a slew of new home theater products, including the world’s first LCD with a built-in Blu-ray player, the company’s first soundbars, and two new Blu-ray players.

While the concept of a screensaver might not be all that novel in the PC world, apparently it’s a new idea in TVs.

LG Display said Tuesday that the company’s panels will now be able to use a few cached images stored in the TV’s idle memory and will present them in Idle mode. The combination will save a bit of power, as well as give users something nice to look at while their TVs are not being used for video.

A single 47-inch TV model with the “Digital Photo TV” technology will be on display this week at the CES show in Las Vegas, said LG Display. Other technologies, including improved motion picture response time (MPRT) displays and eco-friendly displays, will be presented privately.

When in Photo mode, the TV uses just 10 to 15 percent of its normal power, according to LG Display. The panel’s “idle memory” will be used instead of external memory – most likely limiting the number of images to just a few. However, cycling the images will also prevent image burn-in.

Movie studios will reportedly have to wait until next year to see if they will be able to block the analog transmission of high-definition movies on TV.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters Tuesday that the agency will not likely address the “selectable output control” (SOC) issue before President-elect Obama takes office next month.

SOC lets copyright owners – namely the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in this case – tell cable and satellite stations to block the transmission of selected programs to certain devices like TiVos, Slingboxes, or TVs without digital input.

Worried that SOC might impede the proliferation of HD programming, the FCC banned it in 2003, but the commission announced in June that it would reconsider the issue.

Why does the MPAA want SOC?

Broadcast stations afraid of going dark on February 17 will be given analog nightlights care of the FCC, the agency announced last week.

The FCC and Congress remain concerned that some people are still not aware that TV stations will switch from analog to digital signals in less than two months. As a result, President Bush last week signed a bill into law that calls on the FCC to allow certain stations to broadcast DTV information on analog stations for 30 days after the transition.

TV viewers with digital TVs or cable boxes will not notice a difference come February 18, but people with over-the-air (OTA) TVs, or rabbit ears, are scheduled to see nothing.

With the analog nightlight program, however, OTA viewers who have not taken any steps to prepare for the transition will see a notice until March 19 with information about the switch and how to obtain a converter box.

The option has its limits, however. According to a list released by the FCC, only 310 of the 1,749 stations that will be switching from analog to digital are automatically eligible for nightlight status. These stations must be164 miles or more from DTV stations operating on the same channel.

Approximately 7 percent of broadcast stations making the switch from analog to digital signals next year will experience a loss of service coverage, known as the “digital cliff,” according to a Tuesday report from the Federal Communications Commission.

The 7 percent of the affected stations are expected to lose about 2 percent of their audience because of the phenomenon, which includes both changes in the coverage area as well as technical issues with the digital signal, the FCC said.

That covers 123 of the 1,749 stations that will be making the switch. Congress has ordered TV broadcasters to switch from analog to digital signals by February 17, 2009 in order to free up spectrum for public safety use. After that deadline, consumers will have to swap their analog TVs for digital sets, subscribe to cable, or attach a digital converter box to their analog televisions in order to receive a signal.

“Although the Commission tried to maximize the ability of TV stations to replicate their analog coverage area as closely as possible, TV station were not required to do so,” according to the report.

As a result, some TV viewers might experience a change in their coverage areas. Approximately 89 percent – or 1,553 stations – will gain channels, but that 7 percent, mostly in rural areas, could see certain channels drop off that digital cliff, the FCC found.