televisions

Rotten Tomatoes coming to Current TV

Rotten Tomatoes, the popular online destination for movie buffs, will premiere in all its television glory (TomatoMeter and all) Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. EST on Current TV. The 30-minute show, which is hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox, will run weekly in that time slot where the hosts will discuss and review three movies.

Although the movie review space is crowded, Erlich and Fox believe their show is different from the competition. Both hosts told me in an interview on my Digital Home Podcast that while the basic premise--reviewing movies--isn't unique, bringing the audience in … Read more

And the Web TV wars go on, and on, and on

Wow. With all the drama and in-fighting among cable companies, TV content creators, and Web video companies this week, you'd think the whole industry was one big junior-high cafeteria. Oh, wait, it kind of is.

First, Hulu--a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.--pulled its content from TV.com (which is owned by CBS, publisher of CNET News). Then it did the same with Boxee, a company that makes software designed for watching online video on TVs via set-top boxes. The reason for these measures appears to be either mounting pressure from the TV content owners … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Why rivals are talking about Apple in Barcelona

Apple isn't at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 along with the rest of the mobile phone industry, but that's not stopping senior executives from the rest of the mobile market from taking potshots. We caught up with CNET News' Maggie Reardon, who is at GSMA in Barcelona, to find out about this and the rest of the top news at this big annual tech conclave. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Bill backs payment to musicians for radio play

Silicon Valley jobs dip, green tech grows

GSMA 2009

Despite 'delay,' DTV transition starts today

Facebook: Relax, we won't sell your photos… Read more

Get a 52-inch Vizio HDTV for $999.99

You missed your chance to nab a big ol' TV in time for the Super Bowl, but March Madness is just around the corner (go Spartans!).

Here's a pretty sweet deal to satisfy your hoop dreams, Lost lust, and more: CompUSA has a 52-inch Vizio VX52LF LCD HDTV for $999.99.

That's a mighty big screen, folks. It's a refurbished model, meaning that its warranty expires after just 90 days. But given that new 52-inchers routinely sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, I'd say it's a risk worth taking.

The VX52LF is a 1080P … Read more

Report: Pioneer to exit TV business

Updated 2/12/09 at 9:35 a.m. PST with Pioneer's confirmation.

Pioneer will no longer manufacture televisions and plans to spin off its DVD player business into a joint venture with Sharp, according to a report in Japan's Nikkei newspaper.

The company is reportedly exiting the TV business rather than continue to incur losses in that division. This latest report comes a few months after Pioneer announced it anticipated huge losses at the end of its fiscal year in March and plans to lay off 2,000 workers.

Pioneer had built itself into a widely respected … Read more

The 404 273: Where Justin crosses Jeff's line

Today marks a very strange day for The 404. If this is your first time listening to The 404, you picked a good one because this is something of a milestone. Recently it's come to our attention that the show is becoming more tabloidy and less anecdotal...which is bad. So check out this show baby- tons of personal stories about statewide bagging competitions, DTV delays, voluntary amputation, wikipedia editing, and the best place to spend spring break. If you're a veteran listener, prepare yourself for total domination...wait, was that a video game reference or a quote … Read more

Congress approves delay of digital-TV transition

Updated at 2:25 p.m. PST with comments from lawmakers and regulators.

With less than two weeks left before the scheduled national transition to digital broadcasting, Congress on Wednesday approved a delay of the DTV switchover.

The House of Representatives voted 264 to 158 to push the transition back from February 17 to June 12. The Senate unanimously approved the delay last week.

House Republicans blocked an earlier attempt at delaying the transition, saying pushing back the date would create confusion for consumers and burden television stations that would have to continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals. The … Read more

Photos: Philips ultra wide-screen 21:9 TV unveiled

We already knew this was coming, but now we have actual pics that give a better sense of its scale.

Philips introduced its new Cinema 21:9 TV with a wider-than-wide-screen display at a press event in London. Our favorite blokes at Crave UK were in attendance and snapped a few frames of the "mutant telly."

Head over to Crave UK for a whole gallery of photos, as well as their take on the trouble of a new viewing format. (Alternatively, if you find wide screen worthless, head here.)

When is a gun not a gun? On TV and twittered

Spoiler alert: If you really hate reading anything about episodes of Lost that you haven't seen yet--and you haven't seen the episode that first aired Wednesday--you might not want to read ahead.

I know we have more pressing things to talk about these days--the economy, climate change, the new president--but I'm going to barge in this morning with a warning about something a bit more niche.

When you're posting to Twitter about something you're watching on TV, make sure nobody thinks it's really happening!

Background: I've been watching this season of Lost at … Read more