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(Credit: DTV2009.gov)

While most American TV watchers and broadcasters are preparing for (fretting over) the long-planned DTV transition in February 2009, broadcasters along the U.S. southern border are requesting an exemption from shutting down their analog broadcasts--up to five years after the deadline. The House of Representatives, according to an article by HD Guru, has already passed the DTV Border Fix Act bill by unanimous consent. ... Read more

Update on July 27 at 10:00 a.m. with additional information

Dell has issued a system update for a well-publicized problem with Nvidia chips.

The company said Friday it has posted BIOS updates for an Nvidia graphics chip glitch affecting laptop computers. Citing Nvidia information, Dell said the "affected GPUs (graphics processing units) are experiencing higher than expected failure rates causing video problems."

"The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations. If your GPU fails, you may see intermittent symptoms," the Dell blog said.

Dell said the symptoms include "multiple images, random characters on the screen, lines on the screen, no video." But added this caveat: "if you are already experiencing video-related issues like the...points above, updating the BIOS will not correct them. Dell will provide support for customers who have experienced GPU failure according to the terms of the system warranty."

Dell laptop systems potentially affected by Nvidia glitch with update file name

(Credit: Dell)

Dell is recommending that users flash their system BIOS. "Each of these BIOS updates...modifies the fan profile to help regulate GPU temperature fluctuations," Dell said.

New systems are shipping with the BIOS update, according to Dell.

On July 2, Nvidia said it would take a one-time charge of between $150 million and $200 million to cover "anticipated warranty, repair, return, replacement, and other costs and expenses, arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of its previous generation GPU and MCP (multi-chip package) products used in notebook systems."

To celebrate the conclusion of Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" tour featuring Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, and N.E.R.D., watch manufacturer Nooka will produce a very limited glow in the dark version of their popular Zub watch. When we say "very limited," we mean it--only 15 pieces were made and most of them will find their home with Kanye himself, so abandon all hope of picking up one of these unique watches. Nice to look at though, right?

The specially designed Nooka isn't the Kanye endorsed product to hit the streets for this tour. In mid-April, Pharrell Williams' bicycle company Brooklyn Machine Works presented West with an exclusive glow in the dark version of their popular "Gangsta Track" bike for the tour's opening night.

Those who prefer getting help from peers over negotiating the sometimes headache-inducing labyrinth of traditional tech support will have an additional online outlet come Tuesday. FixYa, a user-generated Web site for product care support, is set to announce a co-branded effort that brings Best Buy customers and the Geek Squad together to swap real-world solutions to common technical problems. Think social networking meets tech support.

Customers wanting to perform their own fixes (or trying to dig others out of trouble) can go to the Best Buy Web site and access http://geeksquad.fixya.com from the "Customer Service" tab. They can search by product, SKU, manufacturer, or product category, or post a new query and receive community troubleshooting. Solutions are free, and visitors to the site do not have to be Best Buy or Geek Squad customers.

If visitors still need "professional assistance" after querying their peers, they have access to the 17,000 Geek Squad technicians populating the site with tips and support. FixYa's community currently has more than 30,000 contributors; the Geek Squad gang will help expand that base through their own contributions.

Having recently compared a small handful of video hosting services, it's fun to come back to FixMyMovie, a service I checked out back in September. Since launching at DEMOfall, FixMyMovie has been making tweaks and improvements. With a 15MB file size limit, it's a far cry from some of the heavy duty video file hosting services that let you upload files of nearly half a gigabyte. However, FixMyMovie holds true to its roots of attempting to make crappy camera phone videos look watchable on larger screens.

Earlier this week I got to chat with CEO Sean Varah about the site's new features, which soft launched Monday morning. The most interesting one? Cross pollination to other video sites, starting with YouTube. Users who have uploaded their video either on the Web, or from their phones (using MMS and now e-mail), can push it directly to YouTube without having to do any file jugging on their end. In the months ahead, Varah and company intend to add other video hosting services to the list, including Facebook, MySpace, and Google's Blogger. They also plan to give users the option to automate the entire process for each time they upload.

Take video and push it to other services once it's been enhanced. First on the list is YouTube, with others to come.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Speaking of uploads, adding videos to the service has been significantly improved. Uploaded videos are available for viewing right away, including those sent in by e-mail. A new feature that manages to work given the small video limits. The enhanced version then goes up in its place, as soon as it's done. Previously users were only given a small bit of the unenhanced video and had to "order" the full version. Varah says tweaking that bit taxes the servers more, but takes seven steps out of the equation for users who want to put their videos on the service. He also notes the video you see playing in the Flash player is not the true quality of the enhancements, and to really see it in full effect, users should download the H.264 Quicktime version, which is sized to play on iPods and iPhones.

The premium version of FixMyMovie is scheduled to be released in about two months. Premium users will be able to do a little more with their videos, including grabbing super high quality JPEG files from a few seconds of a high-resolution video clip. Varah notes that MotionDSP (parent company of FixMyMovie) has been doing this for a few folks, and it's becoming very popular for filmmakers when they want to blow up a still from an action shot. Varah wouldn't say anything about size limit increases for premium members, or give a price, but Varah wanted to stress that the service isn't a "destination site" like YouTube, and that if enough users are running up against the limit they might increase it later on.

Related: MotionDSP promises better photos and video.

Click the picture to see the full-quality screen capture.

An adjustment to one mirror should fix an autofocus problem that has tarnished the debut of Canon's high-end EOS-1D Mark III camera, the company said Thursday.

Canon's EOS-1D Mark III

(Credit: Canon)

"We're pretty confident this countermeasure will resolve the issue completely," said Chuck Westfall, a Canon spokesman and tech guru. "It feels nice to have a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and know it's not another oncoming train."

The $4,500 camera, geared chiefly for photojournalists who can appreciate features such as its 10.5-frame-per-second shooting ability, had won accolades for most of its design. But photographer and consultant Rob Galbraith dug up problems that cropped up in bright or warm conditions. The problems were also confirmed by others including Seattle Times photographer Rod Mar.

Canon was able to reproduce the problems. "What we found out after our thorough research is this issue seemed to manifest itself more in cases where the temperature was high," Westfall said.

Not all cameras are affected, but Canon doesn't know which are or aren't, so anyone having the problem should send the camera in to be repaired, Westfall said. Once it's ready to begin repairs, Canon will publish instructions on how what photographers should do, probably in the next two or three weeks.

New cameras coming off the line don't have the problem, he said.

The problem involves a mirror that directs light to the camera's autofocus subsystem. "That mirror needs to be adjusted," Westfall said.

Single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras have a main mirror that directs light from the lens to the viewfinder, so photographers can see what they're shooting. But some light passes through that mirror, traveling instead to sub-mirrors that direct light to the autofocus system's sensor. When a photographer takes a picture, both the main mirror and the sub-mirror for the autofocus system flip out of the way to let light shine on the camera's main image sensor.

The problem with the sub-mirror could mean the camera would focus in front of the subject or behind it, Westfall said. "If that sensor is not receiving reliable information, it's not able to carry out correct focus prediction," he said.

(Via Rob Galbraith.)

FixMyMovie is a new service that takes your pixelated digital video clips and does its best to fix them. The technology stems from MotionDSP's processing technology, which is similar to what's used in government intelligence operations to improve those dark and grainy security films--like you see in movies.

The entire process is fairly straightforward: Just upload and tag a supported movie file, and the service will crunch it on its servers. You get a note by e-mail when it's done. Once it's finished you can preview the first 10 seconds of the enhanced version, as well as compare before and after results live, by pressing the "compare" button. What's even cooler is a stills mode that lets you compare the before and after with an easy-to-use slider that follows your mouse. Whatever's on the left of the slider is the old, with the new on the right.

To grab the improved film, there are download options for multiple formats, including iPod-formatted H.264, Adobe Flash, and Windows Media. You can also grab quick embed code to stick it in any blog, which I've done after the break.

I tried out the service on several video clips this morning and got improved results on every single one of them. The most dramatic improvement of all was with text, which managed to turn almost unreadable pixelated words into legible sentences. Just be wary, though: The service can only handle clips up to 352x288 in resolution, which means the VGA videos from your digital camera aren't going to cut it. Older cameras, on the other hand, are fine.

FixMyMovie is launching in beta at this morning's DEMOfall conference in San Diego with $25 worth of free processing for everyone while still in its beta period. Eventually, FixMyMovie plans to charge users for the option to enhance video and still images, which can also be captured manually by users within the Flash player. I can see this service being hugely popular, as everyone wants better looking video clips, and ways to improve older, lower resolution clips.

Update: It's worth noting you need the latest beta of Adobe Flash 9 to view videos on the service (which makes the neat, live before and after feature possible). You can pick it up here, or just get a feel for what it can do with the screenshot below.

FixMyMovie did a great job with this choppy and pixelated video clip, making small bits of text actually legible.

How much better will the iPhone be six months from now?

(Credit: Apple)

Like a big summer blockbuster, the iPhone hype peaked the moment the doors opened last Friday. The waiting was over, the mystique had lifted--and by the end of the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people realized that their really cool iPod phones were missing quite a few features found on competing (but admittedly far less sexy) cell phones. The good news, of course, is that Apple can continue to roll out software updates to the iPhone, improving it piecemeal as the weeks and months progress. The bad news is that some of the device's drawbacks are hardware-based--so they won't be fixed until the iPhone 2 is released (if they're addressed at all).

Here's a rundown of the iPhone's main shortfalls--and my guesses as to the chances of them being added to the current model via a software update (the first number), or holding off for the inevitable iPhone sequel (the second number). And for the record, these are nothing more than guesses.