May 09, 2008
"Grand Theft Auto 4," grabbing $500 million in first week, beats all movie records
By Cliff Roth

When the "Spider-Man 3" movie came out last summer, it took in $151 million in its first weekend, and $240 million over the first ten days -- a record. "Grand Theft Auto 4" -- the new videogame -- has already grossed more than double that, some $500 million in its first week. (See

That's real money. Of course there are many ways to measure and compare -- the top grossing film of all time, "Titanic" (1997) took in some $1.8 billion worldwide in inflation-adjusted dollars over its lifetime. Yet, "Spider-Man 3" remains the top opening-weekend film, in gross revenues, and "Grand Theft Auto 4" has clearly shown that console-based videogames can generate as much, if not more consumer spending in a very short time frame. And as reported here previously, that spending is spilling over to the hardware side of this category as well. (See Gritty GTA4 may help Sony wrest turf from Microsoft ).

Shoot-em-up violent videogames may not be everyone's taste, however. Now the challenge for the console videogame industry is to come up with a blockbuster title that can garner the kind of half-billion dollar revenues that "GTA4" has achieved, while broadening the mass appeal to the wider audience that films like "Spider-Man 3" and "Titanic" appeal to. Is that possible?
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May 05, 2008
Video game consoles are about the games
By Cliff Roth

The excitement and hype swirling around the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 (see

Or, as Bill Clinton might have put it back in 1992, "it's about the games, stupid."

Though it might seem obvious that video game consoles are about games, there was a period of time not too long ago when these devices were being heralded as the new center pieces of home entertainment. "Use your game console to play DVDs, to download movies, to do everything you might want on your living room TV," was the spin we were hearing, especially from the Microsoft Xbox camp (Sony by contrast has a bit more of a stake in standalone DVD players and other devices!)

If you believed the hype back then, the set top box was about to become all but extinct, to be replaced by the general-purpose video game console.

But that hasn't come to pass, at least not yet. And so we are left with video game consoles whose main function is to play video games. As it should be.

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April 25, 2008
3D Image sensors -- what are they?
By Cliff Roth

When I first saw the announcement of 3D image sensor chips cross the newswire, I must admit my first reaction was a bit dismissive. (See

Mistakenly, I assumed this was some kind of gimmick that paired two conventional image sensors a few inches apart to create stereoscopic images, something that has been readily doable with two separate, independent image sensors for years. "A more convenient package," I thought to myself. I couldn't have been more wrong.

What Canesta, the company behind these sensors, and Tower Semiconductor, the foundry have announced are true depth-perceiving image sensor chips that work on a totally different principle than ordinary image sensors and ordinary stereoscopic 3D. The 3D image is not created by stereo vision -- essentially two separate 2D images, the way our eyes work -- but by actually sensing the depth to various objects in the scene using a single image sensor. It's kind of like light wave based radar on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

You can read more about it at Canesta's web site.

And check out all the latest new video and imaging products at our own website, Video/Imaging DesignLine Products.
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April 24, 2008
Thanks for the memories
By Dennis P. Barker

It's been three years since the inception of Digital TV DesignLine. Since the beginning, I have been its Site Editor. In that time, I have written and posted hundreds of stories on all aspects of Digital TV, set-top box creation, digital rights management,

So, for reasons beyond my control as editor, CMP will be taking down Digital TV DesignLine, and incorporating part of its coverage at Video/Imaging DesignLine. VIDL just went through a major re-design to align itself with version 2.0 for all DesignLine sites. It will have a section for Digital TV as well as cover most of the topics that it has covered in the past.

I just want to say that it's been a pleasure to run this site. As its editor, it has certainly broadened my horizons and opened my eyes to the importance of embedded technologies. Through the publication of technical articles and white papers authorized by various manufactures, it has given this editor and the readership a better understanding of the underlying technologies for numerous topics from TI's Brillant Color to Dolby True HD to PhlatLight Technology. At the same time, "hands on" and product reviews were incorporated from time to time into DTV, which the readership found of interest. Authored technical articles covered the gamut of topics. Instead of just putting any old article on the site, I always placed news and product articles that were always articles that were articles I wanted to read Of course, I also wrote many of those news and product stories especially if they had something to do with TV display launches.

Anyone who works on the web knows that it's a love/hate relationship in the virtual world. Instead of waiting months for a story to appear in print, on the web it can appear in minutes. News and developments really are up-to-date and up-to-the-minute. Of course, web publishing can also be curse because you constantly have to "feed it" content.

So, as the old song goes, "Thanks for the memories." While I may be leaving Digital TV DesignLine, I will still be covering CE for other print and virtual publications. Stories and product reviews can be found at Digital Trends and Electronic House as well as other on-line publications. I may even continue to write a story or two for EE Times.

Thank you!
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