Tag Archives: hevc

Cable TV channels and 4K from an antenna? It’s rolling out to this US city for $49

Today there are basically three ways to get live TV shows from big-name channels into your home. The most common is paying for a service like cable or satellite. An increasingly popular alternative is a live TV streaming service like Sling TV and YouTube TV, which which offer hundreds of channels for a monthly fee. The third option is free and also …

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Streaming video could be saddled with a new patent licensing cost

When Google, Amazon, Cisco, Microsoft and Mozilla announced their AV1 video compression technology five years ago, the allies were aiming to develop a way to shrink online videos while removing patent licensing barriers, which increase streaming video costs. Now, just as AV1 is set to arrive on mobile phones, a patent licensing company has detailed a vision for the technology …

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8K video recording is a great idea, even if you don’t have an 8K TV

Samsung’s recently announced S20 phones can record 8K video. There are rumors that upcoming cameras from Canon and Sharp will be able to do the same, and the number of devices that record in 8K will only grow in the coming years. Today cameras and phones are mostly recording in 1080p however, and with 4K TVs only recently becoming affordable, …

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Samsung throws its weight behind open video standard AV1

Electronics giant Samsung just gave a little more clout to those who prefer openness in the constant struggle between open and proprietary technology. The South Korean company said Wednesday it has joined the Alliance for Open Media at the highest level, a significant addition to a consortium developing video compression technology called AV1.  Technology powers Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon, Cisco …

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Firefox gets new knobs so you can fine

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that lets you strike a better balance between maintaining privacy and breaking websites. Firefox 65 updates its controls for how the web browser manages content like tracker software and cookies — small text files a website can store on your computer that are handy for things like remembering what’s in your e-commerce …

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With Snapdragon 855 chip, Android phones get iPhone’s photo

Qualcomm’s next flagship processor is embracing the same photo format technology championed by Apple, a move that will let you squeeze more pictures into your next high-end Android smartphone and maybe advance beyond ordinary snapshots. Last year, Apple introduced support for High Efficiency Image File Format, or HEIF, as part of an effort to improve digital photography, giving it an …

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JPEG XL could let you pack twice as many photos into your phone

JPEG turns 25 this year, a remarkable achievement when you think about how the latest smartphone becomes ho-hum in a matter of months. But to celebrate JPEG’s birthday, we might finally be seeing something better. That’s because the Joint Photographic Experts Group has begun work on a successor, called JPEG XL that at a minimum should cut photo file sizes …

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The new Monoprice 3D printer prints 3D things for $150

CNET’s Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter! Monoprice About five years ago, I predicted that in about five years, everyone would own a 3D printer. …

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Windows 10 adds support for space

Microsoft’s Windows software will support technology called HEIF to shrink photo sizes — the third big operating system to embrace the JPEG alternative along with Apple’s iOS last year and Google’s Android P this year. Windows 10’s wallpaper Stephen Shankland/CNET A test version of Windows 10 — a step on the road to a version due this fall — has …

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Android P’s HEIC halves photo sizes but won’t work on lower

The good news is that the next version of Google’s Android smartphone software, Android P, has a feature to shrink your photos to half the size of an ordinary JPEG. The bad news is there’s no guarantee that every phone will actually be able to use it. That’s because of hardware and patent licensing limits on the technology used, called …

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