Waiting..  waiting.. 

Even with all the Miami Boat Show hoopla, it has been pretty quiet on the electronics front of late.  G-Series is rolling along while NavNet3D waits in the wings and appears to be headed for an April or May delivery.  I know of several boat builders and dealers with sold boats that are just sitting and waiting for 3D to arrive.  It's a tough time right now for everyone from the customer to the electronics dealer to the boat dealer and it's going to continue that way for months to come.  Can you imagine the money being wasted right now in dock fees, commission payments, lack of labor jobs and stalled product sales? 

HD Satellite Issues

On another topic, there have been several reports lately about DirecTV's imminent plan to move High-Def channels to a satellite on the Ka-band.  This means KVH and Sea-Tel antennas will no longer track the right satellite for those channels and you will no longer receive them.

It's a shame as both companies have introduced some excellent automatic switching components that made the jump from satellite to satellite seamless as you change channels.  While that will still work, there will be a whole block of channels no longer available.  With the prices dropping and the popularity of Hi-Def TV soaring this is a real problem.

The answer right now appears to be to switch away from DirecTV and over to DISH Network.  They offer 37 HD channels now and that number will grow to more than 70 soon.  Both KVH and Sea-Tel can do Dish Network but if you already have an antenna, it and the receiver, will need to be modified.

When you start losing your HD channels, blame DirecTV, not your electronics dealer or antenna manufacturer.  It's hard to play by the rules when the goal posts keep getting moved.

HD-DVD meet Betamax

One bit of good news for HD, as the Los Angeles Times reported this morning, is that Blu-Ray has won the battle over HD-DVD in the format wars.  I really don't know if one is truly better than the other picture-wise, but the fact that 80% of the studios embraced Blu-Ray, which will in turn push all the content towards that format, the choice has been made for us and we can go buy a new player with confidence.  Toshiba has pulled the plug on HD-DVD and the remaining studios should follow suit soon.  So Blu-Ray DVD players can go onboard anytime you're ready. 

I wonder how Microsoft will deal with this as they have championed HD-DVD via XBox 360?