First Star Trek, then Battlestar Galactica… Now Knight Rider.

In February, a “next generation” version of Knight Rider took to the air in the US. An impressive 10 million US viewers tuned in, but the critics were scathing.

We’ve had a quick preview of the new series, that’s set 25 years after the days of Michael, Devon and Bonnie. All’s chaned with KITT, Knight Industries 3000. He’s now voiced by Val Kilmer, and he’s a Ford Mustang. No sign of a Turbo Boost yet, but there are some new gadgets. There are now two red swooshy lights, and KITT has “self regeneration” and “nanotech enhanced camouflage”, which means that the car can change colour, seems indestructable, and can self-repair. We’re not convinced.

More on the US remake at http://www.nbc.com/Knight_Rider/

The seven-day catch-up service from the BBC will soon be available to Virgin Media customers, and we’ve heard that from March, you’ll be able to watch BBC catch-up TV on Apple iPhones and iTouch devices.

It’s official. The HD formats wars are over… and the winner is [drumroll] Blu-Ray. In February, Toshiba finally announced that HD-DVD is dead. From their press release: “This was a very difficult decision to make … but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence.”

If you’ve got an HD-DVD player, it’ll still be supported for a while, but you’ve now got yourself the HD equivalent of Betamax. Blu-Ray players cost from £250.

A quick update from the FrequencyCast team. We’re between shows, but given this week’s news about national DAB in the UK, and the emails we’re getting, we thought we’d release a quick update.

In this 7 minute audio update, Carl and Pete discuss this week’s news about DAB radio, and the imminent departure of GCap’s national radio stations Planet Rock and theJazz, and ask for your thoughts on the future of digital radio in the UK.

Listen using the buttons below, or from www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

 

 FrequencyCast Update 13 Feb 2008 [7:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

More bad news for DAB digital radio this month - theJazz and Planet Rock, two of the national DAB stations, are due to fall silent soon. Owners gCap recently switched off digital station Core, and are now axing two more stations. With OneWord going too, this will leave just three national commercial DAB stations, Virgin Radio, Classic fm and TalkSport.

gCap’s reason for getting rid of Planet Rock and theJazz? Cost-saving and the slow takeup of digital radio in the UK making their ongoing funding of DAB “economically unviable”.

We’re planning to run a feature on the future of DAB in the UK on an upcoming podcast. Sign up to our newsletter to be notified.

Update 13 Feb: Audio show discussing developments now online

A quick mention for the TVonics MFR-200, as mentioned by a couple of our listeners. This is a tiny Freeview box that’s designed for tellies that don’t have a SCART socket.

This is an ultra-small Freeview receiver that has an RF modulator (in English - it works with TV sets that don’t have a SCART socket). It has a remote control, an 8-day Electronic Programme Guide and is energy efficient (1.5 watts).

The TVonics MFR-200 is available for under £40 from Argos online and Homebase

Some interesting reading for UK podcasters. RAJAR, the firm that look after audience research for UK commercial and BBC radio stations, has released the results of their first survey into podcast listening.The survey took place in September and October 2007, and here are the highlights of their findings:

Until the end of February 2008, BT’s offering their wireless router, the BT Home Hub, free on BT Total Broadband Option 1. It’s been available on Option 2 and 3, but not on their basic package (broadband only £8.95 for the first 6 months).

As well as being an Internet router, note that the BT Home Hub is required if you want BT Vision - and BT are still offering their digital set-top box / recorder… for free to BT Broadband customers. More on the Hub at www.frequencycast.co.uk/homehub.html or at www.bt.com/btbroadband

On the 31st January, the TV-over-DAB service, provided by BT Movio, was finally discontinued.

Users of Virgin Mobile’s Lobster 700TV handset, the only UK handset to offer TV-over-DAB, are now greeted by the message “this channel is not currently broadcasting” when they try to tune to a telly station. The phone still works perfectly well as a phone, and a pretty decent portable DAB radio

Shame to see this piece of history come to an end. Any comments? Was the world not ready for TV on a mobile, or was Movio flawed from the start?

It’s the first of the month, and Show 23 of FrequencyCast has just been released to the world. FrequencyCast Show 23 covers a whole bunch of TV and tech topics, including:

• News Updates: An update on the HD DVD format wars, some BT Vision news, two national radio stations departing DAB, the iPhone software update, plus ITV4 and Top Up TV News.
• Focus - Classic Technology: Again, we listened to the online votes for show topics, and this time around, as requested, Carl and Pete go back in time to see what TV, Computers, Phones and the ‘Net looked like twenty years ago.
• HD in the UK: A quick summary of what’s on offer HD-wise, from the big guys - Sky and Virgin.
• Squirrels: It’s our own fault - 12% of you wanted us to discuss… squirrels. You only have yourselves to blame!
• Your Questions: Listeners questions on Wireless headphones, the Skypephone, FreeSat, mobile podcasting and the digital switch.

You can download Show 23 direct to your MP3 player, listen online, or view the show notes at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast23.html

 

 FrequencyCast Show 23 [32:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download