On Friday, 8 April 2011, DStv will be launching their 6th High Definition (HD) channel to join the DStv family of HD channels.

The new HD channel, SuperSport HD 3,  will be complementing the existing two SuperSport HD channels to deliver HD capable viewers with a even wider variety of sport in High Definition.

With the introduction of SuperSport HD 3, DStv will reshuffle it’s sport broadcasts across the current SuperSport HD channels.

SuperSport HD1, channel 171: SS HD1 will consists of a variety of sporting codes, including local and international rugby, PSL football, Uefa Champions League, tennis majors, European Tour, US PGA golf, F1 and MotoGP.

SuperSport HD2, channel 174: SS HD2, which currently shows the EPL, will be the new channel which will be available from 8 April 2011 at 6am. It will feature various High Definition sports programming, including selected cricket, Bundesliga soccer, PSL soccer, Europa League soccer, tennis majors, Champions League soccer, F1 and MotoGP.

SuperSport HD3, channel 176: SS HD3 will now broadcast the 24-hour English Premier League channel (previously available on SS HD2). A limited amount of programming, particularly legacy matches will be in Standard Definition because of their historical nature.

Apart from the changes above to the SuperSport HD channels, DStv will also be broadcasting sport on the M-Net HD channel on Saturday’s between 2-7 pm, these sport will mainly consist of Rugby but viewers may also see soccer from time to time.

With the addition of SuperSport HD 3, the total amount of High Definition channels on DStv now stands at six with the inclusion of M-Net HD, SuperSport HD 1, SuperSport HD 2, Discovery HD Showcase and M-Net Movies HD 1.

“We made a commitment to our viewers and now we are delivering,” said Andre de Villiers, SuperSport’s marketing director. “Sporting events are increasingly being produced in High Definition and SuperSport is committed to bringing more of this broadcast technology to the market. Sport, in particular, lends itself to the excellent quality offered by High Definition.”

“High Definition channels are becoming the television standard globally. We don’t want our subscribers to be left behind – our focus is on rolling out as many High Definition channels onto the DStv platform as possible,” commented Aletta Alberts, GM: Content, MultiChoice.

It’s great to see South Africa catching up with the rest of the world where HD channels are a norm nowadays, but how much I enjoy sport I would still like to see more variety when it comes to HD channels in South Africa.

Everybody must have by now seen the advertisements on TV about the great new digital camera from Samsung called the ST550.

The Samsung ST550 is the first digital camera to offer users dual LCD screens. One at the back like conventional cameras and a smaller one in front useful for self portraits.

Now this is all great and with it being advertised on TV you would have thought that it would be easy to get your hands on one, wrong.

The first time my wife saw the advert of the Samsung ST550 she wanted to get one ASAP, so we decided to go out one Saturday morning and scout the local mall for the beauty just to return empty handed.

We visited Game, Makro, Dion Wired, Hifi Corporation, several camera dealers and even Incredible Corruption just to find that they do not stock the ST550 or they have never even heard of it. Upon arrival at home I set out to phone several stores to hear if maybe one of their other branches stock the Samsung ST550, but no, the answer being we don’t stock it and there is no plans to get it in aswell.

After phoning every possible store that sells electronics in the greater Cape Town area I decided to phone Samsung electronics as they are the manufacturer of the ST550 and should at least have an idea who sells their product. But no, the person on the other end could not give me a clear indication of who sells the ST550 digital camera but gave me some names of stores that do sell Samsung cameras. These stores where mainly the ones I mentioned above that either had no clue of the ST550 or just did not have any plans to sell it.

Now my question to Samsung is how can you advertise a product, even with a free 2GB memory card, but nobody has the bloody thing in stock? I would appreciate I someone from Samsung can get into contact with me regarding the ST550 and where I can get one. Even if you are a online supplier and can get your hands on one I would also really appreciate it, as I did search the web and could only find a few overseas sites selling the ST550 but I would rather avoid importing one myself.

Features

Now let me share some features of the Samsung ST550 with you.

• Surefire portraits with Dual LCD – The ST550′s breakthrough 1.5″ Front LCDSelf Portrait of you and your friends without leaving anyone left out to hold the camera. The Front LCD also features Children Mode for fun, engaging, and simple animation that captures those special expressions only kids can make. Ensure your timing is always perfect with the built-in Self Timer, improve your chances for great results with Shutter and Function Information, and you’ll be ready to shoot in any situation.
• A Touch screen with clear feedback – What could be more useful than seeing every detail in brilliant 1,152K High Resolution before you take your first shot? How about the ST550′s vibration and audio feedback technology that reacts to your touch? After all, you don’t want any of life’s special moments to pass you by. And with the ST550′s super clear 800 x 480 display and innovative Haptic sensor technology, your camera will let you know what you’re doing with every click, swish and hum of the controls.
• See deeper, go wider, get closer with the ST550 – Have it all, literally, with the ST550. From its all inclusive 27mm Schneider-KREUZNACH wide angle lens to its up close and personal 4.6X optical zoom, you’ll capture more fun out of every moment and relive each detail with artistic depth and perspective, and with absolute ease. Plus, with a healthy 12.2 mega pixels of superb clarity, the ST550 delivers sharper detail from every birthday cake, natural wonder, or front row seat view than you ever thought possible. Get the most out of life with the ST550.
• Tilt it, gesture it, and you’ll control it – Tilt it to one side, and the ST550′s Smart Gesture UI will start the perfect slide show without a single touch! With the ST550′s built-in Acceleration Sensor, your gestures work as your commands. Manage camera functions, rotate or delete photos, create special slide shows and more…all without lifting a finger.
• Just what you had in mind – You see the image you want in your head. You point the ST550. And Smart Auto sees it too. This scene recognition technology actually chooses from 16 different settings ranging from landscape to portrait automatically. 
  Then adjusts for the perfect shot. Whether it’s catching your friends on a night on the town or a waterfall off a mountain. What you get is exactly what you had in mind. Plus all the credit.
• It knows you, and gets your best side – The ST550 isn’t just smart in design. With its Smart Face recognition technology, the ST550 creates brilliance with every snap. And keeps it that way. By knowing up to 20 of your friends and family, it automatically focuses on them first, making sure the most important subjects are always in crystal clarity. And since the ST550 never forgets a face, you can also browse more efficiently by the people you’ve registered.
• HD quality video – If you prefer still shots to movies but want to leave your options open (and leave your camcorder at home) the ST550 is right for you. You’ll get 720p HD quality video at 30 frames per second. And a recording time that’s 4X longer than MJPEG video. You even can use the 4.6X Zoom to get up close and vividly personal. And when things get dicey, you can even pause your recording. You’ll give up nothing, except carrying around that extra camera.

This is just a few nice features the Samsung ST550 posseses, for a more detailed look at all the ST550′s features head on over to the official Samsung Page.

In July some of you may remember that I wrote about the release of the brand new DSTV HD PVR that was due for release this month. Sad news is that we will still have to wait a little bit longer for the release of the new DSTV HD PVR.

Multichoice has revealed that they are still busy testing the new UEC HD PVR but it is in the final stages of testing and would be released to the public very soon, but no date has been given yet.

Multichoice announced the release of the new UEC DSTV HD PVR in July this year, the UEC decoder is set to compete with the current PACE HD PVR. Multichoice also announced that they will be releasing a lower end HD decoder soon that will give users the HD experience without having PVR functionality. The lower end HD decoder will come in at a lower price than the current PVR models, no date has yet been set for the release of the lower end HD decoder.

The new UEC HD PVR wil be here in September, with a cheaper low end HD PVR decoder model to follow in next year.

MultiChoice launched its first HD PVR decoder in August last year, in time to view the Beijing Olympics in high definition. During this launch many consumers rushed to get the new HD PVR to put they high definition TVs to better use.

The PACE HD PVR was hover plagued with allot of software bugs, which Multichoice said has for the most been resolved. According to MultiChoice CEO Nolo Letele the latest HD PVR software release, which was made available to DSTV subscribers in May, means that the decoder is now very stable and reliable.  MultiChoice CTO Gerdus van Eeden added that there is another HD PVR software update on its way, which will further improve stability and fix a few smaller bugs.

So far Multichoice has only been able to sign up 41000 HD subscribers, allot les then the 290 000 SD PVR subscribers. Acording to Multichoice this is about to change as they wil be launching a agressive Dstv HD PVR campaign soon, with 3 additional HD channels within the next 9 months time.

Good news to those of us waiting for a new HD PVR is that there is two new HD PVR models on their way with the first being released in September this year. The first wil be a UAC HD PVR which will compete directly against the current PACE HD PVR, aswell as a lower end UAC model which will be more afordable than both the PACE and UAC HD PVR models.

The UAC HD PVR will ba a quad tuner decoder and you should see it in shops by September this year. This model is expected to cost the same as the current PACE HD PVR,

The lower end model will only contain a dual tuner and a smaller HDD, which should reduce the cost significantly. Although Multichoice has released any datails about availability and pricing, it is expected to retail for about R2000.

Lets just hope that the new models doesn’t also take almost a year to run stable.

Multichoice operator of South Africas only pay-tv service DSTV, has announced that in the comming nine months it will launch a additional three HD (High defenition) channels. These three HD channels will include a dedicated sports channel called SuperSport HD, and 2 other channels dedicated to movies and documentaries probably Movie Magic HD and perhaps DiscoveryHD or NatGeoHD.

Previous speculation was that the three new channels from DSTV would have come at an extra cost but according to Multichoice the three channels wil be available to DSTV HD subscribers at no extra cost.

All the new channels will be broadcast at a resolution of 720p using MPEG-4.

Multichoice took some heavy critic from the public with the release of their buggy HD PVR decoder that was plagued by software bugs that caused some early adopters to revert back to the SD PVR.

The price of the HD Decoder is also another reason why the addoption of the HD service is slow, although it was launched at a kind of reasonable price of R2500.00 it now retails for a astranomical R4000.00. To address this high price issue Multichoice has commissioned a new HD PVR with a smaller HDD which should retail for about R2000.00.

Multichoice also plans to release a new software update for the HD PVR during November that will enable video on demand for the device.