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LAS VEGAS - A 150-inch high-definiton plasma TV unveiled by Panasonic is the world's largest to date, the Japanese consumer electronics company claimed Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show. The plasma panel features an 8.84 million pixel image resolution. Its screen is the equivalent of nine 50-inch sets, with an effective viewing area of 11 feet, the company said. It's a step up from Panasonic's 103-inch version, which cost $70,000 when it launched. The company did not say in a news release how much the 150-inch panel will cost. Panasonic's other prototypes introduced at CES include a 42-inch panel...

In another blow to HD DVD, the giant Blockbuster video rental chain has thrown its weight behind Blu-ray in the fight to see which format is the high definition successor to the humble DVD. After renting Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year, Blockbuster has decide to stock only Blu-ray in its other 1250 US stores. Customers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time, reports Associated Press via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The release of Sony's Blu-ray-enabled PlayStation 3 games console was also a factor in the decision, said Blockbuster senior...

The wraps came off high-definition DVD players at this year's annual Consumer Electronics Show, offering the final component to replicate the movie theater experience at home. And while a fierce DVD format war likely will delay the mass adoption of such devices, digital video is here to stay - the Consumer Electronics Association trade group estimates 25 million U.S. homes will have a high-def TV set by year's end. But big, expensive flat-panel sets aside, this year's gadget show offered plenty of smaller screens for video... Yahoo Inc., DirecTV, Starz Entertainment Group and Sony were also among the companies getting...

More dirt about Apple's HD Video Network initiative The more we look into these developing rumors of Apple's planned HDVN high-defintion content delivery system, with each new report this is becoming one of the biggest stories in our 11 years dishing dirt -- right up there with Mac OS X, the iMac, the iPod....yeah, that big. Seriously. Apple's interest in satellite HD content delivery has become more than obvious. Just a note to Phil Schiller and company: your (potential) competitors are taking notice! Just because Apple rebuffed Sirius is by no means an indication that Apple isn't interested in...

Analysis: Behind Apple's Blu-Ray Move Apple did more than just affiliate with a trade group looking to develop and promote a new technology when it announced plans last week to join the Blu-Ray Disc Association’s board of directors. The company also inserted itself right into the middle of a battle over high-definition DVD. The Battleground Unless you’re on the bleeding edge of home video, you may not realize that HDTV has higher resolution than DVD. HDTV’s two main resolutions are the progressive 720P format (1,280-by-720 without interlacing) and 1080i (1,920-by-1,080 with interlacing). A widescreen DVD uses 852-by-480 resolution. Satellite and...