Yamaha added to its MusicCast wireless multiroom audio lineup Tuesday with the launch of a network receiver with Bluetooth for streaming via Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, Spotify and vTuner, said Yamaha. Music can be controlled by Android and iOS apps, and the device includes FM and streaming music presets.

Samsung announced two series of curved quantum dot gaming monitors, it said in a Monday news release. The 24- and 27-inch CFG70 and the 34-inch CF791 include interactive LED lighting, a user dashboard, and AMD FreeSync technology that’s said to reduce input latency, stutter and lag.

The FCC's revised set-top apps proposal (see 1608240064) would allow programmer content to be distributed through pay-TV apps constructed with their own native code, not just with HTML5 as the pay-TV-backed apps set-top plan would mandate, Univision said in an ex parte posted Thursday in docket 16-42. It concerned a conference call Friday between Univision executives and FCC Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan and an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Univision and the FCC officials discussed measures to prevent discrimination against programmer apps, the data that would need to be shared to allow universal search, and the makeup of a licensing body for the set-top plan. Also Thursday, AT&T filed in the docket, criticizing a recommendation by a tech group to combine elements of various set-top plans (see 1608250052).

In the battle between proprietary Dolby Vision and open HDR10 high dynamic range technologies, HBO, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Universal are rallying in support of Dolby Vision, said a Wednesday ABI Research report. Dolby Vision could become the format for streaming movie and VOD delivery, while HDR10 primarily supports live event and broadcast channels, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. Markets with less widespread broadband deployments such as India will require infrastructure upgrades to be able to support the bandwidth required for 4K video delivery, she said.

MTV's Video Music Awards are “lathered in profanity” and celebrate illegal drug use, said the Parents Television Council in a news release Wednesday. PTC wants VMA advertisers to know last year's ceremony was inappropriate despite being rated as being acceptable to children 14 and older, PTC said. The 2016 VMA show will air Sunday.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson “is not persuaded” she erred in February's ruling that CD-copying hard drives shipped in Chrysler, Ford and General Motors infotainment systems fall outside the scope of the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) (see 1602220055). Her Monday order (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied an Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) motion that she reconsider her February ruling (see 1605180048). AARC is “hard-pressed” to explain how the AHRA’s “murky legislative history upon which it relies can support the conclusion” that a digital musical recording “could be either analog or digital,” Jackson said. AARC’s “contention that Congress somehow nevertheless meant that a ‘digital musical recording’ could be analog or digital flies in the face of the plain text of the statute, and the AARC offers no support for its implicit suggestion that a statute should not be interpreted to mean what it says,” she said. The jurist agreed with AARC’s contention that her ruling “does not preclude the possibility that a hard drive partition could constitute a DACR under the statute,” she said of a digital audio copied recording.

FCC rules approved in February that allocate responsibility for closed caption quality to both video programming distributors and programmers (see 1602180047) take effect Sept. 22, the agency said in Tuesday's Federal Register.

No factual evidence supports Public Knowledge's accusation that the Copyright Office is more dedicated to helping copyright holders than accurately interpreting the law, said the Copyright Alliance in an FCC filing in commission docket 16-42 on PK's response (see 1608040062) to CO (see 1608050053) on commission-proposed set-top box rules. “The mere fact that the Copyright Office’s analysis conflicts with the policy positions of Public Knowledge and its supporters does not mean that that the Copyright Office is biased; and Public Knowledge’s unsupported claims only underscore their inability to address the substance of the analysis,” the alliance said in a release. It's “incumbent” on the FCC to “take into account the Register’s views on the Proposal,” the alliance said. The plan outlined in the set-top NPRM would “harm” content creators, it said. Members include 21st Century Fox, CBS, Disney, the NBA, Newspaper Association of America, RIAA and Sony Pictures, said the group's website.

NAB and public interest groups disagree on whether the FCC should eliminate the requirement that broadcasters keep a hard-copy file of correspondence from the public available for viewing at TV stations, according to replies in docket 16-161 in time for Monday's deadline. “Members of the public rarely -- if ever -- access stations’ paper correspondence, instead relying on digital forms of communication to comment about a station’s performance,” said NAB. But “moving to an online-only format would frustrate poor people and people of color -- who still tend to rely on over-the-air television -- from effectively communicating with their local broadcasters,” said the National Hispanic Media Coalition with the AFL-CIO, Public Knowledge, Free Press, Common Cause, Communication Workers of America and Center for Media Justice. Eliminating the correspondence file doesn't have to stop the public from communicating with broadcasters, NAB said. “If members of the public still want to communicate with broadcasters through written mail or e-mail,” they can still do so, NAB said. Broadcaster arguments that the files are an unnecessary burden fly in the face of their claim that no one ever looks in the correspondence file, the public interest groups said. “One cannot claim credibly that staff are burdened by constant visits from the public and then also argue that such visits never actually happen because communications occur largely through social media.” The public groups downplayed broadcasters' concerns that allowing the public into stations to view such files is a security threat. The groups “support safe workspaces for broadcasters, but there are simply no documented incidents of violence resulting from an individual inspecting the public file," they said. The public interest groups haven't shown why such files are needed, NAB said. “If NHMC believes it imperative that broadcasters maintain their correspondence files, then it should produce at least some shred of evidence demonstrating the continuing value of those paper files.” The American Cable Association was the sole reply commenter to file on a commission proposal to eliminate a similar requirement for cable headend information. ACA wants the FCC to allow companies to continue to hold that information in their office and to be able to make it available to authorized representatives if they wish. “There is no policy justification for imposing new burdens on cable operators” ACA said.

Hitch Radio CEO Ayinde Alakoye criticized GOP nominee Donald Trump for having an undefined tech and telecom agenda. “While Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton released a comprehensive technology policy platform in June that should excite software developers, Mr. Trump doesn’t pay much attention to our industry’s concerns and is, frankly, on the wrong side of many of the most important issues facing tech today,” Alakoye said in a blog post for TechCrunch dated Sunday. Hitch Radio created an instant messaging app for radio. “Over the course of his candidacy, Mr. Trump has questioned basic data security and privacy principles, called for the boycott of a trusted American innovator and wondered about the virtues of the internet," wrote Alakoye. "If elected president, Mr. Trump’s views on technology could wall off the industry, stifle job and economic growth and cede the United States’ long-held position as the world’s innovation hub.” He questioned the encryption stance of Trump and argued that any “serious candidate running for president must develop an articulate and inclusive policy agenda to ensure the technology industry broadly, and its developers specifically, can continue to innovate, grow and make our world a better place.” Telecom policy observers have been unclear about Trump’s view on telecom issues, relying on limited statements and a handful of tweets on this policy area.