CABLE CHANNEL TO FILL IN GAMES FOR HOCKEY FANS

Cable channel to fill ingames for hockey fans
LOS ANGELES -- Professional hockey may be on hold, but all 1,230 regular season games will still be played.
How, you ask? In the confines of a video game, with results posted on a specialty cable television channel that's devoted to games and high-tech gear.
Starting Oct. 13 with a matchup between Stanley Cup champs Tampa Bay Lightning and the Philadelphia Flyers, G4techTV will broadcast highlights, scores and stats every day on the sports program "Sweat."
Highlights will also be seen on Comcast SportsNet; Comcast owns G4techTV. NHL teams locked out players after both sides failed to reach terms on a new contract.
"We'd rather be televising the live games, but until the real games resume, this presents a fun opportunity to maintain the fans' interest," said Jack Williams, chief executive of Comcast SportsNet.
The two channels reach more than 50 million homes.
Toshiba developsnew flat-panel TV
TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. has a new flat-panel TV that delivers clear imagery comparable to the old-style cathode-ray tubes by using similar beam-emitting technology.
Unlike liquid-crystal and plasma displays popular in today's flat-panel TVs, images on the new panels don't get jagged even when relaying sports and other fast-moving objects. The technology, called SED for surface-conduction electron-emitter display, is being developed by Toshiba and Japanese camera company Canon.
Toshiba plans to market SED TVs by April 2006 and says they will be compatible with next-generation DVDs called HD DVDs. The company also plans to sell liquid-crystal and plasma displays, with SED technology meant for 40-inch and larger models.
Toshiba President Tadashi Okamura said the TV and DVD market was entering a new era with the advent of digital broadcasting and network-linked homes.
Associated Press
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.