Speaking of the digital transition…President-Elect Obama thinks America isn’t ready

The digital transition is about a month away, and president-elect Obama and his associates are getting pretty worried about the digital transition, and that many TV viewers will be caught in the dark when the day comes. That’s hard to believe given the press coverage, but anyhow…

We reported here about the dwindling supplies of government coupons for converter boxes, and due to that, among other things, the Obama transition team is recommending that the digital transition date be delayed for a few months. It probably won’t happen, and I think those who would really be impacted by this are already prepared and know of the transition and the steps required.

The subsidization money for DTV converter coupons has been exhausted, and a lot of people who rely on the analog signals for their TV viewing will be left image-less on February 17, when all analog TV signals in the US will be turned off.

We assumed there would be some 11th-hour scrambling and craziness with the digital transition being such a short time away, but we don’t expect to see any postponement. Hopefully you’ve made the plans you need to make, because Obama’s pleas will probably go unanswered.

CES Report: 2009 will be seen as HDTV and retail “Darwinism”

Based on the discussions being held at CES 2009 (namely the annual TWICE roundtable), this coming year will be seen for two things: The transition from analog to digital TV, which will help move the discussion of TV to HDTV (they’ll be one in the same, for all intents and purposes). No doubt the coming digital transition in February is fueling flat-panel sales quite a bit the last 6 months or so, even over the holidays, which were some of the dreariest in recent memory for many retailers.

Secondly, it will be a Darwinian period for many retailers, including HDTV providers, as the market slowly evolves and weeds out the weaker retail entities. It’s been compared to the end of the VCR boom, and it will be a merciless few months for the tech retail sector. Only the strongest will survive, but in the end, the consumer will win, with better feature sets for less money than ever before, and the quality and availability of HDTV will continue to grow.

We’ll continue to be here and report any new developments that become available.

Deals of the Day roundup

Here’s a roundup of some more great deals in HDTV’s from your ever-reliable source, Screen Sleuth. We live but to serve the HDTV fan.

Save $40 with the AOC Envision L32W761 32in 16:9 8ms 720p LCD HDTV from NewEgg. Price is $420 – $20 off with this coupon code: EMCABAGBA (newsletter subscribers only) + $10 shipping = $410 with shipping; excellent deal. You’ll have to pay sales tax in CA, NJ, TN. These smaller TV’s get cheaper all the time. Good til 1/12/09.

Venerable electronics store Abes Of Maine has a huge SAMSUNG HL67A750 67in DLP 1080p Projection HDTV for only $1868 w/ free shipping. That’s a gargantuan, high-quality TV for a great price. It’s probably one of the best DLP TV’s out there right now, according to ratings around the web.

Thanks for stopping by and come back again for more amazing deals with Screen Sleuth!

Get a big HDTV and save energy with the “green” Samsung LED LCD line announced at CES 2009

Samsung has really grabbed ahold of the “green principle” and led the way with some cool new developments in making TV’s nice to look at and easy on your electric bill as well. Their third generation of LCD’s, claiming 40 percent energy savings over LCD HDTVs in a similar size and class, were unveiled at CES 2009. These are the first models to be fully Energy Star 3.0 compliant (they won’t be the only ones of course).

Samsung’s latest LCDs have comparable refresh rates to other LCD TVs (120 hz for the 6000 and 7000 series), very good contrast ratios and are only about an inch thick, which includes a built-in HDTV tuner.

While the specs are pretty good, the thrifty energy usage are the big selling points for these models. Samsung’s new line is also among the first wave of televisions carrying the Energy Star 3.0 badge, which measures and congratulates low power consumption in standby mode as well as when the television is on (the previous Energy Star ranking didn’t actually measure the power when the set was on, which makes it useless really in real-life application).

Vizio and LG are both competing in the backlit LCD battlefield as well, so Samsung will have to keep their senses sharp. The new Samsung power-sipping model will be available March/April (probably) of 2009 in 40-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch sizes. Pricing was not released.

HDTV expected to steal much of the limelight at CES 2009

As far as CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2009 goes this year, it’s the year of the HDTV. News about various developments with HDTV’s are expected to grab most of the spotlight, with several content based and intriguing new internet/TV convergence models on display, along with possibly one of the thinnest model LCD’s ever created (detailed here in an earlier post).

LG and Samsung both have big news to deliver on the HDTV front with their content-based partnerships (LG with Netflix and Samsung with Yahoo) which will usher in the new thinking with HDTVs, that internet and television should be one single medium, with streaming content available on demand 24/7. Samsung will also unveil their ultra-thin new LCD line of TV’s at this year’s event.

Turnout for CES is not expected to be record-breaking, but solid, which is the best to hope for in this economic climate, to be certain. But not for lack of amazing tech stories, that’s for sure. New advances in HDTV will keep the press hopping, and we at Screen Sleuth will keep you informed as to any new goodies that come down the pike. Commence drooling.

Samsung and Yahoo join up to provide HDTV + internet content to audiences

ews filtered out today about Samsung and Yahoo! joining up together to include widgets and internet based content services on their HDTVs, and the new service will be crowned Internet@TV-Content Service.

Powered by the newly designed Yahoo! Widget Engine, the app platform will allow users of select models of Samsung’s 2009 flat panel HDTV genre to enjoy rich internet content and services, built right into the TV itself.

It could open whole new levels of interactivity and content streaming to the HDTV market (and after LG’s move to include Netflix with their new line of TVs, Samsung had to do something and make a move to counter their bold partnership). It could also give a nice boost to Yahoo!, who really needs one right now, with flagging stock prices, and a board of directors in serious flux right now.

Read more details about the upcoming product here.

Glimpse of the future? LG to launch built-in netflix HDTV model

The future of the movie (and movie rental companies) could be decided in a few months as LG has some plans for what could be a game-breaker in the HDTV arena with their latest release, officially announced today.

LG has joined up with Netflix to launch broadband-enabled HDTVs with Netflix streaming software directly included in the TV itself.  This line will allow Netflix users to directly watch movies and TV shows on their TV with Ethernet connectivity and eliminate the need to connect a whole separate box to their system. Broadband will probably be required, but even so, this could be huge for the industry if this takes off.

LG President statement: “Embedding the Netflix streaming software in the television is an industry-first, which provides another flexible option for consumers seeking to access exciting content directly through their HDTV.” It’s also an advance of what’s been predicted in the industry for a long time: the marrying of internet and TV in an “on demand” context.

LG did not release details about any screen sizes or pricing details (won’t be cheap, odds are; probably $1,200 range) for the new TV line but they’ll be available for our greedy paws to get ahold of this Spring sometime.

Thin is Definitely In: Samsung to debut ultra-thin LCD model at CES

It was only a matter of time before even thinner profile LCD TV’s started showing up, and Samsung has upped the ante in this race, to be sure.

Coming in at only 6.5mm thick (that’s a quarter of an inch, for those of you not near a converter!), these will be unveiled at CES 2009, and it should set people in the TV industry whispering.

Who knows if another manufacturer has something thinner in the offing, but for now, Samsung takes the medal for thinnest display (soon to be) on the market. And the rumored specs sound really good.

These models will support 240Hz with color ControlPro promising a wide color spectrum, even wider than many existing LCD sets. No mention on the pricing or availability yet, but we can’t wait to see them in stores and see how they measure up in terms of real world performance.

Read more

Engadget HD offers mainstream HD TV listings every day

Leading tech blog site Engadget has a sister site called Engadget HD, and it offers lots of news and reports all about the HD industry; blu-ray, various technologies peripheral to HD and HD itself. It’s actually a very cool way to keep up on the little things surrounding HD (along with Screen Sleuth of course).

One thing they do offer is a daily guide as to what’s on mainstream channels in HD, and exactly what resolution its in (1080i or 720p) on most cable/satellite systems and areas. It’s a good way of rounding up nightly viewing if you’re a huge HD junkie like we assume most of you reading this are.

CBS, for example, has the mediocre (growing long in the tooth) detective show Cold Case and the excellent The Unit on at 9 and 10PM respectively, broadcast in 1080i HD.

Today’s page would be here.

Surprise?: Amazon best-selling HDTV’s dominated by Samsung

If you’ve glanced at Amazon and their best-sellers for the HDTV category, despite the presence of Sony, Sharp and Panasonic (among others), the top-seller list is dominated by 5 consecutive Samsung models, then the Sharp Aquos. Odd considering that isn’t really true in stores, and Amazon had been offering a few side benefits with buying a Samsung (a $200 NFLshop.com certificate for example) that don’t really account for the dominance in the rankings.

It’s led by the very solid “red touch” Samsung 46″ 120hz LN46A650 pictured here and sold here for a little over $1,500 (their “secret price”), and followed by their 32″ model, and then two 52″ models. The ratings by customers are almost all 5 stars, and this isn’t like many sites where the people rating the stuff aren’t the most knowledgable; these are some pretty tech-savvy people overall.

The full current list (updated every hour) is located here.

CES HDTV theme: Convergence

The CES is almost ready to begin, and many themes will be coming out of the show, in light of emerging technology and the economic slide. The main theme for HDTV’s to look out for: convergence. What does this mean?

Convergence is the marriage of networking, media and Internet in home entertainment systems and TV’s. For several years now, there have been plenty of promising platforms that have delivered this sort of thing to users everywhere, and have sworn to join together all the benefits of the net and various media in one package. This year’s CES will more than likely emphasize this more than ever before.

At the past few shows, Microsoft and Intel, among others have demonstrated media PCs designed more for TV, recorded video and music than for office production. But despite lots of hype and some interesting products, the idea of installing a PC in a home entertainment cabinet still has not caught on, or vice versa (a HDTV with PC-like connectivity and features). Perhaps it’s too forward thinking for many?

This is the future, like it or not. In 25 years, this is (probably) what HDTV will mean: the integration of the internet, streaming movies (via Hulu or some other similar services) and entertainment on demand. It will expand and grow, and become an appliance, like a toaster or a microwave. That’s what many companies are hoping for anyway.

We’ll be here to report any news that comes out of CES regarding this, or any other cool HDTV news that leaks out.

Model announcement: Sony KDL46Z4500 200hz 1080p LCD

Sony has come out with a new model that should grab the attention of any HDTV follower or anyone looking for the very latest in HDTV technology.

The Sony KDL46Z4500 is a 46? LCD that runs in HD at 1080p. Nothing that new here really. The model itself was announced a few months back, but is just in the last week or so been widely available in stores.

With a 1,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio and the realistic colour reproduction thanks to local dimming RGB Dynamic LED backlight technology, it adjusts to your surroundings and ambient light expertly to produce a really great picture, its been reported. You can even use it as a large digital picture frame and it will cycle your installed pics on the screen, which is a rather new feature on recent HDTV models. Four HDMI inputs included, and you can connect personal devices like a Walkman or iPod with the included Digital Media Port, which is very cool indeed.

A noteworthy feature of the KDL46Z500 is Voice Zoom. It boosts the dialogue while pushing down the background sounds (explosions, guns, etc). Great for watching a movie late at night without disturbing sleeping residents in the house.

Sounds like a very solid Sony entry in the HDTV category. You can grab it here.

Ever use Digital Copy on many movie discs? Blu-ray buyers do

Did you ever wonder what Digital Copy is, and if anyone uses that feature you see on some discs nowadays?

Digital Copy includes a video version of the movie directly playable on a computer or any video playing type device, that can be viewed anywhere at anytime. It’s a white flag to the fact that people will probably make their own copies for personal use and many rip DVD’s for their own archival purposes anyway, so why not make it easier? Bear in mind, we don’t support piracy in any form.

Warner Home Video wondered if anyone used the feature (they’re one of its biggest supporters), so it did some homework to see who was using the feature more.

In short, Blu-Ray movie buyers used Digital Copy about twice as much as did normal DVD buyers, and it was found that the adoption rate is “measurably growing among Blu-ray consumers with successive Warner releases.” It also points to a definite audience divide between who buys BR and who uses regular DVD. BR buyers tend to be more tech savvy and more internet-intensive in their everyday lives, it appears.

The research does show overall that most don’t use the DC feature at all, with usage ranging between 5% and 13% according to WB research. It tends to add more cost (over a dollar a unit) to disc production, so studios may have to figure a way to educate more consumers about Digital Copy to make it worthwhile.

HDTV Q&A with Screen Sleuth

Every once in a while, we’ll answer basic HDTV and related questions in detail here on the site. Below is one such question that was posed elsewhere on another site, and i’ve heard the question many times myself:

Q: Since the analog sets are 4:3 aspect ratio and the HD signal is 16:9, something will change. Will the converted HD signal provided by Time Warner (or other provider) fill the width of the analog screen with black space at the top and bottom to give the HD aspect ratio? Or will the converted HD signal fill the height of the screen with the extra HD width discarded?

The aspect ratio of shows will not change at all. Some shows are shot and created in widescreen (16:9), while some are still more normal and square (commonly known as 4:3 ratio). An HDTV signal will not change the way a show was created.

Also, the conversion to digital will not mean all shows will be broadcast in high definition (HD) by default. A show must shot in HD to be capable of being viewed in HD on a TV. All over-the-air channels will be digitally broadcast over the air, which will make shows more capable of better picture and sound. The cable service itself won’t change.

HD shows (ones shot in HD) are traditionally widescreen, and will be broadcast in 16:9 ratio. Shows that aren’t will be broadcast as before (with possible minor quality improvements because of the digital broadcasting).

We’re always glad to be here to clear up the common misconceptions of HD for our readers.

Best Buy and the value of consumer education

Best Buy (and other companies too on occasion) will sometimes resort to slightly unsavory tactics to upsell certain services that aren’t always necessary for customers who wish to educate themselves a little bit. In this case, the service involved is a HDTV calibration service that costs a fair bit that Best Buy (at least some of them anyway) are using rather sneaky tactics to sell the service to unsuspecting, uninformed consumers.

A tipster and a report on Gizmodo caught a local Best Buy running a side-by side comparison display which showed the difference between a calibrated and an non-calibrated HDTV. No big deal, right?

After further examination, it was discovered one was hooked up with component cables while the clearer TV had HDMI. The big deal about this is, component cable is analog and won’t display 1080p in some cases due to copy protection; you need HDMI to display this resolution. It could have explained the difference in image quality, and comparing systems set up the same way is the best and most honest way to show th differences with a purely internal calibration service like this.

To defend yourself against this sort of thing, get educated. This article off Gizmodo that we profiled earlier shows you how to calibrate your TV yourself, and it only takes 5-10 minutes to do. This is a practice that (at those stores anyway) probably won’t change, so make sure you go in and be informed about your choices and what you need to do to get the best out of your HDTV.

LG to unveil 480hz Trumotion LCD HDTV models

CES 2009 is shaping up to be a big event for many major tech companies, regardless of any whispers of a recession that may be floating in the air. Even if this CES is reported to be much less grand than previous affairs, it’s all the better, as companies will stick to the basics of what the show is all about: the new gadgets that will grace living rooms in the years to come.

LG’s TV division has just announced its first Trumotion 480Hz LCD HDTV panel that that will feature 480 refresh rate per second that will truly speed up the delivery of true-life images on TV’s and usher in a new era of flat-panel TV quality without sacrificing speed or the handling of high-action images.

According to LG, this new LCD TV panel will use ‘scanning backlight’ tech that allows a backlight to be turned on and off to reduce motion blur, to the naked eye anyway. When used with their own 240 Hz technology they’ve already perfected, the display is able to hit a astounding refresh rate of 480 images per second.

This new model will feature 4ms response time, as well as reduced energy consumption due to the way the TV is designed, with power usage almost half that of traditional LCD units.

It is scheduled to be released for retail consumption towards the middle of 2009, but CES will be its unveiling. We will of course keep you updated as the relevant news as its released. This TV could be very big for the future of the HDTV industry.

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