Outdoor HD Joy: SunbriteTV releasing new 32″ outdoor LCD for the masses

Need a crystal-clear HDTV to go in your patio, near your pool or other such outdoor retreat? Every place is better with HDTV in it, of course. Well, the people at SunbriteTV want to provide that luxury item for you, and even better: More cheaply than before too.

The new 3230HD screen has built in speakers and a new lower price tag. The price tag has been slimmed down to $2,595 and with that you’ll get HD resolution, and a TV that’s almost completely water, wind and temperature resistant too. Not a bad deal at all.

Heading to Electronic House Expo? These (and in fact all of the SunbriteTV line) will be on display there, and it might be cool to check out if outdoor HD viewing is your bag.

Official: Panasonic VIERA HDTV pricing released

The official word came down on Panasonic’s 2009 VIERA line pricing, and its about what we expected. Here’s the lowdown.

We’ve taken a look, and everything appears to be pretty much in line with the figures we leaked, including that $5,999 price tag slim TV we profiled on here a few weeks ago, and also saying the line would ship during the summer sometime.

The remainder of course decrease in price and features somewhat, of course, but all are pretty well equipped for HDTV joy, so no worries there. Panasonic has been focusing on their Plasma offerings of late, but now they’re turning their engineer’s eyes towards their popular VIERA LCD lineup.

You can read the rest of the pricing and feature details in the official press release here.

Deal Alert: More Hot HDTV Deals

Once again we search the internet to find great HDTV deals for our readers. These all started either yesterday or today and are subject to sellouts or expiration at any time, of course.

Very nice deal here: BuyDig, online digital superstore, has the Samsung LN52A650 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV for $1,895 with free shipping. That’s about $100 or so cheaper than most places on the net we could find. The model has been reviewed pretty well too.

Video online store bhphotovideo.com has a really nice deal on a 32″ Sony HDTV, the Sony KDL-32XBR6 1080p BRAVIA LCD for only $713 + free shipping too. Features a solid 2,500:1 contrast and that great Sony clarity.

If you want a bigger Sony, Wal-Mart jumbo store Sam’s Club has the Sony Bravia KDL-46SL140 46in LCD 1080p HDTV for the great price of only $1,098, which is cheapest by a wide margin. Sam’s usually has decent HDTV prices overall, from my experience.

Feel free to peruse our selection, and happy viewing!

Your HDTV Tour Guide: Today’s HD listings on TV

Here’s today’s selection of HDTV shows on television tonight (all times Pacific): Link

There’s a very nice selection, including a good amount of 1080i programming, which is being broadcast with increasing frequency over the last few months.  Included is the new American Idol, with the top 13 contestants competing for their spots, a new “Trust Me” on TNT (very fine show, with partial cast pictured), and a new Law & Order:SVU in 1080i too.

This site has a daily feature with all of the latest HDTV shows put together that are broadcast on most satellite and cable TV networks in the US and around the world in some cases, depending on the feed you receive. I personally mainly only watch HD when I watch TV now, as after watching shows in HD for awhile, I just can’t go back to SD.

A pretty full lineup for any HDTV loving TV fan.

We Said They’re Not Dead Yet: Panasonic to update Plasma models in Australia

Now there’s even more reason to live down under: Panasonic is updating their Plasma TV line there with some new features and improvements. It’s nice to see the technology still kicking with some companies, even if that company is struggling financially like Panasonic is (they’re to report a $3+ billion dollar loss this upcoming quarter, if rumors are believed).

Panny commercials plasma models TH-58PF11WK, TH-50PF11WK and TH-42PF11WK were released for Australia (and other countries in the last few weeks/months) and come with full HD res 1920×1080 and 3 slots that can house modules for audio or video input; there’s even a feature where you can connect stuff wirelessly. It sounds pretty dreamy.

Wireless sounds really neat, but get this: according to the company, you can “tile” up to 25 plasmas in a 5×5 array, and the functionality is built-in. How cool is that?

Not Dead Yet: Samsung releases Fabrizio PAVV series of Plasma TVs

Maybe Plasma TV technology isn’t quite ready for the grave just yet. Samsung is still supporting the technology, at least in other parts of the world.

Samsung announced a new line of Plasma TV’s to ardent fans across the globe, and the specs released so far look quite nice. They’re codenamed the Fabrizio PAVV 450 Series, and the line will include a 42- and 50-inch version which will incorporate their own Crystal Engine, with a lightning quick 0.001 millisecond response time, “Mega Contrast,” (their specialized engine that makes colors brighter and stand out more) and 3 HDMI ports too. It sounds pretty tasty.

No other details were released. The TV’s are expected to hit Asian countries first, and will follow on other shores assuming it does well. We’ll keep our eye out for these.

Odd Trend: HDTV prices rising of late?

We’re rather used to the prices of HDTVs slowly going further down the last 6 months-1 year or so, but now last reports are indicating prices have ticked upwards slightly on some makes. It’s a strange trend considering the high jobless rate and the general instability of the economy these days all over the world.

Jan to Feb prices rose an average of 10% or so, which is a real surprise to us. Many say recent liquidations by Circuit City and the Super Bowl should have shoved prices down, but it did pretty much the opposite. Some have stated on a few sites that this is the time of year where inventories tend to sit a bit regardless of prices, so companies have nudged prices upwards a little hoping to grab a little extra cash.

Hopefully, this is only a glitch and not a long-term trend. Low prices are good for HDTV and its march across the globe. So a word to the wise: Make sure that “sale” price really is lower than the last sale price advertised. Buyer beware, as always.

Tales of Terror: One customer’s experience with Geek Squad and an HDTV setup

Geek Squad is Best Buy’s installation division, and from what we’ve heard, they’ve been (mostly) decently capable guys at setting up HDTV/surround sound systems.  But this customer’s experience is becoming the norm it seems lately, and it’s a tale of frustration, price gouging and clueless techs that shouldn’t be paid to do this sort of work.

We advocate getting educated at setting up your HDTV and related systems yourself with various articles we’ve posted and linked to over the past few months; it’s usually the best and least expensive way to get the sound and picture you paid for, without waiting on appointments or paying up the nose to get it set up for HDTV nirvana.

Here’s the article we referenced earlier. Requires a strong stomach.

Whoa: Panasonic’s new ultra-thin Plasma HDTV priced at 6K

Yes, we’re aware that $5,995 for a Plasma HDTV is a lot right now, but remember back when Mitsubishi threw a crazy $6,999 price tag on its sensational LaserVue set, and how most thought that was way too much.

Panasonic’s dazzling new number will only be one-inch thick and be code named the TC-P54Z1, and will serve a very dwindling niche of videophiles wanting the very best of the best in terms of color reproduction and clarity. With Plasma production by other companies winding down, Panasonic is serving a very special subset of the HDTV fans out there.

This price tag is only a rumor, mind you, and Pana hasn’t yet confirmed the price tag officially. Most thought (after it showed at CES) that’s about what it would be, so it doesn’t surprise anyone really. We can’t wait to see if it measures up to its price tag.

It’s Easy Being “Green”: New HDTV models from Toshiba to debut in Japan soon

Going “green” does seem to be the new catchword in the HDTV lexicon, and Toshiba knows it. The latest Toshiba models from Japan aims to save big bucks (or at least a few bucks) on the user’s energy bill, and these models will be debuting in Tokyo very soon.

The lineup includes: the 32″ 32C8000, the 37″ 37C8000 and the big boy, the 42″ 42C8000 reportedly use from 30-50% less juice than previous models in the same line, and all 3 models features the now fairly standard 120Hz technology to make action scenes flow smoothly.

All include a digital TV tuner, and the bigger two models include 1080p panels (the 32″ does 720p). No prices were released as usual, but models should be in Tokyo stores at the end of March or so. We’re fairly certain other shores should follow later on.

Follow-Up Report: DTV switchover not going smoothly for some

As we predicted, some folks are suffering from poor TV reception since the (partial) DTV switchover in February.  And a few people are really upset. We last reported on this a few weeks ago.

A report featured in USA Today wrote that that half of the 25,000 calls to the FCC on D-Day (February 18) were because of poor reception or hookup/antenna issues. That’s a good amount, and more than even we anticipated. 

It’s also been reported that depending on where you live, getting certain channels clearly with even the DTV boxes could be a risky proposition. According to reports, a decent portion (estimated at around 10% or so) have thrown in the towel and gotten cable or satellite, while others shuffle around their antenna placement to get the optimal picture, and a few have said they’re just doing without TV completely right now.

Any readers here have reports of DTV problems since the early phase of the transition happened? Feel free to comment here.

Cool Antenna: Panasonic reveals first LCD packing Japanese antenna tech

This picture looks like a typical Panasonic 1366 x 768 LED backlit IPS LCD, right? Not quite. Inside of this HDTV is a world first feature, picking up that distinction because it can go where your external wiring does not go due to its unique antenna built in.

This one can pick up all 12 segments of Japan’s digital TV transmission thanks to that odd-looking rear mounted antenna seen in the rear of that picture (the glowing of it is optional), the model code named TH-L17F1 is ready for Japan’s still upcoming DTV transition (no date set in stone, but its coming soon, we’ve heard). 

Various antenna types aren’t completely new, with a good amount of DVB / ISDB capable antenna floating around (the digital TV type mostly used in Europe and Japan), with tuners capable of grabbing multiple sub channels or more importantly, be able to adapt in particularly bad signal areas, which would in turn improve picture quality and reception in low signal locations.

Will this type of engineering work with ATSC broadcasts in the US? One thing is for sure: Panasonic will port over even more annoying antenna types (and better at picking up digital signals) sooner than we’d like.

Thought: Do consumers care about “Green” HDTVs?

There’s been a new (albeit minor) movement towards more energy efficient or “green” HDTVs of late, and many companies are beginning to jump on the bandwagon of slowly providing less wasteful models to consumers.

Almost every company at CES had a line of energy-sipping TV models, and Energy Star requirements seemed to be more at the forefront of what manufacturers were bragging about. Now of course, being easier on your energy bill adds a bit more to the cost of TVs up front usually, for example: it adds $50 or so for Vizio’s new Eco models over similar panels, and similar amounts for other companies “green” models.

We think price, features and picture quality will be the most important things in the near future for many consumers, but many companies are betting energy usage will be closer to the top of that list at a later point. After all, many products are going “green” these days, and we may see HDTVs join the parade in a big way down the road.

Meet the Press: Sony has its own CES and shows off new HDTV tech

Yes, Sony has its very own CES, and it was held yesterday in Las Vegas. It showcases all of Sony’s upcoming products in one place to journalists, trade writers and the like. Included are lots of new TV’s and TV tech that should really change things up in the coming year or so, including their upcoming eco-friendly HDTV models.

TV Widgets are also a big highlight of the showing, with Sony dipping their toe into those waters even more as time goes along. Hopefully Sony can turn around some of their problems from last year, and become the leader in tech and a premium name like they once were. Their rep has taken quite a beating the last year or two, mainly from the PS3 troubles and their lackluster addressing of its issues.

Here’s the complete coverage and links from CNET: Link

Lawsuit Blues: Toshiba loses $1 million DLP Bulb case

Toshiba’s bottom line hasn’t been faring so well of late, and now its taken another hit: they just lost a lawsuit involving replacing DLP bulbs.

New York courts decided that Toshiba needs to pay over $1 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed in 2007. The suit stated: ”the lamps of certain Toshiba DLP TV’s were susceptible to premature failure causing purchasers to repeatedly expend hundreds of dollars for replacement bulbs, which suffered from the same defect.”  On purpose, it seems to imply. Now many companies do this sort of thing in sneaky little ways, as a product that never breaks doesn’t make as much money.

After a long investigation, Toshiba was found to be responsible for replacing the bulbs and compensating the 265,000+ customers impacted. Warranties on bulbs was also extended to 1 year on affected models. Well, that’s how it goes…hopefully Toshiba will make sure to get their bulbs from a better source next time around.

Plasma + Good News = Panasonic new displays to be compatible with DivX

Blu-Ray shouldn’t always get all the spotlight, and Panasonic agrees, as their new line of VIERA plasma displays will be DivX compatible, which should enable a variety of video viewing options. Choice is always a good thing.

It’s assumed these models will be distributed on both sides of the pond, which means these models will work with DLNA and SD/SDHC cards, meaning improved video and audio quality and options.

To be honest, a company investing more time and energy in Plasma technology is welcome news for its lovers, especially with the current exodus taking place with companies regarding Plasma tech these days. Panasonic may end up being the option for Plasma left at some point soon (at least in the US anyway). Pioneer and (it appears likely) LG will be withdrawing from the US Plasma market very soon, so Plasma fanatics should feel free to raise a toast to Panasonic.

Let’s all join in: Middle East to join the HDTV parade within 3-4 years

The Middle East will be joining the ranks of the 24-hour HDTV broadcast club, starting in 3-4 years, claims the head of an Abu Dhabi-based HD production company. Nothing but good things for the future of HD with this development, as HD joy spreads around the globe.

LIVE, a division of a media company formed last August with assets worth more than $27 million designed to advance HDTV in the country and region, has already signed a big contract to carry and produce the UAE football league, considered very big events in those areas.

Apparently, all 300 matches are being recorded in HD and then converted to SD for channels in Abu Dhabi and surrounding areas, with the latest investment, it’s only a matter of time before local resources are able to handle broadcasting in full HD, states several figures at LIVE.

Soon, all of the Middle East will know the clarity and imagery of HDTV.

We’re jealous of the UK: Sharp releasing 108″ LCD TV on Monday

Yes, Sharp is releasing a gigantic 108″ LCD HDTV on Monday morning to stores in the UK. It’s huge, with very solid stats, and it’ll put a pretty big dent in your wallet as well. Recession in the UK? Maybe, maybe not.

The official name is the Sharp Aquos LB 1085, and it will be in stock and available at Harrod’s (a high end store in the UK), and will run you only £100,000 (that’s over $140,000 in US Dollars, folks!). Pocket change, we say.

This concept/model was announced over 2 years ago originally, but the technology and manufacturing process only recently allowed the TV to be produced and sold to the public.

Needless to say, in this economic climate, it may be wise to wait until the price comes down a bit. No word on whether this will be sold in the US anytime soon (and it may not have sold well there anyway at this price, so that may be a good thing).

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