It’s (still) a 3D world: Sony announced new three-dimensional lineup

Yes, there will be quite a flood of 3D HDTV news over the coming days (Samsung and Panasonic both have announcements over the next couple of days) as companies scramble to jump onto the 3D train, for reasons we can’t really understand.

Sony has revealed pricing and shipping information for its new televisions and related accessories in Japan, including 3D TVs, glasses, and even (gasp!) 2-D traditional HDTVs that will arrive on store shelves quite soon. There will be 40″-60″ models, ranging from $3,200 to $6,400 USD. You can pair them with this player, for maximum coolness.

So now we’ll have 3 companies producing 3D HDTV models, and an as yet undetermined market for people to buy new TVs (and active shutter glasses) to fully support 3D. It’s a real gamble in our book, but who knows. It could pay off…one day.

Saturday’s HDTV Deal-o-Rama

Here they are, once again, the HDTV weekend deals:

Vanns.com has a nice deal on the Sony Bravia KDL-52W5150 52” LCD HDTV for $1397.77 , and free shipping too. We’ve noticed a good price drop on Sony TVs of late, and that trend continues with this awesome deal.

TigerDirect.com has a great LG Plasma unit, the 42PQ30 42” 720p “Smooth Motion” Plasma HDTV for $549.99 with free shipping as well. Unbelievable pic (and that famous LG quality) for a great low price.

Thanks for reading, and please do come again for more great HDTV news and deals!

Released: Sony’s 3D Blu-Ray players sent into the wild

Sony’s latest Blu-ray players have been sold on the internet for a few months now,  but they’ve invaded stores at the retail level now, spotted on the shelf at a Best Buy store. Whether this matters for the 3D format in the long term remains to be seen. There’s already a 3D HDTV available for sale from Samsung, so a natural pair is now created.

A check on the Best Buy website shows the BDP-S470 and BDP-S570 available at many stores, so they’ve easily accessible at most any BB store out there.

We know they are capable of a Full HDTV 3D experience and are plenty speedy in terms of loading/access times (a big jump over many incarnations of BR players) but a few readers have already written in on various blogs and noted that the DLNA access mentioned isn’t available yet, and may require a future firmware update, always a good thing to do with new technology, we must say.

Dimension Ready: Sony announces 3D compatibility with new models

Last we’d heard, some of Sony’s retail locations had 3D displays (at least 3D capable ones) to show off, but no 3D software to run on them. For those who are excited about HDTV 3D, this bit of news is a good thing: Sony is ready. This isn’t the first 3D TV, but it could be the harbinger of things to come in the 3D world.

Today the company has stated that all 42 Sony Style stores are armed with LX900, HX900 and HX800 series BRAVIA models ready to show 3DTV, and equipped to make the best of it. We remain skeptics, but if a company like Sony is jumping on board, then perhaps it has a chance to succeed.

Many have already said: the only hope for HD 3D to be even moderately successful in homes is the ability to show off the technology easily, and this is a big step towards that. Here’s to hoping that Sony will really move forward with this new technology and bring to living rooms across the globe, and that our skepticism is proven faulty.

XEL-1 Dead? Sony stops production of OLED TV model in Japan

The XEL-1 (known as one of the first widely produced OLED set) was 11″ of pure HDTV wonder, but the time has come for this model, it appears. It’s 2K price tag made it rather unattractive to many HDTV fans, who tend to like much bigger screens. The writing was on the wall for this one, and now Sony has lowered the axe on this one in Japan.

Sony announced today that it was pulling the plug on production for the XEL-1 in Japan, citing “sluggish demand” as the primary cause. It will remain a curiosity and collectors item, more than likely. Cost has been the main reason why OLED hasn’t appeared on more shelves around the world, and until that obstacle is overcome, OLED won’t make a dent. Hopefully, that will be sooner than later, if our report here is accurate.

There’s a rumor that Japanese censoring laws are another reason Sony pulled the model, but these are unsubstantiated rumors, really.

Sunday’s Valentine HDTV Deals

It’s Valentine’s Day, a day of love, romance and kick-butt HDTV deals. There’s lots to watch nowadays in HD, so grab a loved one, and let’s get started:

Staples.com – These guys occasionally have some nice HDTV offers, and this is a case in point: The Samsung 2333HD-1 23” LCD TV for $259.98- $10 off coupon code we provide for you “29903″ = $249.98 with free shipping as well. Great for any side office setting or bedroom and a nice price too.

CompUSA has an amazing Sony deal: the Sony Bravia 40″ KDL-40S5100 LCD 1080p HDTV for $650 with no charge for shipping. How does a 30,000:1 Contrast Ratio and 6 HDMI ports sound to you? Music to our ears as well.

Feel free to check these out, and happy V-Day to all!

Niche HDTV Fashion: Bang and Olufsen releases larger, gourmet version of 46″ HDTV

Bang & Olufsen is a high-end audio/video company who we’ve covered a few times on SS, and now they’re releasing a 46″ version of their BeoVision10, a 40″ model with similar feature set. Bigger as always better (usually) in the HDTV world, we always say.

It won’t come cheap, as you might expect from a fancy gourmet brand name, but it’ll make a statement, no doubt, with its brushed aluminum frame, 200Hz refresh, and LED backlight, along with great, bangin’ sound built-in. We’d compare this type of TV favorably with this Sony model feature wise.

Here’s a eye-opener though: the 40-incher cost just under $10,000 when it was released, so decide for yourself what the (unannounced as of yet) price will be. Probably $12-14K we’d guess. It’ll hit “selected markets” sometime in April (in Europe at first, most likely), according to the company’s reports and rumors circulating around.

Bravia Overload: Sony to launch new line of LCDs

Sony has been pretty active the last few weeks with developments, and now Sony is announcing a large new line of HDTV Bravia TVs of the LCD ilk, with all shapes and sizes entering the fray, including smaller sizes and (gulp) exterior colors.

Low end is the EX300, with 22, 26, and 32-inchers models with 1,366 x 768 reses, and are available in white, pink, brown, and black. Announced price ranges (in Japan first, mind you) will be ¥70,000 – ¥90,000 ($770 – $990 USD), which fits in with their typical price points.

The EX500 is the middle ground, and will sport a ¥130,000 ($1,400 USD) price tag, and will be a 40″, 120Hz, 1080p model, while the bigger and fancier EX700 units range from 32 to 52 big-time inches and will cost you between ¥120,000 ($1,300 USD) and a rather swollen ¥300,000 ($3,300 USD). These models do give you extra goodies like LED backlighting, thinness (an ultra-slim 22mm), and network features, which means YouTube streaming, plus widgets too.

These are expected to splash down in Japanese waters around February 25, and across the pond eventually as well. You know you want a pink one, admit it.

Monday’s HDTV Deals Madness

We love our deals, as evidenced by posts we’ve made like this HDTV deals post, but here we’re really looking for great offers. See below:

Walmart.com and Vizio have a very good thing going, and it continues with this great deal: The Vizio VO420E 42” Class Eco (energy savings is always good!) 1080p LCD HDTV for $648 – with free shipping too? Indeed. A year ago this type of TV was $900+ easily, so you can appreciate the recent advances in technology that have made it affordable on nearly any budget.

Crutchfield.com has a pretty amazing Sony deal (and these are among the most expensive of all 40″ class HDTVs): How about a Sony KDL-46S5100 46” Bravia Series LCD HDTV for $779.99 – $20 off coupon we have supplied for you “3A825″ (Exp 01/31/10) = $759.99 with free shipping as well. Deals and more deals, how do we do it?

Watch for more deals in the weeks to come, and thanks for reading!

OLED Sighting: Sony shows off new 24″ model at CES

OLED has been the promised land of HDTVs for awhile now, and Sony is taking it quite seriously based on reports at various blogs. They’re proudly displaying their 24.5-inch OLED television at CES with built-in (optional) 3D as well, and many writers have reportedly been blown away by the color and clarity of the picture, something we were both anticipating and expecting.

Sony was being hush-hush with prices or release dates for these babies, but personally we expect these before the end of the year, and it’ll make a nice jump from the 15″ OLEDs that are available (rarely) on the market right now.

Watch for this one in the near future.

Wide Open Spaces: Sony and Panasonic try to expand storage on Blu-Ray discs even further

Seething at only 25GB per layer on a Blu-ray disc for storage? Not enough for your HD pleasure? It’s appearing Sony and Panasonic agree with you, and have been busy working on ways to boost capacity on discs in a never-ending quest for more, more, more that seems to be the normal operating procedure for tech companies nowadays.

They’ve come up with a way to perhaps do so (not a surprise) called Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation (or i-MLSE — the “i’ is just because its cool to put i in front of things these days, it seems), which is a way to avoid and predict the way discs are read to prevent errors, which in turn allows for more space on the discs themselves.  You’d have to be an engineer to understand it, we’d guess.

Sony and Panasonic are saying the ultimate payoff is that this method may allow up to 33.4 GB per layer, and it may only require a firmware update to allow the feature to work on current Blu-Ray players. Rollout hasn’t been given any sort of date, but expect the technology on discs to begin appearing “soon”, according to both companies.

HD Pie: Sony grabs a piece of new Sharp LCD manufacturing plant

As planned and reported among insider HDTV blogs and mags, Sony has grabbed up a small piece of Sharp’s new 10g LCD plant built a year or so ago, which should allow Sony to grow its manufacturing muscle for LCD panels quite a bit in the next few years.

For now its small piece only equates to about 7%, but will jump to 34% by April 2011 or so, and other companies are expected to bid for space in the highly-regarded plant over the coming year or so, so expect a good number of HDTV units to originate from the Sakai City facility.

Companies rumored to bid on a piece of the pie: Samsung and Panasonic, as well as possibly LG. Times are good for HDTV companies (and consumers), indeed.

BRAVIA HDTV Update: Sony gets Netflix streaming

Own a fancy Sony BRAVIA HDTV, but still don’t have Netflix streaming on it? Well, the wait is over according to a number of sources, as Netflix streaming has now been released for the Sony line of HDTVs.

The net-connected Sony Bravia finally got the much-awaited upgrade via the latest software update. Bear in mind this was promised back in July, so many owners of these models are probably (rightfully) pretty peeved at a 4 month delay, but as the old saying goes, better late than never.

The PS3 still requires a special CD to be sent from Netflix to update those machines to use the streaming feature, which seems a little unfair to some, but again, better to have the ability than not.

Leaked Info: Sony has some OLED goodness up its sleeve

Sony has some plans for a new OLED television, but be ready to pay through the nose, it appears.

Pictured are some ‘leaked’ Sony documents are showing a new “KDL-ZX Series OLED” on the 2010 / 2011 schedule/roadmap, enough to make any HDTV fan’s pulse quicken. All these on here are prototypes, reportedly, so their chances for making it to market are up in the air.

But with Sony’s 2-year old 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TV now made to look midget-like by LG’s new 15-inch OLED TV we reported about and a new 20″ OLED projected for 2010, Sony realized they needed to step on the gas pedal a bit with development, lest they be beaten in their own backyard.

Lots of new TV models abound in the document, including a planned 60″ 240Hz model coming possibly next year and UV2A technology which has us pretty excited.

The Latest Vizio Legal Scuffle: A settlement with Sony

Boy, Vizio seems to attract the legal battles like few others companies in recent memory (besides Apple). The very latest involves Sony and has a happy ending: they’ve settled for who knows how much money and promises made, but a settlement is a good thing for both companies in this case. Usually its Vizio doing the suing as we reported a few months back regarding their feud with Funai.

Vizio was sued by Sony in October 2008 for using patented Sony technologies, and the two went back and forth for awhile until reaching this latest settlement.

Press release from Vizio: Link

A spokesman for Sony contacted several blogs regarding this issue, and was quoted as saying:

In October 2008, Sony filed a litigation against Vizio in the Federal District Court for the Central District of California for infringement of fourteen of Sony’s patents related to color televisions and PC monitors. The parties have now settled all current patent litigation between them, with Vizio becoming a paying licensee under Sony’s patents for color televisions and PC monitors. Additionally, under the settlement, during its term, Sony will be licensed under any patents that Vizio purchased this year related to color televisions, as well as any they may own in the future that are related to color televisions or PC monitors.

Hopefully, Vizio can stay out of court for awhile and continue making solid TVs at affordable prices.

Opinion: What’s the best Blu-Ray player out there?

Since we assume many of our HD loving brethren watch their movies on Blu-Ray, we’re wondering: What’s the best option for a blu-ray player out there right now?

Yes, the Sony PS3 includes a BR player along with being able to play games, but ya know, it doesn’t include all the extra stuff that BR is really known for, and has been known not to perform as well as stand alone players. So what company/model offers the very best that BR has to offer? LG, Sony, Pioneer? All have their supporters and upsides, but we’d love to hear from you, our readers. What model do you like and why?

We look forward to hearing from all of you.

Thursday’s HDTV Deals

We always enjoy a great deal, so we’re pleased to bring back our now infamous HDTV offers and specials:

BuyDig.com – Combo TVs are popular, so this one is a no-brainer: The Toshiba 15LV506 15” LCD TV With DVD player built-in for $229.00 – with free shipping. Great price on a nice unit for any room of the house not currently blessed with a flat-panel.

Amazon.com – Sony makes some of the better TVs out there, and this is a steal for the reviews and type of unit this is: the Sony KDL52Z5100 52” Bravia Series LCD HDTV for $1681.98 – with free shipping available. Amazon strikes again with nice HDTV offers!

Thanks for joining us, and keep an eye on this site for more deals in the days to come.

Related to HD: Sony PS3 recent 3.01 Update Kills Blu-Ray (For Some)

The minor 3.01 firmware update for the PS3 was released, and now there’s over 800 posts about it? What could cause that amount of uproar?  Perhaps the fact that (for some) it has killed their ability to play back Blu-Ray discs; that would make me as an HD lover pretty darn upset.

Updates are sometimes known to break as many things as they fix, and this is a case in point, it seems.

A pretty wide number of users are saying that Blu-Ray playback has been choppy or reduced to none by the recent 3.0 update, and they’re angry, as well they should be. Sony has been slowly building their rep back up again, only to have this sort of thing happen.

Not everyone is reporting the issues, but enough so that Sony has to do something, and quick, it seems. Hopefully, another patch will be released that will solve this issue and quiet the storm.

Sunday’s Satisfying HDTV Deals

We chose a nice, relaxing title for today’s HDTV offers, so let’s get down to it:

BestBuy - A nice deal, especially for the size: the Dynex 32” 720p LCD HDTV for $329.99 with free in-store pickup included. A 32″ for that price; unbelievable.

Dell Home – Dell sometimes has very nice deals on fancier TVs and here we go once again: the Sony 52” Bravia Series LCD HD Television for $2299.00 – $700 discount = $1599.00 with free shipping as well. Good price for a very popular, well-reviewed TV.

Thanks for reading and see you on the flip side!

Explosion: LED HDTV makers growing in numbers

It seems LED HDTV technology is starting to catch on with TV makers; four companies have now announced plans to release their own models in the next 3 months or so.

The companies: Sharp, LG, Sony and JVC, all strong market players in one area or another, and all vieing for a piece of a (relatively) small pie at the moment. Prices are pretty high right now (mostly 2-3K range) for mainstream consumption, but its only a matter of time, like any other technology.

More about the models themselves in this article from ZDNET, including the 32″ Sharp LED model coming for only $1,099.

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