Portable HDTV: Updates and Tragedies

Portable HDTV in general is a decent idea, but it never really caught on in the States for some reason. Maybe price, features, lack of channels, whatever the reason. It also seems to discourage companies from bringing newer HDTVs you can take with you stateside, needless to say.

so we’re left wishing for new offerings like the Panasonic DMP-HV100 and DMP-BV200, recently announced and ready to roll soon. Both are 10.1-inch HD sets that have 1024 x 600 resolutions (great for carrying along in the car with you) and, while either can tune DTV OTA, they can also connect wirelessly (with an WiFi dongle connected) to a Panasonic DVR and stream content to the screen.

The 200 model can also act as a sort of large PMP, playing back a variety of media formats from an SD card, so it has several uses, which we always like. No release date or prices announced, but sadly, for now no US release is planned. It’s sad indeed we may never see models like this in a US store, so let companies know if you want to see things like this here!

Caveat Emptor: Best Buy’s “bundle” isn’t always a great deal

It’s no shock that Best Buy is wanting customers to grab up Samsung’s 3D HDTV and its Blu-ray player together (they go together like peanut butter and jelly, sorta), but buyers in the know should make sure they’re really saving money before they plunk down their wallet.

Next week’s ad does feature the UN55C7000 at a decent price that happens to be $300 lower than the MSRP, and grabbing the display and player all at once gets a free Starter Pack throw in with two pairs of 3D glasses and the Monsters vs. Aliens Blu-Ray too, so at first glance it appears to be a very nice offer.

Now look at the $3,419 package at the lower right and its “$780″ claimed savings. Now that deal includes their $150 Geek Squad install to set up the TV and its little goodies. If you’re an experienced HDTV person, and don’t want to pay for Best Buy’s “extras”, feel free to skip this and set up your own TV. More money for more blu-ray discs and glasses, we say.

So make sure to read all the fine print on any HDTV bundle, to make sure you don’t get taken advantage of.

Legal News: Dell sues 5 companies over LCD price-fixing

Looks like Dell is jumping into the legal ring, and many in the industry are celebrating the PC giant’s guts, even if they’re predicting it will be a long battle with few real victors. We’ve covered court related joy before here at SS, but this one may be huge.

The company has filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco court today against four LCD makers – Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Seiko Epson – and Taiwan-based HannStar as well. The crime they’re accusing the companies of, you may ask? The much-chronicled, much-discussed and reviled LCD price fixing scandal.

At least two of the companies mentioned (Sharp and Hitachi) have already come out and admitted involvement and paid fines in other cases, so it doesn’t appear they have a big defense really. We’ll keep an eye on this as it develops.

Cheap 1080p: Blu-Ray player selling for $70 at Target

We knew it would happen, and now it has: A Philips Blu-Ray player is now selling for under $70 at Target stores. That’s cheaper than some DVD players right now, and its a bargain for easy entry into the world of 1080p HD glory. Maybe pair it with one of these fine TVs?

For those 70 schillings you’ll be getting DivX support, a SDHC card reader, BD Live, and HDMI CEC convenience. While a quick search returns a group of mixed reviews (image quality is only ok), for $70 are you really going to complain too much? We didn’t think so.

It seems Blu-Ray is making inroads to becoming cheap enough for everyone to consider owning. And to think a year ago, players were still averaging around the $300 mark or so…makes you wonder how sane early adopters really are.

First Shot: 3D Blu-Ray disc to be released in April

Now we finally have the first of (hopefully) many, for those who have invested in this 3D trend: the very first HD Blu-Ray 3D disc will be released in April, it looks like.

Fox said in a statement last week that it will release Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on 3D Blu-ray,  making it the first 3D release to be officially put onto shelves. Fox further said that the 3-D edition of Ice Age will be a free gift to anyone who buys the 50″ Panasonic 3D HDTV and 3-D Blu-ray player together, which retails for a combined price of $2,900, so some sort of two-digit free gift should be the least of what’s offered.

Fox did not announce any sort of price range for the 3D disc. Probably $30-40 would be about right; any more than that would definitely keep some away for awhile.

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.

Promo Shot: The Samsung 3D HDTV gets its 15 minutes at the Oscars

If you’re sick of the coverage we’ve been giving 3D HDTVs of late, then you may want to skip this post.

The iPad ad was in annoyingly heavy rotation during the Academy Awards telecast, but if you looked closely (or even not so closely), you could barely get through a commercial break without seeing the Samsung ad for its new 3D LED HDTV’s. It was shown at least a dozen times, and we’re sure if people didn’t know about HD and 3D before, they sure do now. We reported this one being on sale a bit ago.

To be honest, we’re still in a wait and see stance with HD and 3D and how popular it will really become, but it seems companies are willing to throw some money behind it, which could be a sign of trends to come.

If you somehow missed it, you can see it here: Link

The Untruth: DirecTV, HD and “fudging” the numbers

It seems like DirecTV just keeps digging themselves a bigger hole. They’re already rated ‘F’ at the BBB for various violations of conduct, advertising and charging customers without their permission with sneaky contract terms, but now they’re not being altogether truthful about the content of their HD.

From TVpredictions.com:

But now DIRECTV has outdone itself. In the March/April issue of AAA Magazine, the satcaster has a four page ad promoting its service. The ad features a chart comparing its benefits to Dish and cable TV operators.

In the chart, DIRECTV says that “most” of its movies are in 1080p and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.
That’s right. The chart asks if DIRECTV, Dish and cable have “most movies in 1080p and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.” Under the DIRECTV header, the answer is ‘Yes.” Under Dish and cable, the answer is “No.”

However, sitting next to the ‘1080p’ type in the chart is a little number “1,” which means that the statement has a footnote somewhere in the ad. And if you look at the bottom of page two of the ad, the ‘number 1′ footnote says: “Limited PPV titles available in 1080p.” Limited PPV titles doesn’t sound like “most movies,” does it? Yes, that’s right. DIRECTV is contradicting its own claim in its own ad! However, the footnote is on a different page than the chart — and the footnote is in print so small that you almost need a magnifying glass to read it.

What a creative way to make yourself look good – and bad – in the same ad. The world of HDTV isn’t always a pretty one. Won’t make you this angry, but still…it would be nice if the company could compete without ad trickery.

Special Specs: HDMI 1.4a standard fully detailed, now with 3D

The new HDMI spec needed some tweaking to ease standards and compatibility with old players and boxes was a given, and today all the skinny was released to all HDMI followers and companies. We last reported on this here.

The new standard includes special blu-ray compatibility stuff, along with implementation of Full HDTV 3D in the mix as well. We’re quite pleased to see the standard growing and developing with the times, even if it may mean a new round of firmware updates, fixes and equipment upgrades, in some cases. The HDTV world craves growth and expansion.

HDMI has all the latest details and nerdy numbers in their press release, for those of us (you know who you are) who enjoy that sort of thing right here: Link

They’re Coming: Latest Blu-Ray players begin invading retail stores

Are you someone that always gets the very latest and greatest of the electronics stuff? Then you’re probably the sort that would want to know that the latest versions of Blu-Ray players from LG, Samsung and Panasonic have begun showing up in stores now, and their features are most speed and internet connectability.

Once again, Best Buy is in the middle of the chaos, with many of the new models showing up on their shelves first. These models include:  the BD590, BD570 and BD550 from LG, the DMP-BD85 and DMP-BD65 from Panasonic, and the BD-C6500 from Samsung (Sammy plans on more down the road, admittedly). The specs, features and play speed are top-notch (they’re finally getting it right after a few generations now), and the prices are as low as they’ve been yet.

See here for more details regarding the models: Link

OLED Update: LG to release 15″ model to limited stores in May

Critics at CES and other spots have raved about the prief looks they’ve had at LG’s upcoming OLED HDTV models, and perhaps it’s time for all of the drooling, envy and hoping to come to an end: it’s coming. Soon. Now that the Sony OLED is dead, this will take its place, no doubt.

The deep-pocketed among us humans won’t have to wait much longer to sate the need for an astounding 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 0.001ms response time (yes, that is not a typo).

LG has officially announced it’ll be releasing it’s 15-inch OLED panel into spots in Europe this May (with mid-summer availability projected in the US). As expected, it won’t be cheap: $2,725 USD in Austria, with around that much projected on US shores. Cutting edge ain’t cheap, as many who live there know already.

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.

Battle Royale #2: Samsung vs. Vizio for HDTV sales supremecy

It’s official: Samsung is the leading flat-panel seller in the US, according to a new study from research firm iSuppli, which tracks these kind of numbers. Vizio remains the #1 HDTV LCD seller in the US as well, which should be no great shock. Their partnership with various discount stores like Wal-Mart would easily net them this honor.

Samsung led in overall sales because it makes both Plasma and LCD flat-panel TVs, obviously, and their quality has greatly improved over the last year or two. iSuppli stated all flat-panel TV sales grabbed a 23 percent market share in 2009.

The numbers: Samsung had a 18.4 percent market share while Vizio was second with 16.8%. Bad news for Sony though: their market share dropped from 12.8% to 10.3%, a pretty sizable drop (probably mainly due to higher price).

The Battle Royale: 3D Monitors – Acer or Alienware?

3D isn’t for everyone and can be an acquired taste, but if you’ve got your heart set on jumping that bandwagon and need to have your HD monitor be a 3D one, there’s a battle brewing, and its Acer vs. Alienware HD monitors going head to head in this new review from  Tom’s Guide, well known purveyors of all things HD.

The two 23″ 3D displays from Acer (GD235HZ) and Alienware (OptX AW2310) were compared side by side, and reviewed to determine the best gaming experience. We reported on an early big 3D model before, now comes the smaller version.

After some notes about the need for a pretty high end system to run 3D games (no, that 7-year old desktop in the garage probably won’t do the job) — and then they delve right into some righteous benchmarking and real world testing of the two HD panels.

The price is a big factor, with the Acer costing $399 and the Alienware going for a steeper $469, but the review seems to indicate the price premium is well worth it. Feel free to read more about the review right here: Link

Moving Up: Mitsubishi upscaling technology makes 1080p obsolete

According to various trade reports, Mitsubishi has reached new heights with their upscaling technology, but as usual, there’s a catch.

First the good part: this new tech can be take vanilla 1080p material to 4K x 2K without breaking a sweat at all. This is huge (or could be) in the industry for the future, and will generate stunning picture on Mitsu TVs in the very near future, no doubt.

Now the less than great news: for some undisclosed reason, it does not work with Blu-Ray tech. Now that’s a crying shame, and the other downside being the rather high prices that this technology will command when its released. Hopefully though, this will lead to greater advances in upscaling technology in general over the next few years.

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.

World of HDTV Potpourri Post

Here’s a few notes from the world of HDTV to take heed of on this fine Monday:

• There’s no doubt that the choices and amount of HD programming is increasing quite a bit, and TVpredictions.com has published its recommended list of HDTV shows to look out for. On there is of course the Winter Olympics, broadcast in HD all the way through for the first time ever. We second the recommendations on House and Men of a Certain Age, both very good shows. Go here to see the whole list.
• We’ve heard of big TVs at low prices, but how about this monstrous beauty from Mitsubishi? If you can stand DLP (and its developed quite a bit from its beginnings, being pretty sharp and nice-looking these days), this 73″ behomoth could be just the ticket, and at an amazing price to boot.
• It’s begun – Amazon has over 200 Blu-Ray titles for $10 or under, and this could be just the beginning really. It’s nice to see companies stepping up and making BR affordable, so us HDTV fans can have our favs in 1080p.

Thanks for reading, and have a fine Monday!

HDTV Rampage: Shopper takes out his rage on 29 TVs at Wal-Mart

We’ve heard of HDTV inspiring passion, venom, rumor and excitement. But…destructive rage? Perhaps this is a new one, but here’s a rather interesting story that crossed our paths and we just had to report it in the interest of humor. We’re all about the human condition on SS.

For no known reason at all (the accused is pleading the Fifth, for some strange purpose), Westley Strellis entered a Walmart near Atlanta yesterday, where he took a bat from the sporting goods area and then destroyed the screens of 29 HDTVs. He gave up after and was arrested, and will be charged with 29 counts of criminal damage to property in the second degree, totaling over $22,000 worth of stuff. Talk about a bad day, folks.

Maybe he wanted to watch the Super Bowl in HD, and couldn’t afford it, so no one else could do it either?

Here’s the video for your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss68YWoihqs&feature=player_embedded

Panasonic Dust-Up: Black Levels shifting + “Nothing to fix”

It seems many Panasonic plasma HDTV owners are taking umbrage to the shifting (read: better) black levels on more recent models of theirViera line. First, going 3D, now this?

Owners are wanting more details on the “automatic control” and in an email exchange with CNET recently, the company revealed more about this slight fallout.

Those lucky Panny owners hoping for a  patch or action in response to the changes will be pretty annoyed, as VP Bob Perry says, “there’s nothing to fix.” They reserve the right to add or change adjustments to these levels as they see fit pretty much, and said they claim “trade secrets” as to why they can’t speak about it too much. Yes, its a bit of a cop out, but companies and software improves and patches all the time with little notice, so we can’t exactly be outraged. Improved control and black levels are a good thing.

He did offer the Viera Concierge Program as a peace offering, though, so watch for that soon.

Hotel Blues No Longer: HD expansion coming to many hotel chains

Staying in a hotel room these days can be fun, if you get a nice flat panel HDTV to watch. Sadly though, many of these units are HD capable, but don’t have HD programming being piped into them, at which point having a HD flat panel loses its point. There may be some changes on the way, however, keeping blurry SD shows from being our only option.

USA Today explores the issue, reporting that execs from Marriott, Holiday Inn & Crowne Plaza hotels (and Hilton as well) stating their plans to grow and add HD services over the next year or so, with many rollouts expected to be be completed by the end of the year, give or take.

It will certainly make any lonely nights spent on business at a motel a much more pleasurable experience to look forward to.

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