Big Time: LG shows off OLED 31″ Prototype, blows minds

We all love OLED and its potential, but so far, its expensive and not even close to mainstream really. OLED’s failure to do anything in the mainstream isn’t a big deal, as LCD has gotten slim enough that it hardly matters in terms of reduced size. Picture quality will improve no doubt, and its nice to see some companies stepping forward with early support for the technology. LG is just such a company.

So in a twist of oddness, LG has stolen its own OLED thunder on the TV circuit lately. In line with earlier rumors we reported, it will be showing off a 0.11-inch thick 31-inch 3D OLED display prototype at the IFA get-together this week, but that poor little OLED demo will be sharing a booth with a ready for retail 0.35-inch thick LCD that comes in big time sizes above 30″, so it may not be the darling of the show many thought it might be.

Still, here’s to hoping this OLED breakthrough speeds along the transition to retail all the more quickly.

Seeing the Light: LG to release a new HDTV with ‘Nano LED’ feature

LG is one of our fav companies out there now in the HDTV world, and now they’re releasing a HDTV model with some cool sounding new tech that should serve to make HDTV more fun and brighter to watch, it seems. Read on to see more details:

Now that LED backlighting has trickled down to nearly every HDTV lineup, it appears the big manufacturers will have to find new ways to differentiate their products, like LG’s upcoming LEX8 television. Set to debut at IFA in Berlin before going on sale in Germany and Korea next month (no word on the US), LG claims that thanks to a ‘thin film of miniscule dots positioned in front of a full array of LEDs’ its Nano Lighting technology — perhaps of the Nanosys variety it licensed earlier this year — makes for a clearer, smoother picture, with the slimmest and narrowest outline of any LED TV, ever, at just .88cm thick with a 1.25cm bezel.

Prices/exact availability hasn’t been released yet, but we aren’t expecting super soon – or super cheap.

Mid-Range Joy: Sony announces new middle of the road 3D HDTV choices

We all love a good deal, but some like their prices squarely in the middle. Not too expensive, but not the bottom of the line either. Sony is happy to oblige apparently, as they have announced new 3D HDTV choices that should be more wallet pleasing. Read onward:

Sony’s finally taken the wraps off its latest televisions for the US market, carrying the NX810 model number. Available in 60-, 55- and 46-inch sizes next month, these give a 3D spec bump (and around a $200 premium on the MSRP) to the existing NX800 series of Edge LED lit HDTVs that came out earlier this year. Like the NX800, these feature a slick monolith design, built-in WiFi, widgets and an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the picture in changing room conditions, but other than the 3D-readiness (and coupons for free Blu-ray 3D movies and PSN games, though it looks like you’ll have to pay for the glasses on your own) it’s hard to find any differences on paper.

Good stuff, lower prices are something we can always agree on.

Loaded and Ready: Mitsu launches new 3D HDTV line in Japan

Mitsubishi Japan has stepped up as a serious player in the 3D HDTV arena it seems. Mitsu announced 3 brand new, full HDTVs for your home theater pleasure, and they look pretty loaded for bear, even if they certainly aren’t cheap at all.

Much like the Panasonics that got unleashed recently (and a strong new trend in HDTVs), all three have the ability to record to their hard drives or Blu-ray. We like the new feature, even if we aren’t huge fans of the increased price tag that comes with it usually.

Spec-wise, they’ve got full 1080p HD, backlit LCDs, 1TB HDD built-in, a ten speaker Diatone system for pretty good sound, USB and SD slots, and HDMI slots. The sets, which come in 40, 46, and 55-inches, also come with a pair of 3D glasses included for 3D joy.

They’ll be available in Japan in early October (to follow on other shores we’re sure at some point) for around $3,500, $4,700 and $5,900 (!!), respectively. Those price points might keep some away, but the HDTV fan with deep pockets may have found something to follow closely.

Of Gadgets and Widgets: Vizio new loaded HDTVs ready to ship out

Vizio is seriously getting into the internet widgets game with their upcoming XVT line of HDTV units, it appears. Here’s the skinny:

This year’s iteration of VIZIO’s top of the line XVT LCDs (at least until the XVT3D — née XVT Pro — series hits in Q4) are finally ready to ship and, as we’ve come to expect, pack a long list of features to go along with their price tags. The 240Hz 42-, 47-, and 55-inch versions all feature LED backlighting, which may be ready to beat criticisms of light black levels with a claimed 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Whether or not you believe any TV manufacturer’s contrast measurements, an increased 120 zones of backlighting (up from 80 last year, up to 160 from 120 on the 47-inch) and a profile that’s 2 inches slimmer (down to just 3 inches deep) this time around should be easily noticeable. The 37- and 32-inch XVT models rely on the company’s edge lit Razor LED lighting tech and are less than 2 inches this, with stated 1,000,000:1 contrast ratios.

Prices will start around the $699 mark, which isn’t dirt cheap but pretty good for this amount of features and interactivity (not to mention specs). It’ll be interesting to see how far this sort of thing develops in the future.

Hi-Def News: LG showing off 31″ OLED HDTV at IFA 2010

It seems LG is doing some very cool stuff with OLED these days, if a recent exhibition at IFA 2010 is to be believed. Pictures are worth a thousand words as they say, and here’s the proof, as you can see. Read on, via Engadget HD coverage:

We’ve been tracking LG OLED TV production rumors for nearly as long as Bieber’s been alive, and recently got wind that their ultra-thin 7mm LED TV would be appearing at IFA this year, but now more news has materialized. According to OLED-Display, the company plans to show a new 31-inch OLED television prototype in addition to confidence-compensating 72-inch 3D LED TV. Sadly, other critical details like resolution and pricing are nowhere to be found, but considering the company’s 15-inch EL9500 OLED — which we’re still waiting for stateside — is selling for close to $2,400 in the UK, it’s fair to assume a model double in size will be a Kanye-level extravagance. Seeing a larger OLED example before 2011 though will be a step in the right direction for LG, and appears to fall in line with the company’s own rollout predictions.

We’ll keep an eye on these developments as they are released. The possibility of larger OLEDs sets us to dreaming, indeed.

Panny’s New Move: New line of HDTVs with 2D-3D conversion

It seems 3D, in some form or another, is here to stay. And Panasonic is advancing the technology with the first line of HDTV products with 2D to 3D conversion included. Not cheap, but here’s the quick rundown from Engadget:

If you thought you could crawl in a corner and wait for this 3D onslaught to pass, you may be camped out for some time to come. Panasonic is following up on its CES introductions with a new pair of 3D plasmas for the gaming set, the Viera 3D GT25 range. Said series is debuting with a pair to choose from, the 50-inch TC-P50GT25 and the 42-inch TC-P42G25. The latter is Panny’s first-ever 42-inch Full HD 3D plasma, and as you’d expect, both of these guys will require active shutter glasses in order to operate. As for specs? You’re looking at a 1080p panel, 600Hz sub-field drive, 24p playback and (a company first) 2D-to-3D conversion that may or may not be the answer to all of life’s problems.

We like the approach, even if Sony and several other companies are planning similar products. Prices will start around the $1,700 USD mark or so.

Super High-Def: 2K monitor from Dell ready to drop soon

It appears Dell is moving into the super hi-def 2K monitor race, with the recent announcement of their newest model in China to jump into the 2K display market. More details from Engadget here:

As one company moves out of the 30-inch display race, another looks set to step back into it. Dell’s unannounced, but seemingly all too real UltraSharp U3011 has been snapped over in China, and we’re being told it’ll offer a formidable 2,560 x 1,600 resolution while maintaining the styling of the smaller U2711. TFT Central reports it’ll be a 10-bit H-IPS panel from LG Display, bearing a 7ms response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 370 nits of brightness (ahem, overkill), and 178-degree viewing angles on both the horizontal and vertical axis. HDMI and DVI connections come in packs of two, accompanied by a lone DisplayPort.

It seems these displays are on the rise with many expert graphic designers, and should be seeing more shores within the year or so.

Update: Samsung releases new dual purpose HDTV

Samsung is known for updating its offerings pretty quickly much of the time, and now they’ve done it again with their latest release:

Samsung’s updating its SyncMaster monitors today with the new premium LED backlit 90 series. Most notable is the 24-inch FX2490HD model with integrated TV tuner and inputs in the form of 2x HDMI, D-Sub, and even SCART for Europe — sorry, no mention of DVI or DisplayPort that we can find. The panel itself sports a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, 5ms response, 1,000:1 contrast, and 250 nits of brightness. Akihabara News adds a few details such as PiP support, a jack for viewing media direct from USB sticks, and support for 7.1 channel Dolby Digital and DTS audio.

It should arrive in the US and Europe as early as this month for around $540 or so.

Cheaper is Still Good: Samsung 3D HDTV for under $1,000?

Looks like Samsung’s 3D Blu-ray players aren’t the only ones coming in less expensive versions, as it’s announced plans for a new 680 Series and 490 Series plasma HDTVs, and these could signal a change or shift in the 3D pricing strategy, long considered a lot more expensive than comparable 2D units.

Both were displayed in Korea yesterday, though the US website only features a page for only the 50-inch PN50C680 up until now, boasting its 1080p specs and DLNA access for users to drool over. You will give up a few features typical of higher end plasmas, which add picture-in-picture, a higher contrast ratio and slimmer design to the feature list.

The PN50C490’s setup isn’t as clear, but popular HDTV blog FlatpanelsHD reports it will be the very first 720p 3DTV of this generation. With current series 4 plasmas selling for around $700 or so, it could also be the first flat 3D set to crack the $1,000 barrier at a estimated MSRP of  $1,099, meaning many vendors will sell them under that, more than likely — if the 720p doesn’t bother you (may not at these price points).

Product News (aka We Were Wrong): GPNC to release Android HDTV

Remember in April we reported a bit about Android and its future in TVs, and that South Korean manufacturer GPNC would soon be releasing TVs running Android 1.5 built-in? Yep, sure you do. We were skeptical that the TVs would ever come to market, honestly. Well, it appears our crystal ball was on the fritz that day.

It seems the company has now officially announced the launch of an Google-powered TV code named Smartroi, and it’ll be on shelves (in Asian countries anyway) starting in a few weeks or so.

Other hard specs: The TV will be sold in Korea at first and will be a 42″ Full HDTV LED backlit screen, sport a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 500cd/m² brightness, and USB connectivity too. No real hard details on what version of Android will ship with the unit, but support for OS upgrades in the future has been hinted at, so it’ll at least be upgradeable.

Criterion BR Classics: Seven Samurai, others on the way

Criterion was once quite famous for their impeccable transfers of classic and modern films with tons of special features, and now they’ve caught the HD Blu-Ray fever it seems. Seven Samurai, the classic film, is on its way, along with others. Witness this blurb:

It hasn’t been that long since Criterion collection started shipping its classics on Blu-ray, and one of the most recently announced movies on the way is Akira Kurosawa’s classic, Seven Samurai. A flick which should need no introduction, it will get a three disc set when it arrives October 19 with a $49.95 MSRP, while we’ll have to wait for more specs and features, there will also be a few other incredible movies like The Magician, Paths of Glory, House and The Darjeeling Limited arriving around the same time, so make your preorder choices wisely.

We like the trend, and look forward to more Criterion masters down the road on Blu-Ray.

Blu-Ray Goodness: Aliens Anthology shows us what BR can do

Now the Aliens saga of movies showed us what moviemaking was all about, and now HD Blu-Ray is prepared to show us what a movie collection can be as well, with the jumbo sized, ultra-cool Aliens Anthology BR set coming soon to a home theater near you. We’ve covered new BR releases before if they’re noteworthy, and this one is for sure.

It will include a lofty $139.99 SRP (but how about Amazon for preordering at a more reasonable $98 right now), it will fill six discs with more than 12,000 images and 60 hours of special footage including everything from the earlier Quadrilogy and LaserDisc releases too, so you will miss out on nothing at all.

Disc five is all about the making of each film, while disc six holds a treasure trove of production info and featurettes from each movie, so you’ll get the full skinny on all 4 movies, which is the ultimate high for any Aliens fan.

Bundle Action: LG getting in on the 3D package act

We reported about Sony offering their 3D bundles recently, now according to recent reports LG is getting in on the bundle action as well with their upcoming release.

Announced just today, the “1-2-3D” bundle (as its referred to) applies to all who purchase a LX9500 or LX6500 series Infinia LCD TV and LG Blu-ray 3D unit, and includes two pairs of glasses in the package as well, PLUS an instant $100 rebate and coupon for the IMAX Under the Sea 3D Blu-ray 3D disc to come with the package to round it out. It’s still not cheap, but a lot cheaper than all of these individually.

The bundle pricing is pretty much equivalent to Samsung’s package bundle, so it really comes down to which 3DTV or player you prefer, or even as basic as a question as comparing getting Monsters vs. Aliens or this IMAX film, whichever way your preferences swing.

Playback HD: The CinemaGo BV-5005HD Mini CG

Here’s some interesting news if a really cool and versatile HD media player built for a variety of file formats is something you’d like to look at:

Brite-View’s CinemaTube may have sufficed just fine for your home entertainment needs last year, but there’s nothing like a little “Special Edition” to really get the gears turning in 2010. Launched today, the CinemaGo BV-5005HD Mini CG is mostly a revamped version of the CinemaTube BV-5005HD, boasting an eSATA interface, USB 2.0 socket, inbuilt WiFi, a BitTorrent manager and access to MUZEE internet radio channels. As you’d expect, the box is built to handle 1080p output and a cornucopia of file formats including MOV, WMV, MKV, AVI, VOB, DIVX, FLV and RMVB, and content can be delivered via locally attached hard drives or a home network / web connection. Best of all, the $149.99 MSRP is being trumped by a $109.99 pre-order price if you get in now, so really, you should probably get in now.

We like saving cash and getting a great HD media storage/player device like this into our homes to compliment that ultra-pricey HDTV set. We’ll report on it as we hear more. Go here to pre-order or see more details.

Titans Clash: 3D version of Blu-Ray included in Japan with Sharp HDTVs

Critically speaking, Clash of the Titans didn’t do that great, including its blah 3D conversion, seemingly done last minute to cash in on the 3D craze in theaters at the time. But Sharp apparently thinks the 3D HD Blu-Ray version is worth including with their HDTVs in Japan. Witness this Engadget blurb:

Sharp is promoting the movie alongside the 3D editions of its Quattron LCD HDTVs and, assuming our understanding of machine translated Japanese is correct, will be tossing in a copy gratis with purchases. At least in Japan, the 2D version of the blu-ray will be released august 25, with the 3D & 2D combo pack arriving October 6.

We think bundling Blu-ray with purchases is a good idea, we just aren’t sure bundling this particular one is a good idea. But at least Sharp is getting on the ball with some cool promotional ideas, which we always like seeing.

Return: Mitsubishi’s LaserVue HDTV makes its reappearance, and is 3D ready now

Remember when we covered the wonder that was Mitsu’s LaserVue HDTV a few years ago? Priced at $7K, sales weren’t super brisk really, but hey, it was amazing for its time. It seems based on recent announcements that Mitsubishi is re-introducing the product to the public, and this time its equipped for 3D. Read more here:

To that end, we’re downright elated to hear that the forgotten line has been revived for 2010, with an all new 75-inch model (L75-A91) being introduced for those who just can’t find a television big enough to fill their 8,000 square foot den. The behemoth measures in at 41.7- x 66.4- x 15-inches (so yeah, it’s still got some junk in the trunk), and as you’d expect, it’s fully 3D ready. Mistu’s 3D Starter Pack is being sold alongside of it, containing a 3D emitter, 3D Adapter with remote, an HDMI cable and a Blu-ray Disc with a collection of clips to really show off your new purchase. Other specs include web connectivity (StreamTV can hit up VUDU, Pandora, Flickr, Picasa and more), four HDMI-CEC inputs, a wired IR output, 1080p native resolution

The price, you ask? “Only” $5,999, and that does not include the $399 3D Starter Pack and $99 3D Adapter. And its not a tiny TV either, at 150+ pounds. But hey, with stats and features like the above and a dynamite picture, does anyone care?

Rainbow: Colorware brings a little color into your HDTV world

Yes, you’re an electronics genius, but you also enjoy keeping your home color coordinated and stylish as well (at least some of us do). Well, according to a recent announcement by Colorware, now they offer an option to help you do just that. No more plain black HDTV chassis for you.

Colorware started with handheld gadgets, and how they’re offering to sling some color onto an HDTV (model of your choice, no send-in requests, we’re afraid).

No price published (namely because there’s way too many models to quote anything solid), but anyone want to guess what these TVs would start at? We’re imagining dollar signs galore (they don’t do international, sadly) and plenty of them. The room pictured here demonstrates how cool it would be to have a palette matching HDTV in your living room, even if that couch looks mighty uncomfortable.

More details here on their site.

Roll Your Own: Sony releases 3D Blu-Ray mastering software

So you always wanted to make your own 3D BR discs, eh, with full 3D menus and everything? Use the same software the big boys use? We’ll, needless to say it won’t be cheap, but Sony has been gracious enough to release the 3D Blu-Ray mastering software and make it available to the public, sorta anyway. Read on to hear more:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray 3D doesn’t make its retail debut until next week, but you can get a taste of the tools used to make it right now, as Sony has announced the availability of its Blu-print 6 and Z Depth software packages. The latest version of Blu-print adds “Profile 5″ (read: 3D) authoring compliance to its list of features, integrating all the offset metadata for 3D menus and working with MVC encoded video, while adding a few non-3D features like new DTS-HD encoding support and Windows Vista 64-bit compatibility. Z Depth’s job is keeping subtitles properly aligned in 3D, just one of the new issues that need to be dealt with in these discs.

No announcement of the pricing, but the full private version started around 50K USD, so expect it to empty your wallet. It’s a nice application of the 3D HD format, let’s just hope some pundits assessment of the 3D format doesn’t come to pass.

8K Goodness: NHK Plasma prototype to change the playing field

That’s the thing about technology; it’s always advancing, never staying in place very long. Especially these days, it seems. An 8K Plasma HDTV screen, you say? There’s actually a working semi-prototype out there right now. Feel free to read:

NHK has been working on 33 megapixel, 8K Super Hi-Vision displays for quite some time now. As the story goes, in 2005 the group’s Science and Technology Labs estimated a necessary 0.3mm dot pitch for plasma screens in the 100-inch category to achieve the necessary 7,680 x 4,320 pixels for display. At the time, the best plasma could muster was 0.9mm, but now the researchers have created a prototype 58-inch screen with 0.33mm pixel pitch. Ergo, four such prototypes stacked together should create a 116-inch window to the world that just about displays 8K video.

No word on when this will be available in the marketplace, but hey, advances like this are worth waiting for. Kinda makes that 1080p seem sorta puny, doesn’t it?

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