LG's 84-inch UD 3D TV makes its formal IFA debut, Engadget goes hands-on

Engadget - Here's yet another 84-inch 4K TV, this time from LG. The company's 84LM9600 was announced last week and has already started shipping in Korea, but it's here at IFA and poised to hit the market worldwide. Priced at about $22,105, this display is big in every way. You get a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 -- four times the resolution of existing full HD panels -- and what LG calls "3D sound" thanks to 2.2 integrated channel speakers. 3D is courtesy of the company's passive glasses technology. So how does that all look?

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Insanely great plasma TV - Panasonic TC-P55ST50 review

Panasonic TC-P55ST50 review 

 

 CNET -

The good: The affordable Panasonic TC-PST50 series exhibited outstanding overall picture quality, characterized by exceedingly deep black levels with great shadow detail, accurate colors, and solid bright-room performance. Unlike LCDs, as a plasma it has superb off-angle and 
uniformity characteristics. The styling is attractive and the feature set well-chosen, including excellent onscreen help options.

The bad: The ST50 uses more power than competing LCD TVs, and doesn't perform as well in bright rooms as those with matte screens. It doesn't come with 3D glasses, and it showed more crosstalk in 3D than some competing TVs. The ST50 is only available in 50-inch and larger sizes. Three HDMI inputs is one fewer than most midrange TVs offer.

The bottom line: With flagship-level picture quality for a midlevel price, the Panasonic ST50 series sets the value standard among videophile-grade TVs.

 

Apple's plan to dominate all the screens in your home

Apple wants to own every screen in your home, including the TV. If it succeeds, you may never buy a non-Apple device again.

Apple has one more screen to conquer...

CNET - Apple wants every screen in your home to be an Apple screen. The company will be taking a giant leap toward accomplishing its goal at this year's WWDC.

In just a decade, Apple has become a dominant force in computers, tablets, and mobile. It has yet to make major inroads into the biggest screen of them all: the television.

Sure, there's Apple TV, but it has been a "hobby" for the company. Last year, 2.8 million units of the device were sold, and 2.7 million units have been sold so far this year. Though that's impressive, it's a far cry from the company's iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod sales.   More

Hottest new and upcoming HDTVs

Cheap and cheerful, the ST30 was without a doubt the best bang-for-buck TV in 2011 and we’re expecting big things from the follow-up. The TV is shipping now, and you can look forward to seeing the full review very soon.

The good: The affordable Panasonic TC-PST50 series exhibited outstanding overall picture quality, characterized by exceedingly deep black levels with great shadow detail, accurate colors, and solid bright-room performance. Unlike LCDs, as a plasma it has superb off-angle and uniformity characteristics. The styling is attractive and the feature set well-chosen, including excellent onscreen help options.

The bad: The ST50 uses more power than competing LCD TVs, and doesn’t perform as well in bright rooms as those with matte screens. It doesn’t include 3D glasses, and 3D picture quality showed more crosstalk than many competitors’ models. The ST50 is only available in 50-inch and larger sizes. Three HDMI inputs is one fewer than most midrange TVs offer.

The bottom line: With flagship-level picture quality for a midlevel price, the Panasonic ST50 series sets the value standard among videophile-grade TVs.

Read CNET’s Full Review





Speaking of “full review” and “bang for the buck,” this Sharp has both. It served to introduce our new “Value” score with an excellent score of 8. No, it’s not going to reach the picture quality or features scores seen on the other TVs we’re previewing, but we doubt most of them will hit its value.

The good: The relatively inexpensive Sharp LC-LE640U series delivers accurate color thanks to ample picture controls, as well as a matte screen that works well in bright rooms. Its feature set hits all of the right notes for the price, including excellent help and support options, built-in Wi-Fi, and a remote with three programmable keys to easily access favorite apps. I appreciated its understated styling, especially with such a large screen.

The bad: I noted lighter black levels and uneven lighting across the screen, both especially obvious in dark scenes under home theater lighting. The Sharp also failed to properly handle film-based (1080p/24) sources, causing slight stutter in certain scenes.

The bottom line: With decent picture quality and great pricing, the Sharp LC-LE640U series makes a strong case for mainstream TV shoppers who want to go bigger.

Read CNET’s Full Review





The Samsung E8000 is the follow-up to last year’s excellent D8000 plasma, and Samsung promises that this model has even better picture quality. Look out for enhanced features such as Smart Interaction with built-in Skypeing and gesture control.

The good: The Samsung PNE8000 series exhibited outstanding overall picture quality, characterized by exceedingly deep black levels, accurate colors, superb video processing, and very good 3D. Unlike LCDs, as a plasma TV it has superb off-angle and uniformity characteristics. Its massive feature set includes a touch-pad remote, IR blaster, two pairs of 3D glasses, motion and voice command, and the industry’s most capable Smart TV platform. This Samsung is also one of the best plasma designs around.

The bad: Samsung charges too much for extra features that are largely unnecessary and poorly implemented. Its picture delivers slightly worse shadow detail and bright-room performance than some competitive plasmas, and its maximum light output is somewhat dim.

The bottom line: The expensive Samsung PNE8000 series comes through with stellar picture quality, but its main appeal is to people who crave the latest gadgetry in their plasma TV.

Read CNET’s Full Review

See the Rest of the Reviews!

Intel’s Rumored TV Plan: We Know How This One Ends

 

Intel A Player In TV? History Says No

 

Intel is arguably the most efficient, most advanced manufacturer in the world and one of the most sophisticated companies when it comes to bringing cutting-edge technology to the mass market.

It just isn’t very good at branching out.

The Santa Clara-based chipmakers inability to move into new markets has come up again amid rumors that it is working on services to provide TV programs over the Internet.

“The chip maker envisions the service as a bundle of television channels akin to the packages provided by cable and satellite television providers, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions, who did not want to be identified talking about unannounced company plans.

Instead of using the service via a set-top box, consumers would tune in with devices that run on Intel chips,” wrote the New York Times.                     More

LG’s mammoth 55-inch OLED TV is CES-bound

CNET - It’s not every day you can claim making the largest of the thinnest TV screens on the planet–which is precisely why LG is drumming up excitement for its 55-inch OLED TV panel at CES 2012.

What’s the big deal? The 5-millimeter-thick display is light, pencil-thin, and promises high definition with no after image–that motion-induced blur you may see in an LCD screen. In addition, it boasts a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1.             More

How to rid your HDTV of reflections

(Credit: Geoffrey Morrison)

Most people don’t like watching TV in the dark. The problem is, flat-panel TVs tend to reflect light in the room. Even if you have a matte-screen LCD, light bouncing off the screen is going to diminish picture quality in one way or another.

This how-to guide has some obvious and some not-so-obvious tricks and tips to help you make sure that no matter what lighting you have in your room, you’re still getting the best picture quality.


The problem
Most flat-panel TVs these days have glossy screens, which act like a mirror for any light source in a room (from windows to lamps). If you have a glossy screen TV, and you’re reading this guide, chances are you know exactly what I’m talking about.

What’s interesting is that even though matte-screen LCDs don’t have the mirrorlike reflections, ambient light in a room still adversely affects them. This is because instead of bouncing the light right back at you, a matte-screen LCD spreads that light energy across the whole screen. Reflections are lessened, but black level goes up (lightens).


The easiest fix
Turn off the lights, right? Well, sort of. There’s a reason people like to leave the lights on when they’re watching TV: eye fatigue. Many people feel soreness in their eyes when watching TV in the dark. Whether you’re conscious of this or not, leaving the lights on can create a more relaxing viewing environment. Unless, of course, that light reflects off the TV.

It may seem like a roundabout way of solving anything, but you can change the TV to minimize eye fatigue. If this works, you won’t need to leave the lights on. No lights, no reflections. Problem solved.

If you have an LCD TV, this is easy. Most LCDs have a backlight control. Check your user menus: this control is likely set near or at maximum. This is really bright. Turn this down at night for a more relaxing image and better black levels. Your contrast ratio won’t change.

In theory you could turn down the contrast control on a plasma to reduce its brightness, but that’s not advisable. With plasmas, reducing the light output does reduce the contrast ratio.                 More

Sony's stunning LED Bravia