Archive for the ‘HDTV’ Category

Vizio bringing 21:9 Cinema HDTV to CES with 2560 x 1080 resolution, all our hopes and dreams

Vizio actually teased a 21:9 TV at last year’s CES, and one year later it’s ready to deliver: the Vizio Cinema HDTV LED LCD is here. The TV handles a 2560 x 1080 resolution in a 21:9 aspect ratio, just like that 21:9 Philips display we’ve been drooling over for the past couple of years, and comes in 50-inch and 58-inch flavors. Details are still pretty scarce, since all we have right now is a teaser page, but we doubt there’s much more going on here. Basically, ultra-wide CinemaScope-style movies on a set that will likely be much cheaper than Philips’ offering — and more likely to show up at your local Costco. We look forward to the full announcement later this week. Also: buying one.

[Thanks, Kacy]

Vizio bringing 21:9 Cinema HDTV to CES with 2560 x 1080 resolution, all our hopes and dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic’s 1-inch thick Z1 plasma reviewed: playing with perfection

The plasma may be a dying breed, but the ones that are left are undoubtedly some of the best the world has ever seen. Take Panasonic’s 54-inch TC-P54Z1 for example, which wowed audiences (us included) when it was first unveiled way back at CES. The HD Guru recently had an opportunity to take this very screen into his abode for review, and after a labor-intensive (around “one hour”) setup process, the gazing was officially on. Panny’s engineers were able to slim the set down to an inch by requiring that a dedicated (wireless) set-top-box be used for tuning OTA channels and managing connections, and the result was nothing less than elegant. If you’re wondering what north of five large really buys in an HDTV these days, wonder no more — the set was deemed darn near perfect, with “outstanding” color, contrast and deep black levels. Potentially best of all, there were no motion artifacts to speak of, and anyone with a 120Hz / 240Hz set can testify to just how annoying those things are. Hit the read link for a detailed unboxing, setup and review, but don’t even bother if you’re looking for someone to talk you out of what you’re about to do.

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Panasonic’s 1-inch thick Z1 plasma reviewed: playing with perfection originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS working up BR-HD3 wireless HDMI streamer

ASUS has been toying around with wireless transmissions to displays for a hot minute now, and it sure looks as if the outfit is fixing to pick up where the Belkin FlyWire left off by introducing the BR-HD3. Currently in testing, the wireless HDMI streamer is said to pass along 1080p content “with no lag,” though there’s currently no official range to speak of. The real kicker, however, is the price. The aforesaid FlyWire — which worked amazingly in the trade show demos that we saw — was priced at $1,499, which is obviously far too much for most consumers. This box? £399 ($654), and it could be out as early as next month. Unfortunately, the device only supports a single HDMI input (so you can forget about connecting your Blu-ray player and Xbox 360 at the same time), but ASUS is planning to introduce a three-port version in June 2010 as well as a niche spinoff in Q1 that’ll wirelessly stream one source to three HDTVs.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless

ASUS working up BR-HD3 wireless HDMI streamer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Green: California getting closer to banning power-hungry TVs

Uh oh, another vaguely political post on CrunchGear. As you already know, the Consumer Electronics Association, the trade group that organizes CES, is fighting tooth and nail against possible regulations that would see California essentially ban the sale of power-hungry HDTVs. This mostly affects plasmas because they consume the most electricity of the different types of TVs out there.

The California Energy Commission, the body responsible for the investigation, says certain types of TVs ought not to be sold because they consume just too much electricity. As a matter of fact, TVs account for 10 percent of all energy consumption in the state. Mandate that manufacturers get their act together, and create TVs that don’t require crazy amounts of electricity to run, and everyone wins: consumers pay less for their monthly electricity bill (consumers would save, on average, $30 in the first year by switching to more energy efficient TVs), the green crowd gets to feel like it’s saving the planet, California doesn’t have to spend money generating all that electricity, etc.

Well, one group may not benefit: the manufacturers themselves. Some of them are complaining that having THE GOVERNMENT mandate how efficient their TVs need to be will stifle innovation, raise prices (because they’ll have to change their manufacturing methods or whatever), etc. (I say, if not the government, then who, the “market”? Ha! Markets work when everyone has access to perfect information, among other things, otherwise things can get out of hand. See: this past year on Planet Earth.)

The Commission disputes the idea that changing energy standards will necessarily raise prices for consumers.

You should note that Vizio, the little company that came out of nowhere, has no problem with the new regulations, should they pass. Easy for it to say, seeing as though it makes only LCDs, which aren’t very power hungry.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a done deal yet. You’re not going to walk into Best Buy tomorrow and find that all the plasmas are gone. Should it even pass then I imagine it’ll take some time before it actually affects your buying ability.

PSP To HDMI Converter With 720P Upscaling

By Andrew Liszewski

Very few words can make me shudder as much as the term ‘upscaling’ but that’s exactly what the LKV8000 Converter from Lenkeng promises to do for your PSP. Not only does it convert the PSP’s component video and L/R audio out to HDMI, which admittedly is convenient, but it also upscales its 480P signal to 720P using “Motion Compensated 3D Wavelet Video Coding Technology” which supposedly results in jitterless video without trailing. There’s no pricing info at this time, but since Lenkeng doesn’t sell directly to end-users you won’t be able to buy one anyways until someone decides to distribute it.

[ Lenkeng LKV8000 PSP to HDMI Converter ] VIA [ I4U News ]

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