June, 2009 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: June 2009

“LED TVs”: Good News, Bad News

June 16, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

First, the bad news: I’ve already expressed my concern over Samsung’s decision to use “LED TV” for their new line of LCD HDTVs, and I’m not alone. DisplaySearch, Insight Media, and even the New York Times have joined in the chorus to criticize this unfortunate choice. And now the hole in the marketing dike has grown larger; Toshiba now calls their line of LCD HDTVs with LED backlights “LED TVs”....

A Better HDMI Cable

June 15, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

At the CEA Line Show in New York, I stumbled across some new technology that I hadn’t heard about before. One problem with HDMI cables is that there is no locking mechanism for the connector, and in some cases, the cables work loose. If your devices are mounted in a closet or cabinet, it can be inconvenient to nearly impossible to get to the cable to reconnect it. Some companies...

Something Small from Mitsubishi

June 12, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

At the CES Line Show in New York City earlier this week, I visited with Mitsubishi. As expected, they had some large stories to tell, including their 82" DLP rear projection HDTV that they claim is the largest 3D-ready TV on the market (shipping in July). And they were showing their LaserVue rear projection sets as well. But the demo that really caught my eye -- or make that my...

Flat Panel Wall Mounts Get Easier

June 11, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Years ago, few people mounted their flat panel TVs on the wall. Most people simply put their sets on the same furniture where they had their old picture tube TV. Installing a wall mount was a task typically left to the pros. Then companies came to realize that DIY (Do It Yourself) consumers wanted to install their own wall mounts. Now you can find kits intended for consumer installation everywhere...

120 Hz LCD Grows Slowly

June 10, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

I wrote last November about DisplaySearch's third quarter flat panel shipments for 2008, in which 120 Hz models represented 16% of the total shipments. According to the company's report for the first quarter of 2009, just over 14% of the panels were 120 Hz, with another 4% with the new 240 Hz "quadruple frame rate" feature. Projections for 2009 predict 120 Hz panels will end up with about 16% of...

Will Apple Change Television?

June 9, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Apple has a knack for making technology stick. It was not the first company to make a computer with a mouse and a graphical interface, but the Mac changed the face of personal computing. Apple wasn't the first to sell downloaded music tracks, but iTunes created a permanent change in the recording industry. Apple wasn't the first to sell a mobile phone with Web access and downloadable programs, but the...

Amazon on Panasonic HDTVs

June 8, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Panasonic has announced that its line of plasma and Blu-ray players with the Viera Cast feature will now be able to access Amazon Video on Demand content as well. Instead of using your cable, satellite, or antenna connection, Viera Cast relies on a broadband Internet connection to access video content without the need for a computer or any set top box. The service also gives you access to YouTube and...

SID 2009: More Color!

June 5, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

"Tim the Toolman" may have only wanted more power, but for HDTV fanatics, what we really want is more color. An extended color performance allows sets to provide more lifelike hues and create a wider range of shades of color. But almost all LCD HDTVs are limited to the red, green, and blue light produced by their sub-pixels. These three "primary" colors can be mixed in theory to provide just...

SID 2009: It’s All Good

June 4, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

Walking around the exhibit hall at SID 2009, I was struck by an observation; just about all the displays look marvelous. This may seem like a trivial statement, but it's not. I think back to what the flat panels looked like 10 years ago -- or even five years ago -- and the improvement is significant. The difference is that back then, you could find some panels that looked dramatically...

SID 2009: Who Needs OLED TV?

June 3, 2009 | Author: Ibex Marketing

SID is the place to see the coolest technology demonstrations and prototypes in the display industry. Here's one of the coolest I've seen so far this week. Samsung is showing a 24" flat panel display that is only 3.5 mm thick. For those of you who are metrically challenged, that's just a hair thicker than 1/8 of an inch. And that's about the same thickness as the OLED TVs that...