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The best TV and home theater gear at CES 2012 PDF Print E-mail

By Gary Merson
HD Guru

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The 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show was packed with new and innovative home theater products as the major home entertainment manufacturers debuted their latest  product lines. HD Guru and Geoff Morrison spent the week scouring news events and company booths seeking out the best new HDTV, 3-D TV, Blu-ray player, streaming media player, sound bar and the HD Guru Best In Show.

This year’s HDTV products are  the most innovative we’ve seen in years, with much larger screen sizes, new big screen display technology, new remote controls and much more. On to the winners ...

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Best HDTV
Picture improvements came from almost every major TV maker, and that gave us a long lists of finalists to consider. However, the improvements in the 2012 Panasonic top-of-the-line VT50 plasma series are significant. Last year’s VT30 series took top honors for picture performance. In 2012 Panasonic raised the bar with a new way to drive the pixels that lowers the black level to the deepest ever, and better motion clarity using its new 2500 focused field drive circuit, according to a Panasonic spokesperson.

In a side-by-side comparison of the VT30 and VT 50 plasmas on the show floor, the improvements were clear. The VT50 had the best image quality of any 2012 plasma or LED LCD we saw at the show.

Best media player
LG’s SP820 Smart Upgrader turns any HDTV into a Smart TV providing instant streaming from Vudu, Amazon Instant, Cinema Now, Internet browser and more. In addition there are many apps available from LG’s app shop. This 2012 version adds Flash, HTML5 content viewing capability and LG’s Magic Motion remote that allows control by buttons, moving and tilting or with a wheel. The SP820 will ship this spring.

Best sound bar
Sharp is no stranger to the audio business, making audio components for decades. This year it is introducing the innovative HT-SL77 2.1 system. The midrange and tweeter sections can be placed horizontally below the screen and come with extensions to match the width of 46-, 52-, 60- or 70-inch HDTVs. The HT-SL77 can also be separated into sections as left and right vertical towers and includes an attachable base for each speaker. The height can be set to match 60- or 70-inch flat panels.

The HT-SL77 also includes a wireless subwoofer. The HDMI output supports the Audio Return Channel feature found within 2011 and 2012 Sharp and many other major brand HDTVs to direct the audio from multiple HDMI sources such as HD cable box, game console and Blu-ray player to the sound bar seamlessly. The H-SL77 ships in April with a retail price of $449.99.


Gary Merson / HD Guru

Best Blu-ray player

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The Panasonic DMP-BBT01 is like no other Blu-ray player Panasonic has ever produced. It is heavily featured with Panasonic’s latest video processor, offers Smartphone remote control capability, a new touchpad remote control, 3-D disc play, 2-D-to-3-D up-conversion, and Internet streaming through Panasonic’s VieraConnect system. The player comes wrapped in a new, small, slim design with a slot-in drive that allows you to insert a disc without the need for a tray. The DMP-BBT01 player comes with a stand and can be operated vertically or horizontally.

Best 3-D TV
The LG 84LM9600 is loaded with industry firsts. It is the largest consumer flat panel HDTV for sale. It is the first to offer a screen with four times the resolution of HDTV (3840×2160). LG calls it UHD. The cherry on top is the 84LM9600 is the first 3-D TV using inexpensive, lightweight passive 3-D glasses to maintain full HD vertical resolution (1080 as half of 2160), overcoming our biggest objection regarding passive 3-D technology.

The 3-D image is not only big, but bright and beautiful because it doesn’t have the visible lines when viewing 3-D that to date has been associated with all other passive 3-D TVs. As the top series in LG’s 2012 LED LCD HDTV line, this giant screen set includes Internet streaming and apps, and LG’s best new Magic Motion remote with voice and gesture control. It all comes wrapped in a slim, brushed aluminum bezel. The 84 converts all content to its 4K resolution and will accept future 4K sources through its HDMI input. Scheduled for release in spring, LG has not yet revealed pricing.


Gary Merson / HD Guru

Best In Show

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OLED (organic light emitting diodes) is the first new big screen flat panel tech since 1997. The 55EM9600 delivers everything big screen OLED promises — vivid color, fantastic contrast, 180-degree viewing angle and pitch black blacks. Coming from a 4mm-thick design, the OLED image beat out everything else at CES.

The 55-Inch 55EM9600 has two configurations. One is a table stand version with the speakers and electronics built into the base. The other is a wall mount version with the electronics and downward firing speakers housed within a backpack that sits between the wall and the screen. This OLED is a full-featured HDTV with 1080p resolution, Smart TV with voice and gesture remote and 3-D. Expect to see it yourself in Q3, at a priced to be announced.

Link Your House is a porud member of the CEA Consumer Electronics Association
 
TVs go big, wide and ape at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show PDF Print E-mail

LG press conference. Credit: LG

As always, the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has been filled with new TVs and home entertainment product announcements.

In fact, there have been so many announcements that it might be tough to keep up with them all if you're actually looking to CES to help you decide what your next TV set will be.

No worry, we're here to help sift through the noise. We'll have more on TVs and Google TV products coming, but here are some of the highlights from LG, Vizio and Sony thus far.

LG

As we reported ahead of CES, LG had big-screen plans for this year's Vegas show with a new 55-inch OLED TV that is just 4 millimeters thick and an 84-inch LED-backlit LCD TV with 4K-display resolution.

For those who don't know, 4K resolution is what many in the TV industry believe will be the next bump up in high-definition standards for TVs and Web video. Current top-of-the-line HD TV sets available to consumers now are either 1080p or 720p -- each number indicating the number of vertical pixel lines of resolution the HD sets can handle. The term 4K resolution identifies displays with about 4,000 horizontal lines of resolution. There isn't a ton of 4K video content out yet (most HD TV channels are 720p), but many filmmakers are moving toward shooting in 4K with newer digital cameras.

As promised, LG unveiled both the 55-inch and 84-inch sets at CES this year, each set falling into what LG is calling its Cinema 3D series of TVs, which will range in size between 55 and 84 inches and feature a super-thin bezel when they hit the market later this year. I saw both sets in person here at CES and they looked big, bright and clear.

Of course, how a TV looks on the showroom floor and how it looks in the living room can vary. But LG, as well as many other TV makers, seems to be producing thinner and lighter TVs with increasingly more detailed and accurate pictures displayed on screen.

LG Google TVAnother announcement from LG this year was wider implementation of its Magic Remote, which was shown off at CES in 2011 too. As my colleague David Sarno noted in his reporting on CES, the Magic Remote acts much like the Wii remote used by Nintendo's Wii video game console.

With the motion-sensing Magic Remote in hand, a user can navigate on-screen TV menus, settings and even channel changes with a combination of gestures and button presses.

LG is also showing off Google TV sets that will launch in the U.S. in the first half of 2012 and later for the rest of the world. Among LG's Google TV offerings will be a 55-inch model, and each Google TV set from LG will come with a Magic Remote with a built-in keyboard.

Google TV will run on LG's TVs alongside its Smart TV platform unveiled last year. Since 2011's CES, LG said it has added more than 1,200 apps to its Smart TV offerings.

Just as it was last year, 3-D is a major theme at CES this year, and LG also said that about 50% of its 2012 TV line would be made up of 3-D TVs. But like Vizio, and unlike many other TV rivals, LG's 3-D TVs won't use active-shutter 3-D glasses. Instead, LG's and Vizio's 3-D TVs will work with passive 3-D glasses that are more like the glasses often found in movie theaters.

Vizio

Irvine-based Vizio also showed off a newer, wider vision for home TVs. Dubbed Cinema Wide, Vizio is releasing a line of new TVs with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Nearly all TVs currently being sold have a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Vizio Cinema Wide TVSo, what'll this mean when you're actually watching TV on a Cinema Wide display? When watching a movie in a wide-screen format, no more "letterbox" black bars above and below the image.

However, if you're watching TV on a Cinema Wide set, you're almost guaranteed to see black bars running to the left and right of the screen, since most TV shows and sporting events nowadays are broadcast in a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Vizio says it will release its Cinema Wide sets (which will also be 3-D TVs) in both 50-inch and 58-inch sizes in the first six months of the year, with a 71-inch size to follow later.

The bargain-priced TV maker is also releasing a lineup of Google TV products including TVs running the Google TV software, Google TV Blu-Ray player and a set-top box called the Stream Player that will enable Google TV to run on any HD TV.  Sony HX850

Sony

In 2012, Sony's Bravia line of TVs will be divided into three series -- BX for entry-level models, EX at the mid range and HX at the top.

The high-end HX line will be made up of LED-backlit LCDs with 3-D and built-in Wi-Fi for Skype and Sony apps. The even higher-end HX850 series will also feature screens made of Coring's Gorilla Glass, which is easy to clean and scratch resistant, as well as thin and light. The HX series will be available in 46-inch and 55-inch sizes, each with a 1080p resolution.

The EX line won't have Gorilla Glass or 3-D, but these TVs will have built-in Wi-Fi and Sony apps and will be available in 40-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch sizes, each with a 1080p resolution.

The entry-level BX line from Sony will be made up of some pretty basic TVs. The BX450 series,will offer 1080p resolution in 46-inch and 40-inch sizes while the BX330 series will consist of one 31.5-inch set with a resolution of 720p, the lowest resolution that can still be classified as high definition.

Link Your House is a proud member of the Consumer Electronics Association
For more information on these products please call 770-209-0086
 
Why Google TV will win PDF Print E-mail
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt caused some raised eyebrows last week when he claimedthat·by next summer·“the majority of the televisions you see in stores” will come with Google TV. Few took his claim seriously, some even called him insane. It’s easy to see why people wouldn’t believe Schmidt. After all, Google TV’s first iteration tanked miserably. But I’m gonna come out the lone dissenter here and say: Schmidt’s got it right. 


Okay, he may have the timing wrong, but I think that Google will absolutely come out on top of this. It will dominate the smart TV world much in the same way it now dominates the smartphone world.

It took me some time to arrive at this conclusion. I liked some of the ideas behind the first iteration of Google TV, but like everyone else, was disappointed by the execution. Google’s problem was that the company and its two consumer electronics partners built early-adopter devices that were supposed to appeal to the mainstream consumer — and in turn, didn’t do right for either.

This time it’s different

I have to admit, I was once again a little underwhelmed when the new Honeycomb version of Google TV hit my review unit. Sure, it felt like a big step — for Google TV. I also got the sense that the system is much more robust and capable, and the availability of apps made a big difference. But I still didn’t find myself using it very much, and have been postponing the writing of a review for weeks now.

But then I realized: Something is different this time around. I poked around in web forums and Google+ discussions for Google TV users, and found that many are very enthusiastic. Not so much about the update as it arrived on their machines, but about the apps they could install on it and the ways they could customize their Google TV experience. These early adopters rightly realized the potential this platform offers. Combine that with its huge potential for growth in the CE space, and you’ll see why Google TV very likely wins the smart TV race.

Five reasons why Google TV will be huge

Still not convinced? Then let me break it down for you:

Google TV offers some options to customize your home screen out of the box, but users - and CE makers - can also completely replace the default launcher.

Customization. We’ve long heard rumors that both Vizio and Samsung will launch a customized Google TV experience once their devices hit the market in 2012. Think of it as something like HTC’s Sense UI for handsets, but made for the TV screen. A few days ago, I learned that this is actually something Google TV users can do as well. Want your Google TV home screen look like Ice Cream Sandwich, complete with multiple desktops? Then simply install a different launcher. Does that mean that the vast majority of Google TV users will tinker with the platform in this way? Probably not, even though I could see folks using simple apps to personalize their home screen. But what this really points to is that Google TV can be customized easily, which should give CE makers and service operators a huge incentive to use the platform.

Amazon's app store, installed on Google TV.

Third-party app stores. We can fully expect that third parties will launch their own app stores to promote apps as well as content on Google TV, which could also significantly alter the experience. A cable provider like Comcast may want to supply its customers with a selection of apps that work well with its own services, or a CE maker like Samsung may use its existing relations with developers to switch from building its own app platform to maintaining a separate marketplace. Coincidentally, Google TV hackers recently figured out that the Amazon app store already works on Google TV. Go figure.

Google TV can run multiple apps at the same time, which could be the key for interactive and social features.

Multitasking. That might sound like something you don’t want on your TV — but trust me, you do. Numerous social TV appmakers have all been trying to figure out what you are watching at any given time through apps like IntoNow that use your iPad’s microphone to listen to what you are currently watching. From a technical perspective, that’s cumbersome and awkward. The next step has been to get code to identify your viewing behavior right onto the TV or set-top box to check you in to social TV services or deliver corresponding data to the second screen. Most of these efforts have been around live TV, but Google TV is easily capable of delivering similar and possibly much more advanced experiences with VOD and Internet content. The proof is already in the pudding: Google TV 2.0 ships with an app called TrackID from Gracenote, which uses audio fingerprinting to identify music much in the same way that Shazam does. What’s neat about it is that you can run TrackID while playing a movie on Netflix or watching a video on YouTube. Google has also said that it will enable every app developer to access data on which show is currently running. Combine this kind of broadcast interactivity with app multitasking, and you could come up with all kinds of interesting and unique opportunities that will make the standalone TV widget app look outdated.

Next year will bring us a bunch of new Google TV devices.

The CE market. It’s true, most TV manufacturers already have their own Smart TV platform, or some flavor of Yahoo TV widgets. However, right now, everyone seems to be gravitating towards Google. We already know that Samsung, Vizio and LG all will launch Google TV sets next year, and Sony is already in the Google TV camp. Google has also hinted at more partner announcements, which could mean that we’ll have five or six manufacturers supporting the platform by next year. CE makers will likely still use Yahoo or their own platforms for lower-end models, which are essentially the same as today’s feature phones. But for slightly more expensive models, Google TV could soon become a de facto standard — much like Android has become in the handset market.

Cable set-top boxes may not be sexy, but they could be the key to Google TV's success.

Cable boxes. Even if Schmidt is wrong with his assessment, Google always has a backup plan: The company bought Motorola Mobility earlier this year, and as part of the deal also acquired Motorola’s set-top box business. That makes it all but certain that Motorola will eventually ship Google TV-powered cable boxes, which could bring the platform to millions of legacy TV sets.
 
DirecTV TiVo DVRs coming to select markets this week? PDF Print E-mail

After a multiyear drought that has left many DirecTV customers peeved, TiVo-based devices might be coming back to the satellite provider's service later this week.

According to DirecTV forum poster, "Val_Installs," DirecTV will be launching a TiVo HD DVR on Thursday. For now, the person says, TiVo's set-top box will be available in just 10 major markets, including New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. There is no word on when the national rollout might occur, but the user said that it's currently "being evaluated" by the company.

Although a simple forum posting isn't typically a good source of information, this one might be different. The information was posted in the DirecTV technical forums where customers can ask company employees, including installers, for help with their products. "Val_installs" has posted frequently on those forums, and appears to be a DirecTV employee, as designated by the company's logo next to the person's name.

Moreover, last month, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told investors that his company's DVR would be available to DirecTV customers "in early December," adding that "DirecTV has informed us that they intend to launch the TiVo DirecTV product in select markets."

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DirecTV TiVo DVR delayed to 2011
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New TiVo-powered DirecTV DVR coming in 2009
DirecTV customers have been waiting years for a TiVo device to be made available to them again. Although DirecTV's first DVRs shipped with TiVo's technology, its second wave of set-top boxes were based on technology from NDS, a U.K. company that offered services similar to TiVo's. That decision resulted in a strained relationship between DirecTV and TiVo before the companies announced a new partnership in 2008.

At that time, the companies said that they would make a TiVo device available to DirecTV subscribers in the second half of 2009. Soon after, that launch was pushed back to 2010. Last October, the companies said that they would again push the launch date back to 2011.

Once TiVo launches to DirecTV customers, they can expect to pay a bit more, "Val_installs" claims in the forum, citing a TiVo Overview document attached to the post and purported to come from the satellite provider.


Link Your House is a DirecTV Dealer as well as a Certified TiVo Installer so this is great news.
For more information please contact us at http://www.linkyourhouse.com/contact-us
 
Sony Bravia TVs updated with Twitter, YouTube HD and more PDF Print E-mail

Just when it seemed all the wonders of the internet were destined to only work on the second screen, Sony's firmware update for its 2011 Bravia TVs is making us rethink things. For starters, you can now enjoy those HD YouTube videos in HD and even keep up with your friend's photos, videos and shared links on Facebook. Also, now they're compatible with a new lite version of the Remote Keyboard app -- a feature previously exclusive to Vaio PCs and Xperia smartphones. Finally, you can now get live Twitter updates along the bottom of your screen and even use a Shazam like feature called Track ID to determine the names of songs, or their artists, that are played during your shows or commercials. The free update is available now for those with compatible sets, those with older Bravia TVs, though.



For More information on Sony Products please contact us @
http://www.linkyourhouse.com/contact-us.html
 
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