3D TVs destined for pubs

It looks as though 3D sports games could be with the general public sooner than anticipated, after a deal between satellite TV firm Sky and electronics manufacturer LG was announced.

Sky has ordered 15,000 3D TVs with the intention of giving them to pubs, clubs and bars in order to get the 3D revolution going with live sporting events popping out of the screen at punters.

Sky 3D will be available for public display from April 2010 and it is the 47 inch versions of LG’s LD920 televisions that are under order at the moment. Over the next few weeks these could therefore be winging their way to one of your local drinking establishments.

The first 3D broadcast took place in February and the journalists and fans present were in two minds as to how well the technology worked in real life. However, Sky has obviously been given confidence by this test run and 3D TV is being geared up for a full launch next month.

LG will not be selling its first batch of 3D TVs to UK consumers until May, but with Sky supporting its technology it will soon become the brand most closely associated with 3D sport by football fans everywhere.

Anyone looking to get 3D television in their own homes could have to wait until 2011 if some pessimistic observers are to be believed, although Sky thinks that it can push through its first few 3D channels by the autumn. Anyone interested in 3D TV may want to start saving up now.

Skype support added to Samsung LED TVs

Electronics manufacturer Samsung has just brought the latest in LED TV technology to the South Korean market, with its new range of home entertainment displays offering built-in support for VoIP calling service Skype.

It was at CES 2010 that Samsung first unveiled its plans for Skype integration, but performance during demonstrations was unconvincing. However, Samsung has ironed out the issues and created the LED 7000 and 8000 TVs with Skype voice and video calling straight out of the box once you connect them to a broadband connection.

The new televisions offer support for Samsung’s Internet@TV services. Until now this has consisted of a few basic widgets for news and weather updates. However, you can now add a video camera peripheral to your TV set and make video calls to your nearest and dearest, provided your internet connection is up to scratch.

If you do not have a Skype account you will need to create one using the remote control, although this can be a little fiddly as you will be entering quite a bit of text in the initial setup. Once this is out the way the sign-in process should be smooth.

Skype offers free calling to other Skype users over the internet and with this functionality available in your living room there is even more reason to take advantage of VoIP technology. The new LED TVs from Samsung offering Skype compatibility will be arriving in the UK later in the year, so until then you will have to satisfy yourself with Skype on your PC or laptop.

OLED televisions the future? At 5k we think not!

It seems a strange time to expect the general public to fork out £5,000 on an entertainment system however in a recent report in the Independent that is precisely what is predicted. The report states that Sony will launch an OLED television by the end of the year and the writer states that insider experts believe there will be a positive stampede by the public to get their hands on the new super skinny OLED or Organic Light Emitting Diode televisions.

The contrast between more recent technology and the latest OLED screens is reputed to be phenomenal with the slightly older LCD screens providing a contrast of 30,000 to 1 and the new OLED screens providing 1,000,000 – 1 ratio. This provides colours that have a depth that has never been experienced by the more conventional televisions and blacks that are true black and not the dark grey that the previous technology could provide.

The new HD OLED’s televisions are regarded as the next generation television sets and will be the more dominant product on the market by the time that the next Olympic games is held. As the products become more available it is likely that the price will reduce, and it is hoped that the new OLED technology will stimulate the public into buying televisions again which retailers are reporting have more recently slumped in sales due to the recession.

The new Sony OLED’s are reported to be only 21” visible screen so with such a hefty price tag, it remains to be seen if the report is correct that the general public will be beating the door down on Sony to purchase. Clearly the benefits are many with enhanced visuals, rich colours and superb picture quality, and of course not forgetting the super slim ‘panel’ style screen which is likely to fit into most homes without too much of a fight, but will we all go OLED mad!

It May Soon Cost You Extra To Use BBC iPlayer

If you’re like us and a mass of other TV watching consumers then you’ll have already enjoyed the impressive benefits that the BBC iPlayer has to offer. Like us you’ll undoubtedly be disheartened by the mere possibility that at least one exec inside the BBC believes that users should have to pay for the privilege of using the iPlayer service. Of course, if you never watch iPlayer then you’ll probably be even more miffed off at the half denial from official BBC sources that claimed they are looking into the possibility of increasing the license fee to charge users in that way.

The iPlayer has been something of a phenomenon sine its first introduction to the market. Viewers have been able to watch their favourite (and not so favourite if they’re that way inclined) BBC shows through a variety of different devices. As well as the BBC website, Virgin media and a wide selection of handheld devices have also offered iPlayer compatibility but you have to question just how popular it would remain if it were no longer a free service.

In case you were wondering who to voice your protests with, the head of technology Erik Huggers no less is the one to have stated that he “doesn’t believe in a free ride!”. The BBC did point out that Mr Huggers view is not necessarily the same as the rest of the BBC but they also confirmed that they are looking at potential ways of monetising the service which may include a separate iPlayer license or an addition to the cost of the existing license.

The BenQ GP1 Micro LCD Projector

BenQ has unveiled a hugely impressive little projector that, despite being one of the smallest around, still manages to pack a very good range of decent features and capabilities into its petite little shell. In terms of size, it weight a rather pathetic 640g and will most definitely fit into the palm of your hand although we strongly suggest that you find somewhere else to rest it or you’re still going to get arm ache after watching an entire series of Prison Break or Heroes.

Boasting the capability to project images of up to 80” in size, the BenQ GP1 mini LED projector offers a 2W internal speaker and uses LED in place of the typical lamp arrangement. It runs directly from your media players and handheld devices with no need for a PC to be attached (hence the need for its own built in speaker). Auto play modes and auto keystone are joined by other useful features like wall colour correction (I think it corrects the colour of the display image rather than physically correcting the colour of your wall).

Standard inputs include USB, composite, and D-Sub and if you want to use your video capable iPod or iPhone then you can also get the optional docking station that will let you. It’s slated to hit the shelves next month over here and it’ll cost you just shy of £499 which really isn’t that bad when you compare it to the price of a decent size and decent quality plasma or LCD TV.

Samsung Widget LE40B650 TV Review

Samsung have always been producers of quality electrical goods, and their range of televisions are popular around the world. They also frequently produce something that is if not revolutionary then at least evolutionary, and that is just what the LE40B650 aspires to be. Basically the LE40B650 is an HD TV set like many others you will see, but its one feature that trumps every other TV on the market is that it can connect directly to the internet via Ethernet cable. This allows the various widgets or programs to offer the user various online services. In the last sentence there was a lot of jargon that some may find confusing, so I’ll try and demystify the LE40B650’s power and make clear what it is that Samsung are offering.

Unwrapping the Widget
A widget in computing terms is a small program or application that has basic but useful functions, and you may have come into contact with a widget on one of Samsung’s smart phones like the Tocco or the Omnia. Windows Vista users should also be familiar with this use of the word. On the LE40B650 this means that there are various applications accessible whenever you want them, giving you access to news headlines, weather reports, YouTube videos and even the photo sharing social networking site Flikr all on your TV. Of course there’s no need to connect anything other than an Ethernet network cable to your LE40B650 for all of these widgets to be instantly accessible. The widgets are all stored on an SD card which is removable, presumably so that in the future you’ll be able to add more by attaching it to your PC, though expect automatic updates to download straight to the LE40B650 itself. These widgets are not the only networking function of the LE40B650, as streaming standard definition video from your PC over your home network to view on your TV is also possible, and there are even 2 USB ports for connecting memory sticks to and playing even more media from. The sheer range of connectivity and functionality that is offered by the LE40B650 is simply astounding, and means you no longer need an independent media streaming box to watch your digital content in your living room. If you’ve got a wireless home network then for an additional £50 you can pick up a dongle that will allow the LE40B650 to go wireless. This is great, but I can’t help feeling that out of the box wireless connectivity would have been extremely desirable.

The Samsung LE40B650 As a TV
Of course the LE40B650 isn’t just an internet surfing, widget spewing power house, it also works as an HD TV. It’s 40″ screen is capable of displaying full HD content in 1080p and like all Samsung television products the image reproduction is exquisite if you’re using an HD video source like a Blu-Ray disc player or an HD satellite TV service. However, the LE40B650 also performs well when displaying standard definition programs which it upscales on the fly using built in technology. This means even ropey old programs look decent and re-invigorated on the LE40B650 with rich, diverse colours, deep blacks and bright whites.

Additional Connectivity
Like all decent HD TVs the LE40B650 has a wealth of connections, in this case mounted at convenient points around the TV. There are four HDMI ports, three on the rear and one on the side, Component video, two SCART slots, Composite video, a PC connection and both analogue and digital audio outputs for those with stereo and home cinema set ups.

Conclusion
The Samsung LE40B650 is the first mainstream TV to offer stand alone network connectivity and the innovative widget platform developed by a partnership between Yahoo and Intel. This means that it is quite simply the cleverest HD TV on the market. Whilst there are bigger screens with better pictures for the price you’d be hard pressed to find a TV that is as forward thinking as the LE40B650. Critics and customers alike have already been singing its praises around the internet, and if you’re not a technophobe and can handle new developments then this is certainly an important one to get a grasp of. For people who already have their own digital living room set up with a dedicated media PC or streaming PVR then the LE40B650 is not as essential as similar functionality can already be cobbled together from existing, disparate pieces of technology. However, for an all in one internet TV package with lots of room to expand and grow as the years progress, the Samsung LE40B650 widget TV is the best option at this moment in time.

AMD Stepping Into The Gadget Chip Market

Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, has announced that it is taking another step into the creation of different chips. The computer chip manufacturer has recently undertaken the relatively new and upmarket task of creating chips for servers, in the shape of its Opteron chip set and is now set to move to the creation of smaller chips that are designed very specifically for integration into gadget type products rather than full on computer and server products. The energy efficient chip may only register at 533MHz but it is believed to give Via Technologies 800MHz chips a run for their money in the performance stakes.

The chip may well prove to be good news for pretty much everybody too. It consumes, uses, and requires far less energy than its counterparts and other AMD processors so it doesn’t need any dedicated fans or cooling. It runs using just 0.9 watts of power and is small enough to be used in set top boxes, TVs, and handheld devices. What’s more, it’s still an x86 chip and that means that it can still be used to run desktop software – it could mean huge leaps in the production of Internet TVs and devices that combine many more features than they are currently able to so great news for us tecchies.

Such is the lapse of time between releasing information and releasing actual products nowadays, AMD has stated that the chips are likely to be integrated into devices that will be on our shelves later this year which really isn’t bad going when you consider how long some advances can take before going from drawing board to production.

Source – CNet

Proper Internet TV One Step Closer?

Internet TV is something that has been promised fairly regularly and consistently over a period of time and some small insteps have been made, but news from Samsung and Yahoo indicates that some (although depressingly few) decent movements have been made towards an integrated single Internet TV solution. The snappily titled LE40B650 from Samsung, which is already available, combines Internet widgets into your televisual entertainment and all with just the click of a button on your remote. There is a bit of a problem, at the moment, but one that we’re hoping will be fixed soon enough.

The service, currently called Internet@TV is a scheme being delivered by a partnership between Samsung and Yahoo and when you click the Internet@TV button your chosen widgets will be displayed along the widget bar at the bottom of the TV screen. This means you’ll be able to look at the weather, news headlines, and even view YouTube and Flickr updates without having to mess about with the PC and Internet.

The big problem is that there are currently only 4 widgets available, which is a pretty poor showing, but the technology is still in development and once it matures past infancy it’s likely that you’ll be able to get many more. Presumably that will include updates from just about every social networking website, as well as email, and other Internet technology delivered right at the bottom of Lost and Prison Break episodes – sweet.

Oh, and the TV itself is a pretty slick piece of kit too, so it’s looking pretty good.

What’s better that a Samsung 6 series? A Samsung 7 Series of course!

We have recently given you our feedback on the Samsung series 6000 of televisions and if you thought that a Samsung television couldn’t get any better, then you need to experience the Samsung LED series 7000 television to savour the mind blowing and breath taking picture quality that the 7 series delivers.

Samsungs latest 7 series range of televisions use the revolutionary LED technology, this differs from conventional fluorescent backlit televisions in that they use Light Emitting Diodes (LED) that are bight white and create the images in a similar way that a laptop screen does. The benefits of the LED technology is that as well as being much more energy efficient that the picture display is also a much better quality, the colours are deeper, there is more contrast and the picture has a clarity that is more lifelike and true to the original filmed image. The final television programmes are displayed in glorious vivid colour, without blurring and you can also access the internet content for example YouTube by the wireless connectivity. There are a selection of HDMI ports so that you can connect to other compatible equipment and two USB ports so your images can be displayed on full screen as well ass.

Samsung have designed the 7series televisions so carefully, ensuring that the design of the product matches the superior picture and build quality, the makers have considered every little detail to make this series of televisions a statement piece of classic beauty which will compliment any living room no matter whether traditional or contemporary. Gone is the ugly traditional remote control, the 7 series televisions have a beautifully designed pebble shaped remote that screams style icon whilst still allowing for simple operation of the television. Samsung have cleverly positioned the LED’s on the side of the screen instead of at the back, which allows for the slimmest possible dimensions of their television sets, making this an elegant addition to your home.

Orange hopping off the project Kangaroo pot?

After immense speculation in the press that French mobile phone giant Orange where interested in buying into the broadband on-demand video project Kangaroo technology, it appears that they may now have gone off the boil. France Telecom owns Orange and was reportedly very interested in the broadband project to add to their already up and running service, Orange TV. It is estimated that Orange TV currently has an estimated 1 million subscribers, and with the proposed acquisition of the broadband on-demand video service it would allow them to expand their coverage in France.

Project Kangaroo was an ambitious broadband on-demand video venture originally planned by the big television media names in the UK, BBC, Channel Four and ITV. The launch of the new video on demand project was planned for March 2009, however after an indepth review by the Competition Commission it was determined to infringe strict competition rules and so the plan was shelved at the eleventh hour. Since the abandonment of the project by the original backers who had invested some £20 million, they have been seeking a suitable buyer for the technology ever since.

Orange is believed to have adopted a more cautious approach to the proposed acquisition due to the volatile economic climate. They have however reiterated their commitment to become a ‘major player’ in the UK home entertainment market in the future.

It is believed that Orange was not the only interested party and that a technology company was also in talks with the backers to purchase all the assets of project Kangaroo it is thought for a much reduced price tag. It is hoped that the on-demand video service that has taken much time, effort and cost to develop will eventually be sold, however some believe that as time passes the technology developed is fast becoming obsolete.

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