Well, that didn't take long. Less than two months after 3DTVs were introduced at CES, some models are already available for consumers to purchase. The first out of the gate are Samsung's UN46C7000 and UN55C7000 LED edge-lit LCD TVs (shown here), which can be purchased at Amazon.com for $2339 and $2969, respectively, as well as a few other online retailers such as Crutchfield, which has the 46 in stock for $2400 and is taking pre-orders for the 55 for $3060. Soon to follow are some Panasonic plasmas, which are scheduled to go on sale at Best Buy on March 10, marking the first time that 3DTVs will be available at brick-and-mortar outlets.
TiVo is one of the most recognizable brands in all of consumer electronics—so much so that the name of the company has become a verb in the popular lexicon, much like Xerox. After years of anticipation, TiVo today announced the next generation of its DVR platform—Premiere and Premiere XL.
As part of a National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission will try to persuade broadcasters to relinquish some of the spectrum allocated just last year in the DTV transition.
Panasonic just finished a bi-coastal press briefing about its 2010 lineup of TVs, Blu-ray players, HTIBs (home-theater-in-a-box systems), and soundbars, but 3D was conspicuously absent. In fact, we were told that the company would be back in the late Spring or early Summer with more specifics about its 3D offerings.
Panasonic's traveling road show for its new 2010 product line came to Los Angeles this week, and we were there. Most of the products shown or described at the event were first announced at last January's CES, where the featured attraction was 3D, with other new products taking second billingif not in Panasonic's eyes, then in the eyes of most attendees. It was not that the new products were uninteresting; far from it. But 3D was king of the video mountain at CES 2010.
Internet TV use continues to rise. According to iSuppli, 27.5 of consumers who bought new TVs last month connected them to the net, and the figure was up from 24.3 percent in December.
One of LCD's key weapons in its competition against plasma is LED backlighting, which provides superior black level reproduction compared to old-school CCFL (fluorescent) backlighting. But don't count CCFL out just yet. A new type may enable it to hold onto the lower end of the LCD market.
Sony's new BDP-S470 and BDP-S570 Blu-ray players "will be fully capable of 3D playback of Full HD 1080p for each eye," company spokesperson Greg Belloni has told Engadget HD. And yet these players are nominally HDMI 1.3 compatible, as opposed to 1.4, which is supposed to be the 3D version.