Tag: TV
Men getting into interior design – so their lovely new LCD TVs match the curtains
The trend of replacing ugly old CRTs with fancy new LCDS has lead to men getting all worried about the insides of their houses.
A survey from fancy LCD maker LG found that 6/10 Brits believe their TV’s design is important to their homes, with an even higher percentage saying that the TV is “an integral part of their interior design decisions.”
Men, in fact, are now so worried about how their growing home cinema setup looks…
Panasonic rolls out a bevy of Viera Plasma TVs, three series' worth: the PZ85, PZ80 and PX80
A slew of new flat-screens from Panasonic have been announced in the past 24 hours, with a bunch of Plasmas being the first port of call.
Let’s get the most exciting news over with first – the manufacturer has announced their first 46″ model, alongside three new model series, the PZ85, PZ80 and PX80.
Firstly, the 1080p PZ85 will come in a 46″ model (TH-46PZ85B) and 42″ (TH-42PZ85B), from March. They’ll have a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 along with a VIERA Link and 24p Real Cinema technology. Another significant…
Bittorrent TV distribution works – Norway blazing a path into the future
Remember this update about Norwegian broadcaster NRK putting an episode of a TV show on Bittorrent? Probably not. It's not like developments in Norwegian TV are particularly big news. We understand. Still, the DRM-free download was a massive success for…
At 0.7-inches, the bezel on NEC's MultiSync LCD5220 TV is thinner than Toshiba's
For those who judge the quality of their consumer electronics by how expensive they are, this NEC MultiSync LCD5220 TV costs a cool $8,150. UK pricing hasn’t been mentioned as yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar (and you’ll have to, if you want one) the exchange rate will make it even pricier for us.
It’s a 52-incher, and is supposedly the market’s first professional-grade panel display. It’d have to be, at that price. Thankfully it supports…
Sony applauds Ofcom, extols BRAVIA TV's built-in Audio Description technology
If you’ve watched any TV over the past few weeks, you’ve probably already seen the new push for awareness of Audio Description (AD) technology. AD is, effectively, the aural equivalent of subtitles / signing, allowing partially-sighted and blind people to access TV shows through a descriptive commentary.
The UK leads Europe in adoption of AD, with legislation that requires broadcasters to make a certain proportion of their programmes AD-compliant. The BBC must audio describe at least eight per cent of its programmes.
Both Ofcom and Sony believe that the rest of Europe should be catching up, and have called for similar legislation to be imposed that requires broadcasters to invest in the technology.
Sony launches Bravia DAV-DZ home theatre systems
Sony has more home theatre systems on the market to match up with our Bravia TV – the DAV-DZ range.
Europe funding Bittorrent-like internet TV standard
You know Bittorrent? The evil scourge of the media world? Well, it’s being pursued by the EU as a possible standard for distributing TV online throughout Europe. Bittorrent’s going LEGIT.
The hope is to establish a Europe-wide standard for online delivery of telly, based around the Bittorrent format, which will provide access to stored archive material and streamed live events – and the P2P nature of it all will help stop the servers crashing on Eurovision night or when Manchester United plays Barcelona…
Pioneer to stop making sub-42-inch plasma panels, as its TV business suffers
Japanese newspaper Asahi has reported that Pioneer will stop the production of 42-inch and smaller plasma panels as early as March next year, and instead buy those panels from Matsushita or Hitachi.
Pioneer’s plasma TV sales targets for this year, ending 31st March, are a mere 10 per cent of Matsushita’s (who use the Panasonic brand), at just 480,000 units compared to five million.
Pioneer will continue to manufacture its own plasma panels sized over 50 inches, while the company looks to sell the Kagoshima plant back to NEC. Pioneer already buys the panels for its LCD TVs from Sharp.
The Toshiba ZF series – with 23mm wide bezel
I do realise this is the third glossy black TV I’ve put up in the last hour, which is why I’ve included every camera angle possible for them so far – had Toshiba launched a fourth series of TVs, I probably would’ve included a bird’s eye shot or even reverse upside-down. Got to keep it fresh, yanno?
With the largest price-tag of the three new series, the ZF is their new flagship series under the REGZA umbrella. They’re sporting those ultra-thin bezels we saw at CES, at just 0.9″ wide, and with three sizes…
More Toshiba REGZA tellies, the XV series with full 1080p
Another series for Toshiba presented this week, the XV series is housed under the REGZA brand, and carries some new technology, including audio description, game mode and Active Vision LCD Picture Processing.
With the usual 32″, 37″ and 42″ models available, they’ll each have 1920 x 1080 resolution (that’s full 1080p), three HDMI sockets, a digital tuner, and contrast ratio of up to 30,000:1.
All of Toshiba’s new series debuted this week – the CV, XV and ZF, will carry the aforementioned Game Mode, which gives 1:1 pixel mapping using Exact Scan, and increases response time dramatically. Not only…
