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Home Cinema Choice: More than a million TVs were sold in the UK during October compared to the same period last year, according to new sales data released by market analysts GfK. 

The UK’s move to digital switch-over, plus heavy discounting and the credit crunch are all credited with the massive sales boom.

Explains David Scott, chief executive of Digital UK, the body coordinating Britain’s switch to digital TV: ‘With household budgets under pressure, the extra channels and features that come with digital TV offer great value entertainment. It’s also good news that in opting to buy digital, more households than ever are ready for the switch to digital TV which will affect more than five million homes next year.’

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Electronic House: TVs are continuing to shrink around the middle. Last year, 4-inch-deep flat panels were all the rage. Now 1 inch or less is the new benchmark. All the big names are in the game, including Hitachi, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp and Sony.

“Thin televisions offer consumers the combined benefits of choice, flexibility, elegance, aesthetics and performance,” says Daniel Lee, vice president of marketing for Hitachi Home Electronics America. “Consumers are now demanding thin and sleek sets to improve their homes’ aesthetics and create a space-saving design. They also want all the technology and rich features of a state-of-the-art display.”

The manufacture of increasingly trimmer TVs has led to other changes in the home electronics marketplace. TV mounts, in particular, have been redesigned. Just like the TVs they’re meant to hold, new flat-panel display mounts are thinner and engineered to sit closer to the wall.

With little space between the wall and display, it can be difficult to reach the back of the set when hooking up cabling. To make wiring a wall-hugging flat-panel TV easier, manufacturers have added new features to their products, such as “kickstands” that prop the bottom of the TV a few inches from the wall so you or your installer can access the cabling and connections.

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AVRev.com: Epson is launching their latest projector, the EH-TW3000. 

This projector is meant for home cinema displays, bringing a new look to sports, television and movies. 

The TW3000 uses the 3LCD technology for accurate colors and grey scaling. Next generation D7 LCD panels are used to enhance image quality.

The EH-TW3000 boasts a 20,000:1 contrast ratio and complies with the x.v.Colour standard.  Also included is a 10-bit Pixel Works video processor chip for smoothness and clarity to the image. 

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Electronista: Garmin Asia Pacific marketing director Tony An revealed that the company’s nuvifone will just be the first device in a series of phones.

Where the original touchscreen, GPS-focused phone is now said to be due in the spring, An adds that the firm will develop multiple phones based on Google’s Android platform to ship sometime in the second half of 2009.

Details of the phones themselves are unavailable but should likely focus heavily on GPS navigation and will be helped by the built-in presence of Google Maps.

The hardware won’t be manufactured by Garmin by itself but will instead contracted out, according to Garmin, though which firms will build the phones isn’t named.

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TWICE: Bosch, the parent of car stereo company Blaupunkt USA, said the division has been sold to the Aurelius Group, a German holding company, that specializes in the acquisition of medium-sized companies in the midst of restructuring. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Under the agreement, Blaupunkt’s aftermarket and audio components business will become an independent company, while Bosch will continue to produce OEM car electronics.

The new company will retain the Blaupunkt name and will continue to be located in Germany.

Dr. Dirk Markus, chairman of the directors of Aurelius, said, “We believe that the business we have acquired is sound, with significant potential for future development.” Blaupunkt will continue to focus on car infotainment, said the company.

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PC World: Sales of Blu-ray players in 2008 aren’t exactly stellar, despite lower prices and the lack of competition from the recently departed HD-DVD format.

But are things looking up for Blu-ray? Recent reports indicate that 2009 may bring better times for Sony’s high-def video format.

According to a report from Futuresource, sales of Blu-ray discs and players in Europe are up significantly this holiday season, and the upswing is expected to continue into the new year.

The report optimistically predicts that European sales of Blu-ray players will more than triple in 2009, reaching 2.5 million units-and that excludes sales of Playstation 3 consoles, which double as Blu-ray players.

Sales of Blu-ray discs are picking up, too. Shoppers worldwide are snapping up the Blu-ray version of Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel The Dark Knight in huge numbers: More than 1 million copies have sold in the U.S. alone, and 1.7 million globally.

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Tech Digest: Leaving your iPod sitting there in the ashtray while you are out shopping is a definite no-no – so keep it safely hidden from view by ramming it right down into the stomach of the Fusion Electronics CA-IP500 music player.

The deep unit swallows an entire iPod, just like an old cassette-based car player, leaving it hidden from the view of opportunist thieves who want your iPod player for its potential eBay resale value and not your artistic tastes in music.

Although saying “IPOD” in blue LEDs perhaps isn’t the best way of keeping it hidden…

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HD News: Samsung has developed an improved manufacturing process for the manufacture of OLED TV’s which is set to dramatically cut the cost of their production.

OLED technology is based on organic materials which emit light naturally after an electrical charge is passed through them. OLED pixels generate their own light which brings a whole host of technological advantages.

Previously, the set of transistors in OLED/LCD TV’s have been made of amorphous silicon which is not only expensive to produce but prone to failure. Samsung have developed amorphous oxide TFTs, which are much more cost effective and reliable.

The new technology can actually be applied to LCD, AM OLED, thin film solar cell and LED. Amorphous Oxide TFT’s can integrate into current LCD panel mass production processes and potentially lower manufacturing cost significantly.

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CrunchGear: Garmin is expecting ‘08 to be a banner year despite the piss-poor economy.

When all the beans are counted and the ducks are lined up, the largest GPS manufacturer expects to have shipped 50% more GPS units this year verse in previous years.

If Garmin does hit that 50% more figure, that would result in the firm shipping out over 18 million GPS devices.

This is despite that fact that other GPS makers are throwing in the towel and people are losing their homes. Apparently, none of that matters for Garmin.

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Navigadget: It is still in proposal at this stage but if it is turned into law any cell phone which falls into the ‘multi-functional device’ category will be taxed extra inside European Union.

It will be different for different features and for GPS this happens to be 3.7%.

It will be even worse – 14% – for handsets with digital TV receivers.

Like we said earlier this not signed into law – and no decision will be made earlier than 6 months.

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HD News: Replacing their uniquely stylish LG6000 series as their high end LCD TV offering was never going to be easy with LG taking a slightly different approach by introducing the supremely stylish yet subtle LG7000 range.

The circular hole right through the bottom edge bezel certainly made the 6000 series one of the most talked about LCD TV’s in 2008, and deciding on the style of a new high end range was never going to be easy. LG seem to have hit the right note with the 7000 series of LCD TV’s however, retaining the scarlet touch of its predecessor albeit in a much more subdued fashion.

The LG7000 features a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution along with LG’s take on 100Hz processing, TruMotion. There are 4 HDMI inputs and the latest incarnation of LG’s picture processing engine, Dual XD Engine.

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AVRev.com: Canton releases the redesigned GLE loudspeaker system, meant for stereo or multichannel audio setups. The series consists of two floorstanding models, two compact speakers, a center channel, and on-wall speaker. 

The GLE lineup improves the iteration of the soft dome tweeter. Previously the tweeters were made of a fabric dome.  Now the tweeters are made from a finer silk material, extending the high-end. 

The system contains the GLE 490 floorstanding model, which is a three-way bass reflex design.  The second floorstanding model, the GLE 470, is a 2-1/2 way design using 7-inch woofers.  The GLE 455 is the center channel, featuring two 6-1/4-inch woofers.  The GLE 430 is bookshelf speaker that contains a 7-inch woofer and 1-inch tweeter. 

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