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Gizmag: LG may have been beaten to the 3D TV punch by the likes of Samsung, Sony and Panasonic but the Korean manufacturer has still managed to claim a first with its new Infinia HDTVs – namely the world’s first Full LED 3D HDTV. This seems to splitting hairs a bit as both Samsung and Sony offer 3D TVs in edge LED backlit flavors, but LG’s new LX9500 series are the first with LED backlighting that supports localized dimming for improved contrast and blacker blacks. LG’s entry into the 3D market also sees the release of the edge backlit LX6500 series and the company’s first 3D-capable Network Blu-ray player.

LX9500
LG’s LX9500 series that was first unveiled in March comes in 47- and 55-inch screen sizes offering Full HD 1080p resolution to each eye through the now standard use of active shutter glasses and an emitter built directly into the TV. The TVs’ LED backlighting feature a 480Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, 2D THX Certification, DLNA Certification, a super-slim frame with a 0.92-inch bezel and boast up to 240 addressable LED segments (on the 55-inch model) for localized dimming and a contrast ratio of 10,000,000:1.

LX6500
The the LX9500 series, the LX6500 series also comes in 47- and 55-inch screen sizes and retains Full HD 1080p resolution and DLNA Certification, but loses the 2D THX Certification and drops the refresh rate down to 240Hz and ups the response time to 2ms. Instead of LED backlighting the LX6500 series 8,000,000:1 contrast ratio is courtesy of edge lighting with local dimming.

Commonalities
With the use of an optional adapter both the LX9500 and LX6500 series can access online content, including NetCast, Yahoo! TV Widgets, Netflix, Vudu, Picasa and YouTube, over a home Wi-Fi network. Both of LG’s 3D LED HDTV series also include energy saving features such as an Intelligent Sensor to automatically calibrate and optimize image brightness, contrast, white balance and color based on the ambient light in the room.

BX580 Network Blu-ray player
LG’s BX580 Network Blu-ray player adds 3D playback capabilities in additons to standard 2D Blu-ray discs and DVDs. Unlike the new HDTVs the player comes with Wi-Fi capability built-in for access to online content capabilities from NetCast, including Netflix, CinemaNow, VUDU, YouTube, MLB.TV, Pandora, Picasa and AccuWeather. The player is also DLNA Certified.

LG’s LX6500 series are priced at US$2,700 and $3,600 for the 47- and 55-inch models respectively, while the LX9500 series goes for $4,300 and $5,400 respectively. The BX580 Network Blu-ray player is priced at $350.

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3D Radar: Sony believes that people looking at what console to buy should take into consideration that the PlayStation 3 is ‘futureproofed in terms of 3D.’

Speaking at TechRadar at a John Lewis event, Sony’s Mick Hocking, senior director at SCEE, is keen to get the message out that the PS3 is becoming 3D ready for free, so that anyone with the console and a 3D Ready TV can take advantage.

“The message we are trying to get out there is that if you have a PlayStation 3 you don’t have to do anything it connects and downloads the firmware upgrade and it’s 3D ready,” Hocking told TechRadar.

“If you are going to choose a console then it’s future-proofed in terms of 3D.”

Adoption like HD

Hocking believes that adoption of 3D in the living room will be similar to the steady rise of HD, and believes that manufacturers and content providers will ensure that, this time, the technology will make a major impact.

“I think adoption is going to be like HD,” said Hocking, “But it delivers a lot more than HD and people need to see it to understand it.

“We think it’s going to bring a great deal to gaming and 3D games are here to stay now.

“3D’s been around for 180-odd years and its come and gone a few times, but now we have high-res technology, we have performance in the consoles and we can deliver content.

“Broadcasters, filmmakers, camera makers, camcorder manufacturers – they are all behind it because they see it as a way to sell more hardware.

“Content providers are incentivised to do it because they think ‘we have a new creative media to wow audiences’.”

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Engadget HD: You’d be hard pressed to find a TV without some sort of extra box attached to it these days — and with each box comes another remote. The sad part is it doesn’t have to be this way, nope, the necessary interaction between devices really isn’t that complicated. The problem is the devices just aren’t designed to work together, but that isn’t because the industry hasn’t tried. All the political reasons aside the technology to let your cable box carry on a two way conversation with your TV and other equipment does exist. So we’re going to explain what’s out there. If you’ve ever wondered how you can gain more control over your gear using everything from an IR blaster to sending TCP commands via IP, then read on.

Infrared (IR)

This is the king of control protocols in the living room and in fact just about every remote control made in recent history uses it to deliver controls from across a room. It’s very basic in that the remote emits light at a wavelength outside our eye’s range and the receiving device patiently waits for the signal. Because it’s based on light its line of sight (i.e. if someone is standing in the way the remote doesn’t work). The only wonderful thing about IR though is its universal support, and so it is the de facto control standard. While no control protocol is perfect, the big problem with IR is that most devices can’t send signals, only receive them. This means that while you can buy a programmable remote to control everything in your rack, the Blu-ray player can’t send a signal to your TV and tell it to turn on. Technically it’s possible, but since every manufacturer uses its own IR codes, even if the Blu-ray player did have an emitter, odds are it wouldn’t emit the correct signal. Lets assume for a second, though, that every device did use the same codes. Then you’d still have two more problems. Since IR is line of sight any TV in range would respond, and even worse, if something was blocking the signal it wouldn’t work at all.

There have been some devices that emit IR signals to control other devices like the original TiVo, the Slingbox and in the near future the Google TV, so to deal with the line of sight issue, IR blasters are used. A blaster is basically an IR emitter attached via a wire directly to the controlled device. This way you can place the emitter directly in front of the device you’re controlling in an attempt to ensure nothing gets in the way. IR blasters work pretty good as long as they stay in place — especially if you install a shield that blocks stray IR signals — but still don’t overcome IR’s one way nature. And of course the controlling device must be programmed to send the appropriate IR signals and timings. It also helps if the device support discrete IR codes for on and off, as reliably controlling a device with only toggle power commands can be almost impossible.

High-Definition Multimedia Interface – Consumer Electronics Control (HDMI-CEC)

HDMI has really taken off as the new standard in connectivity in the home theater and for good reason — it isn’t perfect though. Instead of requiring a number of cables to carry the various signals between your Blu-ray player and your HDTV, a single cable carries audio, video and other data like control signals. Unfortunately HDMI-CEC isn’t nearly as popular as HDMI, and even when it is supported, manufacturers only support it when connected to the same brand hardware. Most even go further and re-brand it like Samsung who calls it Anynet while Panasonic that calls it VIERA Link. In reality most of the basics do work between different manufacturers and since no programming is required, many functions just work. The best example is when you turn on a Blu-ray player, the HDTV would also turn on and switch to the input that the Blu-ray player is connected to. There are also examples of when it doesn’t work, and sometimes it is intentional. We’ve seen a few devices that would probably work together, but disable themselves if they don’t detect the expected device on the other end. But even worse, some manufacturers don’t seem to support it at all which can at best be annoying, but at worst prevent other devices from communicating — for example if you have a Blu-ray player connected to an HDTV via a AVR that doesn’t support HDMI-CEC, then it doesn’t work at all. We’ve even seen some HDMI cables that won’t pass the signals, so yeah, there’s lots that can go wrong here.

All the bad things aside, HDMI-CEC does have the most potential of all the control protocols used in the home theater, but until it is widely supported by the industry, it’ll never gain significant traction in the home. When it does work it is pretty sweet, especially since it is truly plug and play — so no programming required.

RS-232

Oh the interface that’ll never die lives on in the our home theaters too. It even uses our old friend the DB-9 connector and is pretty universal. After you get the old 8-N-1 going you’ll have to know the codes which can be more difficult to come by since there isn’t exactly large databases of codes like there are for IR remotes, and you can’t exactly learn the codes either. But when you can get the protocol from the manufacturer you have yourselves some very reliable two-way control. Now of course most devices don’t sport RS-232 ports these days and even when they do there’s only one. So it isn’t like you can daisy chain ‘em like HDMI-CEC, which means you need a dedicated device to control everything. This device can be as simple as an old PC loaded with serial ports or as high end as a Crestron controller that retails for more than most cars.

But just because your set-top box doesn’t have a DB9 on it doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t support RS-232. No, in fact there are some devices like the old ReplayTV that had a mini-jack port that was actually an RS-232 port and another example is the latest DirecTV receivers which support certain USB to RS-232 adapters. Now for something like a Slingbox or a Google TV, RS-232 would work perfectly since the two are close to each other and it is very reliable — but of course it isn’t perfect either as it isn’t like a set-top would respond to a request for a list of current VOD offerings.

1394 (aka Firewire)

This isn’t exactly one of the first things that pop in your head when you think of control interfaces, but anyone who has transferred video from a HDV camcorder knows that you can control the camcorder from the capture software. Well these same controls and more are available to make recording via 1394 from a set-top box possible. And while we’ve only seen a few HDTVs with 1394 ports, there are lots and lots of cable set-top boxes with them — although thanks to a loophole in an FCC mandate, many of the ports don’t actually work. We’ve seen people use the 1394 port to change channels on their cable box from their HTPC. It is more reliable than IR, but not nearly as widely supported.

IP control

The most prolific communications protocol in the world is also useful for controlling some home theater gear; and has the best chance of taking over the job of being the de facto standard from IR. More and more devices are internet connected than ever these days and in many cases these same Ethernet ports can be used to control the device. Sadly many of these protocols are not documented at all and only exist to allow the manufacturer’s iPhone remote to work. Luckily most of these devices don’t require authentication so using a network sniffer to discover the protocol isn’t beyond the abilities of any decent networking geek. So far we haven’t seen the adoption we need to really make IP the new standard, but there are plenty of AV receivers, and Blu-ray players that can be controlled like this and TiVo’s have performed this trick for years. The best part is that most of the IP control protocols we’ve seen go beyond basic on/off and transport controls and do allow you to query data from the device and other fancy things.

Lots of options, but no silver bullet

As you can see there are plenty of control options for your home theater gear way beyond IR, but even with some very carefully planning you’ll probably end up using more than a few of them at the same time. The only two that have any chance of being used by your mom is HDMI-CEC and IP control with the later being a stretch since it requires all the devices be connected to the same network. We say that because both can auto discover and configure themselves once the proper plumbing is in place. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record if just about every device out there doesn’t support the same control interface, then it is all for naught.

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TechRadar: The Sony Bravia KDL-46NX703 makes a big impact right out of the box, with its slender profile thanks to edge LED lighting and Sony’s single-layer ‘Monolithic’ fascia. Our test sample was finished in a striking white, too.

Connections are extensive, including four HDMIs, an Ethernet port, a USB port and, best of all, built-in Wi-Fi. As you’d expect from this, the 46NX703 is fully geared up for accessing both a DLNA PC and Sony’s Bravia Internet Video online service.

The latter is pretty excellent, with reams of high quality video content from a wide array of sources including YouTube, Fifa, EuroSport, the Demand Five Channel 5 ‘iPlayer’ and Lovefilm. The quality and stability of all the Bravia Internet Video content is impressive too, as is the quantity of different multimedia file formats the set can handle via its DLNA and USB capabilities.

As we’d expect from such a high-level Sony TV, the screen is loaded with picture processing, including the brand’s excellent Bravia Engine 3, Live Colour and MotionFlow 100Hz systems.

The remote control and onscreen menus make accessing some of the features a bit fiddly and convoluted, but hopefully you won’t need to revisit menus too often after setup.

Performance

Sony’s first mainstream stab at edge LED technology proves mostly very successful. Right away we were struck by how bright, colourful and natural its pictures look, with vivid, rich saturations and extreme light output levels.

Standard and high-definition pictures both look clean and pure too, while black levels rate as among the best we’ve seen on an edge-lit TV. The MotionFlow 100Hz engine plays its part in the general picture purity, too, reducing motion blur and judder to a minimum.

There are a few minor problems, though, starting with some gentle backlight inconsistency just about visible during very dark scenes. But you won’t see this for most of your viewing time and even when you do, it’s seldom truly distracting.

The Sony’s viewing angle is rather limited, too, compared with Panasonic’s plasma model, and finally, HD material doesn’t look quite as crisp and detailed as it does on some rivals. But some people might actually prefer its slightly less forensic approach.

Sonically, the 46NX703 is only average. Voices sound reasonably realistic and trebles are clean, but bass sounds muddy and weak, as is so often the case with slimline TVs. Hopefully the optional speaker bar/ stand improves audio delivery.

Overall, the 46NX703 is a very likeable TV, if slightly expensive. It looks great, delivers some excellent, pictures and offers some sterling network features.
 

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Techwatch: The arrival of 3D television has been fairly slow and it seems that at the moment there are those consumers that love it and those that hate it. But despite this slow take up and the lack of content available, production of the 240 Hz LCD TV panel, which is essential for 3D TV, is to go into production, as the market anticipates significant sales of 3D Ready TVs this year.

According to a digitimes.com report, the main players in 3D TV technology are expecting big sales for the 240 Hz based TV during this year, with Samsung being the most optimistic with 3.6 million units, Sony 2.2 million, Panasonic 1.1 million and LG 1 million. With half the year gone there is little time left for the market to drastically change.

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iPodNN: Monster Cable showed the first universal 3D glasses on Wednesday with the Monster Vision Max 3D. The shutter-system glasses will purportedly work with any brand of 3D TV and use 2.4GHz RF communication as opposed to the IR common to other 3D glasses. They have interference rejection software and sync correction, and can instantly react electro-chromatically.

At the same time, Monster Cable introduced the Clarity HD Modular in-ear headphones. With solid-metal construction, they will include the company’s signature ear hooks for a solid connection with a wearer’s ear, making them a better pick for runners. To properly block out noise, Monster includes 10 pairs of SuperTip composite foam eartips. An inline remote with a microphone gives iPhone and iPod touch users voice support.

The 3D glasses and a transmitter as a kit is due out in September, priced at $250. An additional set of eyeglasses will cost $170. The headphones are also coming in September in black-and-red and chrome-and-red version, with a $200 price tag.
 

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Engadget: When it comes to TV reviews, we have to give a nod to CNet and its David Katzmaier for being one of the best around; so when he says it is the best TV he’s ever tested, we officially want one. The new Panasonic VT25 line didn’t rule every category though, and of course there are concerns that the black levels will prematurely degrade like last year’s — CNet intends to continuously test the VT25 to keep Panasonic honest. Now we know you’re wondering about how it compares to the legendary Kuro and while it lit up the light meeter at a crazy low .004 ftl, the PRO-111FD Kuro is still the winner at .001 ftl — interestingly the similarly speced G20 line only managed .007 ftl. Whether this difference is noticeable at home is up for debate, but Kuro still reigns king as far as the light black meter is concerned. Also of note is the fact that while LED backlit LCDs can also get down real far on the meter, the inconsistency across the screen pretty much makes it a moot point. While we’re comparing to LCDs; according to CNet, the 55-inch Samsung C8000 costs about $35 less a year to operate than the 50-inch VT25, and while the anti-glare screen on the Panny is more effective at reducing reflections than the Samsung LCDs, it didn’t preserve the black levels as well. It was also discovered that the 96hz mode, unique to the VT25 line, produced flicker free motion with 24p content, which is a must have for movie buffs. And what about 3D? Well just like Consumer reports and many others, CNet agrees that the VT25 is the best 3DTV yet, and although it does show some signs of ghosting on 3D content, it is noticeably less than Samsung 3DTVs.

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Cnet UK: HDMI has been a part of our life for a few years now. It enables HD video and audio to travel from an HD source, like Blu-ray to our high definition televisions. There have been several revisions, and the latest is known as HDMI 1.4. But what’s the big deal about this version?

The people most likely to care about HDMI 1.4 are those intending to buy a 3D TV and Blu-ray player. The new standard is intended to make 3D TVs a bit more user friendly by allowing televisions to auto-switch to the correct mode when they detect a 3D signal. All 3D TVs and Blu-ray players will support HDMI 1.4 from the outset, so TVs will only fail to auto-switch to 3D when being fed a signal from a Sky+HD or other set-top-box that’s essentially had 3D support added retrospectively.

HDMI 1.4 also features something known as an Audio Return Channel, or ARC. This is very handy for people who want to pass audio received by their TV back to an AV receiver. Normally, this would be accomplished with a coaxial or optical digital cable, or with a stereo RCA cable. Now, the TV can get over-the-air HD broadcasts from Freeview or freesat HD and send that Dolby Digital or LPCM audio back to your audio system.

Also present, is a full 100MB/s data capability, which will allow devices to share data with each other. In theory, this allows devices to share their internet connections with each other. So we might see AV receivers act as the only device in your entertainment system connected to an Ethernet router, and the other devices simply sharing its connection. There are other possibilities too, like devices transferring secure, HD video between each other, while still respecting copy protection.

For 3D and ARC you won’t need a new HDMI cable, although you might have trouble with low quality, cheap cables if they aren’t capable of transmitting enough data –3D is extremely data intensive, so cheap cables, that do 1080p okay, might not be able to cope with 1080p 3D. The networking functionality will definitely need a new cable though.

On the subject of HDMI 1.4 cables, everything does become a lot more confusing. With the new standard comes a total of five possible types of cable. These are standard, standard with Ethernet and standard automotive. Unless you want to connect a camcorder to your car with an HDMI cable, ignore the last one. Standard and standard with Ethernet are designed for video up 1080i, and depending on which you chose, the transmission of data. The chances are, you’ll never see a ‘standard’ cable, because it’s very unlikely to be of use to most people, and manufacturers will want to write “high speed” on their cables.

On the other hand, high speed cables will handle 1080p and up, including new formats like 4K video and 3D. There are two kinds, high speed and high speed with Ethernet. We think you can work out what the difference is.

There is also a new connector type that you may see appear. In addition to full size and mini HDMI there is now a ‘micro’ connector. Aimed at mobile phones and other tiny devices, it’s got all the functionality of its bigger brothers, but can be used where space is at a premium. Honestly, we can’t help but be annoyed that there are now three sizes of connector. This sort of thing is deeply annoying with USB cables, and it’s bound to cause problems with HDMI too.

Don’t panic, you aren’t going to need to rush out and replace all of your current cables and equipment. The advantages of HDMI 1.4 over 1.3 are significant if you’re buying new equipment, but don’t affect anyone with current hardware.

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Übergizmo: While the specifications of the next TV you purchase are certainly important, the color might be something you were considering too. The bad news is that many manufacturers seem to think that we should be content with our TVs being black. The folks over at ColorWare have different opinions of course, and instead of coloring your usual BlackBerry or MacBook, the company is now offering to tweak the color scheme of your TV too. The company is more than happy to provide a custom quote on the TV of your choice, but we don’t expect it to come cheap.

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T3: Samsung and Sony beware; the other big S in TVs is coming for the 3D crown. A new big-player entered the 3D TV market earlier this week as the Japanese electronics giant Sharp unveiled its inaugural line of LCD Aquos Quattron 3D TVs.

Sharp, who bucked the 3D trend earlier this year by instead unveiling its fourth colour (yellow) technology, has now entered the extra dimensional market with a range of four 3D TVs set to challenge the current 3D competitors, Samsung and Sony.

Sharp’s range will include 40, 46, 52 and 56-inch models that, thanks to the inclusion of Sharp’s LED backlight technology, are a staggering skinny 3.9mm thick.

Setting its new LV range of Quattron 3D TVs apart from those 3D models already on the market, Sharp are promoting its line as the world’s first four primary-colour 3D displays, adding yellow to the traditional red, green and blue for more brightly defined images.

Again setting itself apart from the competition and whilst Samsung are raving about their 2D to 3D image conversion, Sharp has flipped things on its head, boasting about its 3D to 2D conversion capabilities, presumably for when you want to get back to the good ol’ days.

Paired with AN-3DG10 glasses, expected to cost around £75 each, the 3D Quattron range has been launched alongside the arrival of the Aquos BD-HDW700 and BD-HDW730 3D Blu-ray players, both of which will lead double lives as hard-disk recorders capable of keeping hold of up to 2TB of data.

A UK release date for Sharp’s 3D range has yet to be announced but if we are honest, we can’t see the four-coloured 3D sets rocking up anytime soon.

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Übergizmo: One of the many benefits of OLED displays are that they can be flexible. Now Sony has announced an ultra thin flexible OLED display, and we’re talking 80µm-thick, which is less than a strand of hair. This OLED display measures in at 4.1-inches and sports a resolution of 432 x 240 pixels and has a contrast ratio of under 1,000:1. It also claims to be the first OLED panel to be able to play videos while being rolled up and stretched around a cylinder with a 4mm radius. If this gets mass produced, who knows what kind of cool gadgets we’ll be seeing in the next year or so?

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msnbc: Google TV was announced today. But what exactly is it? Give us two minutes. (more…)

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