hdtv

Citing those deep holiday discounts for big-screen HDTVs, such as the $999 Westinghouse 42-inch LCD, analysts told CNNMoney.com that this year's Super Bowl won't occasion the same kinds of price cuts. Previous years have seen lineman-size reductions in HDTV prices during the two weeks leading up to the big game, but this year outlets such as Circuit City and Best Buy, whose profits were hurt by a blitz of holiday sales, will instead focus on kicker-size price promotions (the deepest discount analysts saw so far is a $250 Vizio deal at Costco) and bundles. If you were … Read more

Is it possible to have a positive Webware experience on something besides a PC? Cell phones and small handheld Internet devices don't cut it with their tiny screens and awful browsers (at least until the iPhone arrives). So what if you could use that nice bandwidth you get at home and combine it with that large HDTV sitting in your living room? That question has recently been answered with Nintendo and Sony's more recent gaming consoles: the Wii and the PS3, respectively. Microsoft's Xbox 360 doesn't have a browser, likely because of the company's failure … Read more

First there was 1080p. Now there's something called "Quad Full" or 3,840x2,160 resolution, which Westinghouse showed off in a 56-inch LCD HD monitor at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. The company says that equates to a resolution greater than 8 megapixels and that the LCD offers "stunning, never-before-seen picture reproduction."

The Quad Full monitor may be the flashy headline act, but the real meat of the story is that Westinghouse is serving up several new LCD televisions, with a full lineup of moderately priced 1080p models in 42-, 47-, and 52-inch sizes. … Read more

As reported last week, Warner Brothers announced yesterday at CES its introduction of a new disc format that will contain both HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of the same movie, so it would work with either type of player. Warner calls the new format Total HD.

The studio fleshed out a few more details at the press conference. It announced that major retailers Best Buy and Circuit City, along with online retailer Amazon, will stock the discs when they appear in the second half of this year. It also specified, according to Reuters, that the discs could be either single- … Read more

Hitachi's main television-related introduction at CES 2007 might engender a certain amount of confusion about an already-confusing topic to many HDTV buyers. The company is marketing its new plasma TV, the P50H401 (February, $2,500), as the world's first "50-inch 1080 HDTV flat panel for under $2,500." If you're paying close attention (and really, who is?), you'll notice "p" is a big deal, however--the panel's pixel array is 1,280x1,080, not the 1,920x1,080 that qualifies for 1080p native resolution. But the price is definitely better than that … Read more

Panasonic's new line of LCD projection TVs are featuring a new technology--called LIFI--that Panasonic is claiming will eliminate the need for lamp replacement. Since today's LCD and DLP projection sets often need to have their bulb replaced after 3-5 years--and the bulbs cost several hundred dollars--LIFI technology could get remove one of the major drawbacks to projection TVs. We have seen ultralong bulb-life from projection TVs on Samsung's HL-S5679W, which was the first DLP HDTV to use an LED light source. The HL-S5679W claimed its bulb lasted for 20,000 hours, which means it virtually never needs … Read more

Panasonic's 2007 press event Sunday at the CES was devoted primarily to extolling the virtues of the company's television cash cow: plasma HDTVs. It featured numerous presentations covering the myths and realities of plasma, plasma picture quality, and the ways plasma TVs can help you "live in high definition." The press event was a snoozer, but just about my favorite thing at CES this year was the amazing display at the Panasonic booth, which consisted of a pair of 103-inch plasmas dancing on articulated mounts that moved up and down and rotated in synch, displaying video … Read more

The headline on Dish Network's press release says "free high-definition DVR," but the fine print is a bit less exciting. The company introduced two new programming packages, called DishDVR Advantage and Dish DVR Advantage HD, that are said to reduce the cost of items purchased separately--as much as seven percent for the first package (woo hoo!). The "free high-definition DVR," a ViP-622 normally available for $199, is part of the HD version. For the reasonable cost of $69.99 per month, customers will receive the DVR, the satcaster's 30 national HD channels (more info), … Read more

In a major announcement at CES this year, DirecTV said it would expand its national HD channel offering to 100 channels by the end of the year, far surpassing the HD channel offerings of satellite rival Dish Network and of cable providers. The "100" number sounds suspiciously round to me, but the company's press release mentions it has "signed agreements, or agreements in principle, with more than 70 major networks including: A&E, National Geographic, Bravo, NFL Network, Cartoon Network, SciFi Channel, CNN, Speed, Food Network, TBS, FX, the History Channel, HGTV, the Weather Channel, … Read more