Television News Blog

Just before CES 2009 is ready to kick off JVC has decided to take the wraps off a prototype that it's calling the lightest 32-inch LCD HDTV ever. They've achieved the feat by moving a lot of the components off of the TV itself to a separate box. In what looks like a trend leading up to CES this year JVC is also pushing the green angle here with 50% fewer materials going into the HDTV.

[Via Gizmodo]

Netflix has been remarkably aggressive about getting their streaming content into your living room via set top boxes like the Roku or Xbox 360, but it looks like you won't even need those to get your Netflix fix if you purchase a new LG HDTV. LG is announcing that they will be releasing a lineup of Plasma and LCD televisions at CES this week that will come with built-in support for streaming Netflix content. As you would expect HD Netflix content is also supported and you'll be able to control video playback with your TV's remote. We're sure this is just the next step in what has been an accelerating move towards getting streaming internet video on your HDTV. Macworld is happening this week too so we'll see if Apple has any updates to their Apple TV to compete with Netflix's burgeoning selection of straight to the television streaming options.

[Via Engadget HD]

Rumors are abounding that Samsung will be revealing a 6.5mm thin HDTV at CES this year. If true this would represent the thinnest HDTV ever, but we'll have to wait until Samsung officially reveals their lineup this Wednesday for confirmation.

[Yahoo Tech via Engadget HD]

Black Friday 2008 is upon us and we're here to bring you all the best HDTV deals we can find. Click through to see all of the HDTV deals we've been able to find, and don't forget to read our reviews before you go shopping.

We were quite impressed with the 47-inch XVT when we looked at it in our review, and for those who were waiting for a larger screen you can now get 55-inch hotness with the XVT's goodies like 120Hz Smooth Motion, 50,000:1 contrast ratio and five HDMI ports. The XVT series is a great value, as we mentioned in our review of the SV470XVT.

[Via Engadget HD]

Apple has released an update for their less than impressive set top box (the Apple TV if you don't know). The update adds several long awaited features (note: sarcasm implied), including the ability to have universal remotes and viewing of iTunes playlists in the Apple TV interface. We should note, however, that if you have attempted to actually make the Apple TV useful by installing a third party interface like Boxee this update will cause Boxee to stop working. We'll let you make your own call on whether iTunes playlists are worth it.

[Via Engadget HD]

Silicon Mountain's got some slick new HDTVs for those who love all-in-ones. The Allio HDTVs are currently available in 32-inch and 42-inch sizes and pack a 1080p HDTV and a full computer with Blu-Ray drive and hard drives up to 1TB running Windows Vista Home Premium, which comes with all the media center goodies you might want. We have to admit, as hard core geeks these things make us salivate a bit. And why invest in the ultimate home theatre/pc setup when you can make one low payment of between $1600 - $2800 to get it all at once?

[Via Engadget HD]

We decided to watch the election coverage in style here at the Televisioninfo.com offices: on 4 TVs at once.

From the left we have the 32-inch, JVC LT-32P679, a rather old and cranky Hitachi  projection TV, the Vizio V047L and the Samsung LN32A450, which we are currently reviewing. the first three are being driven off a Comacst HD cable connection, while the Samsung is connected to a Laptop over a VGA connection. For those tedious moments imbetween results and concession speeches, the Vizio is also connected to an XBox 360.

There's no question that OLED technology is the future of displays, most importantly because they will allow us to get displays in all kinds of new places. Not sure where? Samsung's pushing the envelope with both a paper thin OLED display and embedded OLED displays in windows. Gizmodo's got some great pictures of both, so head on over and check it out.

Netflix has had a busy week. First up was an announcement that they would be bringing their streaming video service to Macs, with the service now in closed Beta but expected to be available generally by the end of the year. Netflix will be using Microsoft's Flash competitor Silverlight to allow Mac users to stream Movies and TV shows from their website. You will need to be a Netflix subscriber to use the service, of course. [via: Boy Genius Report]

Netflix also announced that they would be bringing their streaming video service to Tivo set top boxes as well. Tivo has previously had partnerships with Amazon's Unboxed service to provide downloadable Movies and TV shows, the streaming Netflix service now gives Tivo users even more options to get onlline content onto their HDTVs. [via: Engadget HD]

Last up is word that Netflix will begin streaming HD video to Xbox 360s, which had previously already supported standard definition streaming. I'm sure that Tivo and Mac users hope that HD streams come to their devices soon as well. [via: Gizmodo]

An interesting study indicates that your dreams are influenced by the TV you watch. Respondents to the survey who grew up watching black and white TV were over five times more likely to dream in black and white than those who grew up in the color era. Chock up another point for those who think we watch too much TV.

[Via: Gizmodo photo by: Chor Ip]

The ongoing effort by the MPEG-LA consortium to get HDTV suppliers to pay licensing fees for their Mpeg-2 patents. The issue here is whether companies that rebrand HDTVs, DVD players and other equipment that uses Mpeg-2 need to pay licensing fees even if the original manufacturer has already paid the licensing fee. Target's move to reach an agreement with the MPEG-LA consortium is another victory for that group, while others like Vizio still hold out.

[Via: Engadget HD]

Sharp has been known for its hybrid DVD/HDTV units and it looks like its moving into the Blu-Ray game with itx DX LCD lineup, which will now be available with built-in Blu-Ray players. The DX range will include sizes from 26 to 52 inches with smallers sets sporting 720p resolution moving into full 1080p on the larger ones. Prices will range between $1600 and $4900.

[Akihabara News via Gizmodo]