January 13th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
NEC was showing off their curved monitor model CRVD-42DWX+ at CES 2008. It’s a 42-inch 2880×900 resolution 32:10 aspect-ratio 10000:1 contrast-ratio LED-backlit DLP display with a 0.02ms response time – great for 3-D gaming and widescreen & immersive apps. Same (?) as the Alienware Curved display also seen at CES…it’s made by the same folks, namely little-known ODM Ostendo Technologies Inc.
Another surface display at CES: NEC CRVD-42DWX – PjTime.com, 2008-1-11
Posted in TVs & Monitors ~ 4 Comments
January 11th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Panasonic demonstrated its Life Wall prototype at CES 2008. Details are short but the idea is to replace entire walls in your living room with interactive touchscreens so as to simulate almost any environment. At the demo live models stood in front of a simulated wall complete with a fake fireplace, simulated view, and proceeded to call up Google Earth. Great concept. 
The fictional holodeck of Star Trek fame is now a step closer…the Life Wall represents pre-Alpha version 10^-10.
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January 10th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
CNet just bestowed their “Best in Show” award to Philips for their 42-inch energy-saving 1080p LCD HDTV model 42PFL5603D dubbed “Eco TV”. $1,399
The Eco won on the basis of its power-saving backlight, which adjusts to darker scenes and room lighting conditions, resulting in a 10% reduction in your electricity bill. It’s also lead-free, mercury-challenged and has recycled packaging, making it a greener-TV.
That’s commendable of course, but if we remember correctly, back in the good old days TVs were mostly fêted on the basis of their picture quality.
see Philips Wins “Best in Show” Award at CES for Power-Saving Eco TV, January 10, 2008
Posted in TVs & Monitors ~ 1 Comment
January 8th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Mitsubishi showed their much anticipated laser-based DLP TV at CES 2008 today.
Called appropriately enough Mitsubishi LaserTV, the main feature & significant advantage of the unit is that it delivers twice the color gamut of regular HDTVs. Other pluses include low power consumption, long life and low unit weight and cost.
While Mitsubishi did not release official specs for their laser TV, studies show that the device should be capable of producing more greens and reds as compared to LCD or plasma, with not much difference for blues… 
At 1 point, laser TV with its brighter crisper saturated colors was touted to own the market, but with the arrival of improved hang-on-the-wall ultra-thin LCDs, Plasmas and OLEDs, the picture for rear-projection DLPs becomes less clear.
Mitsubishi’s Revolutionary Laser Television Raises Home Entertainment to a New Level – Mitsubishi press release, 2008-01-07
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January 7th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
The new 150-inch plasma TV from Panasonic made its official debut at CES 2008. Here are some pix of the beast. It’s officially described as the “World’s Largest Advanced High Definition 150″ Plasma Display”.
The thing measures 11 ft by 6 1/4 ft (thats 3.31×1.87m), delivers 8.84 million pixels of goodness, is expected to sell for more than $100K and to find a home in commercial & public facilities…but likely not in your home.
In an interesting side note, Panasonic indicates that they sold 3000 of their preceding large plasma, the 700 lb 103-inch model.
Panasonic Introduces Next-Gen Plasma Displays at CES2008
Posted in TVs & Monitors ~ 1 Comment
January 7th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Move along, nothing to see here…same old stuff…
…well actually, DigitalCameraInfo has a good summary review of a dozen or so digital photo frame products seen at CES 2008. Somewhat interesting is the world’s largest digital photo frame at 812mm…the Smartparts 32-inch LCD SP3200 has a resolution of 1366×768; it will sell for about $900 when it becomes available in a couple of months. – at 32-inches, it’s a potential cure for poster blindness.
The Parrot DF7700 is also interesting. The DF770 was announced back in October 2007 and is making an appearance at CES 2008. What’s different about the Parrot is that it comes with a built-in SIM card and so can receive images via MMS from cell phones.
CES Digital Photo Frame Round Up – DigitalCameraInfo.com, Jan. 7,2008
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January 7th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Looks like Matsushita Electric, purveyor of the Panasonic brand of consumer electronics, will demo a 150-inch plasma TV while at CES 2008.
At their website, Panasonic states that the thing has a resolution of 4096×2160 thus delivering 4x HDTV, and is the size of nine regular 50-inch TVs. omg – world’s largest TV.
Matsushita to introduce 150-inch plasma television - Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 24, 2007
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January 1st, 2008
By GadgetManiac
SED aka Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display — the technology that promised so much but delivered so little, may be on its way back. A report in asahi.com entitled Canon SED TV describes how Canon, fed up with litigation by Nano Proprietary, plans to end-run NP’s patents.
About time…we at G-M had just about given up hope for this very promising TV flat-panel display technology.
Posted in TVs & Monitors ~ 5 Comments
March 24th, 2007
By GadgetManiac
Samsung announces 3 more models in their Bordeaux line of 1080p HD LCD TVs, at a diagonal size of 40, 46 and 52 inches. The 52″ TV has model number LN52M81BD and a price of about 5500000 won or about $5867.
Seems that Sams has not only added the 2 larger models to the lineup since last month’s news release, but has also found a way to jack up the contrast ratio on the Bordeaux line to 15000:1.
Black panel Bordeaux HD LCD TV – Samsung press release, 2007 March 21st
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March 18th, 2007
By GadgetManiac
Samsung shines a little LED-goodness on their monitors…
At CeBIT2007, Samsung announced their new 30-inch SyncMaster XL30 LCD monitor that comes equipped with an LED backlight, for better color reproduction. The new backlight system provides 123% of the NTSC color gamut, and is especially good with greens and reds…as compared to conventional CCFL backlighting.
The monitor itself has a resolution of 2560×1600, brightness is at a respectable, if unspectacular, 300 cd/m2 and the pixel response time is very good at 6ms (gray-to-gray). It has a DVI-D interface. A follow-on to last-year’s similarly-LED-ified XL20 which went for $1999…which suggests that the new XL30 might carry a price of $2999.
And, we’re beginning to think they’re serious about this monitor, as the XL30 comes equipped with a hardware color calibration device.
Samsung Introduces 30-inch LED back light unit monitor – Samsung Press Release, 15 March 2007
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