TX-NR609

The NZ distributor of Onkyo products next month will announce the pricing and specs of the 2011 a/v receiver range.

But for a sneak peek, see Trusted Reviews’ rundown of four of the models.

The biggest news for HD diehards is the inclusion of Marvell Qdeo video processing on the TX-NR609, which will upscale standard video signals to state-of-the-art 4K-resolution (3840 x 2160).

The TX-NR609 also will have six HDMI inputs, including one on the front, two subwoofer pre-outs and an analogue RGB video input for accepting computer signals that are then routed via HDMI to the display.

Sharp VX-Z1700

Projector Central warns anyone contemplating buying a 3D home cinema projector to expect “a new assortment of artifacts” no matter which brand they choose.

It argues 2D home projection has neared perfection over the past 10 years and urges people to buy 3D-enabled projectors, such as those exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show, only for occasional 3D use.

Of the brands it saw in action, which did it prefer?

Surprisingly, the relatively affordable Sharp VX-Z1700 ($US5000) was rated more highly than rivals’ models costing two to three times as much.

For more on this, see http://www.projectorcentral.com/1080p_3D_projectors.htm?em.

Meanwhile, Variety reports 3D TV has an image problem.

It says more than one million 3D TVs were bought in the US last year, outstripping first-year sales of HD TVs, but Samsung, the biggest proponent of the technology, expected sales would reach three million.

Variety attributes the modest take-up to lack of 3D broadcasts and the cumbersome glasses needed to view 3D content.

“Samsung, in particular, wants to do away with the current glasses and brokered a deal with RealD to incorporate the company’s 3D projection technology directly into Samsung’s new 3D TV sets.

“Doing so means the free pairs of RealD glasses that moviegoers currently wear in theatres to watch a 3D film can also be used at home.”

As for content, Variety says the major studios hope to release 100 3D films on their “Blu-ray 3D” line of discs this year, sports channel ESPN will launch its 3D sports channel on Valentine’s Day, and Sony has partnered with Imax and Discovery Communications to launch a 3D documentary channel, 3net, in 2011.

“Every videogame company is developing 3D titles. And Verizon’s fibre-optic FiOS TV network can deliver full HD versions of 3D movies and TV shows to Panasonic’s Blu-ray 3D players.

“Other content providers are focused on high-profile fare like sports and concerts, because as long as 3D TV requires glasses, it will only be used for event programming, not casual viewing.”

Panasonic's Viera 37-inch 3D LED TV

The hi-tech mecca that is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has just wrapped for another year.

Here’s a guide to some of the best coverage of new HDTV gear:

Sound+Vision reported on “smart stuff from Samsung” that ranged from now Internet innovations to a fresh design that minimises the frame of a plasma to such an extent that it increases the display area by another inch.

It also has coverage of Sony’s press bash, which included a prototype 3D headset that the Sydney Morning Herald dubbed one of the top 10 products of CES.

High-Def Digest has a series of excellent “Booth Tour” reports on Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Sony – as well as press conference coverage of Panasonic (and Samsung and Sony).

The site also covers Samsung’s roundtable and a Blu-ray director’s panel.

As for reports that the likes of LG will make clunky 3D glasses as much a relic as black-and-white TV, Consumer Reports has a different take on the technology.

The same is true of The Hollywood Reporter TV critic Tim Goodman’s blog on why making TV technology “smarter” could dumb-down the medium.

Sony today announced at the Consumer Electronics Show a 2011 range of HDTVs that includes 16 new 3D-capable models and 22 Inter-connected displays.

In all, Sony will market 27 new LED/LCD Bravia TVs this year, although not all will be offered in NZ.

Distinguishing all of the TVs will be Sony’s new X-Reality Engine and X-Reality picture engines, which the company says separate incoming video signals by outline, texture, and colour/contrast and adding “appropriate image enhancements” to optimise picture quality.

Top of the range will be the 3D-capable KDL-HX820 series (above) with Dynamic Edge LED backlighting.

The 55- and 46-inch models will boast built-in 3D sync transmitter, integrated Wi-Fi (802.11n), Skype-readiness and superior processing with Sony’s X-Reality PRO Engine, a two-chip digital processor that uses a “vast database” of “ideal” signal patterns and compares incoming video signals pixel-by-pixel to display vivid and detailed images.

See Sony’s full 2011 HDTV range here.

Panasonic today launched its 2011 range of plasma and LCD-LED TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

There will be 12 plasma models, including two new screen sizes, and the company’s first LCD-LED Full HD 3D models.

At last year’s CES, Panasonic’s TC-P50VT25 (or the TH-P50VT20Z in NZ) was judged Best Product of the Show.

Panasonic reckons its 2011 line-up improves on this with better picture quality, new crosstalk reduction, faster acting phosphors, the inclusion of DLNA in all models, expanded Internet functionality via the proprietary Viera Connect IPTV platform and Neo Plasma technologies.

The 2011 Viera range also includes Viera Link for increased networking and 3D Viera Image Viewer for watching both 2D and 3D digital still and HD video on a large HDTV.

It’s not yet known how many screen sizes will be offered in NZ but internationally consumers will be able to choose from 3D plasma displays measuring 42, 46, 50, 55, 60 and 65 inches.

Panasonic’s first 3D LED-LED models (below) will be limited to 37- and 32-inch displays.

Panasonic says its new name for its more flexible IPTV functionality, Viera Connect, reflects a move from the walled garden approach of Viera Cast to the interactive and inter-connected philosophy behind the new Internet enabled platform – although don’t expect the NZ models to offer the wealth of apps planned for the US and Japan.

The new models also will be able to playback AVCHD 2D video and 3D video recorded on SD card.

Expect to see the first of Panasonic’s new range on sale here from around April.

For more information, see www.panasonic.com.

Smarthouse reports Samsung Electronics will unveil a “swag of new IP enabled TVs” at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, as it switches focus from 3D to Internet content.

Home Cinema Choice has a preview of LG’s 3D range for CES while on the eve of the year’s biggest hi-tech showcase, Trusted Reviews has posted a “look back in anger” review of 2010’s tech trends.

Writes John Archer: “In looking over 2010’s TV and projector technology as a whole, it seemed to us that for once, maybe the a/v world had innovated too much.

“It felt as if the TV brands had tried to introduce so much new stuff that they’d ended up fumbling some of it.”

The New York Times has published a useful guide to buying a TV, most of which is as relevant to the NZ market as it is to the US.

It includes a viewing distance rule of thumb that recommends you divide it by three, with the result being the ideal height of the screen (which is usually about half the diagonal measure).

And if you want to know how to hook up that new Boxing Day bargain, Engadget has the answers.

Trusted Reviews has judged the best TV of 2010 to be one you can’t buy in New Zealand: Philips’ ultra-wide LED model, the 58PFL9955H Cinema 21:9.

Runner-up was Panasonic’s 3D plasma series, with an LED model from LG and a Samsung LCD TV rounding out the top five.

Sony’s best placing was eighth, for its top-of-the-range 3D behemoth.

Another of its displays ranked 10^th, and Philips, Panasonic and Samsung each had another entry in Trusted Reviews’ top 10.

Loewe’s Individual 40 Compose Slim ranked ninth.

Sky TV will re-run all 12 episodes of the HBO gangster sensation, Boardwalk Empire, back-to-back in HD on Saturday.

They will air from 12.15pm on Sky Movies Greats on the eve of Sky’s free-to-air channel, Prime, picking up the series for 9.35pm Tuesday instalments from January 11.

The 12-hour marathon also precedes Sky’s live coverage of two key awards shows in which Boardwalk Empire star Steve Buscemi stands to win best actor kudos.

The first is The Golden Globes, where he has been nominated in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama; co-star Kelly Macdonald has been nominated for best supporting actress and the show is a contender for Best Television Series – Drama.

The Globes ceremony will air from 2pm on January 17 on Vibe, following live Red Carpet coverage on E! from 11am.

Buscemi’s also been nominated in the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where he’s in the running for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series; the show’s second SAG nomination is for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

The SAG Awards ceremony will air live, in HD, from 2pm on January 31 on Sky Movies, following live Red Carpet coverage on E! from 11am.

A month later, on February 28, Sky Movies also will air in HD the 83^rd Annual Academy Awards.

For more details of Sky’s 2011 awards coverage, see Sky Media Release Awards Season 2011.

Among the Christmas curtain-raisers the networks will unwrap in HD are a swag of DreamWorks movie spin-offs, the first Ice Age and the partly-animated biography of the farmyard critters sweetheart, Beatrix Potter.

TV3′s Ice Age and TV One’s Miss Potter will screen at 7pm and 8.30pm respectively on December 19, the same night TV2 launches a week-long 7pm ‘toon marathon.

It will open with a repeat of Scared Shrekless and continue with Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five, Merry Madgascar, Shrek the Halls and Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special.

TV3 also will use that week to try to boost sampling of HD sitcom Modern Family by stripping re-runs of season one in the 7pm weekday Campbell Live slot.

The network is committed to making the top-rating Emmy-winner as popular here as it is in the US, where earlier reports that star Ed O’Neill had “dissed” Glee’s Jane Lynch for winning an Emmy instead of his co-star, Sofia Vergara, have proved wrong.

Later in the week, TV3 will air in HD the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy, Jingle All the Way (7.30pm Thursday), and on Friday night will screen a Christmas-themed edition of The Graham Norton Show that features Doctor Who’s Matt Smith, and Little Britain’s Matt Lucas and David Williams.

Bruce Willis fans can enjoy a mini-bonanza of his movies in HD next month on Sky Movies Greats.

Screening for the first time in 1080i will be his underrated action-thriller, Hostage (January 15), the Whole Nine Yards sequel, The Whole Ten Yards (January 22), and the lurid graphic novel sensation, Sin City (January 29).

George Clooney, who’s being showcased on Sky Movies next month, also pops up on Sky Movies Greats, in Intolerable Cruelty (January 24), while the obscure Jack Nicholson-Michael Caine thriller, Blood and Wine, screens on January 31.

Other HD premieres include The 6th Day (January 2), Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (January 9), and 1998’s Great Expectations (January 16).