ScreenScribe

Samsung’s 2011 home entertainment HD systems will combine Blu-ray 3D playback with wireless Smart Hub streaming. Only the top-of-the-range HT-D6750W will have 7.1 audio but the three 5.1 systems – HT-D7500W, HT-D550W and HT-D5530 – will offer virtual 7.1. All will have “3D Depth Sound”, for generating sounds that move with the 3D picture, and [...]

Samsung is poised to launch three new LED Smart TV ranges in NZ, with pricing still to be confirmed. The D8000, D7000 and D6600 series will offer 2D, 3D, HD and streaming content, PVR functionality via USB recording, and “Smart Hub” entertainment options. As with Samsung’s 2011 plasma TV range, these sets will have unusually [...]

Samsung has started to ship its new, 3D-capable “Plasma+1” TVs. The D8000, D6900, D550 and D490/450 series have a narrow bezel that adds an extra inch of viewable screen size over Samsung’s 2010 plasma TVs. The top-of-the-range D8000 Smart TV models have Real Black Filter technology for improved on-screen contrast and reduced glare, Samsung’s proprietary [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

LG today announced its first THX-certified 3D plasma TVs would go on sale next month in NZ. The 50- and 60-inch models will be launched in the second week of October but will be previewed in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch shopping malls over the next two weeks as part of LG’s annual consumer roadshow. The [...]

As I write in this week’s The Box cover story for The Press newspaper, “Choosing the television that’s right for you can be as bewildering as trying to fathom the programming strategies of TV networks.” Among the considerations is the high-end option of apps, or widgets, such as those analysed in this CNET.com update of [...]

Panasonic’s first 3D plasma TV won’t go on sale until late next month but is being demonstrated in Harvey Norman stores. The 50-inch TH-P50VT20Z is priced at $4999, which will make it about $1500 more expensive than Samsung’s same-size 3D plasma, the PS50C700. Panasonic’s 3DTV also is being demonstrated at Wellington Airport, until August 1, and [...]

Samsung’s first 3DTV in this market is dividing NZ and Australian reviewers. “With Samsung charging no discernable premium for 3D functionality beyond additional 3D glasses, going 3D if you’re in the market for a new telly makes a whole lot of sense,” the NZ Herald’s Pat Pilcher says in his review of the LED edge-lit [...]