Displays & Projectors - Page 83

Rumors of the Apple TV have been around for a while now, but with Samsung and their new Smart TV range, is it too late? Or is there something Apple could do to the TV market that would shake things up as much as they did when they entered the smartphone market?

Well, according to Raymond Soniera, founder of DisplayMate Technologies, Apple may cram a Retina display into their upcoming TV range. Soniera spoke to CNET, where he said:

After showing these bad boys off at CES in January, Samsung have finally confirmed that their Series 9 monitors will hit the US come June 29th. This will follow a brief "prelaunch" period with Newegg.

The Samsung S27B970D is a 27-inch IPS-based screen with a resolution of 2560x1440, HDMI, DVI and USB ports, an all glass and metal enclosure, a height-adjustable stand, and a contrast ratio of 1000:1. What makes these monitors stand out is that each screen is calibrated and undergoes an expert, hour-long adjustment process before it is sent to you, ensuring you get the highest-quality images directly out of the box.

The screens will retail for $1,199 and would look great in a three-screen setup for gamers, or as a single- or multi-monitor setup for video, audio or general work. I think I prefer the gaming option.

Computex 2012 - ViewSonic had a great floor showing off a bunch of screens, not just for consumers, but for business and enterprise. The first one we walked past was the ViewSonic EP5502 which is a 55-inch Full HD 1080p display with sleep tempered glass faceplate, a bunch of inputs (HDMI, VGA, YPbPr, USB) and can load images quite easily through its USB input.

Next to that was the widescreen EW2962 which again, is great for business and enterprise. It's much wider and would suite businesses such as restaurants, or train stations. It was great to see something like this in-person from ViewSonic. But, the true fun hasn't started just yet!

ViewSonic had a frameless 27-inch LCD sporting SuperClear IPS technology, backed up by its 1080p resolution and SRS Premium Sound integrated speakers. Featuring a 30,000,000:1 contrast ratio, it has a 7ms response time and features DVI, HDMI and RGB inputs.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have just become my new best friends as they have "agreed a draft new Recommendation on the technical details for 'Ultra High Definition Television'", but have decided something for UHDTV, that both 3840x2160 and future 7860x4320 screens keep the same UHDTV moniker.

While that sounds simplistic, it is confusing. Because 4K is not 8K, and vica versa, yet they share the same 'UHDTV' name. 4K sports eight megapixels, where 8K features an eye-busting 32 megapixels.

What are your thoughts on this? Why would they name UHDTV and jam both 4K and 8K standards into it? Why not have UHDTV 4K and UHDTV 8K? How hard would that be? Adopting two ultra-high def TV specs into a single moniker is just confusing, and annoying. "Hey, what UHDTV do you have?", "Oh, I have an HDTV". Hopefully this gets changed, but I highly doubt it will.

LG's G2 series of Google TVs were unveiled at an event in New York City called Internet Week New York, the event is an annual shindig, where NYC celebrates technology and digital culture. VentureBeat spoke to Georg Rasinski, who is the director of LG's home electronics brand management.

LG's new Google TV sports the company's motion-control, "Magic Remote". The remote features gesture control, and even includes a built-in microphone for voice commands. On the back of the remote is a full QWERTY thumb keyboard. The TV's interface is said to look much different to previous GTC devices that VentureBeat have used from Sony and Logitech. LG have heavily customized the homescreen with a 3D interface.

From the user interface, you'll have quick access to a bunch of apps and bookmarks. The G2 series of LG Google TV's is powered by LG's custom ARM-based L9 processor, which is the first dual-core chip in a Google TV device. The L9 chip will eventually be baked into LG's other flagship sets, but it is making its debut here on the G2 series.

It looks like Toshiba is ready to unleash a new quad HD-capable TV in Japan, which is a little less filled up on specs than its top-of-the-line model, the 55X3 with its 4K resolution and glasses-free 3D technology that hit the US.

The new model keeps the same 4K technology, but switches to edge LED lighting instead of local dimming and completely dumps 3D, autostereoscopic or otherwise. Inside the TV, you'll find CEVO Duo image processing engine, which upconverts standard HDTV inputs to QFHD, as well as support for apps and USB hard drives for recording broadcasts.

This model is expected to ship in June for a not so bad 750,000 yen, or US$9,410. Much lower than the X3's opening price of 900,000 yen last December. 4K TV's are finally getting under that magical $10,000 mark, and I'm wanting one more and more.

Acer has just announced their latest monitor on the block, the Acer B243PWL. This monitor features the premium IPS technology for great colors and wide viewing angles, up to 178-degrees both horizontally and vertically which makes it perfect for swivelling, pivoting and multi-monitor setups.

The B243PWL is also EPEAT Gold registered, meaning it has reached the highest caliber of EPEAT certification possible, where it has met all of EPEAT's environmental measures plus at least 75-percent of EPEAT's optional criteria. The B243PWL is LED-backlit which reduces energy consumption by 68-percent than standard CCFL-backlit displays.

Spec-wise, we're looking at a resolution of 1920x1200 and a 60Hz refresh rate. It sports DisplayPort, where it can deliver all of your digital imaging and audio through one small cable. The screen also features both a VGA and DVI connection in case you haven't got DisplayPort on your system yet. Filling out the specs, we're looking at 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and a brightness of 300 nits.

'YOUM'. This is the name of Samsung's flexible AMOLED technology, in which both the name and logo have been sent for trademark registration in the United States. This means that YOUM-sporting devices could soon be seen in the wild, and flexed, in the wild.

YOUM is Samsung's next-generation ultra-thin screen technology, with the unique characteristic of being able to be bent, Samsung says its even unbreakable. YOUM was showcased before it had a name at CES last year, where they were teasing a 4.5-inch screen with a thickness of 0.3mm and a resolution of 800x480 (WVGA). Samsung have demonstrated the concept of using it for an e-book reader, camera, video chat and even augmented reality and 3D visuals on tablet PCs.

We should see things like watches, smartphones and tablets built from this technology. A flexible watch connected to the Internet, Facebook, e-mail, etc would be quite cool and would definitely sell to the hipsters, and technology fans alike.

We all know Apple TV is coming, but what would it end up like? Barclay's analyst, Anthony DiClemente thinks it could be a cool piece of hardware, that he images would look like a "large-scale iPad", that would work with the Internet through Apple's existing quite of iOS apps and services.

DiClemente doesn't think Apple CEO, Tim Cook will be able to break the traditional cable TV bundle, which means when you watch traditional TV, it's not going to look any different to what you're looking at now. But, when you're talking about a TV with access to Apple's iTunes Store, things start getting interesting, and it would really open up people's imaginations to what the future of your living room will be like in 5, 10 or 20 years time.

DiClemente is a media analyst, and not a hardware guy, so his report focuses on the reasons it will be hard for not just Apple, but other companies, to really mix up the programming/distribution business. Personally, I don't think it would take much, because all it takes is a player like Apple to hit the market with a product everyone wants, and then the big businesses will start listening and changing things up, well, hopefully.

It looks as though May will be the month that LG launch their ultra-thin 55-inch OLED TV, if everything goes to plan. The awesomely thin OLED TV will have an asking price of $7,928.91. Not bad, I guess. We should expect the TV to be the same that LG showed off at CES recently, which means it will be less than 0.5cm thick, and under 17 pounds in weight, as well as sporting 3D tech.

LG have also teased of "futuristic features", where I bet you've just rolled your eyes, but they might actually work quite well, hopefully: 3D motion and voice gesture controls. Yep, thats it. Hopefully they're not laggy and buggy, but personally, I think first-generation OLED TVs are going to have great picture quality, but the separate "exclusive" features that the companies throw on them won't work too well, but, time will tell and there's only 8 or so weeks left to find out.

OLED should be quite the breakthrough in not only picture quality, but response times. Typically, LCDs have a response time slower than 20ms, where OLED smashes this with response times of less than 0.01ms. You know what? I'm excited. I really am. I'm after a new TV this year, and I really want to get an OLED. Price doesn't bother me, as there's a corner that I can sell my body at.