Displays & Projectors - Page 84

CES 2012: BenQ's two XL Series Gaming Monitors have been teased previously, but have now been announced to launch in North America at CES. The XL Series comes in a bunch of sizes, 17-, 19-, 21.5-, 22-, 23- and 24-inch, with pricing at of the XL2420T and XL2420TX at $549 and $649, respectively.

The XL2420T and XL2420TX were engineered in conjunction with ZOWIE GEAR, who are a manufacturer of high-end professional gaming gear and R&D partner to BenQ. President of BenQ America Corp., Lars Yoder, says:

CES 2012: LG have announced during CES 2012 that it is adding voice recognition and 3D gesture control to their Cinema Screen range of 3DTV products in 2012. Not only are LG putting the Smart in TV, but they're adding interactivity.

They unveiled an 84-inch "ultra-resolution" TV that has a 1mm bezel, other displays will arrive in 55- and 60-inch and will be slimmer than 5mm. The new Cinema Screen lineup sports an upgraded LG Smart TV platform with a redesigned Magic Remote and touch-screen plasma. It will also include voice recognition and a 3D gesture interface to enable gaming and searching by gesture. You'll be able to talk to the TV and gesture commands at it, too.

LG didn't stop there with the unveiling and announcements, they also mentioned Smart Share Plus with Wi-Fi, which lets you watch whats on your TV, directly on your mobile device. The new platform will also reportedly make it easier for developers to create new apps for the TV.

CES 2012: Samsung's president of consumer electronics took the stage of CES in an Apple-like fashion to tell the world the future of where Samsung's Smart TV's are headed. He said that they will eventually be able to "listen, see, and do" without any interaction with a remote control.

Samsung showed off a demo video which teased the motion control capabilities, with Kinect-like controls of the TV. Tim Baxter, president of Samsung America then introduced something we should be seeing and hearing much more of: the Samsung ES8000 Smart TV. This isn't just a name, either, "Smart TV". The Samsung ES8000 Smart TV includes a dual-core processor and support for multi-tasking. It also sports a built-in camera and microphone.

It also includes a revamped Smart Hub with a "cleaner, more intuitive design" for navigating, and finding apps. There's also a new U-shaped stand as well, that got quite a few gasps from the CES crowd. Baxter also announced something that will keep the casual gamers happy: Angry Birds will be available on their Smart TV platform, as well as a free channel featuring Angry Birds cartoons.

Samsung have an exciting screen to show off at CES next week, where they'll unveil for the first time its new Series 9 premium monitor. It's a new slim widescreen called S27A970, which is a 27-inch PLS (Plane Line Switching) panel capable of a resolution of 2560x1440.

The Samsung S27A970 also sports an anti-glare edge-to-edge glass display, an aluminum stand and base, a response time of 5ms, 178/178-degree viewing angles, a static contrast ratio of 1,000:1, a maximum brightness of 300 cd/m2, two 7W built-in speakers, a 2-port USB 2.0 hub, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, as well as a Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) enabling connectivity with MHL-supporting smartphones and tablets.

The Samsung S27A970 is expected to launch in March priced at $1,200. Now all we need is Samsung to release this identical screen at 120Hz, and I'll buy three of them, tomorrow.

Let's keep going with some display news, shall we. The industry, customers and everyone in between have been excited for the next-generation OLED display technology for not only consumer TVs, but computer monitors and should roll out this year.

LG are set to show off some OLED TVs at CES over the next few days, and Sony were also due to intro some OLED TVs to consumers. But, Sony kept their face mangled and the wind changed, so now they have to live with the following consequences: their OLED plans have been shelved, according to The Daily Yomiuri. Sony will only continue to sell the technology to corporate customers like broadcasting companies, as well as associated research and development into better displays.

The reason for dropping the consumer market is said to be due to poor business performance in this area, with Sony cutting back on capital investment, which in turn reduced its price competitiveness with its Korean-based rivals such as LG and Samsung. It's a strange move indeed, but maybe Sony see the market not being strong in 2012. There's sure to be a number of investment, banking and debt problems throughout this year and the last thing people are going to spend their money on is some next-gen OLED displays.

Just when I'm looking to upgrade my TV, LG have announced a new TV. LG have of late been pushing their 3DTVs as Cinema 3D, but now they're introduced some new 3DTVs that include a 1mm thin LCD bezel called "Cinema Screen".

LG claim that this brings the experience closer to the theater, but that's not the only cool feature this new range sports. LG have also announced it will throw in Dual Play, which uses polarized glasses to allow two different players only view their perspective on the full screen at once in games that support it.

President and CEO of LG Home Entertainment Company, Havis Kwon, chimes in with:

Welcome to 2012, where the end of the world is higher TV prices. This is what TV manufacturers such as LG want to bring, after being hit by profit declines over the years, this year will start with even thinner and lighter TVs in the hopes of sparking new customer interest and driving the average TV price, higher.

LG said on Friday that it plans to sell a 55-inch TV that is just, wait for it, 3/16 of an inch thick and only weighs 16.5 pounds. Samsung are expected to unveil a similar TV at the industry's biggest trade fair, Consumer Electronics Show, in just a few days time in Las Vegas.

Both companies have yet to discuss the thing we rub between our fingers as a gesture for... money. Of course, this new technology is expected to have a nice premium. NPD DisplaySearch estimates the new 55-inch TV models will begin at around $8000 in Q3 2012, and fall below the $4000 mark by the end of 2013 as sales volume increases and companies find new ways to manufacture the TVs less expensively.

LG have announced that they will be throwing an 84-inch TV into their truck when they drive over to CES next year. 84-inch may sound impressive, but that's not all that is coming to Las Vegas next year. The new 84-inch TV is 'ultra definition' sporting a resolution of 3840x2160.

It includes LG's usual Cinema 3D and Smart TV features built-in, including support for the upgraded Magic Motion remote and voice control. At the moment it's just a tease, with no information like pricing, or availability. There are also no easy sources of 4K-res video content, not even games. One of the biggest pushes by LG for this new set is 3D.

LG's Cinema 3D technology uses a Film Pattern Retarder screen and passive glasses that result in lowered resolution, but with the plentiful amount of pixels, there's no question about whether viewers are still getting at least an HD picture. What I want now, is 3 of these screens, in portrait, an new hover-chair for my PC, and eleventy-million AMD Radeon HD 7970's in CrossFire. Battlefield 3 would never be the same...

We all know that Apple and Samsung's relationship has been a bit... interesting, over the past few months, but today's news is actually quite the surprise. Apple is reportedly shifting production of iPhone and iPad displays to Sharp in Japan, and may even introduce a television with Sharp-based screens as early as the middle of next year.

Jefferies & Co were behind the latest report, with New York-based analyst Peter Misek giving the skinny on Apple's new foray into display production. Apple moving its business to Sharp will be at the expense of Samsung, as they are the current partner for Apple's displays.

Misek said in an interview:

Everyone is waiting on Apple to "reinvent" the television set, but Sony CEO Howard Stringer has recently confirmed that Sony are stepping up to battle, too. Stringer recently said during a breakfast hosted by The Wall Street Journal, that:

Stringer said that he has "no doubt" that Steve Jobs had intentions of designing a brand-new kind of television, but also stated that "it will take a long time to transition to a new form of television". Reports have floated around that Apple would use its Siri voice control engine on their yet-to-be-announced television set, where Stringer wasn't specific on how Sony would reimagine the television set.