The Vizio XVT 3D CinemaWide TrueLED Smart TV is going to be introduced to the US consumers soon with a price tag of $3499, but the exact date is yet to be announced. The 58-inch LED LCD TV is designed to display pictures at a higher than Full HD resolution of 2560 x 1080, in an ultra-wide aspect ratio of 21:9, instead of the standard 16:9. The new aspect ratio is expected to provide the viewers with an experience which is almost identical to what one experiences in an actual cinema hall. Watching cinema-cut movies and 3D content on this gigantic set is definitely the main attraction of the CinemaWide TV, but also consider this; you would be able to watch a movie in 16:9 aspect ratio, which is Full HD, and yet surf the net at the same time in the extra space on the extreme left or right.
The Passive 3D TV will have a refresh rate of 120Hz, Smart Dimming at 32 different spots, 400 nits of brightness, PIP, Bluetooth and SRS surround sound to name a few of its features that we came to know of back in January at the CES 2012, but you can expect more when it finally comes out. You would not have any shortage of connectivity options while connecting your HDMI compatible devices as the TV sports 5 HDMI ports. A standard antennae socket along with component, composite and VGA ports (one of each) can be expected. USB and Ethernet compatibility has become a standard feature these days, therefore two USB 2.0 ports and one Ethernet port would be present. In order to stay true to the “Smart TV” moniker, Vizio has enabled Wi-Fi 802.11n on the 58-incher for wireless browsing. Although it has a price tag which is heftier than other popular sets introduced by the company so far, it would be interesting to see whether it manages to deliver and live up to its hype.
Although Google has not yet confirmed whether or not they are going to release their brand new Google TV software by the end of this year, the most popular rumor regarding the fact is that LG might be teaming up with them in this project. Whether LG will have any part in actual development of the software is unknown as well, but this much is known that LG is not alone in its venture as the company will also be accompanied by other television giants, Samsung and Vizio. The union was announced during CES 2012 as the two manufacturers (Samsung and Vizio, because LG has not yet made an official announcement) declared that they would now be designing many of their products around the forthcoming Google TV. It would be interesting to see if Google’s own “Ice-Cream Sandwich” will be used as the new base for the upcoming software.
LG remained constant in their performance in terms of winning awards at the major consumer electronics shows as it won nine awards at the CES this year as well. Among many awards such as the IMS Research TV Innovation Award, Popular Mechanics Editors’ Choice Award and a series of HD Guru Awards, what stands out is the Best HDTV Award, presented to LG by CNET. The LG 55EM9600 OLED HDTV is the one that made LG proud in most of the departments, and CNET added the adjectives “exciting”, “innovative” and “promising” to express their enthusiasm regarding the OLED TV. Everyone who saw the TV in action is awaiting its release, which LG promises is going to be soon. The price though unannounced, will be interesting to take note of as OLED TVs have always had the reputation of a high price tag.
While Samsung and LG were busy displaying their OLED HDTVs, Sony had something else up its sleeves for the CES 2012. This new ace in Sony’s hand is being called Crystal LED technology and according to them, it’s better than even OLED technology. It was expected that Sony would come up with something to compete with the upcoming OLED TVs as the Japanese giant has forsaken OLED technology for HDTV manufacturing for quite a while now.
What is even more interesting is the fact that these Crystal LED lights are going to be arranged according to a totally new engineering plan. They are not going to be used for backlighting as LEDs are used nowadays; instead, the Crystal LED lights are going to be fixed right in front of the TV panel. There are going to be roughly six million blue, green and red LED lights used in the Crystal LED TVs when they come out later this year. However, Sony’s claims that they will be better than OLED TVs are not quite supported by neutral parties. Some of the experts were even of the opinion that though Crystal LED is impressive, OLED seemed a little better.
We will hold off our opinions till we are able to see and compare the finished products side by side when they are available. This technology has one advantage over OLED and that is the cost of production. According to Sony, They will be easier and cheaper to produce and thus a more acceptable price tag will be possible for the company to place on the final shipments. Although The Crystal LED TVs might not have convinced everybody about their performance being better than OLED TVs, rest assured that these LED TVs will offer ten times the refresh rates that most Sony TVs of the contemporary times are able to offer. The executives representing Sony were also quite confident that the new technology will allow the viewer to experience wider color gamut, wider viewing angles, better in-light visibility and astoundingly clear contrast level improvements over all current gen plasma and LCD TVs. It will have to wait a while before we can get hold of one of the models and test them out.
LG seems to be ahead of the competitor from motherland as far as innovative TV designs are concerned. Just a few days ago, we published an unconfirmed rumor about the possibility of a bezel-less TV that might be coming later in the year from Samsung and now it seems like LG has already done it with their new range of Cinema Screen Design television sets. However, it isn’t totally bezel-less as there’s still a measly 1mm bezel present, but you would hardly notice it from a distance. The LG team is convinced that this design will not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of the Cinema 3D TVs, but they will also enhance the 3D visual experiences as well, especially since you would have the option to adjust the audio depth to match the 3D visuals. To go along with the “size zero” TV, you will find 3D glasses accompanying the TV which will be lighter by twenty percent than its predecessors. A good news for gamers is that the TV will also feature “Dual Play“, a revolutionary technology that allows two players to see full screen images on the same TV screen while playing in multiplayer mode. The LG LM8600 is available in two sizes at the moment, 47″ and 55″ and the prices are yet to be declared.
The latest rumor around the tech block is that Samsung might be introducing bezel-less television sets into the market near the end of the year or perhaps early in 2013. Although it’s not a confirmed ‘fact’, but according to “Stuff”, a British electronics magazine, the Korean giant is going to amplify the visual appeal of their TV sets by completely excluding the bezel from the sides of their flat panels.
The strategy might actually make sense as Samsung has become the number one TV manufacturer in the world market because of their innovative and aesthetic designs, especially because of the super-slim edge designs which they introduced to the world via their 7900 and 8000 series of LED TVs. It would not be overstating even if one said that a few months back, Samsung super-slim edge LEDs were by far the most popular LED TVs out there in the world market (which they are even today in most parts of the world).
Since the “4K” or “ultra-high definition” technology began to be implemented in TVs a few months back in 2011, all major manufacturers had begun working on it and with the CES 2012 coming up, it seems like LG is ready to unveil theirs. They have already announced that this new 84-inch 3D TV will have a resolution of 3840 x 2160 along with all the trademark LG Smart TV and 3D TV features like “Cinema 3D” and an app store that has more than a thousand applications to engage the consumers. Another feature which has attracted a lot of attention towards this television set is the “voice-controlled magic remote”. It has already become quite popular that Apple might be releasing a “siri” controlled iTV soon, but LG seems to have cashed in on the voice-controlled TV tech ahead of Apple. How well this works is however, something that we will just have to wait and find out.
We first got test of the OLED panels back in 2007, when they were released into the market by Sony, but compared to the 55-incher that is going to be on display from LG at the CES 2012, those were dwarves. Not all details about the specifications of the TV are available at the moment, but you can expect a contrast ratio of 100,000: 1 on the Oxide TFT crafted OLED panel. Exciting as the news may be for the video enthusiasts among us, they must also take note that the display unit is not going to be a finished product that would be ready to go out in the market, but only a prototype unit. However, given the company’s constant ongoing research in the field of OLED television sets, which bore fruit last year also as it put an ultra slim 31 incher on display, the release date might not be that far away now.
The new promotional video from Samsung is pretty straightforward as it shows the various kinds of technology that has been in use from the time the TV sets were invented till today, and then it gives the indication that something revolutionary is yet again coming in 2012 from Samsung. We will soon a get a look at what they have in mind at the CES 2012 next month, but speculations are already there as always. Among a few, the most popular rumor at this moment is that the latest TVs from Samsung will probably be powered by Google’s Android OS. If the rumor is true, then it would be interesting to see which version of the OS is utilized here. The move is believed by many to be a counter-strategy against the upcoming Apple TV sets. We will know what’s what in a few days at the CES 2012, keep checking.
It seems like the much awaited next-gen OLED TVs are finally going to be on display in January at the CES in 2012, at least by the two Korean giants LG and Samsung. What is even more exciting to know is that the same technology might also be incorporated into Apple’s upcoming TVs. Although the Organic Light-emitting Diode or OLED technology is highly appreciated for its low power consumption and awesome black levels, it has so far been in use for high end touch screen mobile devices only. There were a few OLED TVs released a few years ago, but they did not make it big due to two main problems. The first was the production cost which made the final product a bit too expensive and the second was the difficulties that were associated with producing larger flat panel versions based on OLED technology. Now, with the news of Samsung and LG showcasing 55-inch OLED television sets at the CES in January and launching them by the time of the next Olympic in London, England; we can safely assume that they have sorted out the second problem at least. However, what we are not sure of is whether or not these new OLED TVs will be any more affordable for the general population than the first generation OLED TVs were.
