Amazing New HDTV from LG

LG is now introducing their latest creation, the LG 47LE5500. With its razor-thin profile and lightly tinted bezel, it makes for a show-stopping centerpiece in your family room or home theater. The LG 47LE5500 also brings you sharp images, great color quality, and plenty of Web apps like Netflix and VUDU. This 47-inch HDTV uses LED backlighting with local dimming making it incredibly energy efficient.

The 47-inch panel on the 47LE5500 is inset into a 1.2-inch thick black cabinet. It's thinner then most of the TV’s recently released. Both the top and side bezels are 1.5 inches wide, and the bottom bezel is 2.5 inches wide. All four sides of the 47LE5500 have a beautiful black glossy finish and feature reddish accents. The screen itself is outstanding with its matte, non-reflective, anti-glare coating. The screen is set comfortably on a sturdy rectangular base that offers easy swivel maneuverability.

The 47LE5500 has 10-watt down-firing speakers mounted on the bottom of the cabinet. The speakers have excellent sound, and the volume can be turned up to full capacity without the slightest distortion. The downside to the sound system on this unit is that due to the slim cabinet design you don't get a whole lot of bass response.

The LG 47LE5500 sports seven touch sensitive buttons and a power switch positioned along the right side of the lower bezel. The buttons remain dark and unnoticed until you touch one of the buttons, at which point they all glow white and become easily visible.
As with many other LG products, the mean system is very straightforward and easy to use, and it offers a variety of basic and advanced settings. The 47LE5500 has five present video modes Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Sport, and Game. It also has two expert modes for advanced calibration purposes that allow you to change settings such as black level, gamma, skin color, color gamut, and individual color saturation levels.

Like most other LG TV’s, the 47LE5500’s remote control is well designed and easy to use. It features 49 buttons that are backlit and incredibly responsive. The only button that is somewhat fussy at times is the rocker switch. Dedicated NetCast, Widget, and Energy Saving buttons make it easy to toggle between Web services or switch into one of four power usage modes.

The 47LE5500 is equipped with a nice selection of connections. Conveniently located on the left side of the cabinet are two USB ports, a set of audio inputs, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Then on the back of the unit there are three additional HDMI jacks, a port for connecting to an optional wireless media hub, a PC (VGA) input, digital audio-in and out connectors, two sets of component A/V ports, a set of composite A/V ports, and a coaxial TV connector.

Also on the 47LE5500, you have access to a nice variety of Web Apps such as Yahoo widgets. Widgets include weather, sports, news, and finance channels along with games. Social networking apps like Twitter and Flickr are also available. It also has NetCast which offers Netflix, VUDU, and YouTube video streaming as well as Picasa Web Albums.

Overall, LG's 47LE5500 delivers good color and HD quality. Its 1.5-inch thick cabinet is quite pleasing, and its power-saving capability is a definite plus for energy-conscious consumers. Although its current listing price is a bit high at $2,100, the good new is that smart online shopping can help you knock of a good few hundred buck off the listing price!

If you're looking to buy a new TV but aren't exactly sure what to look for check out our guide to buying your next TV.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

Budget LED HDTVs from Sceptre

Sceptre is a TV producing company that has been around since 1984. Since their start they have been producing new and advanced display technology. They have recently announced two new low-priced LED HDTVs. These are some of the most affordable Tvs currently available.

Sceptre is now offering a 19-inch and a 24-inch model, both with built-in DVD players. Each of the models are 0.69 inches at their thinnest point and 1.89 inches at their thickest point. Both are also Energy Star 3.0 compliant.

Each of the display screens feature 1920 x 1080 resolution, 2 HDMI ports, a 16:9 widescreen display, and 5ms response time. These TVs can be found at Sears, Target, and NewEgg starting in July for $269 and $399.

If you’re wondering what you should look for in a TV, check out our guide to buying your next TV and choosing between Plasma, LCD, and LED.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

Toshiba Reveals Details About Their 3D HDTV

On Wednesday morning, Toshiba held a press conference to introduce their new HDTV’s and Blu-Ray players, but most of their attention was given to the Toshiba KIRA2. The KIRA2 is the latest development from Toshiba. This LED HDTV has new features like video conferencing, 3D video, media sharing via a home network, and access to sites like Vudu, CinemaNow, Netflix, and Facebook.

The thing that makes the KIRA2 have these amazing abilities is the box that will be sold with it. The CELL Set-Top Box is a computer that utilizes the CELL microprocessor that Toshiba assisted in the development of. The KIRA2 and the CELL Set-Top Box will be sold together in a new line from Toshiba called the CELL TV Series.

Toshiba went all out to make this new product something that people haven’t ever experienced before. The Cell Set-Top Box that makes everything possible for the KIRA2 is powered by the CELL Broadband Engine. Toshiba says that this engine is 10 times faster than most desktop computers. It includes 8 processors, each having 3.2 GHz. This means that it outputs a mind blowing 200 GFLOPS (floating point operations per second). Inside the Box is a 1 TB hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Wireless HD to connect the Box to the KIRA2 without any cables.

With all the amazing power within the Cell Set-Top Box, the KIRA2 will be able to offer:

Conversion of 2D video to 3D video: You will be able to watch anything in 3D.

Assist standard-definition video: The KIRA2 will be able to take non-high-definition content and easily convert it to high-definition for improved viewing.

Convert video to 480-Hz: This will make all video smoother by displaying it at 480 scenes per second.

Calibrate HDTV image: The color sensors on the KIRA2 will be able to detect the amount of light and the temperature of the light in the room and automatically adjust the brightness, contrast, gamma, sharpness, and color saturation of the TV to provide the best possible image based on the room its in.

Video Conferencing: A video camera, microphone, and video chat software will be included with the KIRA2 so that you can video chat over the Internet with compatible video conferencing platforms.

Access to Cell TV: You will have access to Internet content such as Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, and CinemaNow.

Accessible through your home network: You will have to ability to copy or retrieve any media that you store on the CELL Set-Top Box from your computer.

Toshiba has not provided a release date or price point yet, but hopefully soon we’ll have even more information about the fascinating KIRA2.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

Promising New TV Features in 2010

There are going to be a multitude of new features found in TVs that will be released in 2010. TV’s are promised to be bigger, better, and more reasonably priced this coming year. New features are said to include more LED backlighting, faster refresh rates, 3D features, and built-in Internet connectivity.

The vast majority of the TV market that accounts for the sales in the U.S. are flat-panel, LCD TVs. This means that most of the TVs released in 2010 will possess these qualities. Bigger TVs are constantly being pushed by providers, but this year will also show other features that will differentiate one TV from the next. LED backlighting and higher refresh rates are something that will show great improvement in the coming TVs. Many will use backlighting in either an “edgelit” configuration or a full backlit design with local dimming to provide better blacks. Faster refresh rates are a guarantee as manufacturers are wishing to drastically reduce motion blur in TV sets.

Another very interesting development that is going to be pushed this year is TVs with 3D capabilities. Sony and Panasonic are the companies that have been talking the most about their 3DTVs. This feature could branch out into more than just 3D movies but also television broadcast in 3D. How cool would it be to watch a football game with the players jumping right off the screen?

The last of the most interesting developments of 2010 is the Internet capabilities that will be included within the set. With all the advances that are being made, soon enough Internet features will be found standard on TVs. This should be one of the things that manufactures are sure to push hard for.

Thin is in, so most of the newly released TVs should be even thinner than what’s already on the market. The LED backlighting technology takes up a lot less room allowing for the thinner screen. Manufacturers are also pushing more energy efficient TVs, so expect to find more environment-friendly TVs at a much more reasonable price.

OLED TVs are beginning to get plenty of attention these days, but they are not going to be mainstream any time soon. This coming year, it is expected that there should be a couple sets that are 15 inches or larger, but they will cost you more than a 32-inch LCD TV.

We can definitely look forward to these fantastic developments in 2010. Manufactures will be offering their best in the coming year.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

VIZIO Adds Smaller TVs to its LED Lineup

LED Backlit LCD HDTVs are all the rage these days, but so far, only in the larger television market. Yesterday, VIZIO set out to change all of that when they announced they were adding two new TVs to their LED lineup: a 19 inch and a 23 inch model.

Both the VM190XVT and the VM230XVT offer a sleek, thin, one-inch profile with full edge to cover glass and invisible proximity touch controls that illuminate when you touch it and fade as you move your hand away. They also feature an ambient light sensor that ensures you always have the best picture and maximize energy savings by allowing you to adjust the brightness based on your room's lighting. Not watching TV? Your television can double as a digital picture frame when it's off. Both are earth-friendly, the VM190XVT exceeds Energy Star Guidelines by 55% while the VM230XVT exceeds thems by an outstanding 65%.

The TVs are mercury free and feature a 20,000:1 Dynamic Contrast ratio, which makes blacks deeper and whites brighter. These stylish TVs have the ability to tilt up to 25 degrees and feature SRS Truvolume, which eliminates inconsistencies, and SRS TruSurroundHD which delivers immersive high definition surround sound. The 19-inch model will retail for about $349.99, while the 23-inch will set you back about $399.99. VIZIO did not say when the TVs would go on sale in the United States.

Samsung Unveils New 8500 Series LED HDTV

Samsung just unveiled a new model in their expanded LED HDTV lineup with the all new 8500 series. Samsung came up with the innovative idea of using white LED as a backlight source for their TV's. The 8500 Series is capable of having an incredible 7,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio that provides extreme detail and image depth. It has a Wide Color Enhancer Pro which ensures that colors are constantly vibrant. And Samsung's Ultra Clear Panel works hard to make images clearer and brighter regardless of the rooms ambient lighting.

This latest model of tv is also compliant with the Energy Star v3.0 ratings. The 8500 Series includes an Optimized Energy Savings mode which adjusts backlight and the quality of the picture and it does this without having to sacrifice overall viewing experience. This series incorporates an ultra-quick 2ms panel response time which is combined with Samsung's latest version of Auto Motion Plus frame interpolation technology which has a true 240Hz refresh rate. This drastically improves the playback of fast-paced content.

The 8500 Series also features Samsung's Medi@2.0 suite. This allows users to access content from more sources. Developed in association with Yahoo!, Internet@TV - Content Service provides onscreen access to popular content on the web from sites like Yahoo!, Twitter, USA Today, YouTube and many others. The widgets-based interface and scrollbar can be activated with the push of a single button. It runs along the bottom of the screen which makes browsing for the latest content and programs easy.

Users will be able to have access to the growing library of widgets. Samsung's Medi@2.0 suite allows wired and wireless DLNA compatibility which allows you to enjoy your music, photos and videos from your network PC directly on your television. Also included for entertainment are things like pre-loaded photos, games, artwork and recipes. There is also two USB 2.0 connections which can be used for playing a multitude of photo, audio and video files from portable devices including external hard memory.

The 8500 series measures only 1.6 inches deep and features Samsung's Touch of Color bezel. This series provides consumers with flexibility and style in an HDTV. There are two versions of the 8500 series, a 46-inch and a 55-inch both of which come with a built-in tuner and an assortment of multimedia connections. You can also hang these models with Samsung's ultra-slim wall-mount solution. It reduces the gap between the TV and the wall to a tiny 0.6 inches.

Both TV's have full HD 1080p, down-firing speakers with integrated woofer, SRS TruSurround HD, 4 HDMI (HDMI-CEC) version 1.3 inputs on the side, 1 component input on the back, 2USB 2.0 inputs on the side, 1 Ethernet connection on the back, 1 optical audio output on the side, and 1 PC input on the back. The 45.9-inch model will run you around $3,600 with the 54.6-inch running you around $4,500 and both are available this August.

Remember that if your organization is holding a special event, or exhibiting at a trade show, that Monitor Rental companies can provide short term AV hardware nationwide.