JVC's New HD LCD Televisions Unveiled

JVC has launched a new four-model line of LCD televisions which will feature full HD resolution and a "sleek new cabinet design". Each type of TV model will of course feature 1080/24/30p and will range in size fro mthe 32-inch LT-32J300 to the 52-inc LT-52J300.


The new line of TV's will include a unique dynamic backlight in order to deliver an increased contrast between the blacks and whites on screen. JVC will also be installing an easy to navigate on-screen display with drop down menu's for improved user-interface. The TV's will also come with JVC's Smart Picture technology chip that will analyze source brightness for better images and also a timer for scheduled power up times. All four sets will come with thre HDMI inputs, two component inputs, two S-Video inputs, PC input, SPDIF input and analog video output to ensure maximum compatibility with other media devices.

Availability:

Model Available
LT-32J300 March
LT-42J300 March
LT-46J300 March
LT-52J300 August

See here for more information on JVC's New HD TV Line.

Are You Really Watching HD On Your HDTV

The Leichtman Research Group recently conducted a phone survey and reported that 18 percent of HD television owners think they are watching HD television when in reality they are not. In my opinion I find this very believable and in fact I could see it being much higher than this. The reason I say this is mostly people around the age of 16-25 are the only people who really know how to hook up an HDTV, but most people around 16-25 do not have $800-$2000 sitting around to buy an HDTV.

The first thing you need to make sure when you get your HDTV is to connect it right which requires you to first of all buy the premium High Definition Plan on you cable or satellite. So make sure you do not just plug in the cable straight into your television and expect HD quality television.

Once you get your cable or satellite box and you have upgraded to the HD plan then your next step is to connect your HD box to your television with the appropriate cables. In almost all cases an HDMI cable will do the trick. It will send both the video and the audio signal and all you need to do is connect the HDMI cable from your HDMI output in your HD cable box to the HDMI input on your Television. Any new HD cable box should have an HDMI output, but if yours does not then you will have to use compenent cables.

Finally once this is all hooked up do not expect every single channel to be broadcasted in HD. Only certain channels will be broadcasted in HD and make sure to contact your cable or satellite provider to find out which channels you have in HD.

Also CNET has a great how to connect to HD video here.

Netflix ready HDTVs coming soon

In 2007, Netflix introduced instant streaming movies for the PC, then devices that were capable of displaying that content on a TV started appearing, like the Xbox 360, Roku player, and certain Blu-Ray players.

Now Netflix is partnering with LG to release TVs that are capable of playing movies from a Netflix account without an external device. All that is needed is a Netflix subscription and an ethernet connection.

The new models are being shown this week at CES 2009, and LG already has 2 honoree awards at the convention. They will be available in spring 2009.

Sony’s 55” BRAVIA XBR LCD Flat Panel

Where do you start when you talk about a TV as nice as this? The Sony Bravia XBR is one of the best LCD Screens out on the market to date. It comes with the most features I have ever seen inside of a television and the specs for this LCD television are almost off the charts.

Features:

TRILUMINOS RGB Dynamic LED Backlight – aligns individual clusters of red, green, and blue LED’s to help produce a significantly higher purity of primary colors, resulting in more accurate color reproduction. Also BRAVIA will suppress unneeded backlight LED’s to allow a deeper black and to preserve power.

Motionflow 120Hz Technology- allows the picture to stay clean and not judder when watching fast paced video such as sports and action movies. To learn more about this see our 120Hz vs 60Hz post.

10-bit Processor and 10-bit Panel- creates a greatly improved color spectrum and allows the BRAVIA to display billions of color. You will also notice smoother color transition and avoid a picture with a “paint by number” look.

The specs on this Television are very robust with a 1,000,000: 1 contrast ratio, 4 HDMI inputs, 2 HD Component Inputs, and a PC input. The television is also capable of playing blu-ray movies at their standard resolution of 1080p and at wide screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9.

Now the cost of a television with this many features, $6,199.00 and that its on sale price!

Dell Releases New UltraSharp 1909W Monitor

Dell seems to have broken the trend of their notoriously overpriced monitors this week by coming out with the UltraSharp 1909W Monitor. This 19 inch flat panel monitor boasts a 16:10 display with a resolution of 1440 x 900 and a 5ms response rate. It also comes with a decent contrast ratio of 1000:1 and 300cd/m2 brightness.

As expected with the lower price range the have opted to not add in as many ports this time. The 1909W does come with both VGA and DVI output and includes 4 USB plug-ins. You can pick up a Dell Ultrasharp 1909W now at Dell.com for a total cost of $239.

Gateway HD2201

The Gateway HD2201 is one of the best monitors in the 22 inch range. The monitor has all the essentials and a great price to match it up. The gateway HD2201 is priced around $240 which makes it a very budget friendly monitor. It comes with all the essential connectors including HDMI, DVI, and even HDMI which is a great bonus. The monitor also comes with an On Screen Display. The display buttons are flat, touch sensitive, and glow with a deep blue when touched. The On Screen Display though is nothing more than a neat way to adjust the settings on the monitor. There is also an optional speaker bar that you can buy for $40 that comes with reported good sound and comes with a headphone jack and a volume dial.

Now lets not forget the actual specs of this monitor. Here is a quick spec sheet
Cost: $240
Resolution: 1650x1050
Response Rate: 5ms
Contrast Ratio: 2,000:1
Brightness: 300cd/m2
Connectivity: HDMI, VGA, DVI
Monitor Color: Black & White

The specs are really nice on this monitor with such a low cost. The Gateway HD2201 really looks great when it comes to showing colors and you can truly notice a better image than most 22 inch screen in its price range. In the end the Gateway HD2201 is really worth looking at when you are considering your next monitor. CNET even gave it the best buy award when it comes to 22 inch monitors.

60 Hertz vs. 120 Hertz

Many of you have probably already seen the new Televisions advertising 120Hz. Even though the number is double that of the previous televisions playing at 60Hz does it really make it twice as good?

A quick explanation of Hertz is the refresh rate at which the screen reconstructs the image per second or better known as frames per second (fps). So a television with 60 Hertz can display 60 different images per second. A television with 120 Hertz can display 120 different images per second.

The problem with such high framerate per second is that television broadcasts at only 30 frames per second. So with a 60Hz refresh rate it will simply repeat the image twice every second and with 120Hz it will repeat the image 4 times every second. So assuming you have to completely identical tv's, one playing at 120Hz and one playing at 60hz, you will not be able to tell a difference.

The difference between 120Hz and 60Hz comes when watching a movie. A movie is only shot at 24 frames per second compared to a video shot at 30 frame per second. A video has no problem being converted because it can simply be doubled, but a movie cannot just double because it would be 48fps and not 60fps. So they have to use a 3:2 pulldown. In a nutshell, 3:2 pulldown is an algorithm that displays some of the frames 3 times and some of them twice in order to map the film's 24 fps to 30 fps. With the 3:2 pulldown motion artifacts are introduced in fast moving scenes. With 120Hz though they can completely skip this element because 24fps goes evenly into 120hz 5 times. So essentially you are seeing each frame 5 times per second and it can completely phase out the 3:2 pulldown all together. For a more in depth article about the 3:2 pulldown visit: http://www.dvdfile.com