tvs

LG touts TV lineup, 'smart' devices at CES 2013

LAS VEGAS--Consumer electronics giant LG focused its attention on the home and living room with a series of home entertainment and appliance announcements.

Chief among them was the pricing and dating of its much-awaited 55-inch OLED TV, which first debuted at last year's CES, though was delayed. The company today said it would begin selling in the U.S. in March for about $12,000. It also promised two new sizes of its 4K resolution television sets, 65-inch and 55-inch versions to join the 84" model.

LG spent much of its presentation touting its smartening up of various … Read more

Most flat-panel TVs will be Web-enabled by 2016

The flat-panel TV you buy in 2016 will almost certainly be a smart TV embedded with access to the Internet, says Gartner.

Production of flat-panel smart TVs will shoot up from 69 million this year to 108 million next year and 198 million in 2016.

So, what exactly is a smart TV?

Gartner defines it as one that lets you access and search the Internet for videos and other items. Such a TV may or may not come with its own dedicated Web browser, but it does provide an app store that lets you install a range of different apps. … Read more

OLED TVs

Unlike 4K, there are no OLED TVs available today -- but they were the star of the Consumer Electronics Show last January, when both Samsung and LG revealed the first big-screen (55-inch) models to use organic light-emitting diodes.

Despite repeated appearances at trade shows, the OLED TVs never materialized in the marketplace in 2012 due to manufacturing difficulties. But they'll figure it out soon, and when they do, OLED will inevitably replace plasma and LCD as the flat-panel TV technology of choice. Stunning picture quality combined with ultrathin form factors -- LG's prototype OLED was just 0.157 … Read more

Cyber Monday: Dell's deals on good TVs

You won't have any trouble finding rock-bottom prices on no-name TVs from sketchy online vendors this Cyber Monday, but if buying a good television from a trustworthy retailer is your priority, Dell's site has a couple of very good prices on big-screen TVs I can actually recommend.

Samsung 51-inch plasma, $578 with free shipping. Judging from the published specifications, the PN51E530 has the same picture quality as the PN51E550 that we really liked. Yeah it's missing Smart TV and 3D, but you could always just add a $40 Roku if you want streaming apps.

Samsung 60-inch plasma, $848 with free shipping. … Read more

The greatest audio and video products of the 20th century

It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when audio and video products were introduced that were so revolutionary that their impact was felt literally decades after their introduction.

Take the JBL L100 Century. It was the first speaker I fell in love with. Its brilliant orange "waffle" foam grille and white 12-inch woofer looked so cool in the early 1970s when the competition's speakers were all drab brown boxes with boring cloth grilles. The JBL was the ultimate "rock" speaker of the era, so my Hendrix and Led Zeppelin LPs never … Read more

Holiday season may be merry for electronics bargain hunters

It may be a very merry holiday season for consumers seeking big bargains on electronics.

IHS iSuppli, a market research firm, says consumer-electronics companies will likely make "extremely steep" price cuts to attract buyers during the key holiday selling season.

That means the consumer-electronics industry is going to post only "scant" 1.3 percent revenue growth this year, according to IHS, but consumers may be getting some pretty great deals.

Buyers have largely been cautious with spending because of worries about the weak global economy, but companies are hoping attractive prices will help boost demand.

Here'… Read more

LG to unveil new products for video and audio buffs

LG Electronics is set to show off a slew of new products aimed at the home theater market.

Running the gamut from 3D sound systems to entertainment hubs, the new devices will be on display at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The show runs from August 31 to September 5.

First on the list is a 3D home theater system with the product name BH9520TW. The gear includes four 3D speakers delivering a sound that LG compares with that of an IMAX theatre. A 3D sound zooming technology synchronizes the audio with the action on a 3D TV. Viewers … Read more

Man orders flat screen on Amazon, gets assault rifle

Amazon always offers such delightful surprises.

Often a box is lying on my doorstep and my heart leaps because someone has sent me a gift. Only then do I realize that, yet again, I did some late-night online shopping after a small nightcap.

One can imagine, though, that Seth Horvitz of Washington, D.C. must have felt giddy when the flat-screen TV he had bought through a third-party vendor on Amazon arrived at his apartment.

As MyFoxDC dispatches it, Horvitz eagerly opened the box, only to find a Sig Sauer SIG716.

This happens to be, as the Sig Sauer Web site declaims: &… Read more

LG Q2 profit $138M, but sales fall 11% on mobile weakness

LG still hasn't figured out its mobile business yet.

The Korean technology conglomerate posted a net profit of 159 billion Korean won, or $138 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of 109 billion Korean won, or $94 million. Revenue, however, fell 10.6 percent to 12.86 trillion Korean won, or $11.18 billion.

The biggest culprit was a 28.6 percent decline in sales for its mobile division, whose operating loss also widened a bit over a year ago. Despite a decline in sales in the home entertainment business, the company's profit in the area more than … Read more