TV

At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Samsung showed off a plasma TV that got data from an 802.11(n) link.

At CES in January 2008, you should expect to see a lot of TVs demoed with WirelessHD, a wireless protocol with a lot more bandwidth.

That's the world from John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBeam, the chip company that has devised the spec and will come out with chips based on it. (I spoke to him a few days ago at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit). Several consumer electronics manufacturers will likely show off TVs and … Read more

There's a new social network/video discovery service on the way. It's name is Knocka.TV, and I've got to hand it to them--the service isn't even open to the public yet, and there's already a play reel of nearly 30 video clips on the landing page that make it look like a lot of fun. It looks like a hybrid of Joost, StumbleUpon, and YouTube, with some TV-like qualities such as timeslots and user-controlled programming (akin to MTV's Total Request Live and Direct Connect). There could also be a social networking component with … Read more

My, my, Lonelygirl15 sure has come a long way. Not so long ago, everyone thought the too-cute videoblogger was, well, a too-cute videoblogger. Then some online video fans with a shocking amount of time on their hands deduced that she was likely an actress in a staged series of video episodes. (They were right.) Now, leading lady "Bree" (played by Jessica Rose) has gone all professional on us--the new MySpaceTV video portal will be hosting Lonelygirl15's season finale.

Season finale?

On Friday, MySpaceTV--which launched in June and has been rolling out content deals ever since--will broadcast the … Read more

Sumitomo Chemical has agreed to buy Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) for approximately $285 million, giving the OLED industry a shot in the arm.

OLEDS, or organic light emitting diodes, are light sources made form organic materials. With OLEDs, you could turn a wall or a window into a light fixture, according to Universal Display, another OLED company.

OLEDs don't use a lot of power, but they can degrade over time. So far, companies like Samsung have mostly used them for screens in cell phones. Sony is coming out with a small OLED TV for the Japanese market and may … Read more

This vid's been making the viral rounds in my Twitter friends list and such, accompanied by claims of "greatest prank ever" and what-have-you. Personally, I think it's clever, but I can't seem to believe that people actually fell for it--and the camera angles and quality are suspiciously professional, not hidden-camera caliber. Still good for a few laughs, though.

The British not only have superior television (in general) but now they can watch it online too.

The BBC launched a new on-demand service called iPlayer on Friday that lets people download from the Internet shows like "EastEnders" and "Planet Earth" that they may have missed on the telly that week. The shows represent as much as 70 percent of the BBC programming, about 400 hours of programs, according to Reuters.

Unfortunately, the free service is only available to people in Britain and on computers running Microsoft XP.

You would think that with … Read more

The founders of online television start-up Joost, who also count Skype and Kazaa as bullet points on their resumes, have announced that the service now has one million users. Still in beta and technically invite-only (though invitations are now easy to find), Joost was one of the most-talked-about tech products of last year. Originally known by the Bond-worthy codename "The Venice Project," Joost was widely touted as a "YouTube killer" before people really knew what it was--in truth, the service is a slick interface for free, ad-supported video content on-demand. No cat videos there.

Joost co-founder … Read more

If there's a polar opposite to satellite TV in an RV, it would be this. Not only is the "SatGo" small, but it doesn't require a stationary installation; it's so portable that it can be toted around in its own trifold carrying case.

The DirecTV system, which has a 17-inch LCD and laptop-style battery, was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January but didn't have a price tag--which we suspected wouldn't exactly be a bargain. Slashgear confirmed that suspicion, saying it's now available for $1,499. And that doesn't … Read more

"Opus" is one of those brand names that oozes money, whether it be wine, cigars or any other top-of-the-line item. So why not cash in on that cachet, which other companies have spent millions to create?

That's precisely what LG hopes to do with its new high-end series of LCD TVs by that name, which is its answer to the likes of Sony's Bravia and Sharp's Aquos. LG launched the brand in appropriate style at Christie's in Manhattan, though the effect was somewhat diluted by the presence of other LG products such as a … Read more