vizio

Yahoo Widgets hands-on review

Update 08-11-09: Check out our in-depth looks at the Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo Video, Yahoo Sports, USA Today Sports and games widget reviews.

The variation of Yahoo Widgets designed specifically for TVs debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show last January. Not to be confused with its PC-centric incarnation, the TV-only widget feature will be available on certain HDTVs from LG, Samsung, Sony, and Vizio shipping this year. The first widget-equipped sets to hit store shelves are members of Samsung's UNB7000 series, and this hands-on review was performed on a UN46B7000--although we expect the widget experience to be similar across brands.

What is a widget? It's basically a gateway on your TV screen to Internet-supplied content in a certain subject area. All TVs with Yahoo Widgets can connect to the Internet, and via that connection can populate the widgets with real-time information and updates. At the time of this review there are only four widgets, all of them available as soon as we turned on the TV, connected the Ethernet cable, and hit a button to activate the feature. The four, namely News, Weather, Finance, and Flickr, were all created by Yahoo.

In the coming weeks and months, more TV widgets will become available. According to Yahoo, more than 300 publishers "are interested in developing" widgets, from individuals to large content publishers, and the company expects TV widgets from Accedo Games, Twitter, Yahoo! Video, eBay, USA Today, Yahoo! Sports, Showtime, CBS Entertainment (CNET Reviews is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS), The New York Times, YouTube, CinemaNow and others. Publishers that have announced plans to develop TV Widgets include Disney/ABC, MySpace, Viacom/MTV, Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, Associated Press, and Joost. Yahoo estimates at least 100 widgets will be available by the end of the year, and its TV widgets website teases with some of the big names, like Netflix, whose description reads: "Browse, find and enjoy great movies with the Netflix widget--a personalized, convenient way to rent and watch movies on your TV."

We also expect advertising to appear on the system eventually, which could make the user experience less consumer-friendly. Yahoo says that "some publishers may choose to monetize their content by the end of 2009," and that the widget engine works with Web-compliant advertising system to enable Yahoo and third parties to advertise. For now, however, the widgets are blessedly ad-free. … Read more

Vizio's 55-inch LCD a victim of its successor

At CES this year, Vizio caused a stir by announcing the VF551XVT, a 55-inch HDTV with local dimming LED backlighting and 240Hz processing for the rock-bottom price of $1,999. The company's CES announcement makes the current VF550XVT a lot less desirable. One digit in a model number means a lot--the current model has neither of those features, although it still costs about $1,999 in stores.

The VF550XVT is among the least expensive 55-inch LCDs on the market, but it has a tough row to hoe at this point in its life span. First off, attentive readers will … Read more

What we Craved this week

Lots of news in gadgets this week, which is welcome after the usual post-CES lull. If you didn't have time to catch it all in real time, we've helpfully compiled a list of some of this week's best stories. Consider it Crave's Valentine to you. <3

• In honor of the holiday everyone loves to hate, we here at Crave compiled a list of the gadgets we've loved and lost, or got so frustrated with we wanted to throw them against the wall. Check out the gadgets that broke our hearts.

• The Kindle 2 arrived … Read more

Vizio drops plasma TVs

Vizio turned the HDTV market on its head with its low-priced sets, and now the company will concentrate all of its TV efforts on LCD.

The California-based flat-panel maker will no longer produce plasma TVs, according to a report in The New York Times Wednesday. It was the third-largest plasma TV maker in North America as of the end of the third quarter of 2008, with 13 percent of all shipments, according to DisplaySearch.

Vizio co-founder Laynie Newsome told the Times the reasons for the move away from plasma TVs were that they didn't sell as well in big-box … Read more

Vizio's 32-inch 1080p performs well, but not because it's 1080p

Despite all the times we've written about how 1080p just isn't that noticeable, especially at small screen sizes, it's becoming a moot point. Just about every LCD is 1080p these days, and with models like the Vizio VO32LF, the price gap between 720p and 1080p is negligible. In fact, this 32-inch LCD replaces the 720p VO32L we reviewed earlier in Vizio's lineup, and costs the same at $599 list.

The hallmark of our VO32L review was the display's accurate color, due in part to the ability to adjust the picture settings and particularly color temperature. The 1080p version improves upon that color accuracy, ditching the greenish tinge we noted in darker areas. When you add in decent black levels, the Vizio VO32LF is among the better small-screen flat-panels we've tested. But those test results have nothing to do with its 1080p native resolution.

Read the full review of the Vizio VO32LF

… Read more

Vizio VBR100 gets you in the Blu for $200

Vizio is best known for its low prices on HDTVs, but the company is branching out into Blu-ray with the new VBR100 player. From the specs, the biggest selling point is the $200 price tag, and we were surprised to see 7.1 analog outputs available too. Here are the details.

Key features of the Vizio VBR100:

Profile 2.0 compatible Onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio decoding 7.1 analog audio outputs Optical and coaxial digital audio outputs Available in April, $200 list price

Most of the players we've seen here at CES have tried to differentiate themselves … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 887: Flip a you-know-what

CES has officially begun and we discuss a slew of offerings from the show floor, as well as the Steve Ballmer keynote. Also, Tom is offered the chance to record his voice for TomTom GPS devices. That's a lot of Tom!

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 887

Ballmer Keynote http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131585-100.html http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/ces2009-microsoft-keynote.ars

Windows 7 goes Beta this Friday http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10135791-56.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10136418-75.html

Windows 7 might not come in '09 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10135943-56.html

CES Press conference roundup: … Read more

Vizio enters 240Hz fray for less

Vizio is known for breaking price barriers, so it should come as no surprise that the company's 240Hz LCD TVs should be among the least expensive of their breed. We say "should" because at CES most other manufacturers don't announce pricing on their new models, but Vizio does.

The two models represent the 42- and 47-inch sizes in the company's step-up XVT series, models SV421XVT ($1,099 list) and SV471XVT ($1,399 list) respectively. Both will be available in the summer of 2009, and replace the current SV470XVT and SV420XVT at the same price points.… Read more

$2,199, 55-inch Vizio goes for LED price jugular

Update 11-06-2009: The full review of the Vizio VF551XVT is now live.

The Vizio VF551XVT represents a new low price point for LCD-based HDTVs with LED backlights. This 55-inch HDTV will cost a mere $2,199 when it hits store shelves in September. That's $200 more than when the set was first announced at CES in January, but still relatively inexpensive. The company raised the price and delayed the TV's release in June.

LED backlights like the one on the Vizio VF551XVT use "local dimming" technology, which turns off or dims the backlight in dark areas … Read more