tvs

CHIBA, Japan--One of the most popular exhibits at Ceatec this year is Rolly, a dancing egg from Sony.

Music gets fed into Rolly, and it responds by "dancing" to the music. It will roll, spin around rapidly, or flip open its top as the music changes. A $300 device with a couple of LED lights that gyrates to Ricky Martin tunes? It doesn't sound like a hot seller on paper, but it's a huge hit at the show, taking place outside of Tokyo this week. Sony showed it off earlier this year and has just begun … Read more

For all the clout and brand-recognition that accompanies names like Sony and Samsung, it was Vizio, a virtual unknown a year ago, that topped all LCD TV makers in the second quarter of this year.

Vizio sold 606,402 TVs in North America in the second quarter, a 76 percent jump from the previous quarter, according to a report by iSuppli released Monday. That brings the low-price TV seller's market share to 14.5 percent, up from 9.4 percent.

Former market-share leader Samsung dropped to second place, shipping 467,210 units compared with 445,683 the previous quarter. … Read more

As expected, Sony is selling exclusive models of its LCD televisions through discount retailer Target right now.

Though not available in stores until mid-September, Target.com shows a 26-inch and 32-inch Bravia 720p LCD on its site right now for $799 and $899, respectively. Both are significantly cheaper (and smaller) than the other Sony TVs Target carries.

Walmart.com is next, followed by availability in Wal-Mart Stores next month, according to a Sony representative.

The electronics maker revealed its discount retailer plan in June. Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing, said Sony would supply a unique series of models … Read more

Though Japanese television manufacturers have mostly ditched tube TV manufacturing, their Chinese counterparts are just getting started exporting the sets.

In 2007, China's TV exports will for the first time surpass its domestic shipments, according to a new report from market research firm iSuppli. That's a direct result of Japan's TV makers' decision to focus on the more lucrative business of flat-panel sets, which bring in significantly higher margins, said Kathleen Zhang, iSuppli's China analyst. China will export 39.6 million TVs this year, and ship 38.3 million domestically, iSuppli said.

Though more U.S. … Read more

As an "investment" video sucks. Before you plunk down big bucks on today's cutting edge video just ponder for a second that what you buy today will be tomorrow's landfill.

Pick up a good set of speakers and they'll stick around for a long, long time. Anybody who dropped $15K on an early generation plasma display has surely replaced it years ago, and is probably on their second or third set by now. So their total investment may be approaching twenty Gs! Remember too that early plasmas were standard definition sets and their picture quality … Read more

Could it be a rounding error? Deep discounts? Rebates? Try none of the above: The Associated Press reported today that a man in Monroe, La., paid just $4.88 for a Sanyo plasma TV (normally $984) at a Wal-Mart self-checkout stand. The 23-year-old suspect allegedly switched the TV's original price tag with a tag from another product. When store security stopped the man on his way out, he produced a receipt for the full value of the TV.

The glitch? The man was at the Monroe Wal-Mart store, while the receipt came from the West Monroe location. Apparently he … Read more

Dell will stop selling liquid crystal display TVs under its own brand name, according to Bloomberg.

Citing anonymous sources, the report says Dell will cease selling its own TVs this month to focus more on the PC business, but will continue to offer other brands of televisions.

Dell was dismissive of the Bloomberg report. "We don't speculate on what we're doing down the road," said company spokesman Bob Pearson. He added that nothing had changed since Dell announced in February that it would be selling Sony LCDs in 40- to 46-inch sizes on its Web site, … Read more

TiVo introduced a new search function Tuesday, which is designed to let its subscribers perform a continuous search through a unique thread to find programming or downloadable content.

Instead of punching in a keyword to find a movie or TV episode to watch, Universal Swivel Search allows searching to begin from a particular program. If someone is watching an episode of Lost, clicking on "More Options" in the menu brings up a program synopsis and the cast. Clicking on cast names brings up the other programs each actor is in, showtimes and if any is available for download through Amazon Unbox … Read more

As noted before, some of us at Crave are smitten by just about anything Bang & Olufsen designs (or even something that just resembles their stuff).

So it goes without saying that our heads were sufficiently turned by the sight of its newest "BeoVision" HDTV. As usual, this latest offering has some impressive features, not content to be just another pretty face; and, as usual, it bears a B&O-type price, this time 1,800 pounds (about $3,582). But Shiny Shiny notes something different in this TV's sound technology, specifically in speech reproduction: "When … Read more