tvs

We looked at the MP80D's little brother, the MP70D, a few months back, and this beast is similar--but with a larger screen (8 inches to the MP70D's measly 7). It's a decent little DVD player--it does that job really quite well. Sharp picture, actually in sync with the sound, all the options you'd expect, and it's all very easy to use.

The problems arise when you try to use the integrated Freeview TV. Standing on the top floor of our new office, waving the flimsy aerial around like a glow-stick in a nightclub had Crave … Read more

Sales of plasma TVs are humming along, but declining prices led to the category's first-ever year-over-year revenue decline. While that's not such good news for manufacturers and retailers, it's fantastic for consumers.

Unit sales of plasmas brought in $181 million to retailers in February 2007, a 16 percent drop from the $216 million in sales the same month last year, according to data collected by The NPD Group.

Although the number of plasma sets sold was up 30 percent over the same period, the average selling price was $1,688, representing a 35 percent decrease.

"We'… Read more

We kind of really love pirates around these parts, but there are limits to everything. Take this 14-inch TV, for example, manufactured for Disney by Japanese electronics company Runat. It's got a skull and crossbones on top, a pirate-worthy set of buttons, and some additional swashbuckling decor, but I personally find it rather lame. It's possible to integrate pirate imagery into household gadgets in far more effective ways.

Besides, the makers of this TV should really get with the program. If you're going to make a Pirates of the Caribbean TV-DVD player, it had better at least … Read more

A few months ago, when I came across that gadget that prepares eggs, toast, and coffee for you, I rashly and wrongfully asserted that such "breakfast multitasking" was endemic to Japan. That was an erroneous assertion on my part: the Dutch are doing it too, except that this gadget really isn't specific to breakfast. Holland Electric has a fun little product designed by Marcel Wanders. Called the Wave TV, it combines a microwave with a 15" TV and DVD player. We've seen kitchen TVs before, but until this point they've been largely confined to … Read more

Remember that bird-watching gizmo that interprets bird calls for you? I could've sworn it would be considered anathema to the whole raison d'etre of the pastime. But then one of our editors, Harry Fuller, who happens to be really serious about bird-watching, said that it was actually a cool device. So maybe I'm wrong when I think that certain classic professions are being corrupted by geeky gadgets.

Nevertheless, I think this one is a little much. Called the FishCam, this device is a $362 souped-up fishing rod with a camera attached to the line so that you … Read more

High-end home designers may be trying to on cash in on the flat-TV trend but, as plasmas and LCDs become increasingly common, so too will their furnishings. Witness the "rotating TV wall" featured on Gadget Review, which is available not from an Italian design house but from Costco.

Yes, it does cost $3,600, but think of it this way--you're adding a room to your home (sort of). Anyway, while you're shopping for it, you can at least gorge on the free samples.

Plenty of attention has been paid to Sharp's 108-inch LCD, but once you get to 100-inches, is anyone still counting? LG can play the size game too and we saw some whoppers at CES. Coming just in at just 8-inches too short for the LCD crown was LG's 100-inch LCD. We knocked Sharp's behemoth for its picture quality, but to be fair, the LG actually looked a little worse. Luckily for LG, it seems like its set was only a demo unit, unlike Sharp who will actually be selling its TV to consumers eventually.

We also saw … Read more

Vizio is making news at CES 2007 with a $3,000 60-inch plasma TV, but Philips has a big-screen plasma model of its own that it's going to price very aggressively at $3,500 (MSRP) when it arrives in stores in June. At 63 inches, the Philips 63PFP7422D is actually bigger and features 1080p resolution, USB connectivity for displaying digital photo slide shows and MP3 playback, and a motorized swiveling stand. That $3,500 is a suggested retail price, so we expect the real price to be even lower, possibly closer to $3,000. Of course, the Vizio will … Read more

TVs galore this morning.

Microtek, known for its scanning and digital imaging technology, announced Wednesday that it was launching two television lines.

The Microtek line includes a 42-inch flat panel plasma television for $1,500 and a 50-inch version for $2,000. The Cineon line offers a 42-inch flat panel plasma for $1,600 and a 50-inch for $2,200.

On Friday, Microtek announced that it will be adding a 42-inch LCD HDTV to each of those new lines. The L42CX2A for $1,900 will be added to the Microtek line and the CL42HA for $2,000 will be added … Read more