Plasma

The chart has been updated with information from Samsung's March 7th line show but the rest of this article (aside from the Changelog below) has not. See the line show article for the latest information on Samsung's 2012 TVs.

Samsung will ship gobs of different TV models in 2012, and CES provided our first peek at the details.

Unfortunately the country's best-selling TV maker chose to keep many of those details under wraps in its CES press releases, I'm assuming because it would rather try to dominate the news cycle in early March at its now … Read more

Massive numbers of new 2012 TVs were announced at CES 2012 earlier this month, and digesting them all is easier with a table than umpteen blog posts.

Hewing close to hoary CES tradition of yore, LG was the first major TV maker to hold its CES press conference. The company also gave CNET the most information prior to the show about its TV models (and probably other stuff; don't ask me about LG phones or kimchi refrigerators please). It also took home Best of Show.

You won't find these TVs described in detail on LG's Web site … Read more

So you want to share photos, watch videos, or play computer games on the expansive screen of your HDTV? On one hand, this is a really simple how-to: use HDMI!

That, of course, isn't the whole story. Not all computers, and not all TVs, can output or input a signal via HDMI easily. There are also a few tricks to consider.… Read more

Buying a new TV for your football-watching party? Sure something big is a must, but there are different features and specs to consider when buying a TV for the big game.

Plasma or LCD? Online or in-store? These are just some of the questions I'll answer after the jump.… Read more

You asked for it, now you got it. After a few delays I've updated the results from my ongoing long-term testing of five 2011 plasma TVs by adding a sixth and publishing a new round of numbers.

One of the models tested has now accumulated nearly 3,000 hours of "on" time, equivalent to about a year and a half of normal TV watching, and a couple of others are also well into their second simulated year. New for this round I've also included measurements of the LG 50PZ950, the only 2011 LG plasma I've … Read more

LAS VEGAS--At the start of 2012, CNET television editors David Katzmaier and Ty Pendlebury put forward their predictions for what we will see in the coming year.

Sadly jetpacks and metallic jumpsuits will have to wait till next year, but we will see the debut of big OLEDs and voice/gesture-based TV control.

So what did we learn from this year's show? Read our head-to-head CES 2012 wrap.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--CNET's team of crack technology editors argued long into the Vegas afternoon yesterday, painstakingly honing hundreds of cumulative man- and woman-hours of CES 2012 coverage into 10 category winners and, finally, one product sharp enough to earn Best in Show: the LG 55EM9600.

It's a TV. And its organic light-emitting diode display technology is the future of flat-panel tech. OLED promises better picture quality than either plasma or LCD/LED--thanks to effectively infinite contrast (for realzies this time!), wide viewing angles and lightning-fast response times--combined with an unbelievable form factor. The winning LG measures just 4mm in … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Active 3D glasses that come free with the TV, don't cost too much for extra pairs, and work with other brands might help win a few more 3D TV naysayers.

Ami Dror, Chief Strategy Officer for 3D glasses maker XpanD, told CNET that he expects active 3D glasses to cost as little as $20 each before the end of the year. That's $10 less than the current least-expensive such glasses from Samsung, which retail for $30 per pair. Active glasses from Sony and Panasonic currently cost more.

But current active 3D glasses don't work across … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The highest-end plasma and LED TVs Samsung announced at CES yesterday offer a feature called Smart Interaction, which among other functions allows volume and channel changes at a word or gesture. Most TV watchers, however, use a cable box and not their TVs to change channels.

The solution is an IR blaster, a device designed to send infrared signals (just like a remote control) to operate the box. The little device pictured above handles that duty for Samsung's 2012 Smart Interaction models, namely the UNES7500, UNES8000, and PNE8000 series.

The TVs communicate with the blaster via Bluetooth, as … Read more