Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Get ready, here comes Kodak into the TV set-top box market. Due to hit stores in September, their Theatre HD Player is a Wi-Fi equipped TV set-top box that can stream music, videos, and photos from any computer that is connected to the same network right to your HDTV. It offers 720 playback, HDMI and component output ports, and a USB port.

Sounds decent, right? Sure. Until you take a look at the price tag and then compare it to what is already on the market and comparable. We have the PlayStation 3 and AppleTV. These two alone offer the exact same features and more. The Theatre HD Player will run you $300.  Now, while a 40GB PS3 is a little pricier at $400; it also has a Blu-ray player and the obvious video game console included. The AppleTV costs less than the Theatre HD at $229, and it even allows you to store media.

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Sony is offering to help brighten up your home by adding a splash of fruity colors to its most recent Bravia HDTV models, as part of their “Draw the Line” concept for kitchens and brightening up the home. You’ll see this in the 20-inch KLV-20S400A, which is available in fruity pink, green, and orange, as well as the classics - white or black. This would be perfect for the kids’ room, but unfortunately, it will only start appearing in Asia by June.

The Bravia V4-series, meanwhile, is a new lineup announced alongside the fruity variants, likewise featuring a 2008 Bravia Engine 2 video processor and 1080p24 input capability. The only difference the V4-series has over the former is that it has an extra “Digital Media Port” for iPods and other MP3 players, as well as Sony Ericsson Bluetooth-enabled handsets.

The S4 and V4 series also come in 40- and 46-inch sizes, in case that’s your thing. And as earlier mentioned, won’t hit stores until June. No word on pricing has been made available yet.

Via [Crave]

Aigo is coming up with a new PMP dubbed the Patriot MV5920 MP5 player. This latest PMP is being touted as a breakthrough device for its dual-core technology that allows HDTV playback at 720p (1280 x 720 pixels). The device also has Wi-Fi and mobile TV support aside from its 160GB hard drive capacity. It’s also categorized as an MP5 player, which is what PMPs are typically called in China.

For around $429 you’ll have this uber-cool looking piece of hardware that comes with other powerful features including a 2.0-megapixel camera, 4.3-inch color display at 16:9 (480x272 pixel) resolution, MP3 player that supports various digital music formats and an integrated DVR recording function. And yes, it’s still portable at 6.14 x 3.23 x 0.78-inches, despite its many features.

The only question left for all of us now is when will it be available in the international market?

Via PMP Today

Sharp and Amimon, an emerging leader in semiconductor technology for wireless high-definition video, have combined their technology to bring wireless HDTV experience to users of Sharp’s LCD display units. Slated for a release in Japan soon, Sharp’s super-thin X-series LCD displays will be equipped with Amimon’s Wireless High Definition Interface (HDMI) 1080p wireless technology. For us users, this simply means that we would no longer have to connect any cables to our TVs since all the necessary wires and cables of the Sharp LCD displays will be tucked in a separate set-top box. 

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Although we have already seen the migration of YouTube video content into our living room TV. HP wants to up the notch a step higher by bringing you a better video watching experience with its HP MediaSmart Products that include the MediaSmart Connect digital media receiver and the high-definition MediaSmart TV.

Yes dear readers, with this tie-up between HP and YouTube, you will be able to watch and share full-screen videos on your HDTVs. You can also create multiple playlists from anywhere you watch TV. Even sweeter is the fact that just like the old habit of slacking on your couches and watching your favorite TV shows from morning till dawn, you can do all these things using your HDTVs remote control,. Only this time, you have a full YouTube video database to watch, which if you would calculate, could probably last you a lifetime to finish watching.

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It’s the latest Hollywood cliffhanger: how will you spend your economic stimulus check?

If the New York Times, NPD Group and other leading-indicator-watchers are to be believed, you’ll head right down to Best Buy, Game Stop or Costco and use that money to buy a shiny piece of consumer electronic hardware.

Two Times stories in the last three days have mentioned how sales of HDTV’s, video game consoles and software, DVD players and other home entertainment devices have been rising during the economic downturn. It seems that when hard times hit, most people will be content to cocoon in front of their 42-inch LCD’s, watching high-def newscasts full of talking heads holding court on the cost of gasoline and food.

Hollywood uberblogger Nikki Finke says Hollywood is paying attention to this mashup of commerce and technology because “Iron Man” is about to launch in multiplexes nationwide - waving the green flag for the summer movie season - and the videogame “Grand Theft Auto IV” just came out and it’s getting the kind of reviews you usually see for a Coen Brothers film. Sure, you spend $60 bucks for the game, but how many hours of 1080p gameplay (plus cinema-worthy storytelling) does that buy you vs. the 126 minutes it will take to watch Robert Downey Jr. blow stuff up? Do we even need to mention related spending/downtime like parking, pre/post-movie dining, babysitters, etc?

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JVC is having a hard time keeping up with what the consumer wants these days and so they have been posting some pretty big losses. Year after year, JVC losses increase by a lot, they have risen from $75 million to a whopping $455 million. The main culprit for the loss is their failing HDTV department. In an effort to gain more some profit, the are being forced to make some changes.

First, they will move their chief production areas to less expensive places. This means that the factory in Scotland and Japan will be moved to Poland and Thailand. By doing this, they hope to save some money with reduced operating expenses. Also, they plan to focus most of their efforts on the profitable big screen TV area, like 42-inches and up. These changes will be limited to the Japanese market for the time being, no word on what they plan to do in the American market and how to gain more profits in America.

JVC blames the losses partly on getting rid of unprofitable business firms, and they say that their TV department needs to go back to the drawing board because people aren’t interested in rear-projection and tube TV’s, but rather LCD’s and flat panel screens.

Via [Electronista]

Asus is updating the Linux drivers of the Asus Eee PC to make its My Cinema U3100 Mini DVD-T and DMB-TH tuners work. Based on results of preliminary testing, the Linux drivers now work well with the USB TV Tuners, except for the H.264 software decoding. This means that HDTV channels won’t be able to broadcast properly in the Eee. Other TV channels that broadcast using MPEG-2 will work just fine, but as of now it will not support any recording. But hey, with such limited on-board storage and slow processing you wouldn’t want to be recording too much anyway, better leave that function for your desktops or other equally powerful laptops.

The TV tuner compatibility certainly adds up to the already great features of the Asus Eee PC. It’s no wonder that many sub-notebook manufacturers are following the path of the Asus and are coming out with their own versions of the Eee PC.

Via [Crunch Gear]

Pinnacle Systems has launched two new PC TV Tuners – the PCTV HD Stick and the PCTV HD Stick Pro. Both TV Tuners provide free digital HD and SD TV over-the-air plus unencrypted digital cable through ClearQAM channels.

For $69.99, the PCTV HD Stick will give you up to 1080i resolution digital HD TV goodness as well as an analog and digital TV tuner. The PCTV HD Stick also includes the TV Pro software bundle for PVR capabilities to easily watch, time shift or record SD and HD TV programs, full-screen and scalable viewing modes and a guide for locating programs and scheduling recordings.

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With spring in full swing, who wouldn’t want to enjoy a little TV watching in their patios? With Pantel’s latest pair of weatherproof HDTVs, you can confidently mount them outside and not worry about the spring rain destroying your shiny new TV. In fact, you don’t need to mind the weather at all, as these new panels can withstand just about anything Mother Nature decides to throw at them. The 32-inch PAN320 and 42-inch PAN420 can withstand temperatures of -40 to 140 degrees fahrenheit. Pantel has equipped both TVs with a dual-flow ventilation and built-in heating system to keep them nice ‘n cool in the summer and warm ‘n toasty in the winter. Spec-wise, both models feature 1366 x 768 resolution, an anti-reflective glass, 1600:1 contrast ratio, waterproof remote control, and a wireless RF receiver—which allows users to broadcast HD video and audio to the TV from 150 feet away.

The Pantel PAN320 and PAN420 retail for $3,950 and $4,450. The company has teased that 52 and 60-inch models are in the works, but no details have been announced. We’ll have more information when Pantel decides to dish out.

Product [Pantel] Via [GearLog]