Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Last year we saw Panasonic launch a 150-inch Plasma TV.  This year they’re talking up their new 3D 1080p HDTV.  The first 3D Blu-ray won’t be launched until 2010, so there’s still a lot of work to go to perfect the concept.  The company mentioned that they are working with famous director / producer James Cameron on his future film Avatar on the 3DHD elements.

Head over to the Panasonic Live-blog for some of their other new products.

Like always Sony has made us trek all the way over to the convention center for their press conference. We are expecting the regular announcements LCD TVs, new OLED displays, cameras, new computers include the teased P series, new Blu-ray players and more. The one catch will be that Howard Stronger, Sony CEO, will be offering a keynote tomorrow morning and will surely save something for that time—so this can end up being a bit dry. Either way stick around to this page for live coverage of all the announcements (you can reload the page by hitting Ctrl+R or F5).

For more CES press coverage head over here or check out our 2009 CES page for all the CES news, CES keynotes, CES photo galleries/booth tours, and more!

Panasonic and Amazon have just announced they will be offering Amazon VOD on some of the new HDTV Viera-series flat panels from Panasonic.  Videos can be purchased on the TV without having to fumble with a computer or media center.  Once you buy the vid, you can watch on your TV, PC, or Mac.

Click for a larger image.

The new 6, 7, and 8 series LED TVs from Samsung super-slim - measuring in at just over an inch thick, as you can see above.  The new models add to their theme of adding a Touch of Color to their displays so they fit in more stylistically in your home.  More can be found on our live-blog of the event.

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Today at CES, Vizio announced their VBR100 Blu-ray player.  Feature wise the VBR100 will offer 1080p quality with Blu-ray movies as well as the ability to upconvert standard DVD’s in either 720p, 1080i or 1080p.  As for video outputs, the player will have HDMI (1.3), component and composite and the audio outputs include 7.1 channel analog, coax, optical digital audio and analog stereo (RCA).  The player is set to be available sometime in April of this year and will retail for a very nice $199.

Read [PR Newswire]

Time for one of the largest press conferences of the day…Panasonic. These tend to be the largest and most dry press event of press day. Hopefully they can spice things up a bit with the 3D HDTV introduction. Besides that you can expect the regular announcements around Blu-ray players, cameras, camcorders, a GPS here and there, and some power line networked devices.

Remember, hit Ctrl+R to refresh or F5. We will be live in a few…

For more CES press coverage head over here or check out our 2009 CES page for all the CES news, CES keynotes, CES photo galleries/booth tours, and more!

Live, from CES, Samsung is announcing their brand new high volume memory, high speed line of cameras.  Samsung is betting on bigger capacity (64GB and 128GB) and their super fast boot time and access, which they say is 3x faster than HDD.

Samsung touts SSD’s best aspects as to why it is the perfect memory for camcorders.  The lack of moving parts means the device is less fragile and is anti-shock.  Samsung will have five units in total that rely on SSD memory.

The H106, the top of the line features 1920x1080, built-in SSD to 64GB.  Optical Image Stabilizer, a 37mm wide angle lens, HD time lapse photo are all on board.  The camera is capable of a 4.7 mp still photo.

More as it comes on price.  The unit is slated to be available in April.

Among the few products that were introduced earlier this morning by Netgear is the new Internet TV.  The new device is a small set-top box that ships with its own remote control.  As for content, as you would have expected, YouTube is on the list. 

However, there is also a wide selection of other available content available, which includes movie rentals, as well as pre-arranged content from sites such as ESPN, FOX and TMZ.  There is also a Live Internet TV menu that allows you to watch television from all over the world to include channels such as Sky and EuroTV.  The Intenet TV includes the ability to search for your content using the “vtap” search function.

Additionally, it also offers a USB port that allows you to hook up your own external drive and watch video, listen to music or browse images.

Based on what we mentioned earlier, we can expect to see the Internet TV player sometime in the summer of 2009 with a retail price of $199.  Basically, this seems like a worthwhile option with plenty of options for available content, I think the biggest barrier will be the same as the rest of these types of devices—and that is whether people will be willing to add yet another set-top box to their already crowded home entertainment setup.

Keep reading to check out a few more images of the Netgear Internet TV…

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How Samsung can fit all of their announcements into a 45 minutes press conference is amazing. If this is like previous years Samsung will be announcing new products across all categories: HDTVs, phones, cameras, camcorders, monitors, printers, portable audio, and maybe even some portable devices/netbooks to replace the Q1 line (maybe the rumored NC20).

We will get started in just a few minutes. Once the live blog starts you can refresh every minute or so by hitting F5 or Ctrl+R.

For more CES press coverage head over here or check out our 2009 CES page for all the CES news, CES keynotes, CES photo galleries/booth tours, and more!

Check out the gallery: CES 2009 Press Conference: Samsung live blog

Kinda.  Simulates surround sound is probably a bit more accurate Either way, a sound upgrade follows after upgrading your TV and perhaps your media player.  Instead of the expense and install hassles of a true surround sound speaker system, drop this bar and enjoy simulated surround sound.

I’ve used this type of product before with the Z Cinema computer sound system from Logitech, and must say I continue to be impressed.  Assuming Sharp can hit into what Logitech and others have done, average TV watchers will be impressed.

The Sharp HT-SB300 and 200 combine left and right speakers with a subwoofer into a compact unit.  The 2.1 channel, 34 watt system features several inputs including an auxiliary

Pricing for the SB300, which adds Dolby 5.1 is $299 and $50 less for the SB200, $249.