Remember the wall that was also a television in Total Recall? That’s the inspiration behind Surfaces — a concept device produced by British cable mavens NDS. Abandoning the idea of a single screen, the company mounted six displays into a wall that offers up TV and internet content when on, and blends into your wallpaper when off. The setup will even control your room’s lighting for those particularly emotive X Factor performances and you control the whole thing with your iPad (while tweeting, bitchily about the show). However, before you storm the company’s Staines headquarters looking to buy one, there are a few obstacles you should know about. Firstly, this amazing setup cost over $30,000 and secondly, it only really works if you’ve got plenty of content filmed in 4K — but don’t worry, Peter Jackson’s working on it.

SOURCE via Wired

Samsung shows off their stunning 55-inch OLED HDTV prototypes earlier this year during CES, but now it’s surprising the world by showing off the first mass produced ES9500 models at the 2012 World’s Fair (which is apparently still a thing?) in Korea.

Beyond the Smart Interaction voice and gesture control, Smart Content and Smart Evolution upgradeable dual-core CPU features found in its other high-end HDTVs, Samsung has also built in Smart Dual View technology. This lets users watch two different programs (2D) on one screen at the same time using the set’s 3D glasses and sound fed through headphones. Since each pixel is individually lit, Samsung says its OLED tech has 20 percent better color reproduction than existing LED-backlit LCD HDTVs.

There’s still no word on exactly when these will ship and for how much, however with competition on the way from LG, these fresh-off-the-factory-line flat panels are a sign we won’t be waiting long. Other than new display tech, Samsung also took the opportunity to officially announce bigger LCD models on the way in sizes from 60- to 75-inches. According to the Associated Press, company officials expect it to go on sale in the second half of the year for over 10 million won, around $9,000 US.

SOURCE via AJC

Do you ever wish you could have a news ticker on your TV, regardless of what channel you’re watching? Neither do we really, but we’re sure there’s someone out there who does. If that person also happens to own a Samsung Smart TV or Blu-ray player, well then, have we got some Breaking News for you. (See what we did there?) The premiere, primarily Twitter-based news aggregation service Breaking News now has an app in the Samsung TV Apps Store. Just install it, launch it and enjoy while breaking headlines are fed to your screen, regardless of what you’re watching. You’ve even got the option to have a constant stream of headlines or only alerts for seriously breaking news. Fire up the Apps Store to download it now.

SOURCE via Breaking News

If TVs only had a brain — oh wait, now they kind of do. LG’s Smart TV series has already begun to flood the market with its suite of apps, streaming video services, support for Flash and gaming all in tow, save for one promised service — Voice Control. Announced by the company today, an update enabling that feature should hit flat panels by month’s end, giving users with Magic Remotes access to simplified search and navigation. Curious to see how it works? Then check out the awkwardly dubbed and unintentionally hilarious video demo after the break.

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LG Display said on Friday that the company plans to start production of its 55-inch OLED TV (55EM960V) sometime in July. The news arrived during the company’s 4Q12 report which revealed an operating loss of 144.8 billion won ($129.3 million), its fifth consecutive quarterly loss.

Yet despite the loss, LG’s numbers seem to be improving. The company saw a 492 billion won loss in the previous quarter and a 387 billion won loss a year ago. LG is a key panel supplier of Apple’s iPad and iPhone as well as Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, all three of which helped boost sales during the 2011 holiday season.

But given that LCD demand will remain subdued from now until at least March due to a weak global economy and low seasonal demand, the total shipments for the first quarter of 2012 will be similar to the fourth quarter of 2011. Prices are expected to remain stable, said James Jeong, Chief Financial Officer of LG Display.

“Going forward, LG Display is confident about its ability to maintain its leadership with a host of differentiated products in the global display sector even in a rapidly changing market and well positioned to achieve an early turnaround,” Jeong said.

LG will reportedly invest 4 trillion won (around $3.5 billion) this year into the OLED technology. Once production of the 55-inch OLED TV begins in July, LG expects to initially produce a conservative 8,000 substrates (8G) per month — or around 48,000 OLED TV panels. Plans for a large-scale 2013 production won’t be made until 3Q12 after the company evaluates consumer acceptance and feedback.

LG’s 55-inch OLED TV made its debut earlier this month at CES 2012, sporting passive 3D and a Full HD resolution. It weighed around 16 pounds and had a thickness of less than 4-mm. LG said that it was based on its Oxide TFT (which replaces Amorphous Silicon with a cheaper Oxide) White-OLED (WOLED) panel with color filters (RGBW).

The 55-inch OLED TV is expected to cost around $8,000 USD initially, and then drop down to around $4,000 USD in 2013.

On Wednesday during CES 2012 in Las Vegas, Samsung introduced a new service to be added to select 2012 smart Blu-ray players that will undoubtedly be good news for consumers with a huge library of store-bought DVDs.

Called Disc-to-Digital, Samsung’s new service allows users to register their ownership of physical DVDs with UltraViolet, thus granting them access to the digital version stored in the cloud. UltraViolet movies can be accessed virtually anytime and anywhere — even from multiple locations at once — through the Flixter application now available for Android, iOS and via the Samsung Smart Hub. Consumers also have the option to purchase HD quality versions of these movies, and can share digital library content with other members under the same account.

Disc-to-Digital will be available on two 2012 models for starters: the compact BD-ES6000 3D Blu-ray player and the dual-HDMI BD-E6500 3D Blu-ray player. The former player reportedly measures slightly larger than a Blu-ray disc — using a compact, cubic form factor — while retaining the latest video technologies and connectivity features. The latter model containing two HDMI inputs allows the user to connect a game console and set-top box simultaneously while still using one HDMI output port.

In addition to Disc-to-Digital, these two flagship Blu-ray players will provide a full web browser and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity to prevent users from draping Ethernet cable all across the house. Both DLNA and WiFi Direct will be supported, and powerful video processors will up-convert DVDs, older non-HD content and low-resolution streaming to full-blown 1080p.

“Building on Samsung’s legacy of innovation, the new additions to the Blu-ray player line offer consumers increasing options to enjoy an outstanding home entertainment experience regardless of the content sources,” said Sangchul Lee, Senior Vice President, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Consumers now have an endless list of connectivity options and services for a true multi-screen experience.”

These two specific Blu-ray players are currently on display at Samsung’s booth #12004 in the Central Hall at CES 2012. Actual pricing and availability was not provided, so stay tuned.

The leader in plasmas TVs keeps stepping up its game with 16 new 3D models for 2012 and one lonely 2D set. At the top of the line is the VT50 series — 4 is unlucky in Japan — featuring the new Infinite Black Ultra Panel with blacker blacks then the 2011 VT35 and 24,576 steps of gradation, which should provide more detail in dark scenes. It’s too early to tell if this will officially dethrone the king of blacks, but we were able to appreciate the improved performance in a side by side demo.

The picture quality isn’t the only thing new, 2012 brings DLNA, a new more anti-reflective screen and a web browser that uses a smartphone app to avoid entering data with an onscreen keyboard. There are also new 3D glasses for 2012 that are much ligher and work via Bluetooth — and of course not compatible with last year’s. We wish there were more details (like price and availability) in the press release, but we’d guess this summer for less than you paid for your 2011 HDTV.

Haier just unleashed several new HDTVs (to go along with the one we saw a couple days ago) and home audio gear here at CES. First up is the EV series of 3D HDTVs that sport a “virtually edgeless picture” thanks to a super thin bezel, and come in both 65- and 55-inch versions. The EV Series also packs 2D to 3D conversion tech, Yahoo Connected TV and the company’s new Smart Home UI to access all of your media content, plus a double-sided QWERTY remote to navigate it. Next is the 23-inch Designer Series that sports an edge-lit 1920 x 1080 LED screen that comes in your choice of black, white, metallic grey or red to fit your every mood (and room color). Price has yet to be determined, but you’ll be able to get a Designer TV of your own in Q2 of this year.

Lastly, Haier is unveiling several new audio products. First, there’s the $400 3D model that has an iPhone dock built in and delivers 230 watts of 5.1 surround sound using Absolute 3D technology. Next is a super slim profile soundbar that pumps out 280 watts of sound through 2.1 channels through a speaker that’s only 1.07 inches deep for $350. Rounding things out is a ViewHD iDevice dock that works with iPads, iPhones and iPods. Priced at $99, it comes with a remote for controlling it from afar and has HDMI out in case your mobile’s meager screen simply won’t do.

Not getting your social networking fix on enough of your devices? Good news, one-time leading social networking service Myspace this week announced the launch of Myspace TV, entertainment stations that will be made available through new Panasonic Viera Connect-enabled HDTVS. The early stations will be primarily focused on music, still the site’s bread and butter, though it plans to add other entertainment options like movies, news and sports. Users will be able to interact, social network-style, commenting and sharing the content they’re watching.

Initial channels on Myspace TV will be music-focused, leveraging Myspace’s unparalleled music rights and leading library of 100,000 music videos and 42 million songs. Myspace TV will expand beyond music, however, to encompass movies, news, sports and reality channels, with a growing lineup of today’s most popular broadcast and on-demand content. Audiences will not only be able to view their favorite television programs, but Myspace TV will also allow them to chat about what they’re viewing while they’re viewing it and invite friends to watch with them virtually. The platform fully integrates social and television in new ways that add a dimension to content discovery and evolve the traditional television experience. A companion app will be available on tablets and smartphones, providing instant sync capabilities for a seamless experience.

It looks like Panasonic’s efforts to open up Viera Connect to more developers is starting to pan out, with new applications coming from bigwigs like Disney and Skype. The new apps were heavily touted in the outfit’s CES keynote as a way to expand viewers’ access to web based content — from rating their favorite movies on Flixster, to putting their kids to bed with Disney digital books. If putting books in your TV and tweeting about your favorite Mickey Mouse moments isn’t social enough for you, Panasonic’s also bringing MySpace to the small screen, just in case you wanted some of that “classic” social networking flavor on your couch.