LG has been one of the few companies that have been researching OLED HDTVs. Today, the company revealed a new 3D OLED TV that will be based on the company’s Film-Type Patterned Retarter (FPR) technology. This technology adds a polarized filter on the TV, which enables polarized glasses to be used to create the 3D effect. The polarized glasses provide a flicker-free 3D image and are a lot cheaper than the current active shutter glasses. There is no info is this is the same 31” display that the company unveiled earlier this year, but hopefully the company will reveal more information at CES 2011.

[via OLED Info]

One of the most celebrated 3DTVs this year was the Panasonic TC-P50GT25. This display has a 50” screen, HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, and a 5000000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Today, the writers from Digital Trends released their review of this display. One of the first things that they mention is that this TV is THX certified, which means that it is guaranteed to have a certain degree of quality. The writers were very pleased with the overall performance and especially the TV’s contrast and black levels. The writers thought that both the 2D and 3D image quality was superb and even stated that they believe no one will complain about the picture quality. The only real complaint the writers had with the display was that Panasonic doesn’t include any of the 3D glasses with their display. This might deter a lot of consumers, since buying them separately could cost a lot. The final conclusion was, “We have no problems whatsoever recommending this 3D HDTV. The price is right—only Samsung has a 50-inch 3D plasma that’s cheaper (PN50C680G5F) as of this writing but it’s not Internet-enabled. The 3D experience—why you’ll buy this particular Viera—is quite good, better than the recently reviewed Sharp LED Quattron. The fact you can get the whole 3D shooting match for less than $2,000 is great news (HDTV, glasses, 3D BD player). Hopefully more quality 3D programming will arrive in 2011 beyond Avatar and Alice; Tron will get here for sure. While you’re waiting for the 3D revolution to really hit, BD discs and high-def programming will keep you very pleasantly occupied and satisfied.”

[via Digital Trends]

LG has been releasing a lot of announcements lately about some of the products that they will be displaying at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Today, the company announced a new product that they call the Smart TV Upgrader (ST600). This set-top-box is capable of transforming existing TVs into a Smart TV with out having to purchase a completely new TV. A Smart TV is one that can connect to the internet and access video, music, and other content. The Upgrader will not only allow this to happen to regular TVs, but it will also give the TV access to all of LG’s Smart TV functions line Smart Share and a full range of internet apps. “The market for Smart TVs is set to take off this year, and the ST600 offers a perfect entry point,” said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of LG Home Entertainment Company. “With the LG Smart TV Upgrader, we’re taking the excitement and convenience of Smart TV and adding in LG’s trademark ease-of-use because we see a significant audience who are interested but not interested enough to buy a whole new TV.” As usual, LG did not announce a release date or price for the Upgrader, but it will be on display at CES. The company is looking at a second quarter release in 2011.

[via LG]

A lack of content has been a big problem for the 3D industry. Most videos can only be watched by purchasing a respective manufacturer’s equipment and the content shown on TV is mostly sports programs. Today, Samsung is looking to fix this problem as they announced today the launch of their “Explore 3D” video app. This app is free to download and is available to any Samsung TV that can download from their online app store. It allows users to view several 3D movies, including Shrek Forever After, Megamind, and How to Train Your Dragon. The downside though is that this app will only work with Samsung 3DTVs, but the users don’t need additional equipment like Blu-ray players or HDMI cables. Samsung will release more 3D content through the app as it becomes available.

[via Audioholics]

Now that you’ve unwrapped your brand new TVs the hosts of HD Nation want to help you calibrate it to display the best picture possible. The hosts spend this episode giving the quick and easy calibration process starting with using an HDMI cable instead of a composite connection. When you turn on your TV, it will usually ask which mode you wish to setup the TV for. The hosts strongly encourage selecting home mode because the image quality will be better and ultimately it will use less energy. The hosts also recommend turning off overscan modes so that the entire picture will be able to be seen on the screen. Other helpful tips include downloading upgrades for net-connected TVs, using the room sensor feature to help brighten or dim the brightness.

[via Revision 3]

One of the many HDTVs to be released this year by Samsung is the PN50C8000YF. This 50” display features full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, 3D technology, and a Mega Dynamic Contrast Ratio. Today, the writers from Maximum PC released their review of the TV. One of the first things the writers praise is the internet capabilities. This allows the TV to access the company’s App store and gain access to several sites like Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Twitter, and many others. The writers complimented the TVs detail and color reproduction. However, they did notice that the TV suffered from high-contrast streaking, and some burn-in problems. The final comment the writers made was, “The PN50C8000 has a great industrial design, and we appreciate its extra Internet content apps, but in terms of raw screen quality, it falls short of the Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT25.”

[via Maximum PC]

LG is proud to announce today the latest of TV that will be display at next month’s CES in Las Vegas, the LW6500. There is no information about the screen size, but the company is stating that this will be the first 3DTV to have a flicker-free picture. The key to this feature is that LG has done away with the typical active shutter glasses and instead have decided to use polarized glasses instead. These are the same glasses used in the movie theaters and have no moving parts, do not need to be synced, and never needs batteries. Polarized glasses are far less expensive as well, which is a big plus since the major complaint about 3DTVs this year was the price of 3D glasses. LG has also included several other features like Smart TV, LED Plus, TruMotion 200Hz, 2D-to-3D conversion, and many more. Hopefully at CES, LG will announce more information and a release date and price.

[via LG]

Apple is happy to announce that they were able to confirm that they sold over 1 million Apple TV boxes before Christmas. This is a huge accomplishment since the device only released three months ago. The set-top box was always considered to be a “hobby,” project by Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs. The box allows users to connect their HDTVs to the internet and rent movies and TV shows from online providers. What is more interesting though is that the Apple TV device also benefited one of their competitors, the Roku Box. The CEO of Roku also recently stated that they intended to sell a million units before 2011 and credit the Apple TV for a sudden jump in sales.

[via Engadget]

Samsung is the global leader of the Blu-ray player industry. Today, the company announced that they will be unveiling a new Blu-ray player at the Consumer Electronics Show. Not only will the device be their latest 3D Blu-ray player, but also will be the world’s thinnest 3D Blu-ray player. The device measures only 23mm (0.9 inches) thick, which is about as thin as possible for a disk player. It will be able to play both 3D and 2D content and even be able to convert 2D to 3D. The other feature that Samsung is including is access to the internet and websites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Pricing and availability has not been announced yet, but we can expect to hear that at CES.

[via Gizmodo]

Samsung is a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics. Back in August, the company announced the launch of their Free the TV Challenge. This competition was to spur development of new connected TV experiences and bring more of the content and services that people want to the TV screen. Developers had to create their best 2D and 3D TV applications and submit them to Samsung. Today, Samsung is announcing the winners of this competition. The apps that won ranged from helpful widgets to games. One of them is called Armchair Astronaut, which allows users to explore the solar system in HD. “We are very excited to see the level of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that resulted from the Challenge. The participating developers truly took the time to customize their apps for the SmartTV and 3D and received an opportunity to extend that experience to multiple smart devices in the home. We hope to continue to attract those developers and applications that leverage our multi smart device portfolio,” said Eric Anderson, vice president of content and product solutions, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. “To date, Samsung has seen more than 1 million global downloads of our over 200 applications on Samsung Apps, and we look forward to a continued collaboration with our developer partners to offer consumers more of the content they want.”

[via Businesswire]