HDTV News

At an exclusive press event yesterday in central London, Bang & Olufsen unveiled the BeoLab 14 surround sound speaker system.

We were at the event and not only got to spend time with the beautiful looking and sounding system, but also got to spend time with the CEO Tue Mantoni, and designer Torsten Valeur who explained his inspiration behind the super stylish system.

We’ll be publishing our full article and hands on videos from the event over the next couple of days, so be sure to stay tuned for that!

In the meantime I’ll give a quick overview on the Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 14. Firstly the surround sound speaker system will work with any TV, Bang & Olufsen or not.

It’s available in two versions, one with the subwoofer and four satellite speakers for use with a Bang & Olufsen TV (Such as the BeoVision 11), and another version with the subwoofer and five satellite speakers if you’re using it with a non Bang & Olufsen TV.

YouTube has had a partner program running since 2007, and currently has over a million partner channels.

YouTube has now launched another level to their partner program with their paid subscription fee service. A small number of channels are now subscription fee only, but this number is expected to rise soon.

Subscription fees start at just $0.99 per month, but can go much higher, for example to UFC channel is $5.99 a month. All channels have a 14 days free trial period to you can try before you buy as such.

All the videos on these subscription fee channels will be free of ads. I clicked on a few of these paid channels and it looks like you can watch up to 2mins of a longer video.

Denon have just announced and released their latest lineup of IN-Command 7.2 Network Home Theater Receivers. There are four new models in the Denon AVR-X1000 to AVR-X4000 range, but we are particularly interested in the Denon AVR-X4000 receiver which supports 4K video pass through, and upscaling.

With new more affordable 4K / Ultra HD TVs coming our way, such as the 55-inch, and 65-inch Sony X900A series which starts at just $4,999 now available, and other cheaper options coming our way very soon, people are going to want to upgrade their equipment to 4K supporting.

Amazon is said to be making their way in the TV box streamer market. While you can already gain access to Amazon Instant Video service on a number of existing set top boxes such as the Roku and other similar devices, it looks like amazon wants to make their own devices, allowing them to put their content right up there in front of their competing services.

Amazon have been expanding their video on demand store, and their Instant video service, both of which will be accessible from the device according to Bloomberg businessweek have been talking to three people who are familiar with the project.

We’re starting to see more and more 4K / Ultra HD TVs coming to market, some at a crazy $40,000, others at a much more reasonable $5,000 from Sony, or just $1,500 from lesser known brands.

But before you can even talk about a 4K TV, you can’t avoid the issue of lack of content. Sure, Sony has their Sony FMP-X1 4K Media Player, but what about public broadcasts? Last week, LG demoed the world’s first 4K sporting event on their 84-inch 4K TV.

SES have made the worlds first Ultra HD transmission making use of the new H.264 HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) standard. Previously other 4K / Ultra HD transmissions have been made using the more standard, older H.264 codec, or joining together four 1080p streams to form the 4K resolution.

Until very recently the cheapest 4K Ultra HD TV you could buy was the $20,000 84-inch LG 4K TV, or the $25,000 Sony equivalent.

Just days ago Sony announced their pricing on their smaller 55-inch and 65-inch 4K models at a very reasonable $4,999, and $6,999 respectively, which will be shipping next month (May 2013).

Now Chinese TV manufacturer Seiki have come along with their own, slightly smaller, 50-inch 4K Ultra HD TV, the Seiki Chinese SE50UY04, and they’re only asking for $1,499.99 for it! It can currently be ordered and delivered for only $1,299.

There are two fierce competitions going on right now in the TV world, the first is the 4K race, with a number of manufactures now joining in the competition, the second is the OLED race, and this is turning into a very fierce battle.

Back in 2012, both LG and Samsung unveiled their own very impressive 55-inch OLED HDTV. Neither of these OLED TVs were released in 2012, but come CES 2013 earlier in the year both were back with their very latest version of their OLED TVs.

So far only LG have released their 55-inch OLED TV, while the Samsung OLED TV release date gets pushed back.

South Korean police have searched Samsung’s display-making unit offices in connection with an investigation into alleged technology theft. Samsung have reported that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency went to its headquarters in Asan, searching for documents relating to the technology.

We have previously covered Toshiba’s entire 2013 TV lineup back in January at CES 2013, where we got eyes on and hands on of their impressive new lineup.

But of course this was from the U.S point of view, and their line up. Now a couple of months later, Toshiba are back, now this time in the U.K announcing their 2013 European lineup.

While sometimes it’s quite easy to see the tie between the US and UK / European models, with the same, or very similar model names, with Toshiba it looks like they have mixed things up a bit, so to make things easier, I believe this deserves its own article for the European / UK market.

Toshiba are going all out, and will be releasing three 4K Ultra HD TV this year. Simply known as the Toshiba 9 Series, the series will offer an 84-inch model completing with Sony and LG, along with two smaller models at 65-inchs and 58-inches. Model numbers: Toshiba 84L9363, 65L9363, and 58L9363.

Roku have just announced (and launched) their Roku 3 streamer. Adding to their already impressive and popular range of Roku media hub / video streamer, the new Roku 3 is blessed with a processor which is five times faster than their previous streaming players, but still sips power.

The new Roku 3 features a new interface and enhanced motion remote control which features a built-in headphone jack for private listening. It comes with included in-ear headphones, or you can use your own, to not wake your family as your enjoying your latest shows, or playing games such as Angry bird space.

The much improved and simplified interface have been streamlined for quicker access. The Roku channel store and search and now integrated into the home screen. There are now over 750 channels available and searching these is now much easier.

Now that the dust has truly had time to settle on CES 2013, which is without a doubt the busiest week of in the tech industry, we’re here to give you our view on CES 2013 and the new batch of Smart TVs, 4K Ultra HDTV, and OLED TVs for 2013!

As you know all too well from our detailed hands on video coverage of CES 2013 (30+ videos and counting!), there is a whole wealth of information and absorb and analyze, with all the major TV manufactures fighting for attention and highlighting their new products for 2013.

Along with announcing their entire 2013 TV lineups, every manufacturer always tries to steel the show with their latest and greatest new product, and each year at CES, no matter what area you look at, it always comes down to the TVs.

This year was no different, and far from disappointing. While we were correct with most of our predictions, there was certainly a surprise of two from almost every manufacturer.