Todays & Tomorrows Technology

LG have unveiled two new ”full LED” HDTVs, each with 55-inch LCD panels and 240Hz refresh rates. The LG 55LH95 and LG 55LH93 both use 3,360 individual LEDs and boast a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1; the company’s backlighting technology can individually control 240 sections of the display, dimming or brightening as suits the image on-screen.
Despite sliding in all those LEDs, the new HDTVs are still slimline. Depth is just 24.8mm, despite the company also fitting in wireless connectivity; it’s unclear from the press release exactly which format LG have selected, but considering they’re boasting zero degradation we’re assuming it’s some type of ultrawideband HDMI.

The two new sets will be released in July, priced at around $5,500 for the 55LH93 and around $5,900 for the 55LH95. Smaller 42-inch and 47-inch “full LED” sets will follow by the end of 2009, though they won’t be as slimline as these 24.8mm flagship models.

Samsung have taken the wraps off of their latest pocket-projector, the P410M, and while you’d certainly need reasonably-sized pockets to carry it, it perhaps makes up for things by offering higher than usual specs. The P410M boasts up to 800 x 600 resolution and a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, together with inputs that include VGA, composite and a USB port.

There’s also a full remote control, 170 lumen brightness and an LED lamp rated for up to 30,000 hours usage. Twin 1W speakers handle stereo sound, though probably aren’t something you’d like to listen to a whole feature-film on. Unfortunately there’s no sign of a battery, so it looks like the P410M is mains-only.

While there’s no confirmation at the moment, the P410M looks suspiciously like the Samsung PhlatLight prototype projector we saw back in June 2008. Then, production models were tipped before the end of the year, but its obviously taken a little longer to get this Samsung out of the door.

While you're replacing your household incandescent light-bulbs with LEDs in a bid to save energy and possibly cash (over the 40,000-hour lifespan) you might want to consider these remote-controlled lamps from Sharp. The DL-L60AV gives you on/off and dimming functions as well as the ability to adjust the light in seven shades of white to warm up or cool down the glow. Best of all, they screw into a standard E26 socket for a one-to-one exchange with your existing ocean warmers. The features of the remote control are still unclear (lighting zone support, range of operation, etc.) but it appears to work with multiple-lamps in parallel which is a nice touch. However, we'd like to see Sharp integrate a Z-Wave or ZigBee chipset so we could link these directly (without special wall-switches) into a tricked-out home automation and power managment system. The DL-series start at ¥3880 (about $40) for simple LED lights before hitting ¥7980 (about $82) for the fully-equipped DL-L60AV and begin shipping July 15th in Japan.

Toshiba began shipping their Regza HDTVs today, which were initially shown off at CES earlier this year. However, another series was added to the line up today, called the XV648, which is certainly worth learning about.

First up is the SV670, which features an LED backlight, a 240Hz panel, 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 14-bit color processing and more. It is available in a 46-inch and a 55-inch version that cost respectively, $2,300 and $3,000.

Next is the ZV650, which features a CCFL backlight rather than LED and has a 240Hz panel and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. It’s available in sizes ranging from 42-inches to 55-inches and costs from $1,300 to $2,400. Last, there’s the XV648, which is new to the Regzas series, and features a CCFL display, a 120Hz panel and a CrystalCoat display for better contrast. It will be available in August in sizes ranging from 40-inches to 52-inches for $1,100 to $2,000.