Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

The D241H Display+ is a new monitor with what i can only describe as bizarre features for a monitor. I’m not saying their bad features by any means just strange. In a world where most people own mobile phones or PMPs which can do your social networking, emails and photos, why not have a monitor that can do it independently of your desktop PC.

This 1080P Full HD panel with a 2ms response time, HDMI and DVI port, it’s your standard fairly decent LCD monitor for your desktop, What makes it stand out though is its ability to connect via Wi-Fi(or ethernet) to the net when your desktop is powered off. Once connected it’s widgets can check your email(Gmail and Yahoo! mail) collect RSS feeds from your favourite MightyGadget blog, and other assorted web feeds.

You can also plug in an SD card or USB dongle and playback your pictures turning the monitor into an oversized picture frame. What’s cool is you can have three widgets working at once too. It also comes with a remote with a slide out QWERTY keyboard making it easy to write your emails or messages from a comfortable distance.

No pictures of the screen yet but it’s believed to be available in May and pricing is still TBC.

Taiwanese giants Asus have recently announced this monstrous new 27” monitor with 3D support. Asus seem to be embracing the new future of 3D tech already with a 3D supported laptop out on the market and it seems to continue here with this super monitor.

Design wise it’s not the best looking monitor in the world but Asus can please aesthetically if they want. Quality is the name of the game here though, 27” screen with NVIDIA 3D vision support, will also be available in a smaller 23”(MG236 and VG236H) and 23.6”(PG246)(but why would you want that when you can get 27?). It has dual link DVI allows for full 1080p HD quality images at a staggering 60fps so when you slap on your 3D specs, the image is smooth and jerk free.

Due out later in the year, we don’t have any price available as of yet so keep your eye out for that. It is believed however that the smaller model will be available before the gargantuan one.

As you may have guessed (despite the recent flurry of mobiles on our blog) we love a good telly and this one looks like a great one coming from those super-relaxed Dutch folk at Philips. This is a contrast ratio beast.

The 2 models will both have Full HD capabilities, available in 32”, 40” and 46”(9000 series) and 37”, 40”, 46”and 52”(8000 series) both have a 0.5ms response time and a staggering 10million : 1 dynamic contrast ratio thanks to those lovely little LED's showering the screen in light.  The 9000 also dishes a super fast 400Hz refresh rate whilst the 8000 a lesser 200Hz(you say lesser but it’s still great) Both series also pack Wi-Fi which can stream video direct from a DLNA enabled PC.

What else makes these great is that both series of TV will be ready for the 3D revolution. However this function wont be given as standard with the initial release. If you want it, you’ll have to upgrade with a a pack containing a wireless transmitter and “Active Shutter” glasses.

The launch has happened today in Spain so details of a UK release and price are still unavailable at the moment but should be around soon.

The two Korean Electronic giants are both looking at launching their 3DTV screens as soon as next month. Samsung’s LED9000 Series 3D TV will be its first release where LG will be shipping its 32-52” Infinia LE9500 range of screens.

With so much in the 3D world appearing within the next year (Sky 3D, 3D gaming and more 3D Movies) now is a good time for the release. With the obvious popularity rise in 3D now at its highest since the 80s 3D revolution the question asked we need to ask is “will people spend the money on what could be the next fad”. Samsung seem to think so but maybe not as highly as first anticipated. Samsung Visual Display Division chief Yoon Boo-Keun said that Samsung had dropped their target of 2.6million 3DTV sales to 2 million(still a lot of sales)

Only problem is they’re keeping shtumm about prices but i wouldn’t expect it to be anything but ludicrous!

LG’s first told us about its new SL9000 a few months back now we have it here in Blighty the information is here for you. As were still waiting for OLED to break the 15” barrier LED is the next best thing inn television.

The super-slim edge to edge screen uses LED’s to backlight the screen. As LED’s are small this allows the screen to be super thin. Also they use a lot less power than a standard LCD TV, but the most important point is the clarity and depth it adds to the screen in comparison to an LCD or Plasma.

At a mere 3cm thin, it sports 4HDMI ports aswell as all the standard component and PC slots. However due to how thin the screen actually is and the fact the ports are on the back and not on the side of the panel, wall mounting this baby will require a dab DIY hand!

Prices start at £1000 for a 42” and £1500 for a “47, LG have however said this is the start of the series and it will soon come in smaller flavours which if you don’t have the space or the money for a mammoth screen, you can pick a smaller one up soon.

For those of us that didn’t know, Toshiba helped develop the Cell processor with Sony which powers the PS3. Now Toshiba re taking the tech into its new TV, the “Regza 55X1” LCD TV. The processor improves the quality of the image with better colours, brightness balance and improved picture quality around the edge of the screen.

The Cell chip is actually housed in an external box which also houses a 3TB HDD to save up to a whopping 26 hours from up to 8 simultaneous channels. Yes that’s right 8 simultaneous channels. Just to show off you can show 8 separate channels at one time on the screen. These can then be flicked through without any delay like a standard HDTV.

Throw in 55 inches of LED backlit screen, a 240Hz display and a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. A 7 speaker sound bar attached under the screen, network functionality with DLNA support and an Opera based web browser you can see this TV packs just about everything. Now what will it cost?? The TV was on show at CEATEC in Japan where it will be released this December at a cool 1 million Yen. That’s around £7000 to you and me…… Ouch

New rules being implemented by the government will see large plasma TVs being banned for consuming too much energy.

Ministers have labelled large plasma screens the "4x4s of the living room" and as part of the battle against climate change, models that fail to meet newer, more stringent energy guidelines will be banned in the UK. New minimum energy standards are expected to be agreed by the EU this spring.

"In the past five years we have seen the main television in a household change from typically being a 24in to 32in CRT television to being a much larger flatscreen television, with screen sizes of between 32 and 42 inches becoming more and more common. Not surprisingly, this has seen the energy used by the main television in the house increase."

According to the government-funded Energy Saving Trust, plasma televisions which are 50% bigger than their cathode-ray tube equivalents "consume about four times more energy".

Personally while I am all for going green this does sound a little ridiculous. When they ban 4x4s or any large engine car then by all means come and ban my Plasma.

Are you a massive movie fan? Does it grind your gears when watching a movie that is letterboxed? Well if so then Phillips may have the perfect solution for you. A new Ultra Widescreen (21:9) LCD TV that will use the full screen for movies shot in 21:9 aspect ratio.

For those of you not in the know most movies are shot in 2.39:1 or 21:9 aspect ratio which is commonly branded as Panavision, and most Widescreen TV shows will use 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is 35 mm US and UK widescreen standard for theatrical film. Older Standard ratio TV was shot in 1.33:1 or 4:3.

All widescreen TVs currently sold use 16.9 which is fractionally smaller than 1.85:1. So therefore anyhing shot using the wider 2.39:1 requires that annoying letterbox technique.

Personally it is quite annoying when you buy a expensive large TV and then half of the screen (slight exaggeration) is taken up with 2 black lines.

However with a screen of 21:9 you will have the reverse problem and all 1.85:1 recordings will need pillar boxing!

Oh life is so complex!

Anyway, it is good to see Philips giving us a choice. This will obviously have a big appeal to film geeks however I strongly suspect there will be a heavy premium on this as the screen is a non standard size. I am assuming the cost of LCDs has fallen so much partly due to the supply of screen which all conform to a certain size? Hence I can go into a shop and get a 32" LCD for the same price as a 26" LCD as 32" screens are more mass produced and therefore produced at a lower cost?

I could be chatting rubbing there though, though I am pretty sure that's how economies of scale worked when I did my GCSE's 10+ years ago!

Via: Engadget