HDTV

ATSC 3.0 Advocate Throws In The Towel

LG just dropped a bombshell on the FCC, as they pull ATSC 3.0 support due to patent licensing challenges. While this country has thrived on fruitful public+private technological partnerships that benefit all parties, including serving the greater good, ATSC 3.0 is not that. And hopefully the FCC backs off this nonsense (including facilitating deployment of … Read more

This Smart TV Costs Less Than Some Streamers

While I wouldn’t recommend a 32″ 720 set as your primary television, they make great additions to the kitchen or a guest bedroom – where I have rocked a similarly specced pair of TCL Rokus. And today the Best Buy Insignia Fire TV is on sale for a low $99.99. Which is significantly less than … Read more

Sonos Contemplates Atmos Satellite Speakers & Lower Priced Subwoofer

As Sonos looks to expand its market footprint, the company hit a number of customers today with a survey that describes potential products — each listed at various price points to gauge interest. Most interesting are Sonos One-esque speakers with enhanced bass and Dolby Atmos in addition to (finally) a more affordable Subwoofer, penciled in as … Read more

Time Runs Out for T-Mobile TV in 2018

After scooping up startup Layer3 TV earlier this year, T-Mobile’s plans to launch a disruptive online video service in 2018 appear to have faltered. The delay may not be a long one, but it follows years of bold claims by the Layer3 TV team that have amounted to very little in the consumer market. Bloomberg … Read more

The New Sonos Smart Soundbar with HDMI

As revealed back in April, Sonos is poised to announce a new entry in their home theater lineup. As described in the FCC filings: The model S14 is a high-performance all-in-one home theater smart speaker and part of Sonos’ home sound system. Given the newer hardware like the Sonos Playbase and Sonos One, we might … Read more

The 2018 TCL Roku Televisions Have Arrived

One of the best bang-for-your-buck televisions last year was the TCL P Series, combining exceptional visuals (given the price point) and a top flight app platform in Roku. Unfortunately, the company cancelled plans for multiple sizes, simply shipping a single 55″ set that was occasionally unavailable due to demand (and perhaps production bottlenecks). TCL has … Read more

LG To Pump $8 Billion Into OLED HDTV

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s LG Display Co Ltd said on Monday it would focus investment on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, betting on the next-generation technology to steer it clear of price wars and ahead of the competition.

Through 2018, LG Display plans to put at least 10 trillion won ($8.47 billion) primarily into OLED displays for large products such as TVs, and flexible screens for smartphones and wearables. It will seek to expand OLED applications to signage and automobiles, and allocate some spending to premium liquid crystal display (LCD) products, the firm said in a statement.

A model poses in front of LG Electronics' flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV sets, which are made with LG Display flat screens, during the 2014 Korea Electronics Show in Goyang October 17, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
A model poses in front of LG Electronics’ flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV sets, which are made with LG Display flat screens, during the 2014 Korea Electronics Show in Goyang October 17, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

LG Display and sister firm LG Electronics Inc have been the biggest proponents of OLED, which boasts improved color rendition and power consumption. The world’s top LCD maker hopes early investment in OLED will help it dominate when the technology becomes mainstream.

LG Display shares have fallen 34 percent this year, touching levels not seen since 2012 as investors see a future comprising sluggish LCD growth and profit-squeezing price wars with Chinese rivals. OLED, however, offers a market worth $28.3 billion by 2022 from $8.7 billion in 2014, said researcher DisplaySearch.

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Tablo Releases Updated Roku Preview, New Fire TV and Android TV Apps

Tablo Android TV grid guide

It’s no secret that we are big fans of the Tablo TV system. Since the launch almost one year ago, Tablo has continually pushed the little placeshifting over-the-air DVR forward via software updates to bring functionality up to speed with most major competitors.One of the later enhancements has been thumbnail previews while FF/RW a recorded show. That alone seems to have pushed the Wife Acceptance Factor to 11 as it was one of her biggest complaints while trying to use Tablo!

Back in January at 2015 CES, Tablo announced a major overhaul to their Roku app, and also announced the addition of Fire TV and Nexus Player apps. Today, Tablo looks to make good on that promise by releasing these apps. For the past few days, I’ve been using the both the new Roku “preview” and the new Fire TV app. Visually, these apps are a major upgrade more akin to today’s standard DVR interface. My current setup for Tablo is that the device is wired directly into my router.   From there, I am using a pair of Netgear 1200 Powerline adapters so my connections is wired straight to the Roku 3. For the Fire TV stick, it’s currently running on my 5ghz band of my wireless router to minimize congestion.

Roku Preview

For the updated Roku preview app, Tablo had to completely rewrite the entire code base. This involved getting special privileges from Roku to break away from their standard app template. And although the old Tablo Roku app was fully functional, the number one feature was to have a more conventional UI that included a guide screen. With this “preview”, Tablo has transformed the interface to provide this functionality.

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