New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found that 44 percent of TV households in the United States have at least one DVR, and one-third of DVR households have more than one DVR – representing 14 percent of all households having multiple DVRs. In 2005, just 8 percent of all households had a DVR.

In addition, 73 percent of all digital cable subscribers have used VOD, with 87 percent of this group having watched an on-demand program or movie in the past month. Overall, about 62 percent of digital cable subscribers used on-demand in the past month – compared with 52 percent last year.

“On-demand TV viewing in the forms of DVR and VOD, as well as Netflix streaming, have significantly increased in terms of usage and popularity over the past few years,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG. “Yet these on-demand TV platforms remain largely complementary to traditional TV services and viewing, with about 90 percent of all TV viewing in the U.S. still being via live TV.”

Interesting statistics read on CED Magazine website.

The sun is the largest energy source available to us. With this in mind, Logitech’s team of engineers behind the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750, has developed an infographic to highlight the extraordinary facts behind the solar system’s largest star.

Did you know that just one hour of the sun’s power exceeds what 6.8 billion people consume in a year? Realising the power the sun could provide, Charles Fritts constructed the first solar cells in the 1880s. Since then solar power has become ever present in the public eye and is fast becoming central to our everyday life. Logitech decided to harness this energy source and created the world’s first ever light-powered keyboard, the Wireless Solar Keyboard K750.

Logitech’s engineers have calculated a number of facts about solar power, which have revealed the extraordinary things we could do with the energy saved if we were to switch to a solar keyboard.

Firstly, if the world switched to the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750, 828 million AA batteries would be saved per year. If these saved batteries were laid end-to-end, they would easily stretch around the Equator. Furthermore, the power saved could light almost four Eiffel Towers per year, every year, indefinitely.

LG showed a lot of new products at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, with the most interesting segment being in passive 3D technology. In 2010, all worldwide available TV sets were using active 3D technology, both for LCD and plasma screens.

The decision for this is clear: active 3D technology is far superior to the passive one because of the output resolution, as opposed to the passive solutions that offer only half of it. With passive 3D technology, LG will offer less expensive, lightweight polarized glasses that are more comfortable to use and do not requre batteries. This will reduce the price of the overall home 3D solution and also enable larger families to enjoy 3D without the need to dig down in their pockets (too deep concerning price/performance ratio of the current 3DTVs, especially those based on inferior LCD TV technology).

New Cinema 3D screens with passive 3D technology are as follows:

INFINIA LW6500 Series: Cinema 3D (passive 3D); LED Plus technology with local dimming; TruMotion 240Hz; 2D-to-3D conversion; SmartTV with Magic Remote; WiFi capability (adapter included); four pairs of glasses. Screen sizes of 47, 55, and 65 inches.

INFINIA LW5600 Series: Cinema 3D (passive 3D); LED Plus technology with local dimming; TruMotion 120Hz; 2D-to-3D conversion; SmartTV with Magic Remote; WiFi capability (adapter included); four pairs of glasses. Screen sizes of 47 and 55 inches.

There are new Blu-ray players with 3D support, which is necessary companion with 3DTV. The models are:

BD690: 3D playback; SmartTV; 250GB hard drive; integrated WiFi; DLNA (server and client).

BD670: 3D playback; SmartTV; integrated WiFi; DLNA.

BD650: 3D playback; SmartTV; WiFi capability (adapter sold separately); DLNA.

We are looking forward to testing new LG LED TVs and will get back to you as soon as we have the first results. Quality reviews of HDTV and 3DTV products are available on hdtelevizija.com website.

As LG Electronics is set to launch its first 3D cinema advert this week, it announces an additional element to the campaign to really bring 3D to life– a digital widget, which aims to educate consumers about this new immersive technology with a fun and entertaining Q&A functionality.

The widget, launched today, extends LG’s existing campaign allowing consumers to interact with the characters in the cinema advert, asking 3D TV related questions and getting instant answers to help demystify some of the myths around the new extra dimension. Footage available on the widget takes place in the living room which also features in the cinema advert.

The digital Life’s Good Lounge Q&A is housed on LG’s website (www.lg.com/uk/3d), will also be promoted on the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LGUK) and is also available as an embeddable widget. To take the Q&A to a new platform, people are also invited to pose their questions to @asklg3dtv on Twitter to be directed to their answers.

With the aid of buzz-metrics, LG was able to find out what the most popular questions about 3DTV are. Using director Richard Ayoade- best known for his role in The IT Crowd, and the comedy duo of Tim Key and Lloyd Wolf – LG were able to pre-record answers to be delivered through the online interface and to appear as live responses to consumers’ questions.

What’s more, within the widget there is a hidden scene, with whoever is first to find it will be able to experience the wonders of 3D first-hand by winning a 3D package and receive the instructions on how to claim their prize.

The questions have been answered in an informative yet humorous way, which engages consumers and reflects LG’s positioning as the human face of technology.

As predicted, many stores have started their online Black Friday sales more than 24-hours in advance of their in-store sale! We expect this number to continue to grow throughout early Thanksgiving morning. All available online Black Friday sales are listed below:

Source: http://bfads.net/

The DMP-BDT300 is the first Blu-Ray 3D compatible player Digital Versus had a chance to test.  The DMP-BDT300 is a good player but has its limits. Its multimedia player only plays SD and HD DivX (as well as JPEGs and MP3s) and we found the SD upscaling a little hard. Read full review @ Digital Versus.

We all know 3D Vision, but now Nvidia is gearing up for 3DTV Play, a piece of software that allows you to use your PC as a video source with a 3D TV. To recap, 3D Vision is a kit with a USB transmitter and a pair of stereoscopic glasses for gaming or watching films in 3D. You also need a 120 Hz screen and an NVIDIA graphics card. The new 3DTV Play includes a simple piece of software that allows you to use a 3D TV in guise of a screen. This means you can use the TV glasses for access to 3D stereoscopic gaming and Blu-ray – along with an additional piece of playback software such as PowerDVD 10. Read more @ Digital Versus

Asus has just announced plans for two new 120 Hz monitors that will be compatible with Nvidia’s 3D technology.  The Taiwanese manufacture is the latest to join the party after Samsung kicked things off a year ago with its 2233rz, but it hasn’t arrived empty-handed.

Amongst the monitors on offer, there’s a Full HD 23” display, the VG236H, and, for the first time, a 120 Hz 27” monitor, the PG276H, which is also Full HD.  Up until now, the largest 120 Hz display we’ve seen was the 24” Acer GD245HQ.  More info @ Digital Versus.

The guys at DV visited a Sony Style store where the team were showing off a Sony Bravia 52LX900 – a LED backlight 3D TV!   It’s a 3D compatible television, for one thing.  Apart from that, it uses Edge LED backlighting and has the Motionflow 200 Hz Pro system.  We still don’t know how much it’s going to cost because it won’t actually go on sale until the summer.  The demo that we saw wasn’t a production model, axnd the software inside could well change before the LX900 reaches the shops.

The first thing we noticed is that the LX900 was connected to a PS3, which confirms that the console will receive a firmware update to make it compatible with 3D, and good progress has already been made.  So Sony could use a PS3 to show us a series of 3D clips including documentaries, extracts from films, football matches and even some game that will be adapted for 3D.

Full article:  Digital Versus

Yup, we’ve got more 3D from the IFA in Berlin.  But make no mistake: if this show is anything to go by, then 3D is on its way.  Being here has allowed us to understand a little bit more about how the technology is developing.

Until now, when people mentioned 3D, what came to our mind was Pixar animations or video games: in short, products for young people.  However, the demos we’ve seen here have been much more wide-ranging (sport, films, games, concerts …) and a cross-generational audience.  From 8 to 80, we saw just about everybody trying on the glasses, and above all a lot of people aged over 35.  Maybe youngsters are up-to-speed with 3D already?

Read full article @ Digital Versus