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.

When HD TV arrived on the market, the publicity said that it was the finest image that we could produce, at the time, of course this was accurate, but in just a handful of years, the technology has taken another enormous step forward.

Part of the reason for this, of course, is the interest that broadcasters have shown in HD, and the public have followed suit. Some of the biggest television companies have launched channels like Sky HD, and customers have eagerly bought new, often large, HD screens.

The next step, however, has arrived, and it’s arrived with a camera that can produce an image that so far, no television on the planet is able to accurately reproduce. The Japanese public broadcaster NHK has developed a camera that produces images in an astonishing 16 times higher quality than the best that current HD offers.

The signal comes through in no less than 7680 by 4320 pixels. Compared to that the best, full HD screen, on the market at the moment offers around 1920 by 1080, meaning that it can only show a quarter of all the information available.

Of course, the problem with such an enormous image is that it needs a really enormous processing system to deal with the images, and NHK have developed that as well. Unfortunately, the rest of the television network isn’t capable of dealing with such images, so it could be a fair few years before super HD becomes a broadcasting norm.

Between now and then lies the 2012 Olympics, and there are hopes that some test screenings could be shown in super high definition at one of the several fan sites that are going to be based around London. These sites will use big screens which are more likely to be able to handle the image, though they won’t reproduce everything as well as a specially made HD TV would be able to.

With technology developing all the time, it’s hard to imagine what televisions will be like from one year to the next, HD, 3D, maybe even holographic image by the end of the decade? It’s not a bad choice to have.

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.

As if knowing the differences between HDTVs wasn’t hard enough, there are subtle but important distinctions between LED TV models. But first, what exactly is an LED TV? LED TVs are simply LCD TVs that use LEDs as backlights instead of CCFLs (cold cathode tubes). There are three different ways that LEDs can be used to illuminate the screen. The style of backlighting plays a major role in the final quality of your display, and knowing the differences can help you pick a better model for your needs.

1) Edge Lit LEDs
These are the most common LED-TVs found on the market, for good reason too. The LEDs are positioned around the rim of the screen, then diffused throughout the display with a special panel, producing a uniform color range throughout the screen. This style allows for extremely thin models; however, the inability to change brightness for local sections of the display results in blacks and whites that are not quite as true as they should be.

2) Full Array LEDs
These TVs are the most similar to standard LCD TVs. A full array of LEDs is positioned behind the display, the same way that CCFLs are arranged for LCD models. Models cannot be quite as thin, and the inability to make local changes in the brightness is a downside for this type as well. Due to both of these negatives, Full Array LEDs are not very common on the market. Pricewise, they are usually similar to Edge Lit models.

3) Dynamic Full Array LEDs
Like the regular Full Array style, an array of LEDs is positioned behind the screen. However, dimming can occur in local zones, resulting in darker blacks and brighter whites. These models are generally more expensive, but any TV connoisseur not worried about the width should choose this style.

Overall, LED TVs are almost always more expensive, but there are definite advantages in investing the extra money. Environmentally, they exhibit better energy efficiency and have a much longer life. Moreover, depending on which backlight style you choose, you can have a much thinner display or a more accurate display of colors.

Choosing the perfect HDTV is as simple as knowing exactly what you want, and knowing how available models will fulfill these needs. Hopefully now you will be able to differentiate between different LED TVs!

Despite the modest size—it measures just 180 x 180 x 30.5 mm—it can play both 2D and 3D Blu-ray discs, automatically converting the former to three dimensions on the fly, and offers the same features as much bigger models.  A built-in media player can access most common video formats (including JPEG, MP3, AVI, DivX HD or MKV) if you connect an external device formatted using NTFS.  Support for BD-Live comes via 1 GB of internal memory, and the BD-D7000 has many of the same Internet services as Samsung’s latest TVs.  It supports the DLNA standard to access content from elsewhere on your home network. Tiny player is expected this month for still unknown price.

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 UE65C8000 effortlessly reaffirms just what works of art Samsung’s latest edge LED 3D TVs are, defying the laws of physics with its absurd screen-to-rear-end size ratio. It also frequently delivers pictures to die for with HD material, and even produces startlingly engaging standard def images for such a mammoth screen. But there’s no doubt that crosstalk noise with 3D and backlight inconsistencies during dark scenes both take their toll on the UE65C8000’s appeal now the 3D and edge LED world has got so much more competitive. Read full review @ Trustedreviews.

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.