[By Patrick Avenell, www.current.com.au]

Samsung will next week begin the next TV revolution, releasing panels that not only have internet connectivity for widgets and apps, but also an open internet browser for consumers to surf the web. Called Smart Hub, this interface will take over from the Internet@TV platform that was introduced with Samsung’s first 3D TV range.

The Korean behemoth is no stranger to leading the market: over the last two years it has pioneered LED TV and 3D TV, being the first to successfully market both technologies. Sony might disagree with the LED TV credit, but Samsung was the brand that made it the force it is today. Now it is Smart TV, with Samsung taking the nascent IPTV story to the next level with its impending release.

In an interview with Appliance Retailer magazine, Samsung group product manager of consumer electronics Brad Wright said this internet connectivity was one of four ‘pillars’ underpinning the new TV range. The other three are 3D, design and the processing technology inside the TV. This first pillar, an internet browser, lets Samsung overcome the common consumer gripe with 3D: not enough content.

“I don’t see there being an issue with content at all from a Smart TV point of view,” said Wright. “[Samsung’s] 6600 series and above LED Smart TVs will have an internet browsing capability, so that gives people as much content as there is on the World Wide Web, and I think we all know there is no shortage of what people can do online these days.”

In addition to an internet browser, Samsung’s new TVs will also feature BigPond TV, YouTube, Facebook and other apps, both built-in and available to download.

This year will also see a trickledown effect in Samsung’s range, with more 3D and Smart TVs available in a range of sizes and at different price points.

“We have a lot more SKUs [stock keeping units] this year than we did in 2010 in 3D and also in Smart TV,” Wright said. “There will be greater penetration into the midrange of our products, so in the Smart TV areas we’re starting with our 50Hz LED range, and then in 3D, we’re actually bringing 3D into the 100Hz realm.

“So this year we will actually have five series of LED and three series of plasma that will have 3D capability, so definitely that technology is becoming more accessible to greater parts of the consumer space.”

Samsung’s new range will be officially launched on Wednesday next week. Check back on Current.com.au that day for all the news from this release. You can also get live updates on Twitter by following @Patrickavenell.

The full interview with Brad Wright will appear in the April issue of Appliance Retailer magazine.

See the original post here: http://www.current.com.au/2011/03/30/article/Samsung-to-release-TVs-with-internet-browsers-more-3D-and-Smart-models/DVWTANPODW.html

[By Mike Snider, USA TODAY]

3D is all the rage now. Nintendo’s 3DS handheld is in stores. Games such as Crysis 2 and the upcoming SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals are playable in 3D on compatible TVs.

Now coming to games: 3D voice.

Voice technology company Vivox, which already provides 3D voice to virtual worlds such as Second Life and games such asAPB and Bloodlines Champions, is bringing the technology toDC Universe Online on the PC and, for the first time, the PlayStation 3.

Three-dimensional voice features were quietly added to the game on both platforms recently, with some additional functions due in a software update next week.

“What it means is people inside the game have an ability to talk as if in real life, meaning if you are physically closer to someone in the game you hear them louder and if you are farther away they are softer. And if they are far enough away you just don’t hear them,” says Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley.

Vivox, which also supplies high-definition voice chat technology to other games, uses advanced proprietary IP voice systems to match the position of characters in games with voice position in the soundscape to “make sure the voice experience is as realistic as if you were in the real world,” says Vivox CEO Rob Seaver.

So when your DCUO superhero confronts other characters, “you hear them based on their location relative to you,” Seaver says. “If one is on your left, you hear them on your left and if another is on the right, you hear them on the right.”

Players who don’t like the feature can turn it off. But Smedley doubts that players will opt out. “It gives the players the ability to easily converse,” he says. “What separates a massively multiplayer game from normal games is a lot of people can interact together. On a console that is hard to do because there is no keyboard. This lets a lot of people talk at once and they can talk just they were in a crowded room. It’s really the most efficient way to communicate.”

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