At today’s pre-show press conference, Samsung unveiled its new line of LED HDTVs. The new LUXIA 8000, 7000, and 6000 series TVs are said to yield much darker black levels than seen in previous HDTVs, while still achieving bright whites and vivid colors. Also, following this year’s theme of going “Green,” Samsung claims their new LED HDTVs use 40% less energy than traditional LCD HDTVs of comparable sizes.
The Samsung LUXIA 8000 series
Two days ago, Samsung offered a tease at the LUXIA line when it announced it would be unveiling “the world’s thinnest LCD TV with a LED backlight” (just 6.5mm thick) at the show. But the big news today came in the form of Samsung’s new focus and commitment to give their customers “seamless” access to content. Samsung calls it Media 2.0 – where consumers can access content wirelessly using DLNA, direct connect using USB, or via Yahoo!’s Internet@TV. Samsung TV’s will offer access to movies, games, even recipes, by simply clicking a widget on the TV.
While DLNA and USB are nothing new, the Internet service developed in conjunction with Yahoo! looks promising. Internet@TV is built using Yahoo!’s Konfabulator widget engine that has been available for PCs for some time now. Using the existing Konfabulator architecture gives the widget-based interface on the new 8000 and 7000 series HDTVs a clean and finished look.
And even better, Yahoo! stressed that their widget engine will be an open platform that will be available to 3rd party companies. When Internet@TV is made available, there will be widgets from YouTube, MySpace, CBS, and eBay. This looks to be the right step in the direction of a well done connected HDTV, but only time will tell.
Where to see it:
- Central 11033