Hasta La Gadget!

Taiwanese PC maker ASUS dropped this gem yesterday ahead of Computex 2013 — the PQ321, a professional-grade 31.5-inch 4K monitor. It features a 3840 x 2160-pixel (16:9, 140 ppi) 10-bit RGB (one billion colors) IGZO panel with LED backlight, 176-degree viewing angles, 350 cd/m2 brightness and 8ms GTG response time. Beyond its Ultra HD capability, the monitor comes with built-in stereo speakers (2W) plus height, tilt and swivel adjustments. It’s wall-mountable (VESA) and only 35mm thick — according to ASUS, that makes it the thinnest 4K monitor on the market today. Connectivity includes DisplayPort, 3.5mm audio, RS-232C and, for US models, dual HDMI inputs with picture-in-picture support. There’s no word on pricing yet, but the PQ321 will be available in North America at the end of June and ASUS is expected to show the monitor in Taipei next week along with a 39-inch 4K model.

Filed under: Displays, HD, ASUS

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Via: PC Perspective

Source: Asus, Hexus

Samsung is readying new, smaller versions of its S-Series Ultra HD TV, with 55- and 65-inch models due to hit Korea in June, while a 13.3-inch ultrabook display with almost as high resolution is also waiting in the wings. Samsung’s two new UHD sets will be the smallest in the range the company offers, after announcing 85- to 110-inch versions back at CES in January.

Unsurprisingly, those first sets have turned out to be very, very expensive. The 85-inch S9 comes in at a whopping $39,999 which, considering there is a serious dearth of native Ultra HD content, demands as big a commitment to the UHD format as it does a big living room.

Although 55- and 65-inch screens still make for big sets overall, the smaller models should make for a slightly more affordable, slightly less intimidating option. Samsung is yet to confirm pricing at this stage, though it says the new versions will support the Evolution Kit system it showed off at CES 2013, allowing for the processing and other specifications to be upgraded later on in the TV’s lifecycle.

Otherwise, there’ll be micro-dimming technology for better brightness, contrast, and detail, and the ability to upscale standard- and high-definition content to better take advantage of the 4x-higher-than-HD resolution.

The new UHD TVs aren’t the only pixel-packing panels Samsung has for us, however. The company is bringing new screens to SID 2013 this month, including a 13.3-inch QHD 3200 x 1800 panel ideal for high-resolution ultrabooks.

3200 x 1800 makes it more pixel-dense than the 2560 x 1600 screen Apple uses in the MacBook Pro 13, and in fact it’s even higher resolution than the 15-inch Retina Pro. It also bests the Google Chromebook Pixel, with its 2560 x 1700 display.

Exactly what Samsung has in mind for it is unclear, though we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the panel show up in a new ultrabook, perhaps at IFA 2013. The company will also show off a new, more power-efficient HD AMOLED technology – promising up to a 25-percent cut in power versus existing versions – along with a low-cost 23-inch touchscreen for up to 10-finger use.

Samsung reveals 55/65″ UHD TVs and 13.3″ Retina-beating Ultrabook display is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung may have only just put its S-Series Ultra HD TVs on sale recently, but the company isn’t slowing down, revealing it has new models – big and small – due in September. Presenting at the pre-IFA Global Press Conference, Samsung confirmed that it has larger and smaller versions of its UHD S9000 sets running at 4K resolution for IFA 2013 later this year.

The company wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how large or small the new models would be, only referring to the 85-inch “entry level” S-Series set currently available. That leaves plenty of room for those with smaller rooms to find a model to fit, though whether they’d have sufficient space to make the most of the high resolution remains to be seen.

There’s also the question of content, something which even Samsung concedes that is significantly lacking unless you’re relying on upscaling. Broadcast UHD shows aren’t expected until 2016 at the earliest – Samsung pointed out that the decoding and tuner standards aren’t settled upon yet, which means they can’t yet build them into the TVs with any confidence – while physical content will probably land in 2015.

Streaming or downloading might be the answer, though it’ll demand a fat internet connection. Again, though, there are issues surrounding that, not least the fact that the HEVC codec likely to be used – the successor to the MPEG4 codec currently prevalent – isn’t yet standardized for UHD 3D at 60fps.

In short, “currently there is no television which is compatible with the upcoming UHD standards” Samsung admitted, its own included. However, the firm is relying on its Evolution Kit to fill that gap down the line, a slot-in box that will add an upgraded processor, graphics chip, connectivity and more, bringing older sets up to speed with technology released after they’ve gone on sale.

So far, though, we’ve only seen Evolution Kit plans for the 2012 range, granting them the same specs as the 2013 line-up; it’s unclear how far back Samsung will retroactively be polishing old products. We’ll be at IFA 2013 in September to find out how the new size Ultra HD sets slot into the new range.

Samsung: Bigger and smaller Ultra HD sets incoming at IFA 2013 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

LG, CBS Sports, Turner Sports, and the NCAA all worked together to record the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four championship in 4K Ultra HD resolution. This is the first time that a major U.S. sporting event has ever been recorded in 4K, and it’s a start of more 4K programming to come. James Fishler, Senior VP of marketing for LG Electronics USA, stated, “After being the first to market with Ultra HD TVs, it only seems fitting that we’d be a part of the first major U.S. sporting event produced in 4k.”

The 4K recording was displayed on LG’s 84-inch 4K Ultra HD TVs at various, private locations inside of the Georgia Dome. The premiere of the NCAA Men’s Final Four championship in 4K also coincided with the 75th anniversary celebration of March Madness, making it the perfect time to start broadcasting the sporting event in the next-generation of HDTV. Ken Aagaard, Executive VP of operations, engineering and broadcast services for CBS Sports, states that Ultra HDTV can become the future of sports broadcasting.

LG’s 84-inch 4K Ultra HD TVs sell for $19,999. It brings 4 times the details of a Full HD 1080p display, shelling out a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution. It features the LG Resolution Upscaler Plus which boosts lower-resolution content into higher detail. It also comes with an LG Magic Remote which allows you to navigate through LG’s HD TV onscreen interface with gestures and voice search. It has a 2.2 Sound System that brings ultra-quality sound to your ultra-quality television.

LG has some big competition coming from Sony. Just yesterday, Sony released the pricing for its 55-inch and 65-inch 4K Ultra HD TVs, both of which will be available on April 21st. The 55-inch will sell for $4,999 and the 65-inch will sell for $6,999, making them both much more affordable than LG’s current offering. Sony will also be bringing a 4K media player in the future, and it will launch a 4K video distribution service as well in order to jet-start the 4K era.

LG and NCAA records the NCAA Final Four in 4K Ultra HD for the first time is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Angry Birds on an 84-inch 4K tablet? Not quite, but if your iPad or Nexus 10 simply isn’t big enough or high-res enough, MyMultitouch has an 84-inch beast to offer instead. The Germany company is showing off its biggest multitouch table/display to-date at CeBIT, a vast 3.840 x 2,160 Ultra HD screen called the Alvaro GIANT capable of running Windows, Android or most anything else, and we couldn’t resist getting our fingers all over it.

This isn’t the first huge multitouch screen we’ve seen – 3M had an 84-incher at CES, for instance – but it’s one of the first with a price tag attached. MyMultitouch tells us the display will retail for around €33,000, making this a $43k plaything.

If you simply have to have a vast screen that’s finger-friendly, though, the Alvaro GIANT certainly delivers. We first navigated through Windows 8, tapping, swiping and pinching through the usual Metro-style interface as we would on a far smaller tablet; since the display can run off of any HDMI input (as well as DVI, RGB, AV, and DisplayPort; MyMultitouch also offers an optional integrated PC for standalone use) you could hook up basically any Windows 8 PC to it and suddenly have a vast worksurface to operate from.

That showed its merit when we flipped over to Android, running off a simple “thumbdrive” sized stick computer. The 4K resolution was downscaled to suit Android’s display limitations, but Angry Birds and the regular Android UI looked great spread across 84-inches.

It probably comes as little surprise, but home users wanting more room to throw birds at pigs isn’t MyMultitouch’s target audience. Instead, the Alvaro GIANT is positioned as a tool for retail, display, and industrial implementation: the top glass layer is toughened, and the system recognizes up to 32-points of contact simultaneously. It’s also capable of differentiating between different hand positions, such as whether a fist is in contact or a hand with spread fingers. It’ll track users even if they’re wearing gloves, too.

$43k might be a whole lot of money on the face of it, but the Alvaro GIANT finds itself in good Ultra HD company. Samsung’s 85-inch Ultra HD TV announced at CES back in January is a cool $38,000 after all, and if you try touching that all you’ll get are greasy finger-smudges.

MyMultitouch 84-inch 4K touch-display hands-on: Angry Birds goes massive is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.