Hasta La Gadget!

You thought Seiki’s 50-inch 4K TV was affordable? You haven’t seen anything yet. The company is releasing a 39-inch 4K set before the end of June for $699, with pre-orders at Sears starting on the 27th. The screen probably won’t compete with top-tier rivals, but it’s hard to disagree with the price — we’re really looking at a regular 1080p, 120Hz TV that happens to handle 4K, even if few can see the extra detail at this size. And don’t worry if you think Seiki should be going larger. The company plans to ship a 65-inch 4K set by the fall, which should cover those who equate large resolutions with large screens.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Seiki

A lack of interest in 3D viewing at home has claimed one of its first major victims today, as ESPN announced its 3D channel is going to shut down. ESPN 3D launched back in 2010 with coverage of the FIFA World Cup, but it will not make it to the next one, or to see ESPN’s new Monday Night Football deal. In between it’s broadcast everything from golf to the X Games to the NBA Finals, along with college football national championship games and and a one-off news spot on E:60. AT&T’s U-verse dropped the channel in August 2011 after being one of the launch partners, but said it would come back due to a new agreement signed earlier this year. ESPN overcame many technology and cost hurdles to broadcasting 3D over the years, but in the end the chilly reception from the marketplace for 3D at home appears to have been too much to overcome. Another element that likely affected it were recent layoffs by parent company Disney, that Multichannel News reports included some jobs associated with ESPN 3D.

So what’s next for ESPN? According to a statement, “committing our 3D resources to other products and services that will better serve fans and affiliates.” That should include the 4K capabilities planned for its new facility in Bristol, but we’ll have to wait until it opens next year to find out. For now ESPN says it will be ready to provide 3D content again “if or when” the viewing format takes off — the release of another Avatar flick or TVs that don’t need glasses for 3D might help — now the question is if / when other early efforts like n3D and 3net could also be shelved.

[Thanks, @defiance]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: ESPN 3D (Twitter)

At CES eyeIO claimed its software suite was “studio grade” 4K ready and it will be put to the test soon, since Sony Pictures is licensing it to deliver movies to the FMP-X1 4K media player this summer. Sony didn’t have any more details to reveal about its 4K delivery plans just yet, but eyeIO’s press release claims its tech is being used on 4K video (3,840 x 2,160) encodes with support for extended color gamut. Besides easier downloading / streaming on bandwidth-constrained connections, it also helps out on the server side by requiring less storage space and distributing files more efficiently. Netflix is another recent licensee of the tech, and while not all responses to some of its new streams have been positive, we’ll wait and see what it can push to Sony’s $699 box and the Sony 4K TVs it attaches to.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Sony

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Samsung’s first 4K TV came with an eye catching 85-inch frame design and an eye popping $39,999 MSRP, but its next two will apparently be much more reasonable. The 65- and 55-inch versions have just been given a release date and pricing information in Korea and while still expensive, they’ve followed Sony’s lead to a sub-$10,000 price point. The machine translated press release indicates pre-orders should start June 1st, with the 55-inch model available for 6.4 million won ($5,670), and the 65-inch version for 8.9 million won ($7,913). Naturally, they include Samsung’s upscaling technology and support for the Evolution Kit CPU upgrade as well, and as seen in the pics (above and one more after the break) feature a more standard frame design. As an additional bonus, pre-orderers will get a free coupon for the 2014 upgrade kit (we wonder if that will include any potential new HDMI standards) and a fitness bike exercise game app.

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung

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Source: Korea Newswire

Google just announced it will be upgrading Google TV units to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and China’s TCL has announced it will have the first 4K TV built on the platform. We got a look at TCL’s custom-skinned MoVo Google TV platform and 4K TVs separately at CES (pictured above, and in the gallery) so it only makes sense they’ll be combining the two. Part of TCL’s MoVo customizations include a motion sensor to recognize each user and personalize offerings based on their habits. Called Personal Box Office (PBO) or “Lazy TV” searches the available content and makes a recommendation without the need for a remote or even voice command. The press release indicates it will be available “later this year” although whether that includes a US release like Seiki’s 50-inch Ultra HD set remains to be seen. According to the company it’s being demonstrated at Google I/O this week, we’ll see if we can get some hands-on time tomorrow.

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, Google

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