Hasta La Gadget!

The fight between the active shutter glasses 3D technology favored by TV manufacturers like Samsung, Panasonic and Sony against the Film Pattern Retarder (FPR) passive glasses 3D technology being pushed by LG got uglier this week. The Wall Street Journal points out LG’s print ads currently running in Korea (they could be running here already, but we’d have to read physical magazines or newspapers to know for sure) claim that unlike the competition, it will work even when viewers lay down on their sides, though the effect may be slightly weakened. Samsung responded by citing experts recommending keeping your head horizontal to watch 3D since the cameras used to film it are aligned horizontally, and an executive apparently called LG’s engineers “stupid” at a press conference, although reports of a “yo mama so fat” diss could not be confirmed.

Of course, since these are the world’s two biggest TV manufacturers, they sell to end users and other manufacturers like Sony, which Reuters reports LG is waiting to hear from about using its technology in the future. Sony and Samsung are already tight when it comes to LCD manufacturing but it’s obvious LG is looking for a few more friends to line up alongside Vizio, Toshiba and Philips (which just announced its latest displays using active and passive glasses.) But back to the end users for a moment, if anyone’s going to buy any of these 3DTVs, it may be wise to start selling consumers on why the feature is worthwhile at all and pointing out the growing amount of content — this week’s Big East basketball tournament, Killzone 3, the NBA Finals or Blu-ray 3D releases like Tron: Legacy — before folks decide just waiting for 4D would be the wisest choice.

LG woos Sony while it battles with Samsung over which 3D is best originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it looks like there won’t be a widespread PlayStation 3 shortage in Europe anytime soon — the Hague’s civil court of justice has just ruled in Sony’s favor in its dispute with LG, and ordered that the 300,000 PS3s currently seized by customs be released to Sony for distribution across the continent. LG has also reportedly been ordered to pay €130,000 in legal fees — and if it doesn’t comply, it will face a fine of €200,000 per day until it does. That doesn’t mean that the tussle between the two companies is over, however, as this ruling doesn’t have anything to do with the patents at the heart of the dispute.

[Thanks, Manit]

Court rules in Sony’s favor against LG, PlayStation 3 free to enter Europe again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We got a peek at what the Philips/Funai combo has in store for North America during CES, but at today’s Philips Pulse event in Barcelona it showed off even more of its 2011 plans. Most distinctively, while it’s using FPR passive 3D glasses technology (calling it Easy 3D) in some of its new TVs just like LG & Vizio, it will break from those two by continuing to offer active shutter displays as well, branded 3D Max. If your main interest is one of those sweet 21:9 ultrawidescreen displays (pictured above) you can get it either way as a Gold or Platinum series product while the regular 16:9 sets are divided with the 7000 series featuring Easy 3D and 3D Max slotted for higher end 8000 and 9000 series products. All of the TVs mentioned here and higher end (7000, 5000 series) Blu-ray players include Smart TV features which means Net TV apps including catch-up TV where applicable, recording to USB, sharing from media from WiFi-connected devices and the ability to control the device with a Philips app on your iOS or Android phone. Check the press site for more details, model numbers and the like, but there’s no word yet on pricing or availability.

Philips doubles up with both passive & active 3D TVs, new Blu-ray players in Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s PlayStation 3 was yanked from retail stores across Europe, after court in the Netherlands requested all shipments to be stopped until further notice. The decision is believed to be fallout from a dispute between Sony and LG.

The two companies have have been duking it out over the PlayStation Blu-ray disc playback feature. On this side of the pond, Sony is suing over LG phones. Both companies claim that the other is infringing on patents.

This is part of a new set of lawsuits over patent infringement in the past couple of weeks. Sony has issued a public statement over the suit, saying that it is currently looking into the matter. LG, on the other hand, has not yet issued a response.

Via X Bit Labs

PlayStation 3 shipments to Europe now being seized after LG wins injunction against Sony originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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