| Dell selling Sony Bravia LCDs after quitting plasma
TWICE: Dell has now started selling another vendor's television models with the recent addition of two Sony BRAVIA LCDs to its online store. The BRAVIAs, a 40-inch and 46-inch, join Dell's LCD line. Dell has sold printers and music players from other companies, but this is the first time it has added a third-party TV manufacturer. The company said it is considering adding products from other vendors, but it gave no further details. In other news, Dell has also confirmed that it will no longer place its brand on Plasma HDTVs. The company will only sell LCDs that are 37 inches or less. Current Dell models HDTVs larger than 37 inches will be discontinued after they are sold, said company spokesman Dwayne Cox. "This decision is consistent with our plan of action to focus investments on areas of the consumer business where we can provide the most value and have the highest return for our shareholders," Cox said in an e-mail to the American-Statesman.
120Hz HDTVs: The Secret to Making Movies Look as Smooth as Butter
While the rest of the world is gawking at 108-inch LCDs and quad-resolution pixel counts, I'll let you in on a little secret: 120Hz HDTVs are going to help movies look better than ever on the little screen in your living room. Here's how. Film is 24 frames per second. That standard was the approximation of what was defined in the early 20th century by hand crank cameras. And just about every movie disc you can buy is encoded in this format. We're not just talking DVD. We're talking about HD DVD and Blu-ray, too. The problem is, most TVs run at 30 frames per second. Fitting that 24-frame content onto a 30-frame screen isn't that easy; the math just doesn't compute cleanly. You can't divide 24 by 30 without filling in the gaps with some junk. That junk causes stuttering in the video.
Last-minute Deals on Super Bowl TVs
At the end of last month I said post-holiday sales on TVs would be good, considering everyone is trying to get rid of their old inventory. But this holiday season was a little different from holiday seasons past: The deals on TVs were so good last November and December that there wasn't much room left for prices to go down. So post-holiday sales on TVs have been relatively few and far between, but luckily the best TV I've ever seen in my life is on sale until March 31st, so I insist on writing about it here since some of you may still want to take the big HDTV plunge before Sunday's Super Bowl kick-off. Pioneer plasmas are pricey, but they're also almost-perfect. I seriously considered forking over $8,000 of my savings for the Pioneer Pro Elite FHD1, a 50-inch, full 1080p plasma with superb color, clarity, and video processing that makes even iPod video look great.
Samsung LN-S4692D 46?
Quick take: The Samsung LN-S92D series consists of three LCD flat-panel TVs: the 32-inch LN-S3292D, the 40-inch LN-S4092D, and the 46-inch LN-S4692D. All three share the same native resolution of 1,366x768, which means they can display every detail of 720p material. Since we have not reviewed these sets, we cannot comment on their image quality. We have reviewed Samsung LCDs such as the LN-S3252D and were pleased with their image quality, but we don't know if the LN-S92D will provide similar performance. In terms of connectivity, all three are the same, featuring two HDMI inputs, one component-video input, and a VGA-style PC input. All three of these sets also have built-in HDTV tuners, which means they can receive over-the-air HDTV without an external set-top box. The LN-S3292D, the LN-S4092D, and the LN-S3692D are all currently available, with list prices of INR 83,921, INR 106,005, and INR 132,507, respectively.
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