Major studios to release DivX movie copies

For years, DivX has been one of the major video codecs used by movie pirates. The codec (and the company) itself has no real sinister origin, but since it can compress videos to a conveniently small size while maintaining respectable video and audio quality, it's been a go-to encoding method for people who pirate video. It's also gotten a significant boost in legitimacy thanks to a large selection of DVD players, set-top boxes, and other gadgets that support the format. Now the codec is hitting the market in a big way, thanks to a handful of studios who have decided to start releasing their own legitimate digital video copies in DivX format.

Paramount, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and Lionsgate have all entered partnerships with DivX and online video store FilmFresh.com to release their movies in DivX. Currently, several hundred movies are available on FilmFresh.com, with new releases costing up to $16 and older films available for $10.

Video ads coming to Entertainment Weekly

Whether you think it's good or bad, at least it's a step in some technological direction. The September 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly will run video ads placed by CBS. You read that correctly. A print magazine will run video ads.

According to CNET (owned by CBS), the upcoming issue will feature a tiny QVGA LCD screen built inside a page. The tiny screen will be able to handle up to 40 minutes of video, and its battery will run for 65-70 minutes before a recharge (which users can do by plugging the chip to a USB plug via a miniUSB cable). The devices were built by Americhip.

Unfortunately, this seems to be just a pilot program, and not every issue of Entertainment Weekly will get the video ads. It will only go out to subscribers in New York and Los Angeles, and sadly newsstands and subscribers in other parts of the country will get the plain edition. Of course, this could simply be the very beginning of a video-in-print movement. As the technology becomes cheaper and cheaper, some day we might see inserts with LCD screens as often as we see inserts with perfume samples.

— Will Greenwald

LG's new screens super-thin and "borderless"

LG announced two new LCD HDTVs during its summer line show today at Lincoln Center. The LS80 and LS90 screens are two completely flat-fronted, "borderless" LCDs that measure less than 2 inches deep.

Instead of a visible seam between the screens and bezels, both models use a single sheet of glass across their entire front, rendering them utterly smooth. LG's Invisible Speaker design maintains the surface, removing any visible speaker grill in favor of the HDTV's sleek aesthetic. LG calls these models "borderless," and while you can still make out a definite edge defining the display against the rest of the device, they indeed have no physical border on the front marking the edge like most HDTVs' bezels.

The SL80 uses CCFL backlighting and measure 1.8 inches deep, impressively thin for a screen with a conventional backlight. It incorporates LG's 240 Hz TrueMotion technology, bumping up the screen's refresh rate for content with a lot of movement. While the SL90 only has a 120 Hz refresh rate, it features edge-lit LED backlighting for energy efficiency and an even thinner (1.15 inches) profile.

Neither screen will have LG's NetCast Entertainment Access suite of streaming media content, and won't be among the models we mentioned earlier that will feature Vudu video-on-demand.

LG's SL80 HDTVs will ship in August, and will be available in 42-, 47-, and 55-inch models retailing for $1,599.95, $1,899.95, and $2,799.95, respectively. The SL90 screens will be available in 47- and 55-inch versions when they ship later this year; LG hasn't yet announced their pricing.

— Will Greenwald

Forget RGB, Sharp is developing CYRGB displays

Since time immemorial (or at least, since color televisions have been available), TVs have used 3 colors: red, green, and blue. Combinations of these three color building blocks produced the increasingly wide spectrum of colors you now see on the screen in front of you. Print, meanwhile, almost always uses 4 colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. RGB is an additive color space, meaning the three colors combine to form white. CMYK is a subtractive color space, meaning the three main colors form black, or "K."

Sharp is working on incorporating cyan and yellow into the red-green-blue color set displays currently use. According to the company, this CYRGB color set can reproduce over 99% of visible surface colors (paints, pigments, and other colors that reflect, rather than emit, light).

CES 2009: Toshiba's Combo Platters

Toshiba's showing off a complete line of LCD/DVD combo units. Toshiba's still betting that DVD is going to be around for quite a while -- not a single Blu-ray player in their CES booth . . . this year. 

Toshiba believes there will be a huge surge in the combo market, and are looking to help consumers get the digital TVs they'll need moving forward. Namely, TVs to replace the sets in bedrooms and kitchens, with screen sizes ranging from 15 to 26 inches combined with a DVD player to reduce clutter and offer ease of use.

New for 2009 . . .

JVC: Lean and Green

At the past few CES's, manufacturers were all striving to produce the "World's LARGEST" TVs. We seemed to have gotten bored with that category, and really, who needs a 106-inch TV? This year, the trend is to see who can produce the thinnest. Admit it - you can never, ever be too thin.

JVC is announcing that their latest prototype LCD will be the lightest 32-inch TV out there, and almost the thinnest. Samsung just announced a 6.5mm, and this one measures a waif-like 7mm.

It weighs in at . . .

Samsung Profits Not-So-Sunny

Obviously, more and more companies are going to face problems, in these "challenging economic times." Samsung is the latest to weigh in with disappointing numbers. The world's largest memory-chip and LCD manufacturer has said that their  profits were wiped out this quarter, due to the global recession.

As prices have fallen for the consumer (yippee!) it's become more and more difficult for the manufacturer to earn a profit. At the moment, Samsung will be forced to rely on their mobile phone business to avoid posting their first quarterly loss.

Since Samsung makes LCD more economically than competitors LG and Toshiba, expect even larger losses from those companies.

In a report from Bloomberg . . .

Small LCD HD TV Wars

In a smackdown of very small proportions, HANNspree and Westinghouse are battling for your dollars and shelf-space. Neither name is a heavy-hitter in the US television market, but they do have some interesting new products.

HANNspree just introduced the world's first 28-inch LCD TV with Full HD 1080p capability. The set has two HDMI ports, and a VGA port makes it easy to use as a computer monitor. It will set you back $499.99 - not bad for Full HD.

Looking for something just a touch cheaper? See what Westinghouse is introducing.

Pantel Showing Off Waterproof Mirror TVs

  Sure, there are waterproof TVs. But most TVs turn into eyesores when not in use. No matter how pretty the bezel, even the most expensive set is a big black hole in the wall when the set is turned off. Pantel is making waves with their latest product line.

These new LCD  TVs are designed for bathrooms, including showers, and saunas. Why there? When the sets are turned off, they turn into mirrors.  How cool is that?

They are waterproof, so they can also go outdoors.

These aren't scaled-down low-end models, but not exactly spec'ed to the max. Their specs are:

LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Plead Guilty to Price Fixing

Oooh . . . someone was caught cheating. And, this one is gonna leave a mark. LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have all plead guilty to price-fixing.  Total fines? $585 million.  Life's not so good.

The three were found to have conspired to keep prices high on LCD panels, including those sold to Dell, Motorola, and Apple. LG was found to have fixed prices from 2001 to 2006, and they're getting hit hardest with $400 million. Sharp gets $120 million fines. As any maturing technology does, prices for LCD screens were dropping, but these companies didn't want to play with the laws of economics.

So, they have to pay the Justice Department. Consumers are going to get . . .