LG have done it, the world’s first 55” OLED HDTV. The technology that one day could replace LCD, has been a long time coming and is usually limited to around 20” at best. The technology provides superior power consumption, ,thinner, better black levels, and better response times, but with a screen that’s better in almost every way, price is the barrier.

Most of us are familiar with the the early adopters tax, but this one doesn’t even come with a price tag. The equation is probably best summed up by an Engadget commenter – “I would buy a 100-inch LCD TV over a 55-inch OLED TV for the same price.”

That statement probably isn’t far from the truth, you’d be talking tens of thousands of dollars for this set, but hey that 42-55” HDTV in your living room once cost that. The price will come down as manufacturing techniques evolve and are refined along with increased demand.

LG’s 55” OLED HDTV will be shown off at CES early next month, if you get a chance to see it in person, your eyes are likely to tease that credit card from your pocket. You have been warned. LG have been touting their ability to make OLED at 55” for some time now, but this announcement marks the readiness to take it mainstream.

It’ll also be interesting to see if there’s been any scientific breakthroughs with Transparent LCD displays, one of which was on display at CeBIT earlier this year.

More info @ Engadget

In a press release from Hybrid TV, they have announced a new 1TB model of the TiVo. Don’t be fooled people, the TiVo XL is nothing more than an upgrade from the 320GB to a 1TB hard drive. Once again the TiVo returns to Harvey Norman (and Joyce Mayne) as an exclusive for A$699.

What’s disappointing is that Hybrid TV not offering a completely new model. Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, TiVo fans know that we’re getting left behind in Australia. TiVo in the US, has released two new models since Australia got it’s first.

The latest of which is TiVo Premiere Elite, containing 4 tuners, 2TB HDD, new hardware and software design and support for mobile apps. The updated UI is build on flash and features improved speed, search functionality and access to a bunch of online services like YouTube, Picasa, Photobucket and Podcasts. Essentially this is the TiVo we should be getting in Australia, but sadly aren’t.

Lift your game Hybrid TV, it’s insulting that you don’t understand that we know what’s happening in the rest of the world. Clearly it’s easier to sit back, wait for hard drive prices to drop, slowly increment the storage in a device that was released in the US on September 12, 2006.

Please spend the time to licence the TiVo Premiere Elite for Australia, do the local customisations and do the right thing by your fans and your customer-base in Australia will flourish.

More info @ Harvey Norman

The most passionate V8 Supercar fans will be punishing their livers while braving the rain at Mount Panorama this weekend. The next level of supercar fan will be parked in front of a HDTV. This year one of the biggest events on the motorsport calendar, Bathurst 1000, will be broadcast in HD for the first time.

It is amazing that HD has taken this long to reach Australia’s most famous race, especially considering HDTVs reached affordability for the masses many years ago. By comparison F1 has been broadcast for some time in HD and looks absolutely stunning. A visually interesting sport like racing lends itself really well to the extra clarity and sound available in a HD broadcast.

The technology behind the HD broadcast provides some amazing statistics.

More than 77 cameras will capture three days of racing action:
• 33 HD track-side cameras, including flycam and aerial views from a helicopter camera
• Six cameras supporting domestic and international hosting and commentary
• Six wireless radio frequency cameras for pit lane coverage
• Four crews with portable cameras capturing behind-the-scenes footage
• More than 28 in-car cameras
• More than 40 kilometres of camera cable and in excess of 100 microphones will be used.

The 2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 will air live on 7MATE in Australia and in the US on SPEED. Tomorrow’s broadcast runs from 7am-6pm (AEDST), just remember to adjust your DVR’s V8 to record on the new channel.

More @ TV Tonight.

The latest blockbuster television series, Terra Nova has started in Australia. If some of the scenery looks a little familiar, that’s because a lot of Terra Nova scenes were shot right here in Australia. Now on to the important stuff, future tech. Throughout the first episode we were treated to some of Spielberg’s futuristic creations.

Apparently technology form the next century contains holographic phones, tablets, ID-cards and building-sized projections. While this technology is clearly Hollywood special effects, lots of science fiction and future looking movies of the past have formed the technology we use today.

While its too early to tell if Terra Nova’s plot is any good, the premise is solid and the technology is intriguing. One of the more interesting is a multi-touch display used for medical stats on a patient. This type of technology may be decades away or even impossible, but it sure is a great source for the inventors of tomorrow to formulate ideas.

In the past Pioneer’s premium plasma TV brand Kuro had the crown of the best black levels on the market. That was of course, until Kuro’s were discontinued. The world has moved on from Plasma, with a clear LCD future, TV manufacturers have battled to achieve that same deep black level goodness. Until now.

Why does this matter? By accurately representing blacks, it means the colours ‘pop’ more. Not only that, but black is actually black, not the washed out backlit grey that your used to. Some people notice this more than others, but in a dark room, with a dark scene, you should only see elements that are lit. 

The new 60 and 70 inch Sharp LCD TV’s come with the Elite label, quality and price tag to match. The Elite will sell for $6k+ but for the best of the best, that’s not out of this world. Naturally any decent TV that ships today has internet connectivity and apps. In the US, it’ll ship with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, CinemaNow, Vudu and Netflix. Given not all of the those services are available in Aus, expect our lineup to be a little modified.

Check out the video below for an eyes-on video from Engadget.

More info @ Engadget

Samsung’s new range of SMART TV’s features an app store (doesn’t everything these days?). This afternoon in Melbourne, Essendon Football Club Captain Jobe Watson and players Mark McVeigh and Michael Hurley helped launch the BigPond AFL Game Analyser application. The free app allows you lucky few who have a Samsung SMART TV to watch ANY game from the 2010 and 2011 seasons.. wow.

Brad Wright, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Audio Visual, Samsung Electronics Australia, said, “With games available within 12 hours of being played, the BigPond AFL Game Analyser app gives footy fans the best seat in the house. They can now interact with every aspect of the game, relive game-changing moments, argue with their friends over umpire decisions and celebrate a game’s highs and lows.”

The application puts you in control of the action, allowing you to access game highlights like goals, marks, tackles and bloopers via the remote control. Big thanks to those hardworking statisticians who power mark and index all the action, what an un-recognised job.

You can also access statistics on the game, players etc. Each game of AFL played will be added within 12 hours of being played. Impressive, but I’d expect to see live stats at some point in the future.

If your an AFL super-fan, a Samsung SMART TV with the AFL Game Analyser is a must have. Lets face it, there is no other 10-foot experience like it. For those Rugby fans out there, don’t sweat, there’s also a similar NRL Game Analyser app for you.

This kind of complimentary application really sets the scene for things to come in the living room. My only wish was that Sammy’s SMART TV’s were a little cheaper so more people could enjoy these great new experiences.

For more information, check out http://samsung.com/au/tv

In less than 2 days, Thursday 5th May, large parts of Victoria will transition to digital TV. This means the old analog TV signal in regional Victoria will be turned off forever. Cue the dancing ants. If your still holding onto that big tube TV, its time to convert it to a fish tank and upgrade to something made this century. There is another option available for those on a tight budget, that is to buy a digital set top box.

A digital set top box comes in two varieties, standard or high definition, so which one should you choose ? What you need to understand is there are two things at play, the first is the quality of the picture your TV can display, the second is the quality of the broadcast.

A lot of free-to-air TV channels are still SD and your old TV is only capable of displaying SD, so you’d think an SD set top box would be your best option right ? Wrong. While buying a HD set top box won’t score you a better picture, the extra expense may be warranted if you want to see the new HD-only channels like OneHD, GEM, 7mate, SBSHD and ABCNews24.

Below is a map indicating the areas that will be turned off Thursday morning. Other parts of the country will be switched off progressively with the 700Mhz spectrum completely free by the end of 2013. This valuable spectrum that travels long distances and penetrates walls will be sold off and used for 4th generation mobile networks, also known as 4G.

If you, or your parents need help, you can visit the website – http://digitalready.gov.au or call 1800 2010 13.

Beauty and the Geek Australia is now putting the call out contestants on the next season of the show. If you’re an "academically gifted yet socially awkward geek", Beauty and the Geek may be your one and only chance to find true love! Last time there was 100k on the line as well.

The producers of the show are looking for 18-30 year-old male geeks, so if you think you fit the bill, head on over to the official Beauty and the Geek casting website. www.beautyandthegeek.com.au

To enter you’ll need to complete a form that should take 10-15 minutes to complete, a recent photo, and while a video entry isn’t necessary it may help your application. Basically if your serious about getting on the show, do a damn video, just keep it less than 3 minutes.

While I wouldn’t enter the competition personally, there may very well be some geeks out there in the audience who A. want to meet girls or B. get publicity. I’ve recently had the chance to meet 2 of the previous contestants, both of which a really smart guys who enjoyed the experience.

Image credit: Yahoo7

Today Samsung announced a brand new line-up of HDTV’s in Australia. Branded as SMART TV’s, this generation come equipped with what Samsung say is the worlds-first HDTV app store. Obviously it’s completely unlike an electronics manufacturer to get a little creative with the truth to sell products, but the reality is widgets (also known as apps), have been available on TVs for a couple of years now. The most successful being Yahoo’s widget platform which made its way to TV’s by Samsung, Visio, Sony and a number of others.

In November last year, Yahoo announced that developers could charge between $0.99 and $99.00 for a widget or application. So with that small detail aside lets take a look at what on offer with the latest generation of Sammys.

Samsung’s SMART TV will feature a connected TV experience with links to social media services like Facebook, Twitter and Skype that can be used concurrently next to your favourite show. Some of the applications to be released ‘soon’ include BigPond AFL Game Analyser, BigPond Movies, NineMSN and ABC iVew.

Also built right in is a Web Browser which runs a full version of flash (version not detailed). Along with Skype support, there’s also Google Talk support to really get those discussions cranking with friends and family (assuming they also have a Samsung SMART TV).

There’s also built-in WiFi with DLNA support, so streaming content from your home network to the big screen is a cinch. The Smart Hub also allows users to get personalised movie recommendations based on the content you watch.. awesome.

Taking a leaf from Boxee’s remote control, Samsung’s SMART TV comes with a traditional remote on one side, but flip it over and you’ll have a full QWERTY keyboard to input text.

While Samsung announced SMART TVs in January at CES2011, today’s announcement confirms Australian availability. Its actually great to see the headline for a TV release not be 3D related, instead being a line-item feature.

For more information about Samsung SMART TVs, visit http://samsung.com/au/tv.

While Microsoft may have 11,500 apps, one of the stark differences WP7 and iOS is the ability to find apps for the common experiences we expect. Competition in this space is very limited, so its great to see TV buffs finally get a great TV Guide app for WP7 called QTV. After installing the app, setup is a breeze, simply select the ‘Package’ or location and the channels available in your area are pre-selected. Naturally you can customise this list to only show your favourites.

Launching the app loads the current list of shows across all channels, giving you a single list view of everything. A quick swipe up and you’ll see what’s coming up for the rest of the day. Each entry provides the name of the program, channel, time and duration, pretty much everything you need.

The app also features the ability to set Reminders for your favourite shows. Just find your show, either in the list or by searching, then press Get Reminder. These come in the form of a push Notification as your the show is about to begin so you don’t miss a thing. Also in QTV’s bag o’tricks is the ability to find shows (use the in-app search) via category, cast member or an A-Z list of program names.

Another use for the app is to find out every time your favourite show is on. To get to the showings screen, find your favourite show, then swipe to the left twice. The first time will show you which categories your show is in, Arts and Living, Family, Comedy etc, the second swipe will get you to the showings page.

Over all its a fantastic TV guide, certainly the best I’ve seen on WP7 and even better than a lot of iOS options. Unlike some other WP7 applications, this one performs really well with load and resume times and that’s pre-NoDo.

The app is available in the WP7 Marketplace now for free and supports both Free-To-Air and Pay TV.

More info @ http://www.quidsmobile.com/qtv/