Engadget HD Podcast 380 – CES Special #2 – 1.9.14
It’s time for a rundown of all the best in HD news from CES this week and it’s a heckuva long list. Ben Drawbaugh joins Richard Lawler to hash it out and discuss whether 4K has matured enough to settle in for the long haul. LG, Sony, Samsung and surprisingly Vizio were among the key players this past week, providing massive screen sizes, amped-up projectors and even exhuming an old software platform for the 2014 market. Head on down to the streaming links below for all the info in this week’s second installment of the HD Podcast, CES edition.
Hosts: Richard Lawler, Ben Drawbaugh
Producer: Jon Turi
Hear the podcast:
00:02:21 – TiVo prototype DVR recordings stay in the cloud, watch them anywhere on any screen
00:05:48 – Roku renews bid for the living room with streaming-ready Roku TVs
00:07:33 – RCA will launch budget Android Ultra HD TVs, Roku Ready 1080p versions and even curved LCDs
00:09:45 – Dish launches a wireless set-top box and one that can record eight shows at once
00:11:35 – Dish’s ‘Virtual Joey’ is a streaming app for smart TVs that takes the place of a set-top box (video)
00:17:20 – This is what Netflix’s 4K streaming looks like
00:26:06 – Dolby Vision imaging finally comes home this fall with Netflix and Xbox Video as partners
00:30:39 – Sony’s launching a new cloud-based TV-streaming service in the US this year
00:41:03 – Sony’s Life Space UX demo envisions projectors, screens everywhere
00:41:13 – Sony’s new Bravia HDTVs get a wedge-shaped redesign
00:44:31 – Sony’s Life Space UX demo envisions projectors, screens everywhere
00:47:03 – Sony’s $30k+ Life Space UX projector all-in-one puts a 147-inch 4K screen on any wall
00:51:05 – Hands-on with LG’s smart TV running webOS
00:54:49 – LG teases webOS for most of its smart TVs, Life Band Touch with Android, iOS sync
00:55:25 – LG sneaks a new version of its ‘Laser TV’ projector into CES 2014
00:57:23 – LG spills price, release details on its Ultra HD, OLED (flat or curved) and webOS TVs
01:03:15 – Samsung’s 105-inch curved UHD TV and 85-inch bendable screen hit retail this year
01:03:34 – Samsung’s 98-inch 8K TV lets us go to the mall without leaving CES
01:04:26 – Samsung’s Ultra HD TVs will stream 4K video from Amazon, Comcast, DirecTV, Netflix and more
01:09:45 – Sharp Aquos lineup for 2014 bears 1080p and 4K TVs, a revamped SmartCentral platform and the new Quattron+ Series
01:16:21 – Vizio’s HDTV plans for 2014 focus on Ultra HD, in sizes going all the way up to 120 inches
01:20:26 – Xbox One sales in 2013 top 3 million units across 13 territories
01:22:55 – PlayStation Now streams PlayStation games to PS4, Vita, PS3, tablets and smartphones
01:25:03 – GoPro to launch extreme sports channel on Xbox One and 360
01:26:17 – Tablo streaming DVR now available for pre-order, ships in February for $219
01:27:10 – Oculus Rift’s latest prototype features positional tracking, an OLED screen and kills motion blur (hands-on)
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CES 2014: HDTV & home theater roundup
Every year, CES is filled wall to wall with flat-screen televisions and the things that plug into them. 2014′s show brought its own variations to that theme. Curved TVs, OLED TVs, Ultra HD TVs or some combination popped up wherever we looked, and unlike last year, many of them will go on sale soon. Big manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Sony dominated news for high-end sets, but others like Vizio are promising an unprecedented slew of features at value prices.
Ultra HD/OLED
When even Polaroid has an Ultra HD television to announce for CES, it’s probably fair to say there’s a trend occurring. Of the ones we saw that are likely to ship this year, Vizio’s jump off the page first — both for their quality and extremely reasonable prices. Sony demonstrated black levels on its LCDs that must be seen to be believed, plus a unique new design that brings a new level of quality to integrated TV speakers. The battle to the death between LG and Samsung reached new levels of absurdity as both showed off flexible, bending displays, one LED and one OLED. Meanwhile, Samsung curved its new 9000 series UHD TVs and LG whipped up a sweet, new version of webOS for its line. Sharp’s answer? Something between 1080p and 4K, while Panasonic spiced up its TVs with voice and face recognition. This was CES 2014 for TVs… and it was bizarre.
Sony’s new UHD TVs are built to support Netflix in 4K when it arrives
We just got to watch Samsung’s big-ass 105-inch curved TV
Panasonic ups its smart TV game with the VIERA Life+ Screen, complete with voice and facial recognition
Sharp Aquos lineup for 2014 bears 1080p and 4K TVs, a revamped SmartCentral platform and the new Quattron+ Series
Vizio’s HDTV plans for 2014 focus on Ultra HD, in sizes going all the way up to 120 inches
LG’s latest 84-inch 4K TV breaks cover at CES
LG’s 105-inch UHD TV isn’t coming to CES alone: flat 65-, 79-, 84- and 98-inchers on the way
LG’s bringing Ultra HD OLED TVs in more sizes to CES, ramping up production
Samsung announces its curved 78-inch UHD TV: runs faster, works smarter
Samsung: cheap OLED TVs won’t be ready for three to four years
Samsung’s 105-inch curved UHD TV and 85-inch bendable screen hit retail this year
Samsung shows off its 85-inch curved TV that bends with the touch of a button (video)
Sony’s new Bravia HDTVs get a wedge-shaped redesign (update: hands-on photos)
Kogan’s ultra-budget 4K TV and 3G tablet arrive at CES
Toshiba enters 2014 with extra-bright 4K TVs, simpler streaming media hubs
Sceptre’s showing off 4K TVs, Roku Ready displays, earbuds and pretty much everything, ever at CES
Smart/Connected TV
Internet-connected and highly personalized services for our TVs and the devices connected to them have gone from a curiosity to the norm. Now, we may be finally entering the period where there’s enough reason to separate the wheat from the chaff and decide who has the best smart TV platform. LG is showing its hand with webOS and Roku integrating directly into TVs, but it may be another 12 months before we can pick a winner (or at least top three).
Hands-on with LG’s smart TV running webOS (video)
LG teases webOS for most of its smart TVs, Lifeband Touch with Android, iOS sync
Dish’s ‘Virtual Joey’ is a streaming app for smart TVs that takes the place of a set-top box (video)
Samsung’s new TV remote for 2014 has a new pebble shape, 80 percent smaller touchpad
Roku renews bid for the living room with streaming-ready Roku TVs
Android TV at CES 2014 highlighted by Chinese manufacturers Hisense and TCL
Netgear’s NeoMediacast is an Android-powered TV set-top on a stick
Streaming
Streaming could move from a secondary service to a top priority, with a bevy of new and smarter TVs and connected devices, plus the availability of 4K content before it hits broadcast. Is this the end for traditional pay-TV or does that market have some life left in it yet? That will be one of the many, many stories we’re following in 2014.
Netflix confirms it will stream House of Cards in 4K this year, posts full season two trailer
Samsung’s Ultra HD TVs will stream 4K video from Amazon, Comcast, DirecTV, Netflix and more
Hulu’s original TV shows for 2014 are a mix of new series, new seasons and foreign transplants
YouTube to show off lower-bandwidth 4K streaming at CES
Plex website relaunches as Plex.tv, one-stop home for all of its media streaming abilities
Panasonic will bring Firefox OS to your smart TV this year
GoPro to launch extreme sports channel on Xbox One and 360
Prototype
Flexible displays, network DVRs and ultrawide Ultra HD — this is the place to check it out.
TiVo prototype DVR recordings stay in the cloud, watch them anywhere on any screen
Toshiba cares not for 4K, has an ultra-wide 5K TV ready for CES
Take that Samsung: LG’s got a 77-inch OLED UHD TV that bends on command (video)
The projector section
We love projectors, but Sony and LG took them in an odd direction this year, courtesy of lasers.
LG sneaks a new version of its ‘Laser TV’ projector into CES 2014
Sony’s $30k+ Life Space UX projector all-in-one puts a 147-inch 4K screen on any wall
Sony’s Life Space UX demo envisions projectors, screens everywhere
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung, Sony, LG
CES 2014: the Engadget interviews
Coming into CES 2014, we knew there would be some recurring themes at the show: wearables, connected cars, home automation and 3D printing would all have a major presence on the show floor. So, we were sure to talk to some of the biggest names in those industries to give us the lowdown on what’s new and what we can look forward to in 2014. Naturally, when you’ve got a slate of CEOs and celebrities coming to talk to you, you wan’t to give them a proper forum in which to chat, and this year’s Engadget stage was bigger and better than ever. Our interview lineup was packed from day one through day four and included the likes of new Sony Electronics President Mike Fasulo, Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park, Nest founder Matt Rogers, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis and hip-hop superstar 50 Cent. And, of course, we also got to chat with Mr. CES himself, Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro.
Not all the interviewing happened on stage, either. We chatted with Sony CEO Kaz Hirai, Will.i.am (3D Systems’ new creative director) and Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe out on the show floor, too. Of course, that’s just a sampling of the folks who joined us, so head on past the break for a full list. We recommend settling in someplace comfy with a nice bottle of pinot, some cushy headphones, and letting the words of some of the biggest names in tech in all the world wash over you.
Juha Alakarhu, Head of Digital Imaging, Nokia
Colin Angle, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, iRobot Corporation
Yoni Benatar, Product Manager, Parrot + Thomas Barse, Lead Designer, Parrot
Dilip Bhatia, Vice President and General Manager, ThinkPad Business Unit, Lenovo
Maxwell Bogue, CEO, WobbleWorks, Inc./3Doodler
Michael Buckwald, CEO, Leap Motion
Jim Buczkowski, Director of Electrical and Electronics Systems, Research & Innovation, Ford
Sam Cervantes, Founder & CEO, Solidoodle LLC
Jim Clayton, EVP Home Entertainment, New Business Development, LG Electronics
Giulia D’Amico, Vice President Business Development, One Laptop per Child Inc.
Walter de Brouwer, Founder and CEO, Scanadu
Ujesh Desai, Vice President, Corporate and Product Marketing, NVIDIA
Mike Dunn, President, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Worldwide
Mike Fasulo, President, Sony Electronics
Ziv Gillat, Co-founder and Head of Business Development and Sales, Eye-Fi
Neil Hand, Vice President, Tablet Group, Dell
Scott Hardy, CEO, Polaroid
Michael Hawkey, VP and General Manager, Sling Media, Inc.
Kaz Hirai, CEO, Sony
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, CEO, SMS Audio
Martin Kallstrom, CEO, Narrative
Alex Lawn, Director of Communications, KnCMiner AB
Kevin Lensing, Director, Mobility Product Line, AMD
Ty Liotta, Vice President of Custom Manufacturing, ThinkGeek, Inc.
Maxim Lobovsky, Co-Founder, Formlabs
Palmer Luckey, Founder, Oculus Rift
Glenn Lurie, President, Emerging Enterprises and Partnerships, AT&T Mobility
Eric Migicovsky, CEO, Pebble Technology & Myriam Joire, Product Evangelist, Pebble
Clément Moreau, CEO, Sculpteo
Mike Muller, CTO, ARM Holdings
James Park, CEO and Co-founder of Fitbit
Rahul Patel, Vice President, Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Combo, Broadcom
Bre Pettis, CEO, MakerBot
Bill Plummer, Vice President, External Affairs, Huawei Technologies
Aneesh Rajaram, SVP TV and Devices, Opera Software
Avi Reichental, CEO, 3D Systems
Matt Rogers, Founder and VP of Engineering, Nest
Daniel Sennheiser, CEO, Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG
Julie Samuels, Senior Staff Attorney, Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Brad Schmidt, Creative Director, GoPro
Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)
Gary Stern, Chairman and CEO of Stern Pinball, Inc.
Davin Sufer, Chief Technical Officer, WowWee
Jay Sullivan, COO, Mozilla
Raj Talluri, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Min-Liang Tan, CEO and Chief Gamer, Razer
Edward Tang, CEO, Avegant + Allan Evans, CTO, Avegant
Paul Travers, CEO, President and Director, Vuzix Corporation
Sonny Vu, CEO and Founder, Misfit Wearables
Will.i.am, Creative Director, 3D Systems
Adam Wilson, Founder, Chief Software Architect, and Ian Bernstein, Founder, Chief Technology Officer, Orbotix
Masahiko Yamada, President and CEO, Wacom Company Ltd.
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