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Dolby Vision imaging technology comes to TCL's X1 4K UHD TV.
If you're looking for a TV with bright colors, an excellent backlight and a fantastic range of contrast, you're probably on the prowl for a set with Dolby Vision imaging technology baked in. Fortunately, the feature is becoming pretty pervasive -- showing up not only in sets from commonly known brands, but from up and coming manufacturers as well. Case in point? Chinese electronics company TCL just announced its first 4K UHD TV to include the technology: the 65-inch TCL X1.
ASUS offers yet another curved monitor plus a 4K display
It's CES, so of course ASUS is going to show off a bunch of brand spanking new screens. In addition to the world's first USB Type-C portable monitor, the Taiwanese giant is also launching two stylish Designo MX Series IPS displays. On the left we have the 27-inch MX27UQ, which is basically a 4K refresh of the earlier MX27AQ and shares the same set of features: 100 percent sRGB wide color gamut, TÜV Rheinland certification for low blue light emission plus no flicker, and two 3W speakers powered by Bang & Olufsen's ICEpower. Luckily for us, there is one new feature here: You can stream Bluetooth audio to this monitor's speakers, which is a nice little bit of extra versatility. And for those who care, this model comes in an "Icicle Gold" finish as well.
The first 4K Roku TVs will be available this spring
Roku may be best known for its ever-expanding range of streaming boxes, but the company has also spent the last few years trying to get Roku OS installed on as many new smart TVs as possible. It's proving to be a hard task, as most people normally upgrade their set once or twice a decade, but Roku TV sales have eclipsed the one million mark. With 2016 shaping up to be the year of 4K, Roku is reinforcing its commitment to Ultra HD content, announcing today that it's teamed up with Chinese electronics company TCL to launch the first 4K Roku TV sets in the spring.
LG unveils next year's monitors and laptops ahead of CES
LG announced three classes of products on Tuesday that it will be showcasing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. First up, LG announced a trio of new models for its 21:9 UltraWide line of monitors. They'll all sport 3440- x 1440-pixel screens and ThunderBolt 2 connectors. The The UC98 and UC88 models both feature curved screens, while the UM88 will not.
Here's the Cygnus spacecraft launching in glorious 4K
Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft, laden with more than 7,000 pounds of supplies destined for the International Space Station, finally got off the ground earlier this week and NASA was there to capture the successful launch in 4K ultra high definition. The space agency utilized an array of six UHD cameras positioned around Cape Canaveral AFS to document the event and has posted the footage to its newest YouTube channel, NASA TV UHD. This launch marks the first flight of the Cygnus spacecraft since a disastrous attempt in October, 2014 which saw the Antares rocket carrying it explode shortly after takeoff.
Massive 'GTA V' mod adds way more than 4K textures
Grand Theft Auto V got a pretty major overhaul when it made the jump from last-gen hardware to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last year, but that leap's got nothing on a new user mod that takes the stick-up simulator into ultra high-definition. "The Pinnacle of V" adds UHD textures for clouds, water, rain and blood, but its biggest changes go well beyond the superficial level. The designers boast that "literally every aspect of the game has been tweaked, adjusted and fine tuned" including bullet speeds, on-foot and in-car police patrols, population density for more realistic rush-hour traffic and now you can shoot through certain materials like wood and plastic too. Oh, and vehicle handling has apparently been completely redone as well -- something on full display in the video below.
LG's spending billions to make more OLED things
LG's OLED 4K TVs are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but the price still isn't anywhere near the level it needs to be for mass consumer adoption. Hopefully the company's new manufacturing plant can help that a bit thanks to economies of scale. A Reuters report says that the South Korean firm is spending some $8.71 billion (around 10 trillion Korean won) on a new manufacturing facility for the display panels in Paju, South Korea. Perhaps this can make up for some of the losses the tech giant suffered by halting production at one of its TV plants due to a gas leak earlier this year.
DJI Osmo review: A hand-held stabilized camera worthy of its price
Thanks to the rise of small action cameras, camera stabilizers (aka gimbals) are becoming more portable than ever. Amazon has plenty of these coming from random Chinese brands, but most are either poorly designed, or only a partial solution to your problem. For instance, they often lack a handset mount for those who need a live screen. There are also gimbals that use smartphones as the camera, but I've yet to come across one with raving reviews; the current options appear to be more of a nuisance due to their awkward calibration and erratic stabilization. So unless you've tried one and are certain that it works well with your phone, your best bet is to go with a dedicated camera gimbal. In terms of full-featured gimbals, we have only two compelling options so far. The first one is the Aetho's Aeon, which takes a GoPro and has its own display, but it won't arrive until early next year. This leaves us with DJI's latest creation, the Osmo, which we first saw back in January. This device features a 4K camera module similar to the one on the company's flagship drone, the Inspire 1, and it can house your smartphone as a viewfinder on the side. But it isn't just about the hardware, because like the company's drones, the Osmo also has a full-featured companion app for greater versatility. Let's see if this fancy package is worthy of its $649 price.
Vudu starts streaming 4K movies to the Roku 4
Vudu's 1080p HDX streams were once considered high quality for streaming movies over the internet, (now they're even watchable on phones) but in the last year Amazon and Netflix surpassed them with 4K resolution and even HDR. Now Vudu is stepping up its game with some 4K flicks, currently available only through the new Roku 4. For the moment it has 12 movies viewable in 4K (check the list after the break), with prices of $10 for a rental and $25 - $30 to purchase. According to Vudu, you'll need an 11Mbps connection to stream the high-res versions that it's marked Vudu UHD. The option will be coming to other platforms including Vizio's 4K TVs soon, and for the ones that can handle it, there's support for HDR and Atmos surround sound too.
Vizio's 120-inch Reference Series 4K TV with HDR costs $130,000
Although Vizio is known for making affordable 4K TVs, the manufacturer's also busy exploring other areas. Revealed back in April, its Reference Series television sets are designed for home entertainment buffs, featuring Dolby's Vision high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging technology -- which promises astonishing colors, contrast and brightness. Vizio's making its Reference Series available in two sizes, 65- and 120-inch, and they are both LED-backlit, Smart UHD TVs with Dolby and DTS sound options to boot. If you're interested, be prepare to break the bank: The 65-inch model costs $6,000, while the bigger 120-inch is priced at a whopping $130,000. You can order either one now from Vizio's site.
Amazon Fire TV comes out to play with 4K and Alexa, stays at $99
If you're one of the folks that's purchased a 4K TV, Amazon has some good news for you: The new Fire TV supports 4K and still costs $99.99 (£80). In addition to handling all those extra pixels, the voice remote now calls up Alexa, the Echo assistant with access to more than just movie and TV titles. Ask it about the weather, sports, traffic and have it play music from your Amazon playlists and Prime. All of the information is displayed on your TV. The company also announced a $49.99 (£45) Fire TV Stick with a Voice Remote (finally) and a new game controller also with voice control and a headphone jack so your zombie shooting ways don't disturb the rest of the house.
Dolby Vision imaging tech swings to Sony movies
Slowly but surely Dolby Vision is making its way to more and more places. The cinema company recently announced that it's partnering with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to give Hirai and Co.'s flicks a brighter, more contrasty image, whether you're watching it via a physical or digital format. No specific titles were announced for the high dynamic range video feature, but the press release quotes mention that new releases as well as catalog titles will benefit from the relatively new 4K UHD tech. So! For those keeping track at home, this marks two major studios signed on, as Warner Bros. announced its partnership earlier this year. On the streaming side, Netflix and Xbox Video announced in 2014. Now we just need those Ultra Blu-rays and their players to hit and we'll really be in business.
Here's the world's first Ultra HD Blu-ray player
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Samsung has announced the first (consumer ready) Ultra HD Blu-ray player, alongside word that movie studio Fox is already getting its releases ready for the new format. That means 4K movies, yes, but also compatibility for HDR video. Here's a closer look at the curved UBD-K8500 player -- perfect for that new curved Ultra HDTV, right?
Toshiba's convertible 4K laptop is somehow light, stylish and thin
Yes, 4K devices (that aren't TVs) are everywhere at IFA 2015. If it's not a Sony smartphone packing a ridiculous high-resolution display, then it's Samsung's Ultra HD Blu-ray player -- the first of its kind. Toshiba's getting involved too, with a convertible 4K 12.5-inch laptop. As is the case with most of the PCs and laptops spotted this year at Europe's biggest tech show, the Satellite Radius 12 has Intel's latest sixth-generation Core processor to power it, but still only measures 0.6 inch thick and weighs 2.9 pounds -- quite a feat for a convertible with a 4K display. (Especially since we can still remember Panasonic's hulking 4K tablet from a few years ago.)
What it's like to use Samsung's Tizen-based 4K TV (in a non-4K world)
It's not easy getting a massive 65-inch TV inside a Brooklyn apartment. But, oh, is it worth the trouble. In this case, I'm talking about the Samsung JU6500, a 4K (3,840 x 2,160) smart TV powered by the company's newly minted, homegrown Tizen OS. Unless you were dead-set on Android TV, the set comes with most everything you would want in 2015: support for Ultra High-Definition media, access to entertainment apps and an actually reasonable price point. Although it's listed at $2,800, you can get one for around $2,100 from retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, Adorama and Samsung's own site. Unfortunately for the company, its JU6500 seems expensive compared to Vizio's cheap 4K series -- which makes the buying decision harder for people who want a UHD TV.
See the ISS like never before in these 4K videos
We're sure a time will come when watching something in 4K won't seem special. Now isn't that time. Astronaut Terry W. Virts is tweeting links to videos shot in Ultra HD during his time on the International Space Station, and predictably it's mesmerizing. NASA started uploading videos in the higher resolution to YouTube a few days ago, with a 20 second tease at 60 fps, before publishing a far more satisfying (but regular frame rate) four-minute follow up. The agency claims the extra detail in the videos will "provide new insight into the vast array of experiments taking place every day." But, it also humble-boasts that these are possibly some of the "most breathtaking" views of our planet, and the ISS (and a floating taco) yet. This comes not long after we were equally dazzled with GoPro footage of a bonefide spacewalk. Whatever NASA's video strategy is for the ISS (it hints there's more to come), we're liking it so far.
YouTube has an 8K video (that almost no one can watch)
The equipment to shoot it might not exactly be widespread, and the displays needed to view it at home are even less so, but 8K video has made its way to YouTube. It's a feature the outfit announced way back in 2010, but only just recently did a clip surface that actually uses all of those lines of resolution. The clip's called Ghost Towns and it's a slow-panning journey through what looks like a recently abandoned mining settlement. Mountain View told 9to5Google that the 8K label was added earlier this year, but 4320p footage has only appeared pretty recently. The video description notes that Ghost Towns was shot using a RED Epic Dragon 6K camera in portrait orientation and to hit the higher resolution, some of the footage was upscaled or stitched together with Adobe's After Effects suite.
ASUS' updated 32-inch 4K monitor does the full Adobe color gamut
Following the $2,200 ProArt PA328Q semi-professional 32-inch, 4K 16:9 monitor announced at last year's Computex, ASUS is back with a follow-up model dubbed PA329Q. The most notable improvement here is it now delivers 100 percent Adobe RGB color gamut, as opposed to just sRGB; plus it has a 16-bit internal lookup table instead of just 12-bit. For those who are into video production, you'll also appreciate the added support for the BT2020 / DCI-P3 color space. The new display is otherwise almost identical to its predecessor: You get the same set of ports (1x HDMI 2.0, 2x HDMI 1.4, 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x Mini DisplayPort 1.2 and 4x USB 3.0) and the same 10-bit display color. Each unit is also factory pre-calibrated for high consistency, although it also boasts "the highest compatibility with major hardware calibrators," should you wish to do it yourself. We'll come back with more info regarding availability if we hear any.
Comcast's 4K set-top box is coming later this year
Comcast is going 4K in a big way this year. The much-hated cable giant just announced that it'll be rolling out a new version of its Xfinity X1 set top box later this year that will bring 4K programming to even more of its customers. So far, Comcast has only made its Xfinity 4K offering available to Samsung 4K TVs. Comcast is calling its new set-top box the Xi4, and while we don't have any pictures of it yet, it will likely resemble the company's existing X1 box (above). Come 2016, Comcast also plans to launch another version of the box that supports high dynamic range video, which should deliver some much needed contrast and color improvements. You can expect "hundreds" of 4K titles on Comcast's UHD service later this year, including nature programming like Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia, as well as full seasons of shows from SyFy, USA and Starz like Defiance and Outlander. [Photo credit: Steve Garfield/Flickr]
A look at Vizio's affordable M-Series 4K TVs
Earlier today, Vizio introduced its latest 4K TVs, the M-Series. In similar fashion to the P-Series from last year, which started at $1,000, this year's models also come with an affordable price tag. But the M-Series ranges from $600 for a 43-inch model to $4,000 for the largest of the bunch, an 80-incher. Vizio says that with the M-Series, it was all about making refinements and not compromising in order to bring the price down even further. As such, most of the tech found on the P-Series has made its way into the new M-Series, like the LED panel and low-latency HDMI port (a feature loved by gamers, according to the company), among other things. Better yet, these UHD TV sets look great in person; they're relatively thin, sport a solid industrial design and, most importantly, have a picture quality that's not far behind its more expensive competitors. If you like what you see, some online retailers in the US are selling them as we speak.
