panasonic

If you're trying to reduce the amount of time you spend in front of the television, Panasonic's new high-end plasma HDTV is so not the gadget for you. It's sleek, huge (even in its smallest 46-inch iteration), and offers instant Web connectivity.

The PZ850, part of the company's Viera line, connects to YouTube and Google's Picasa Web album straight from the TV. You can also get weather from five chosen locations and Bloomberg news and stocks that are updated every 15 minutes. Put an SD memory card into the HDTV and you can view high-definition … Read more

Sony signed an agreement with the country's six largest cable companies Tuesday to develop a TV that will receive cable services without the need for a set-top box.

The Japanese electronics giant will make an LCD set based on the Tru2way cable platform introduced in January at CES by Comcast. Tru2way allows interactive cable services to be integrated directly into devices.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision, and Bright House Networks have all agreed to develop the technology behind Tru2way.

Sony's not the first consumer electronics company to announce a device based on the platform, … Read more

Zirconia isn't just for ring-shopping fiances on a budget anymore. The diamond imposter is now being used to make earphones, of all things.

Panasonic's latest buds have been made with the material because it's apparently good at reducing distortion, according to Akihabara News. Another unusual feature of the RP-HJE900 earphones--one that will undoubtedly be more noticeable--is their removable cables. It's not entirely clear why one might want those, unless you habitually bury your buds deep into the aural canal and want a breakaway safety feature.

We detailed Panasonic's full plasma lineup earlier this year, but having just returned from a press event devoted to the flagship TH-PZ850U series, it feels incumbent to reiterate some of the cool new features of these expensive sets.

The coolest? A demo at the event proved that the 850Us can stream YouTube videos, right on the TV screen with no PC required. The TV's "Viera Cast" interface allows you to search YouTube by keyword, sort videos by popularity, or access your own list of favorite videos, for example. During the demo we were treated to a video of a laughing baby, the (no-surprise) current champ of the popularity list. According to Panasonic, the entire catalog of YouTube videos is available on the TV, although it may take a day or two for a new one on the site to appear on Viera Cast. The TV can also access Picasa, Google's photo sharing site, so you can view digital photos stored at your (or someone else's) Picasa account directly on the big screen.

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You may have read about Panasonic's Neo PDP plasma technology, and even caught a glimpse of the prototypes at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. However, they could actually be coming to retail stores as early as June 2009 after initial May production from the Japanese company's P5 plant, Panasonic's latest plasma panel manufacturing facility currently undergoing construction in Amagasaki, Japan.

The lineup includes a petite 24.7-millimeter-thick 50-incher and its larger-than-life 150-inch sibling. The latter also offers four times better image details over standard full-HD TVs with a native 4,096 x 2,160-pixel … Read more

Picking the right portable DVD player isn't an easy task. There are many details to factor in such as screen size, battery life, and playback capabilities. Some players have swivel screens, and others opt for a collapsible hinge. While you'll find that most DVD players use the familiar clamshell design, a few models are now adopting the tablet-style form factor.

Some players are even incorporating iPod music and video playback along with SD flash card readers with the ability to play all kinds of file formats including DivX-encoded movies.

We've taken a close look at the top … Read more

I just spoke with a few of the people from THX involved in the development of the specification for the firm's new Display Certification, featured on the Panasonic TH-PZ800U and LG PG60 series plasma TVs, and when I asked them whether they'd be letting some of their test material and methods trickle down into disc form, they said "yes." According to THX's reps, the Blu-ray disc would be an expanded version of the THX Optimizer found on select DVDs, and would feature test material aimed at a less-technical audience than the only other full-fledged Blu-ray test disc available now, Joe Kane's Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics, which is used extensively in CNET's own HDTV testing. THX didn't say when its disc would be available or for how much.

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Latest updates in bold.

After 20 years in the biz, I've lost count of how many times I've heard, "The software hasn't caught up with the hardware." Usually, however, it simply means you have to wait a bit before recognizing the speed benefits of your expensive 64-bit, dual-core system, or find games that show off the long-shader support in your graphics card. With camcorders, however, it means you can't use your video.

Personally, I don't consider a camcorder as mainstream if you have to search the Web and troll forums to find software … Read more

When Panasonic announced the DMP-BD50 at CES 2008, home theater enthusiasts who didn't want a game console as their Blu-ray player finally had a fully-featured standalone player to look forward to. The Panasonic DMP-BD50 promises the two big elusive features: Blu-ray Profile 2.0 and onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Tuesday, we attended a demonstration of the DMP-BD50 and learned some new details. Here's a quick glance at the spec sheet as far as we know right now.

Key features of the Panasonic DMP-BD50: