Samsung has been a long established LED TV supplier in Australia with the famous Samsung LED panel. However, recently Panasonic has announced a battle for the LED Television market share against Samsung, by bringing a newer and brighter version of LED television to the Australian market. The new product range from Panasonic offers IPS technology, which stands for In Plane Switching technology. It’s main features involves a better and wider viewing from an angle, which Samsung’s LED version lacks. LED technology has already found its application in other products apart from TV such as the iPad developed by Apple. LED technology stands for Light-Emitting Diodes and offers much superior quality allowing extra brightness and sharpness for TV set.

The main idea of LED TV is to deliver a superior picture image, which many sophisticated viewers and gamers appreciate. The Panasonic LED IPS product makes the colour very saturated without any fading after effects when the angle becomes wider (ie: when looking at the screen from further to the side, rather than sitting in the middle and looking at the screen square on). It is understandable why Panasonic decided to move into LED technology, as it is increasingly gaining a footprint in the TV world. In addition to brightness, LED also offers a higher energy saving, which many consumers very much appreciate.

Sony is another competitor that is winning the market with OLED TV (organic LED). Not only does it offer a higher quality picutre, but it is also only 3 millimetres thick (XEL-1 TV model). The ratio of contrast is amazing offering 1,000,000:1. This poses some challenges for Samsung and Panasonic. Sony has invested more than $100 million in the development of LCD and LED technology and has a strong determination to succeed in the TV market all over the world. What consumers also love about LED is its design, since it allows producing TV screens of extra thinness that was not even imaginable several years ago.

How does LED TV manage to produce such amazing brightness from any angle? The answer is that LED screens operate by covering several layers of material that is positioned between a couple of extremely thin panels of glass. Light-Emitting Diodes work as a light source and, thus, no extra backlighting is required as in non-LED televisions. This is another reason why the act as energy savers. Another effect of LED, that Panasonic showed in its most recent model, is the smoothness with which the images move and the stronger blacks in images.

It is expected that High-tech exhibitions will display more and more LED technology and additional light-emitting diode know-how. At the end of the day, it is all good news for the consumer, since prices are driven down by the intense competition and viewers get the best products at great prices.

First, let’s define what DLP TV is, as many of us can be easily confused by hi-tech jargon that has become so widespread recently. DLP Television stands for digital light processing TV. In other words, it is a TV that recreates the  theatre experience in your home. The only thing you have to do is dim the lights, sit comfortably and enjoy the full blown image projection with sound and action coming straight to you on your couch.

DLP TV uses a DLP based device that employs light projection technology. The effect is achieved by means of using many small mirrors that reflect the pixel and lights. Since it is a projection type TV, consumers are mainly concerned by the resolution quality – the higher the resolution, the better and sharper the image of DLP Television is. There is choice between SVGA which is 800×600, XGA which is 1024×768 and SXGA which is 1280×1024, however, for movie quality, a higher resolution would be required.

Additionally, another important factor to consider is the brightness of DLP TV which would be judged relative to how bright the image is when it is projected in a room full of light. The main issue many users have with DLP Televisions relative to flat screen TVs, is that since it is a projection of colours using light, some see more of one colour than another, which creates an effect of a ‘too green’ movie or movie with ‘red shadow’. Nevertheless, technology continues to improve and sales of DLP Televisions are constantly on the upward moving scale. ViewSonic has recently announced that it launches 3D DLP TVs which is another step forward towards improved technology and more exciting times. There are many players in the DLP technology market with more focus still on the IT sector rather than television. The good news is that more competition drives the prices of products available to us down, and allows us to try more and more advanced DLP products.

When choosing DLP TV do not forget also to check the sound system, as it is an inevitable part of any DLP television. Make sure you do not ignore the importance of the sound system because the best overall TV experience includes good sound quality.

A big screen TV is the dream of every TV loving person – and the bigger the better! However, you would be surprised that there is not much of a quality difference between 32 inch, 42 inch and 53 inch televisions apart from the size. When you are considering a big screen TV, you should first think about the size of your room and where you are planning to put your purchase. Buying big TV without a realistic assessment and expectation is similar to going food shopping when hungry. You are much more likely to buy more food then you actually need. Similar with buying a new TV, you are much more likely to be persuaded by the sales person to buy a much bigger screen model if you do not critically assess the size of the room where TV will be positioned. You do not want TV to dominate your room or apartment altogether!

Also think about how you are planning to hook up the big screen TV. The bigger it gets, the harder it is. You may think about whether you will be using a DVD in addition to a  Sky package, for instance. All of additional gadgets require space and proper thinking and planning. Just looking in the instruction manual can be scary – nowadays, they look more like encyclopaedias, rather than just a simple user manual. Installation is part of it and when you are considering the size of your TV, this is definitely something to think about.

Instead of focusing on TV size, you may consider additional aspects such as, for instance, the quality of picture. When the TV is presented in the store, it may show a worse picture than your personal preference. Try to experiment and see what you like the most. The quality of the sound output is another factor to consider. It is loud in Electronics stores, which means that your judgement of the sound would be relatively distorted.

Take into consideration the base of the TV- is it easy to handle and install? Just the fact that it is big and flat does not mean that it is the best. Do not also underestimate the remote controls. TVs now often have large remote controls with many buttons. If it takes you more than a minute to get from TV mode to DVD mode, then maybe it is wise to reconsider and look at more user-friendly big screen TVs. You do not want to spend most of your evenings trying to figure out what to press in a proper sequence.

After watching Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Transformers and all your other favourite movies in 3D dimensions, have you not thought how amazing would it be to have a 3D TV in your own house and get entire feeling of home cinema? Yes, we have all dreamed it! Yet, electronics producers promise to make our dreams become a reality with new 3D television projects underway that build expectations to offer three dimensional images without the need to have 3D glasses in order to watch it. Admit it we all think they look ridiculous!

Although there are also some new 3D TVs coming out that will still require us to wear special glass to see the 3D effects.  They will also be able to show non 3D Television as well, since not all shows are going to be filmed with the 3D features.

This type of TV has already been tested in the market and takes most important place on Electronics exhibitions. Unites States are already offering Sony’s XEL-1 OLED TV version to buy in some electronics stores. Some of the most prestigious shops have already purchased them for display in order to impress customers. Movie makers are also walking in line with TV manufacturers and produce 3D movies with constant rate to keep the audience thrilled and their minds preoccupied with anticipation. Comparing to 3D televisions, the excitement over high-definition will soon fade away.

The screens of 3D TVs are quite thick comparing to regular flat screens, as it is required for producing depth of the picture and 3D effect. But do not get overexcited as yet, as Australia is famous for being relatively slow in embracing new technological novelty. It is believed that comparing to Britain, US and Asia, 3D will come to Australia with significant delay. As 3D Televisions must be supported by networks, it may hinder the implementation. For instance, 3D football was already aired in UK and many more are under development.

It is interesting that the models under development are using very special system called lenticular that allows viewers to watch 3D TV without goggles. It is quite complicated technology of mixing different colours of pixels and light projection under certain angles. The angle of the light and the speed allows us to experience 3D as such without any additional accessories. You can move around and still have the same 3D experience.

And what about the price? Here the news is not that overwhelming. The average price of 3D TV is expected to vary from $30,000 to $45,000 dependent on the size. With these prices and lack of broadcasting systems for 3D, do not expect anything earlier than the next 20 years. Or maybe we are just too over pessimistic, are we?

The widescreen TV obsession is taking over the Australian market and its customers. According to statistical research more than one and a half million Australian customers this year have bought widescreen flat TVs that generated more than a billion in sales. Not only it is widescreen TVs, but they also take wide share of our pockets and salaries. The TV market is very fancy in general being fuelled by massive marketing campaigns, glossy advertising and promotions. Needless to say, we are all keen to watch our favourite movie on a screen that is wide and shiny. Interestingly, widescreen is not the only main feature that TV developers are very interested in. Recent environmental concerns have stimulated the interest in producing energy-efficient TVs and use it as a main selling point for any large screen TV.

Many customers get confused of with how these TVs differ from HD TVs. You may have noticed that sometimes when you change the aspect ratio, the characters in your movie start looking too wide or too thin or distorted in any other manner. This is because widescreen uses different aspect ratio which generally comes in 16:9, thought it cannot be high definition. At the same time, if TV is qualified as Full HD, this can also be a choice for a widescreen TV. At the moment, it is rather a single standard that has occurred in the market several years ago and has taken over Australia with amazing speed. This is one of the best choices available for this style of TV that does not require thorough thinking and knowledge of special TV jargon when purchasing.

In a snapshot, full HD is just better version of standard  large screen TV, but with several times higher standard for the definition. It achieves it due to using higher number of pixels that make image much sharper than standard widescreen TV. Many get confused whether HD TV can also show programmes that are broadcast in widescreen. The additional feature that HD has is that it can display 1080p images which include BluRay. Using ‘p’ is the way to display pictures and means that images are displayed using Progressive Scanning. Some broadcasters prefer 1080p, some 720p, but regardless both are very high quality for  large screen TVs and only differ in a way they are displayed.

Nowadays, there are many more versions of widescreen TVs available in the shops, which makes it harder to choose, but also offers customer very good range and better quality.

Flat screen TVs have been a big hit with high consumer demand over the last years. Many TV viewers see it as a must-have hi-tech in their house. Electronics exhibitions are display plenty of most innovative flat screen TVs and it seems that the designers are mostly after improving the quality of high definition and also make flat screen TVs as thin as possible. Sony has recently presented one the most advanced and thinnest models called OLED that is only 3 millimetres thick. This is quite an achievement comparing to LCD TVs that are generally thicker due to the need of backlight. Pioneers offer flat screen TVs that are 9 millimetres thick, which is, if you think about it, thinner than the screen of the thinnest laptop.  Panasonic offers a flat screen TV little thicker than the rest of the competitors, but then it has 50 inch screen that is quite impressive.

Nowadays, many manufacturers focus on the design of their product. As Apple proved, the design can win a significant market share if you are a leader in this field. LG, for instance, has designed LCD flat screen that looks more as an artwork rather than a technological product. The fashionable look can be very advantageous and bring a company many customers, since at current technological advancement, the quality is more or less the same for all flat screens available in the market. Thus, design is definitely a way to differentiate the products such as TVs. Philips came up with curved and smoothed edges for its TVs and used acryl to define the border.

At the days of constant technological advancement, flat-screen TVs are increasingly becoming IT related. Today, many of TVs have go-wireless feature, which allows you to do the transfers of video files without even the need to connect to PC. Wireless file transfer keeps the quality as high, but increases the speed of transferring any files back and forth between the devices. Here we are talking about LG71 device from LG and Wireless HD from Panasonic. It is also possible wirelessly to connect speakers to your flat screen TV through the use of Bluetooth. This makes you feel relieved to avoid any cables, plugs, connections and sub-connections. If you are using digital camera, there is an additional device that offers you wireless transfer of files from digital camera to your TV in a matter of seconds. The possibilities are limitless!

Digital TV recorders represent a new generation of TV that can be viewed on demand. This innovation accommodates the changes of our everyday lives and fits in with our busier than ever life schedules. With growing popularity of such broadcasters as Foxtel and Sky, it is inevitable that digital TV recorders would become a big next thing. Another name for them is PVRs or personal video recorder. There two major kinds of those classifying either with having a DVD recorder that is built or the one that comes separately from TV. It works similar to having a hard drive for storing information on your PC. Digital TV recorders work more or less the same way, so expect to have hard drive attached regardless of digital recorder type. 150GB hard drive will store for you around 35 hours of any high definition TV recordings and three times more of that if it is standard recording.

Quality is superb regardless of the type of the recorder and the only area to be aware of is variation in colours, which can seem to fluctuate dependent on the RPV. The price ranges from $400 to $2000, but mostly falls into an average price of $700 in Australia. Digital Product Group in Australia offers the BEYONWIZ DP-P2 version that has many add-in in addition to the average RPVs that do only the TV recordings. This one allows connection to PC and streaming all type of files to TV. TIVO offers a simpler version mainly imported from the United States. It is very user friendly and price is around $700. It has a selection of great features, however, is dependent on the TiVo server. It has a ‘thinking’ feature and, dependent on your usual selections, it records something that it ‘thinks’ you may potentially like to watch. Additionally, it has website where you can log in wherever you are and schedule any recording you like that would go directly to your digital TV recorder. In US it is even possible to transfer programmes you have recorded to PC. Unfortunately, the Australian version of TIVO does not offer this service.

It is also possible to have Foxtel HD+/iQ2 as a part of your contract with Foxtel, which automatically includes in your package HD PVR. Since you are paying monthly, this cost would not come as one-off, but rather would be included in your bill monthly as per standard contract.

There are many more great digital TV recorders offered in Australian market and we have provided information on a few that incorporate most of the features.

If you have dreamt about upgrading your TV to a flat TV for a while, now the time has come. The supply of flat screen TVs in the Australian market is very intense and competitors keep on offering us more modern and better versions almost every week. There are many flat TVs on sale especially slightly older version, which still have very high quality and do not compromise the features. The fact that competitors are trying to win the market share with newer versions of these TVs, significantly speeds up the circle when slightly older TVs become ‘obsolete’.

Australia is the country of sport and flat TVs go very much along the demand from consumers to watch high-quality impressive sport broadcasting. For instance, recent Olympic games have significantly boosted the sale of thin TVs all over Australia. Thus, bigger, glossier, flatter the TV is, the better it is! For now TV that satisfied this demand has been the super wide flat TV with HD features. Foxtel and Sky have been specifically targeting sport audience and prepared HD broadcasting of sport channels ahead of time to make sport lovers happy. Needless to say, electronic departments were flooded with everyone who was in preparation to watch Olympics some time ago.

Being incentivised to sell quickly, big manufactures have been dropping their prices over the last half a year. Many plasma TVs are on sale now including famous Kuro model. In addition, shops are offering the service of free installation, which you would definitely need considering all the complications, cables and TV manuals that look like a solid book rather than simple brochure. If you are not very confident with fixtures, then you can easily bargain for free mounting service with the purchase of your flat TV. Recently there was a great promotion of Sony that offered PS3 gaming box with any purchase of its flat screen TVs (Full HD).

There is an interesting trend that some of the retailers are offering two-for-one promotions that allow you to get one BIG TV and one small one to the kitchen, for instance. Or alternatively have second TV as gift to your grandmother who probably less likely to be keen on grandeur super-sized flat screens. Plasma overall would offer you better quality as it has slightly more superior features than LCDs. On additional features, you can add picture viewing, wireless option, digital recorder and many more features that make your life more pleasant.

TV sales are mainly covering the following brands. From 94cm full HD LCDs, you can choose from Panasonic which starts from $1500, LG $1900, Samsung $1950, 119cm include Sony and LG priced at the range of $2000 and above. With more suppliers available in the market there are more price pressure on the product and higher volume of TV sales pushes the average of TV down, which is great news for the consumer.

If you are planning to buy a TV in the nearest future, you can compare prices yourself by going to GetPrice website. Fuelled by the financial meltdown, there are more TVs on sale offered in big stores such as Harvey Norman and Bing Lee. Prior to Christmas month expect that the shops would prepare to restock with newer versions of TV and, thus, are likely to put older stock at discounted prices across all electronics division. As the variety of TVs and fun gadget that come in bundle with them grow, television sales go up. There are more broadcasters that support HD, for instance, which is favourable for Full HD TVs. Future trend maybe 3D TVs and similar support from broadcasters would be required, which at the moment is not that clear cut. There should be some certain modifications made in order to support 3D TVs and this comes at the cost to such providers as Foxtel or Sky. Yet, you can easily anticipate that 3D TV Sales will be a big hit as more movies are produced in 3D format and this would keep the interest of consumers on upward scale.

The number of telelvision sales per year is a good metric to use as an indicator for overall retail market and consumer demand. In Australia TV sales proved to be very sustainable and increased over last several years. This is a good news for consumers, as more most recent high-tech are likely to reach the shores of Australia faster straight from the glossy exhibition stalls in Asia and US. Even though there was a sentiment that financial turmoil has affected strongly forecasted and real TV sales with consumers being more on a saving side rather than spending. Credit television sales increased significantly with the option to buy now and pay later. You have probably seen the advertising in Harvey Norman and Bing Lee about the option of credit purchasing and withholding the interest payments for at least two years. This is the time to buy a TV, since at the moment credit sales conditions are very favourable to the consumers.

Freeview TV in Australia represents five networks with digital broadcasting services. With the development of digital television, more companies are offering Freeview telelvision programmes in Australia. One of them is GO! network, which targets the group age of 15-35 and is expected to bring high quality entertainment programmes to viewers. The programmes include such series as Gossip Girl, Terminator, Hell’s Kitchen, The Hills and many more. GO! is also offered.

Many other channels are copying the trend of Freeview TV and provide the viewers with wider range of programmes. In order to connect, the viewers just need to re-set their TV boxes and scan for the available channels. Alternatively, it can be done through digital tuner which is built in some of TV sets. The great feature of such a trend is that programmes offered are completely free and it poses certain competition to highly priced Foxtel and Sky. Market analysts predict that Freeview Television has a potential to spread quickly and win the minds of viewers. Great news is that it also offers high quality and free broadcasting. It is an important step in development of Australian television as such.

The benefit to the providers of Freeview TV is advertising, which will increase in line with increasing number of viewers. Not only more broadcasters become increasing interested in Freeview television, but also Playstation 3 announced that its console moved towards become main entertainment centre for households. PS3 offers an option to record any programme for the viewers, which could further potentially enhance the demand and popularity of it.

The most recent development is that by 2013 in order to watch any Freeview Television in Australia, the viewers would require digital set-top box. Currently, the simplest set-top box would cost you not more than fifty dollars and allows you to watch five major broadcasters. These packed includes GO!, for instance, but would exclude any high definition channels. To get HD Freeview TV you would need to upgrade the box. In addition to that, channel Ten would add additional 24-hour sport channel to your package for free in high definition. After changing to digital though, it would be impossible to watch any of the programs with the old box. To take the most of Freeview TV that would be changed into digital broadcasting, you may think about researching the market and finding good set-top boxes already now.