CES - Home theater

LG Electronics unveiled a range of home video products and smart appliances at its CES press conference in Las Vegas today--but mostly just a taste of some of its highest-profile gadgets to debut at the show.

Those wanting extensive details on the company's upcoming smartphone for Verizon, a model equipped with the up-and-coming LTE (Long-term Evolution) wireless technology, will have to wait for full details tomorrow at the Consumer Electronics Show. Likewise, LG's tablet news also remains under wraps.

But the company did share some details about its new Optimus Black Android-powered smartphone. It comes with a … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Along with its flagship Blu-ray home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) system, LG also announced its updated line of Blu-ray HTIBs, consisting of three new models, the LHB536, LHB336 and LHB326.

All three are 5.1 systems, each with 1100 total watts. The features breakdown is as follows:

LHB536: 3D, Smart TV, built-in Wi-Fi, iPod/iPhone dock, DLNA

LHB336: 3D, Smart TV, Wi-Fi ready (requires separate adapter, sold separately), iPod/iPhone dock, DLNA

LHB326: Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow and YouTube streaming, Wi-Fi ready (adapter included)

Smart TV is the name of LG's streaming media suite this year, which includes all the same streaming-media … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Along with its flagship BD690, LG has updated its line of Wi-Fi-capable Blu-ray players with three new models. Most of the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but the new streaming-media services to be added to LG's suite (now known as Smart TV) are definitely solid additions. The breakdown of models is pretty straightforward.

LG BD670: 3D + Smart TV + built-in Wi-Fi + DLNA personal media streaming

LG BD650: 3D + Smart TV + requires Wi-Fi adapter (sold separately) + DLNA personal media streaming

LG BD640: Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, and YouTube streaming + requires Wi-Fi adapter (included)

Smart TV includes all the same streaming-media … Read more

LAS VEGAS--LG announced its flagship Blu-ray home theater-in-a-box (HTIB) system this morning, the LHB976, with several high-end features including two HDMI inputs, built-in Wi-Fi, and wireless rear speakers.

The 5.1 system is rated at 1100 total watts, and LG claims to have a wireless rear speaker sound processing mode that spreads the sound out in the back, so it sounds as if it's coming from more than two speakers. Like LG's HTIB systems last year, the LHB976 features a built-in iPhone/iPod dock.

The integrated Blu-ray player is well-appointed, with the previously mentioned built-in Wi-Fi and 3D … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Details have been leaking out over the past week, but this morning LG officially announced the Smart TV Upgrader, a small set-top box that offers LG's Smart TV suite of streaming media services.

Smart TV includes all the same streaming-media services found on last year's LG products (Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, YouTube, CinemaNow) and adds Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD, NHL GameCenter, NBA Game Live, and MLB.TV. Along with content from the Web, the Smart TV Upgrader is DLNA-compliant, so you can stream music, photos, and videos from a connected PC. LG will also have its own app … Read more

LAS VEGAS--At CES 2010, LG rolled out a truly unique product with the BD590, combining a Blu-ray player with a hard drive, allowing for CD ripping and Blu-ray playback from a single box. We awarded it Best of CES in the home theater category, and LG has announced its successor this morning, the BD690, offering an incremental update to last year's product.

The basics are the same, with the BD690 featuring a 250GB internal hard drive, which can store music, photos, and personal (i.e., noncopyrighted) videos. Considering how cheap hard-drive space is these days, we would have liked … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Panasonic has been the only company showing portable Blu-ray players the last two CES shows, but this year there's competition.

LG has announced the BP650, the company's first portable Blu-ray player, allowing you to take your Blu-ray collection on the go. At least at first glance, it appears to use a very similar clamshell design as prior Panasonic's portable Blu-ray players.

There aren't any additional details at the moment, so we'll have to wait to know whether it has LG's Smart TV streaming media services, built-in Wi-Fi, how much it costs, etc. We'… Read more

Vudu's streaming service is now offering 3D movies, the company announced today.

The company's 3D content is currently available to select Samsung HDTVs and Blu-ray players. It will be made available to PlayStation 3 owners in "the next few weeks," a company spokesperson told CNET in an e-mail. Vudu's 3D films are coming to devices from Vizio, LG, and others in the next few months. The service will also be made available to 3D-capable Blu-ray players from Mitsubishi and Toshiba (among others), as well as the Boxee Box by the end of 2011, the Vudu … Read more

LAS VEGAS--You might not remember it, but the Zip drive was arguably the most popular external storage solution during the second half of the '90s. With the initial storage capacity of 100MB (which later increased to up to 750MB), it was a perfect replacement for the floppy drive.

The Zip drive is similar to a floppy drive, with the slot just slightly larger to accommodate the thicker Zip disks.

With the rapid increase of internal hard drives' capacity, though, the Zip drive couldn't keep up, and its popularity started to wane at the turn of the century. By 2005 … Read more