tvs

Welcome to the start of a new franchise here at CNET -- the first episode of Hooked Up! It's the only show where the world of celebrity and technology collide.

This week, Kevin Frazier checks out Cee Lo Green's Las Vegas show "Loberace" and the technology that's involved in creating a massive production that only Las Vegas can do. Cee Lo also talks about his personal health goals, Goodie Mob's comeback, and their search for the next big music artist.

I'll also break down some of the best ways to bring the biggest … Read more

Selling TVs is hard.

Especially if the medium at your disposal is, well, TV.

Most look somewhat the same. Most seem to do very similar things, which is make "American Idol" look and sound better than it really is.

So one can understand Samsung feeling a touch hamstrung in trying to make its Smart TVs look astoundingly intelligent.

In this case -- thank you, Business Insider for finding this -- not only is the budget seemingly enormous, but so are the ambitions.

There are two ads that feature so many themes and special effects that you have come … Read more

Panasonic confirmed this week that it's in discussions over whether it will jettison its plasma TV business. For me, it's deja vu as yet another Japanese manufacturer struggles to sell high-quality televisions.

In 2008, the Pioneer Elite Kuro PRO-111FD became one of the greatest TVs ever developed -- and it is still among CNET's reference TVs after five years. But producing the best TV didn't translate to profits, and Pioneer exited the TV market in 2009. The company is now best known for car and home audio.

Television is, pardon the pun, Panasonic's most visible … Read more

Although Panasonic plasmas are widely considered some of the best on the market, the company might actually be thinking about getting out of that business.

Panasonic is currently contemplating whether it should leave the plasma business behind, Japan-based newspaper Nikkei reported today, according to Reuters. The move would be part of a broader strategy on Panasonic's part to reduce its reliance upon televisions and fix its ailing operation.

In a statement to Reuters, Panasonic didn't rule out the move, saying that it's "considering a number of options" for its TV business, but so far, "… Read more

There's the TV you put in your living room, the one you splurge on to get a mammoth screen, built-in apps, a top-rated picture, and the like.

Then there's the TV you buy for the basement, the game room, the den, the kids. The one that can get dinged up a little bit and who cares?

This is that TV. While supplies last, TigerDirect has the TCL LE39FHDF3300 39-inch LED HDTV for $249.99, plus around $13 for shipping. The good news: it's new, not refurbished. The "bad" news: you'll have to sit tight … Read more

Apple enjoyed a healthy gain in consumer technology sales last year amid a down market.

The iPhone maker took home 19.9 percent of all consumer technology sales in the U.S., up from 17.3 percent in 2011, according to stats released today by NPD Group.

Based on sales, Apple proved to be the top consumer brand for the year, outshining Samsung, HP, Sony, and Dell. Beyond Apple, only Samsung's cut of revenues rose among the five, reaching 9.3 percent from 7 percent the prior year.

Together, Apple and Samsung scooped up $6.5 billion in higher … Read more

Will flat-panel TV picture quality get even better in 2013?

I'm guessing "Yes" in the case of the Best of CES nominee Panasonic TC-PZT60 and the re-engineered Samsung UNF8500, very likely the two best-performing TVs of 2013 under $10,000.

But those two are hardly the TV hardware poster children of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, where all the headlines touted expensive 4K and OLED sets -- still stupid and chronically under-delivered, respectively -- as well as new gadgetry of questionable usefulness. Finger-gesture control, anyone?

I got a chance to see both the Panasonic and the Samsung … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I spent quite some time staring at TVs today.

Whether it's Samsung, Sharp, or Panasonic, all these things look large, tasteful, dazzling and, most of all, simple.

I can't pretend to want to surf the Web on them. I just want to stare at them. And so many of the TVs at CES are eminently oglable.

As I walked out of the exhibition hall, I bumped into an Apple spy. Well, it was 2:30 p.m. He probably had work to do.

He was standing in the line for a bus. Yes, quite openly. Not like … Read more

Panasonic is more than a TV company. Or so said the company's president, Kazuhiro Tsuga, during an opening keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Indeed, Tsuga and TV journalist Lisa Ling, who joined him on stage, spent the good part of an hour highlighting the many facets of Panasonics varied business. From green technology and battery technology that helps power smart grids and electric cars to cutting edge avionics technology to creating new cutting edge business-class tablets. And of course, there was talk of the successful TV business.

At the heart of the … Read more