Flat Panel TV's | - Part 25

12.01.2009
I remember being really scared seeing Gremlins in the theater. Of course, I was only 10, but man, when the evil Gremlin started wielding a chainsaw that was my cue to run out to the concession area.

There were plenty of campy movies to come out of the 80s, but Gremlins was good enough to be scary, entertaining and overall a pretty decent flick. So it should be interesting to see how well it holds up 25 years later, when we can watch it in high-definition as one of this week’s Blu-ray releases.

Tom Hanks and Ben Stiller find their way onto more Blu-rays with The Green Mile and Night at The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, respectively. Or you can catch Brad Pitt and try to figure out what the heck he’s saying through his thick accent in Snatch.

For something completely different, especially on the music side of things, take a look at The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter. It’s far different than your average rock documentary, with a bulk of it focusing on the Stones as they watch footage of the Altamont concert disaster of 1969. It’s engaging throughout, that’s for sure.

Here are all of this week’s Blu-ray releases, courtesy of Blu-ray.com:

Ben 10: Alien Swarm
BluScenes: The Classic Fireplace
BluScenes: Coral Reef Aquarium
BluScenes: Journey Through Space
A Christmas Tale
Deadline
Death Warrior
An Evening with il Divo: Live in Barcelona
The Green Mile
Gremlins
The Legend of Zorro/The Mask of Zorro
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Mask of Zorro
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Paper Heart
Ride Around the World
The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter
Secondhand Lions
Snatch
Terminator Salvation
The Wizard of Oz (3-disc Emerald Edition)

By Arlen Schweiger

http://www.cepro.com/article/blu-ray_releases_for_dec._1_2009/K294

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Entertainment Audio and Video services in North Carolina.

isuppli_lcd 11.17.2009 — For the first time since the fourth quarter of 2008, Samsung is ranked No. 1 in the LCD TV market, according to iSuppli.

Samsung shipped 1.3 million LCDs in the United States in the third quarter of 2009 (July-Sept.) for a 16.8 percent share of the market.

Samsung holds a 1.1 percentage point lead over Vizio, which sold 1.2 million LCDs for a 15.7 percent share of the market. Vizio was the top brand for the first two quarters of 2009.

“Samsung is leading the LCD-TV industry’s adoption of LED backlighting technology,” says iSuppli principal analyst of TV systems Riddhi Patel. “The company has been marketing these sets intensely, attracting the interest of U.S. consumers.

“Consumers like LED-backlit LCD-TVs because of their ultra-thin form factors. With Samsung cutting the prices of these sets aggressively, they now are becoming increasingly affordable for a larger number of U.S. consumers.”

Overall, 7.9 million LCDs shipped in the quarter, up 8.3 percent from 7.3 million in the second quarter. According to iSuppli, Vizio remains the cumulative leader in LCD shipments for 2009.

LED-backlit TVs made up 3.7 percent of total LCD shipments in the U.S., according to iSuppli, which is up from 2.1 percent in the second quarter. Samsung began selling a 55-inch LED LCD in October for $2,650, while Vizio added 19- ($349.99) and 23-inch ($399.99) LED LCDs.

Patel adds, “This low price point and minimal gap with CCFL sets represents a critical price threshold for LED-backlit sets, making them more acceptable to U.S. consumers.”

By Steve Crowe

http://www.cepro.com/article/samsung_tops_vizio_as_lcd_tv_leader_in_q3_2009/K15

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Entertainment Audio and Video services in North Carolina.