Although shooting a stream of plasma into your mouth sounds painful, the blowtorch actually works in small pulses, which lets the flame's gasses ionize and cool down a little before they can burn you. So far, dentists have only used this technology to sterilize teeth during root canals, but have a few other ideas on where else to use it—perhaps, in the future, zapping away diseases on your genitals? [R and D via PopSci]

The full motion resolution and overall excellent performance places the UN46B8000 at the top of all the LCD HDTVs tested....this Samsung is the first HDTV to deliver the dream of a thin, light weight, bright, clear 46″ large screen HDTV that you can easily hang on the wall like a painting.

Interesting factoid: If you're watching 24fps content (like a movie), each frame plays 10 times on a 240Hz display. Read that tidbit and lots more in HD Guru's meticulously detailed review of the world's new bestest LCD. [HD Guru]

Tim Alessi, LG's director of product development stated that his company is still committed to the format claiming that "LG will include some of our newest technology in plasma sets, technology such as advanced design, NetCast Entertainment Access for connection to a wide array of Internet-based content and THX-certified displays" in the coming years. According to their estimates, "plasma will account for more than 40 percent of the 50-inch and larger screen size sales." And this volume should continue for another 3 to 4 years.

(Mind you, LG sells a lot more LCDs than plasmas, and plasma not long ago accounted for a majority of 42-inch and larger screens, so for it to be less than half of screens 50 inches or more suggests a lot of decline here, despite the enthusiasm.)

Bob Perry, an EVP at Panasonic US, agrees. In fact, as the largest maker of plasma, Panasonic is still growing. It announced it will open a new plasma factory that it had put on hold last fall when the market for televisions took a steep nosedive.

We clearly see in the industry numbers that LCD growth, particularly in the US market, has leveled off, and it's growth rate is slower than the growth rate of PDP. PDP, used principally in larger displays, continues to show growth as consumers in the US shift to larger displays (50'+), and as PDP, a fairly immature technology from a cost perspective, continues to show improved cost effectiveness.

That sounds more convincing, but it has to be: Panasonic has no significant LCD business (yet), so it better be running its plasma business well, and with increasing efficiency and lowered cost. Does it mean sub-$1000 50 inchers by Christmas?

John Revie, SVP of visual display marketing at Samsung had this to say:

Plasma is an important part of the Flat Panel industry, representing approximately 30% of the 40"+ market and 50% of the 50"+ market. Plasma TVs provide the consumer great picture performance and value. As such we will remain committed to this technology and continue to make [capital expeditures] and R&D investments to improve our production capability and product design.

This sounds optimistic, like the others, but it doesn't change the fact that if you walk into any store to buy a Samsung TV, you can bet the retailer assumes you're talking about LCD.

There is more from each company spokesperson in the HDGuru story, but you can already see that while plasma isn't yet on its deathbed, it's clear that plasma is being relegated to higher and higher screen sizes as LCDs gobble up the rest of the market. [HD Guru]

The underlying plasma tube (PTA) technology remains the same, and the new set is constructed from component panels identical to those in prior examples, but Shinoda has managed to stitch the panels into an almost seamless 3:2 display, reaching the crucial 720p vertical resolution threshold in a 2-meter-tall display that weighs an incredible 16 pounds.

Best of all, Shinoda is moving closer to production of such panels, announcing business alliances with WAIEISHII and Itochu, a do-it-all, GE-like Japanese megacorporation. So somebody might actually make this thing, someday. [Impress Watch]

The performance and feature packed "Full HD" (1920×1080p resolution) TCP50G10 is the least expensive 2009 Panasonic plasma set to include THX certification. What does that mean to consumers? THX originally created audio standards for movie theaters and later for home theater sound systems. In 2008 THX issued a set of home video display standards for its certification.

In a nutshell, the G10 scored super high marks in categories like HD color accuracy, image brightness, energy efficiency and full 1080 line motion resolution. Plus, it's a pretty good deal at $1800. If that hasn't already convinced you, it's probably a good idea to check out HD Guru's full review if you are in the market for a new HDTV. [HD Guru]

The reason TVs are really cheap right now, he told us, is that typically, new TVs ship in the middle of summer. This year, however, they're coming out in April and May, so they've got to clear out all their inventory—which they have more of than they expected—faster than usual. Meaning you can get 2008 models at steep discounts, especially as the new TVs get closer to hitting store shelves.

You're also probably gonna find better deals on TVs bigger than 46 inches, because they have the largest overstock right now. HD Guru specifically mentioned a glut of 52-inch TVs, so if you're looking for something in that size, now's a sweet time. Before you go, don't forget to check out our complete guide to buying an HDTV. [LA Times]

Besides the fact it's from the B&O, when you turn the monster on, it comes alive, the stand elevating itself to your viewing level as the ten-inch loudspeaker emerges from the bottom the of the frame. It turns and tilts too. Also, every 120 hours it re-calibrates itself. Now that is luxury.

Hoarding your money only makes the recession worse, so as long as you're not an AIG executive, what are you waiting for? Oh yeah, July, when it goes on sale. [Flat Panels HD via CE Pro]

The guru himself, Gary, is calling this baby the "most advanced HDTV" from Panasonic, with a native contrast ratio of 40,000:1, THX certification, a crazy color gamut, 24Hz movie playback and a separate box containing a wireless HDMI receiver, to keep the thinness thin.

At a time when plasma seems to be dying—see Pioneer and Vizio—this is one last gasp that might be worth paying for.

There's more leaked info on the Z1 and all the lesser Panasonic plasmas, over there. [HDGuru]

They wouldn't be the first by any stretch—Pioneer and Vizio have both recently clenched the sphincter on plasma production, citing low profitability. If razor-thin profit margins are the concern, though, LG's next move—to produce CRT displays for the developing world, according to the article—seems an odd choice. UPDATE: For what it's worth (a lot?), LG has denied the report. [47News via Crunchgear]

UI Centric created the game as a demo for the 2009 Integrated Systems Europe show in Amsterdam, which is for A/V and electronic systems integration, presumably for homes, blah blah blah. And I wish there was more to say on the matter, but aside from professing my love for virtual table hockey games, that's about the extent of it. (Note to Microsoft: I'd like to see a 103-inch Surface at CES next year. 150-inch is cool too, thx.) [UI Centric via YouTube]

Vizio isn't a manufacturer—they buy panels from other producers. Co-founder Laynie Newsome cites the fact that in the showroom, LCDs are brighter and lure more customers, but there are presumably other factors, including the fact that Panasonic, the largest plasma manufacturer, has had to cut back on 2009 production.

The Panasonic cutbacks allegedly mean having fewer panels to sell to partners like Pioneer. Since Vizio did buy source panels from Panasonic, maybe Vizio got screwed out of panels too. The good news is, Vizio is working hard to gain LCD market share by putting out sets with features like LED backlighting—hopefully at low low prices! What this means for the future of plasma is still unclear, but it can't be good.

Note: Pioneer has not officially confirmed that it is out of the plasma business, but in two statements on the subject, they have not come close to denying it either. [NYT Gadgetwise]

We've known Pioneer's been having a hard time of things lately, especially when they confirmed they were leaving the plasma manufacturing business. They hitched their wagon to Panasonic, the leading plasma manufacturer, but apparently Panny just delayed the opening of a new factory, citing economic strains. So you can see how the #2 would get shoved aside, if all of Panasonic's capacity is tied up with its own product.

As for its DVD and Blu-ray group, the Nikkei says it plans to merge that with a division from Sharp as some sort of new business venture.

Gary Merson at HDGuru had been sniffing around this story, and today, Nikkei confirmed it with a report of its own. [HDGuru]

UPDATE: Here's Pioneer's official non-response to the news:

As a matter of policy, we cannot comment on rumors or speculation. As you know, we have publicly announced that we are actively evaluating our business. We started announcing changes in March, 2008 to increase efficiencies of our business operations. We are still in that process but do not have any further announcements at this time.

A few days after Anthony bought his plasma HDTV and turned down Sears' $300/3 year protection plan, a rep called him at home and asked why he chose plasma over LCD. He told her it was because the TV was cheap.

The rep proceeded to fill his ears with enough BS to power an entire alternative energy economy: Plasmas, she said, needed to be "recharged" every five years, at a cost of $500 a pop, so you should buy our three-year warranty. Compete, utter crap. Not to mention, that three-year warranty would be, um, expired by then.

My guess is that since he gave a non-technical answer ("it was cheap" vs. "plasmas have better blacks") the rep decided to play on his lack of technical knowledge to try to make the sale. Thankfully, Anthony realized that three is less than five and backed out, though he had to look on the internet to verify that what she told him was a lie. Always do your homework before you go to the store, because some, though not all, of these people are very much out to screw you. [Consumerist]

Everyone has a story about fixing a gadget with tough love, but this is kind of extreme. Depending on your history with flat panel TVs, this video will be either cathartic or nerve-wracking, but with the endless shouting arguments going on in the background, the maniacal glee with which our subject takes a metal bat to his television and the inexplicable success of the whole endeavor, well, it's hard not to feel like you've witnessed something significant. NSFW for language. [NoWhereElse—Thanks, Steve]

Before you read any further, I'll answer that nagging question. Yes, you need to wear special glasses.

The demo system starts with a retrofitted 103-inch Panasonic plasma. Coupled with active shutter glasses, a Blu-ray player feeds a 120fps 1080P signal to the television. 60fps are for the right eye while the other 60fps are for the left. IR syncs the glasses to the Blu-ray player to the TV, and presto, 3D magic is made.

So how's it look?

Good. It is sharp, I'll give Panasonic that. 60fps per eye means that the 3D image isn't created through some cheap interlacing effect that would kill the resolution. Watching highlights of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies (captured on dual lens 3D cameras), I was really impressed by the endless lines of drummers popping off the screen without the hokey feel of most 3D. A basketball game was equally impressive. It was like watching a perfectly photo-realistic NBA video game, minus the canned animations.

But I never really felt connected to the image. I blame the shutter glasses. There's something imperceptibly distancing about that technology to me—which was only exacerbated by a greasy smear on one of the lenses. It was work to watch these short clips.

Panasonic hopes to commercialize the technology by 2010, something I believe with their huge push with Hollywood types like James Cameron endorsing the technology. And while I can see the appeal of 3D imaging for everyday video content, I really don't think that it will be popularized with shutter glasses, regardless of Blu-ray and fancy plasmas.

Here's what we don't know: Anything else.

I was curious what it would be like. I mean, I had my reasons, but none of them were really great, to be honest.

Small TVs use less power, although not as much as you'd expect. For example, David Katzmaier, TV dude from CNet explained to me that in one example, comparing a 32-inch LCD by Samsung to its 52-inch equivalent, its power consumption jumps only 68% for 168% more real estate. Not bad.

Small TVs are cheaper. Average prices on Amazon for a set in the 22-29 inch range hover around 500 dollars; sets over 50 inches go for 5-10 times that much for about 4x the real estate. There's a lot of value in smaller sets. But in this economy, some analysts believe that small TV sets won't get any cheaper, while bigger sets will get a bit less expensive. So the relative value these days is somewhat diminished.

If I had a real reason to make the switch, it was social.

I always grew up with a TV as the overriding piece of furniture in my livingspace; the TV was and is the 800 pound gorilla, or elephant in the room, with all seating beholden to the screen. In a house arranged like this, it feels like the room belongs to the TV, standing over everything in its domain. A room like that looks like it belongs to an overgrown geek (true) and never feels like it belongs to an adult and I was starting to feel self conscious about it. A small TV would not dominate the room.

Still, using a 23-incher is quite a stretch down. My couch is about 8 feet back from the entertainment system, and excellent for slouching and watching. According to most sizing charts, the room I sit in should have a TV between 32 and 50 inches. I usually use a 52 or higher as I review sets.

Watching tiny TV was surprisingly good at first.

Standard definition TV looked perfect almost on every channel, because pixels were smaller. From 9 feet away, the 23-inch set made standard def look almost as good as HD on the 50+ inch sets. I could not differentiate between HD and SD at times, depending on the material. Wii also looked good, with its standard def output.

The same went for DVDs. Sorta. There is no doubt that the cinematic experience is diminished exponentially on a screen you have to squint to see finer detail on. This was less a resolution issue (res appeared great) than a size issue. I just didn't feel the impact of Batman base jumping off of Hong Kong skyscrapers in IMAX on a screen smaller than the monitor on some PCs, from across the room.

The opposite happened when I played Xbox 360. It is here where resolution is not used, as on blu-rays, to display finer gradients of hair and particles of rock or more detailed skin or exploding cars. Man made textures on a small TV are fine. But here's what you miss: The Xbox and most modern games make deliberate use of every pixel in two facets, which make it impossible to watch on a small screen, no matter if HD or not: perspective and interface. The fonts and menus and prompts and health gauges and reticules on most games are ridiculously detailed. And perspective was the defining drawback moment, especially when playing the zombie killing game Left for Dead: when you're sniping a zombie from 100 meters and the clouds roll over the moon, and the greys crush to black, can you see the zombie clearly enough as he runs towards you from the distance to make the shot your life depends on? On a small TV, like this, I pulled up a chair and sat 5 feet away, transforming the experience into a sort of PC gaming event. With split screen, we were all 3 feet away and very cozy, thank you.

Even with the eyesight of an eagle, there's only so much resolution the eye can take in from a distance, while looking at anything but a huge TV.

But rather than conclude that we all need bigger TVs, I'm going to say that PS3 and Xbox owners need them first. Second, movie buffs, but movie buffs might want to consider projectors. For most of us, just watching TVs and flicks, I can see how a smaller set would do well enough most of the time. Most of the time. For someone else.

The Price: $550

The Verdict: Almost soooo good. While soundbars are ever more popular, in many cases, they fit awkwardly in front of your television. I fit a 40" LCD on the ZVOX box comfortably. The ZVOX feels very stable—probably more solid than my entertainment center. So that part works.

As for the sounds itself—also excellent. I simply don't have the equipment available to compare it to other $550 audio systems (and really, there's no perfect analog product). But I will say that highs, mids and lows were all crisply represented across a variety of genres. The bass, especially, made me more than happy to forgo an extra standalone subwoofer (which the system supports should you need it). And I easily filled my tiny apartment with sound.

The cabinet does vibrate a bit, though it's very quite unless you crank the bass up to max. The only reason I'd be wary is that the shaking might damage a TV over time...but my immediate, visceral response is that things are fine.

Where the cabinet falls short to me is its inputs. It supports two sources of stereo RCA plugs. And while it offers some virtual surround tech along with the option to mix the two sources, it's just not going to work for many (or most) general home theater purposes without an optical input. Even if the ZVOX only technically plays back 2.1 channel sound, it's still a vital connectivity option.
Also, while I appreciate the minimal design, the tiny remote coupled with a single LED light on the system to signal power/remote commands, it's tough to know where your levels are (Is treble maxed? How much louder can I crank this?).

So given the omission of optical inputs and a limited UI, the ZVOX 550 is not quite the universal home theater product that it could be. But if you want an excellent one-cabinet audio system that can hold your giant LCD, then it may be worth the few inconveniences. [ZVOX]

Update: ZVOX has responded with this note:

I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to address the "lack of multiple/digital inputs" issue that many editors comment on regarding the Z-Base 550. I feel the need to share some insight on our design decision-making process at ZVOX:

Our primary aim is to combine great sound with simplicity. The typical TV viewer, in our opinion, is very comfortable using their TV set as a switching/control center. That's what they've done for years — plug everything into the TV, and use the TV remote to switch back and forth. It's intuitive and really simple. And modern TVs have loads of inputs of all kinds. At ZVOX, we say "use 'em!" I can connect my DVD player, Fios box and my kid's Playstation 3 to my Panasonic LCD TV, then run the analog audio out from the TV to the ZVOX. The fact that the digital-to-analog conversion is taking place in the TV, rather than in the ZVOX system six inches away, doesn't seem to make any audible difference. The system sounds great. It has all the switching I need. And it's simple to use.

If we had included 3-4 digital inputs and switching functionality, our costs would go up (Micronas boards, HDMI costs, and last-but-not-least...Dolby royalties — which for smaller manufacturers are quite substantial) and, more importantly, the switching process becomes non-intuitive. A simple example (which presumes I don't have a Harmony or other smart, macro-programmed remote): I'm watching cable and want switch to DVD. If the DVD's video is going to the TV, and it's digital audio signal is going directly to the ZVOX, I need to switch the video with my TV remote and the audio with my ZVOX remote. If I (or my wife) forget, then we end up watching DVD video while listening the cable box audio. (My wife HATES when this happens!!)

We could get around this by adding a bunch of HDMI inputs and outputs — as well as a front panel display (like the Yamaha YSP-4000), but frankly, the ZVOX 425 might then sell for the same $1400 as the Yamaha. I'd rather keep our price point relatively low, while still being able to build cabinets of real wood and use top-notch drivers and amplifiers.

Enjoy the holidays!

Tom Hannaher, ZVOX

Results from "Are Netbooks Too Small?"

I can handle a 7" netbook. 12%
I can handle a 8.9/9" netbook. 25%
I can handle a 10" netbook. 41%
All of the sizes are too small. 17%
I'm not sure 5%

To find out, we grabbed five HDTVs you can find on the street for under $900—some require a little snooping to find that price, but they're out there. We've got four LCDs and one plasma, with four of them were discount brands, while one was from a pretty top name brand. We're looking at a few things: are any sub-$900 TVs actually watchable? Are any lower-tier brands as good as big name brands? And finally, which TV delivers the most bang for the buck?

The HD Guru Gary Merson and Cnet senior editor for TVs David Katzmaier—two guys who know more about HDTVs than I know about my mom—graciously came by to help us calibrate the sets, in order to coax the absolute best picture out of them and give us some insights on what we should look for.

Here's how we set up the tests: Every set was calibrated with a THX Optimizer disc, with an emphasis on getting the darkest possible blacks while maintaining detail and acceptable brightness, since blacks are LCDs' big weakness, and the most likely attribute to suffer in cheaper sets—in more expensive sets, like Sony's LED-backlit Bravia XBR8, a lot of what you're paying for are deep, detailed blacks. From there, we tested the sets playoff style—two at a time with a 2-way HDMI splitter using The Dark Knight on Blu-ray as the test disc because it's a beautifully shot film with all kinds of perfect HDTV test scenes, and its excellent master makes it solid source material. Plus, it's the one Blu-ray movie everyone will own. And it's awesome. So, two may enter, only one may leave: The set that wins the showdown advances to the next round. Here are the five cheap HDTVS:

•Insiginia NS-LCD42HD-09 1080p LCD$800 (Note: We actually tested the 52-inch version because Best Buy didn't have the 42-inch model, but they assured that the guts are the same, so we assume that the results would be the same)
•Toshiba Regza 42RV535 1080p LCD $875-$930
•Vizio VO42LF 1080p LCD $830 MSRP-$880
•Vizio VP423 720p Plasma $830 MSRP
•Westinghouse VK-40F580D 1080p LCD$850-$899

Round 1: Toshiba Regza vs. Vizio LCD

It's pretty much a blow-out: The Regza wowed us against the Vizio with blacks that weren't just deeper, but more detailed with a much cleaner contrast. In night-time skyscraper shots, you could make out windows and other smaller details much more clearly. The Vizio's viewing angle was not nearly as wide as the Toshiba, and it had a more noticeable color distortion at a 45-degree angle. Color wise, the Vizio might be a bit more appealing, because even after calibration, they tend to be more saturated. The Toshiba had noticeable instances of showing shiny moire pattern when panning down a building that was essentially a set of verticals lines—in other words, they got kind of warped. But dialing down the sharpness, as David suggested, reduced this quite a bit. Both sets have below-par motion resolution, one of Gary's favorite picking points. If you watch text as the camera zooms by, it gets mad blurry, but as Gary himself admits, most people don't notice this kind of thing unless it's super egregious.

Winner: Toshiba

Round 2: Westinghouse vs. Vizio LCD

This was a really tough one. We went ahead and slotted the Westinghouse against the loser of the first LCD battle because we noticed it had a really obnoxious backlight issue during calibration: It's much brighter on the right than on the left, a problem that gets worse when you view it off-angle. The picture exaggerates how bad it is, but it's definitely noticeable.
That aside, it performed favorably against the Vizio. It has a better viewing angle with less distortion as you swing to the side. But it also has some of the moire problems we noticed with the Toshiba. Motion isn't fantastic on either set. What did the Vizio in was how badly it crushed the blacks vs. the Westinghouse. In other words, at the brightest black level we considered acceptable, a lot of detail was lost. Gary pointed out the problem there—which you'll see again in the plasma: Its settings don't have fine enough gradations for picture fine-tuning. It got brighter or darker in huge leaps, preventing us from finding a happy medium with solid blacks that have detail. So, as we said, it's a tough one. If the Westinghouse didn't have the backlight issue, it would've won hands down.

Winner: Tie.

Round 3: Vizio vs. Insignia
The Insignia is the worst set we tested. It's just bad. The blacks are really crushed, the details are mushy, the colors don't pop—we even tried tweaking post-calibration to bring them up, but it just made them look unnatural—and the few aspect-ratio options all resulted in a noticeable portion of the picture being cut off, even as it displayed perfectly on the Vizio LCD next to it. If you buy the 42-inch version for $800, you're getting hosed. If you buy the $1500 52-inch version, you're just screwed. It made the Vizio, the loser in previous rounds, look almost amazing.

Winner: Vizio

Final Round: Toshiba Regza vs. Vizio Plasma
This was the hardest fought battle of the competition. We gave the plasma a bye to skip to the final, because we rightly figured plasma's inherently better picture qualities suited it for a boss battle, the Sagat to LCD's Ryu.

One of plasma's greatest strengths against LCDs is that, unless you're talking about super-high-end LED-backlit LCD, plasma will beat LCDs with darker, richer blacks every time, simply because of the technological differences. So it was stunning that the Vizio essentially forfeited this advantage by crushing them. Hard. They were darker than the Toshiba's, obviously, but bringing the brightness up to a level where you could make out the same dark details seen on the Toshiba without washing out the picture was impossible because of the controls. Gary says he routinely advocates that TV makers build in finer gradations in adjustments, and in this case, the ability of the user to more finely adjust the picture. Better controls would have been to the Vizio plasma's tremendous advantage.

The Vizio plasma maintained its other inherent strengths though. It had zero viewing-angle trouble, looking essentially perfect from all angles. Motion was better, with more details preserved, in signs for instance, as the camera passed by. Like the other Vizio set, the LCD, colors were verrry saturated, especially out of the box, with a lot of red in the picture. Calibration helped, but the Toshiba still seemed to provide more accurate color. A few people in our office who passed by said they preferred the extra pop of the Vizio plasma's color and saturation, so this might come down to a personal preference.

At our viewing distance of six feet, the difference in detail between the 1080p LCD and 720p plasma was noticeable, particularly when we examined facial details and hair. The 1080p Toshiba was, well, more detailed than the 720p Vizio plasma. From nine or more feet away though, most viewers would be hard pressed to discern a difference in screen resolution.

In the end, we, along with Gary, came down on the side of the Toshiba. Its picture has a clarity that the plasma didn't quite touch, both in dark scenes and its colors were truer to life. Overall, we feel it's the best buy for the money, though it will take a bit of gumshoeing to buy it for under $900.

Winner: Toshiba

Other Considerations
There are a few larger points to take one. First and foremost, any of these sets will be more amazing than your standard-def set, and none of them, except perhaps the Insignia, are a total waste of money. Another important point, one that David stresses, is that we were able to make the picture on each one worlds better than it was out of the box—if you calibrate your TV, you will get more out of it, no matter who you buy it from. Finally, Gary notes that the lower-tiered brands can have worse warranty and customer support terms, so while the Toshiba might run the highest price initially, its overall cost of ownership may possibly be lower. If you haven't bought an HDTV yet, we hope this little test-bed has served you in making this very important step.

She was good to us. She let us play. She gave us all the glitter and all the shiny pixels. She made our hearts explode with joy and love. But now she's gone.

Oh my, how much I miss you, girl.

If you head on over to the site, they've broken down each major size category by size, price and technology type. So if you want to spend about $1,200 buck on a 426" 46" LCD, you know that the Samsung LN46A550 is a safe bet. Or if you want a 42" plasma for under $1,000, maybe you should look at the Panasonic TH42PZ80U.

HD Guru is well-known for scientifically testing every TV under the sun, so if something's on their list that you were already considering, you can pretty much consider it a no-brainer. For more advice on buying an HDTV, check out our buyer's guide. [HDGuru]

[Thanks to REED ANNEX and thanks to our benefactor gizmine.com]

Gizmodo Gallery

Reed Annex

151 Orchard Street

New York, NY 10002

Gizmodo Gallery Reader Meetup

The reader meetup takes place across the street from the Gallery, at a place called The Annex (not to be confused with REED ANNEX where the gallery is hosted.) The address is 152 Orchard Street and we'll be there at 9 PM SHARP on Friday December 5th.

Gallery Dates:

December 4th-7th

Times:

12/4 Thursday

12-8

12/5 Friday

12-8

12/6 Saturday

11-8

12/7 Sunday

11-4

[Read more about our Gizmodo Gallery here and see what else we'll be playing with at the event.]

Confession: Until a few days ago, I'd never calibrated my TV. There are a couple reasons for this. First, and most simply, I'm not down with buying a calibration disc that I will likely use once then never touch again. And second, to me, HDTV calibration is the gadget geek's equivalent to chasing the dragon. I've seen endless A/V forum posts of new TV owners begging and pleading for that one true setting for their new high-definition slab—it's not pretty. There is an easy way, though, tucked inside hundreds of THX-certified DVDs already out there, and it's quite possibly already in your movie collection.

The THX Optimizer is a quick and simple calibration tool that I have found gets the job done well enough for most of us non-fanatics. And it comes with a free movie! (OK, it comes free with a movie.) What is it? It's a set of six test patterns that help you choose the key settings for any HDTV calibration: contrast, brightness, tint and sharpness.

Where to get it: THX has been quietly embedding the Optimizer in just about every THX-certified DVD for years—so that's hundreds. There's a complete list here, but it hasn't been updated in a while, because THX is currently refreshing the Optimizer for high-def discs. The only Blu-ray disc currently carrying it is Terminator 2, but when the new version is done, THX will include it on all THX-ceritified BDs, too. Point is, in all, there's probably at least one movie you'd like to own that happens to come with the Optimizer.

One other thing you'll need: To take full advantage of the Optimizer for the tint settings, you'll need some funky blue-filter glasses. THX will send you a pair for a couple of bucks on their website, though there is an additional color pattern in the Optimizer that you can use to eyeball your settings without the glasses—basically, you just make sure that cyan and magenta look as much like the cyan and magenta of your dreams. If you don't feel like you can be trusted with that judgment, it's probably worth it to spend the $4 or so.

Settings you'll want to start with: The good news is, the Optimizer works with pretty much every TV in the world, from your grandma's 19-inch Sony Trinitron to your brand-new 60-inch Kuro. (Yeah, you wish.) I would reset your TV's settings to the factory default before running the Optimizer, and I would also choose to calibrate your set's movie/film/cinema pre-set (if possible), as it should be closer to the ballpark range than the "standard" mode. But if you prefer the usually cooler color temperatures of the standard mode, running it through the Optimizer will at least ensure that its ferocious showroom-floor contrast and brightness will be tamed.

Be sure that any auto-contrast or auto-backlight settings—including any settings with the words "dynamic" or "ambient"—are turned off. In one test scenario, every adjustment we tried to make was immediately be countered by "smart" settings—it was nearly impossible to calibrate the TV correctly. If your set comes with those options, shut 'em down. And leave 'em down.

It also helps to try and run the Optimizer in lighting conditions that best match your usual TV-watching state. Everyone watches TV both during the day and at night, so this won't be perfect. But a happy medium of the shades drawn on a partly cloudy day seemed to work nicely for me.

After you've got everything set up, it's a pretty simple run-through—turn up contrast until just the point where can still see six white-shaded blocks without them merging together, turn down brightness until the last black block out of a different row of six disappears, etc. All of the tests are easy enough to understand for the layman.

But does it work? My Samsung Series 4 LCD now looks a lot better in movie mode, without a doubt. Where it used to look flat and the colors muddy, now blacks look blacker and colors more contrasty, but in a far more natural way than the "dynamic" preset.

Note that this before and after of a still from T2 is not a scientific comparison by any means: the camera's exposure settings are the same in each unprocessed photograph, so the screen image should be fairly accurate, but the room's lighting had changed a bit by the time I was done calibrating as you can see. But on the screen you can still see the darker blacks and better color saturation and contrast that I noticed in person.

So even if the difference is subtle, it's worth doing. Especially since you didn't drop money on a calibration disc, you either bought a THX-certified movie, or dug one out of your existing pile o' DVDs. (Netflixing a known Optimizer-laden title is a cheap third option, of course.) And those demons screaming at you about the huge potential you're missing by not calibrating your set? You can put those to rest. [THX]

More Advice for the Black Friday Fray:
• The aforementioned Ultimate Survival Guide.
• 5 Gadgets You Can't Skimp On (And How to Save Money Buying Them)
• Best of Black Friday Deals Complete Roundup">All the best deals in one place
• Plus these late breaking ones from Cupertino: Apple Black Friday Deals Include Some Decent Third-Party Discounts
• Warnings: 7 Crappy Black Friday "Deals" That Aren't Really
• How To Choose an HDTV on Black Friday (or Any Day)
• How to set up that new HDTV you just got.

Photochop Contest:
• Brutally Honest Black Friday Ads Showcase Retailers on the Brink

Why You Might Want to Avoid Shopping on Black Friday, altogether:
• 10 Reasons We're Doomed: Black Friday Edition
• WalMart Worker Trampled to Death by Deal-Crazed Black Friday Shoppers

[Complete Black Friday Gadget Coverage at Giz]

Our place, REED ANNEX, is cool but not built to house a gadget that sucks the juice faster than the containment vault in Ghostbusters. I said 1500 watts, which is about a hairdryer, but that's 1500 watts at 220 volts. Using 110 volts upconverted, we need to be ready for 5000 watts of power. To actually power up the TV, we need an UL certified electrician to go down to to our space and run a cable for us sometime between now and next Tuesday. Otherwise, the TV will remain dark for the entirety of the show, and we'll be forced to play imaginary Gears2 deathmatch with all the readers that stop by. If you're a Giz fan that works as a professional electrician or knows someone who can lend us their expertise, PLEASE EMAIL ME. THANK YOU.

For those of you wondering why we don't just hire someone and pay them, well the gallery is a low budget fund raiser for Toys for Tots and we're already stretching what we can spend, including my own out of pocket contributions.

[Thanks to REED ANNEX and thanks to our benefactor gizmine.com]

Gizmodo Gallery
Reed Annex
151 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

Gizmodo Gallery Reader Meetup
The reader meetup takes place across the street from the Gallery, at a place called The Annex (not to be confused with REED ANNEX where the gallery is hosted.) The address is 152 Orchard Street and we'll be there at 9 PM SHARP on Friday December 5th.

Gallery Dates:
December 4th-7th

Times:
12/4 Thursday
12-8

12/5 Friday
12-8

12/6 Saturday
11-8

12/7 Sunday
11-4

[Read more about our Gizmodo Gallery here and see what else we'll be playing with at the event.]

The economy sucks. But like Warren Buffett, you should be greedy when everyone else is skurred. If you've got the extra scratch, this is probably the best holiday season ever to buy an HDTV, since retailers don't want a pile of them going obsolete in their warehouse. But what should you look for in an HDTV? HD Guru Gary Merson—a dude who's reviewed 125 TVs at once—uses sophisticated gear for his own studies, but told us the five most important things that all the rest of us Joe the Plumber types can look out for when buying an HDTV.

You can't exactly load up a bunch of test signals and spectrum analyzers to carry into Best Buy to check out their TVs (though Gary has been known to do this). Still, there are some basic things you can look for beyond the specs, which are at times intentionally misleading. Once you've swept the reviews from the likes of HD Guru, CNet and Home Entertainment, giving you an approximate idea of the best performers in your price range, find out where they are and visit them in person. Obviously, the sets on the shelf aren't always properly tuned, but if the store is committed to making a sale—and they are more now than ever before—they should produce a remote and let you mess around to properly vet it for your living situation.

Contrast

The contrast ratio is the most important thing to look for in today's HDTVs. But don't be fooled by crap like a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio—it's truly meaningless, since there's not even test equipment to provide documented proof of the retardedly high numbers they throw out. What you can do, though, is check out the blacks. Bright whites aren't a big issue today—most TVs now perform admirably on that side of the spectrum—so blacks are the most important.

Take a dark scene, and cup your hands around a black area of the screen, blocking out all the ambient light from your view. What it's look like? Does it glow? Or is it really black? Next, how does it flow from dark to light? Is it a smooth gradation or is it a harsh step up? You want really deep, dark blacks and bright whites, but you want a nice even gradation between the two. Historically, plasmas have been better at blacks, but LED-backlit LCDs are catching up. Since the latter are ridiculously expensive, you'll probably find a better deal on a plasma.

Angle of View

This test is pretty easy. Stand in the center of the TV. Then move off to the right or left. How quickly do the colors start to turn unnatural or seriously lose saturation? If colors shift or fade quickly, you will have problems. You want the widest viewing angle possible—that is to say, you want the picture to look as good as far off to the side as possible—so people stuck on your sofa's netherparts aren't left out of the I Am Legend suckfest. As you can see here, even LCDs from the same maker can have different viewing angles:Vertical viewing angle is less important because you will generally place your TV level with your eyes while seated, but if you watch TV while doing other things, and don't have a fancy swivel wall mount, you should try to see how colors shift or fade as you crouch down or tiptoe up above the TV screen.

LCDs tend to have more problems than plasma in this regard—the costly, otherwise awesome LED-backlit LCDs are especially known to have reduced viewing angles. Microdisplay projection TVs, like the Mitsubishi LaserVue and other DLPs, are also subject to viewing-angle issues, mostly a reduction in brightness.

Static Resolution

Static resolution is a little difficult to comprehensively evaluate without test signals, but you can kind of eyeball it by looking at fine detail on a set. If you're watching a Yankees game—one of Gary's favorite examples—can you make out the pinstripes cleanly? On a close-up of a head of hair, can you see every strand? It's all about the details. On a crappy set, you just can't see 'em.

Motion Resolution

Motion resolution matters a lot if you're a sports or action movie fan. It's also fairly easy to test, just have them put on a baseball or football game. Remember the Yankee pinstripes? Sure they might look clean when a pitcher is chilling on the mound, but how about when he winds up? Or when a football player is dashing down the field, can you see his legs, or are they a total blur? On a set with good motion resolution, you wouldn't lose those details. Again, plasma traditionally has the edge here, though 120Hz LCDs do make up for LCD's inherent motion-blur weakness.

Overall Impression

This is probably the most subjective, though ultimately what really matters. Do you like what you see? On a great set, the picture will be crisp, the colors will be vibrant and rich (aka saturated) and it'll have a nice pop to it. As much as personal taste matters, the most "objective" way to evaluate this is to look at faces. Do they look real, with natural, smooth transitions from lighter to darker areas, or are there severe discrepancies between one area and another? Some older HDTVs gave standard-def faces a waxy look. Just take a step back and think about what you really think looks fantastic (within your budget, of course).

That should cover most of the basics of eye-on-the-tube picture quality evaluation—it's not the only thing to look for in an HDTV, but definitely the most important after price. And speaking of price, stay glued to Giz for heads-ups on the best TV deals to put all this new insight to use. And if you've got any other TV buying tips, let 'em loose in the comments. You can also get more in-depth info about plasma and LCD TVs here and here.

Something you still wanna know? Send any questions about TVs, Scientologists or Satan Clawz to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

Special thanks to Gary Merson!

The Kuro still held strong with its deep, bottomless blacks, but the LaserVue is noticeably better on colors, especially reds. The LaserVue is also better able to handle scenes with tons of motion than the Kuro, especially during action scenes in Iron Man. You can see above that the Kuro, on the right, makes the red of Iron Man's suit look too simple, while the LaserVue on the left has all the dirt and scars of a real battle. Below, the LaserVue's reds really pop, able to show the difference between the hues in the woman's top and skirt much more clearly than the Kuro—which is even from Pioneer's demo disc.

We've seen the LaserVue reviewed before, but only while using Mitsubishi's hand-picked content, which doesn't necessarily make for the most accurate test. Kurtis and Cameron at The Tech Lounge got themselves a Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-Ray player and a copy of both Ice Age: Meltdown and Iron Man to test out color, clarity, and motion on the "normal" settings of both HDTVs. They came away impressed with the color, but not with the hefty $7000 price tag. Still, if you can afford it, and you don't mind its fatty rear-projection girth, the LaserVue is definitely the cream of the crop. [Tech Lounge]

Meet Dorothy. At 150 inches diagonal, she’s the world’s largest plasma screen and the biggest direct-view TV ever made, built (and named) by Panasonic. We got to play with her recently and as you've seen, it was mind-meltingly awesome. Even though firsthand experiences with Dorothy are akin to filling a leaf blower with nitrous oxide to jet-huff directly into your brain, Dorothy's backstory is almost as incredible, especially when it comes to manufacturing, shipping and yes, managing all the electricity needed to fire her up. So even though you will absolutely never own one—except for you Giz-reading NBA stars and platinum-selling rappers—the story of the world's most advanced television is a thrill, and serves as a crystal ball to the future of all TV. Come, talk to her. She's intimidating, but it'll be good for you.

Why "Dorothy"?
There are currently five 150-inch Panasonic plasmas in existence—and a sixth for CES 2009 is currently being assembled. They’ve been named, appropriately enough, like hurricanes—starting with A and working down. Dorothy’s number 4, hence the D.

Why 150 inches?
It’s all about the upper limits of the manufacturing process. Panel factories crank out the largest single piece of “mother glass” they possibly can, so that they can cut more large TVs per pane of manufactured glass. The ultimate size of a piece of mother glass is limited by the glass’s strength and uniformity—how large the thing can get without cracking. Panel makers will always be pushing this boundary, because the more 50-inch TVs you can get out of each single assembly-line run, the more money you can make on them even if they're selling at lower prices in stores.
Panasonic’s previous biggest piece of mother glass was 103 inches (remember?), from which four 50-inch plasmas could be cut. Their new manufacturing plant, Amagasaki 5 in Japan, has pushed the max to 150 inches—enough glass to birth nine 50-inch plasmas. Dorothy’s as big as she is because she literally swallowed nine TVs. When manufacturing evolves further, creating even larger panes of mother glass, you could see larger trade-show sets, provided they fit through the convention-center doors. 103 inches, how quaint. And look at that lil' 42-incher, looking fit for bathroom viewing only by comparison.

What’s the resolution?
Typically called 4K, it's resolution is 3996x2160. Even though you could technically call this 2160p, it's important to recognize that it's four times as tight as 1080p. Think four 1920x1080 panels Voltroning together to make something that's 8 megapixels, as opposed to the best current TVs' 2 megapixels. The annoying thing is that the industry went from measuring vertical resolution—720p and 1080p—to horizontal resolution—2K and 4K. (More on that here.)

As a result, watching a 1080p Blu-ray disc upscaled on Dorothy is akin to watching a standard-def DVD upscaled on your HDTV. As you can see in the shot below, the upscaler uses two pixels to render a one-pixel wide line from a test disc. But at Dorothy’s scale, it’s less about spotting compression artifacts, which are most visible when you’re close enough to induce nausea anyway. It’s about getting your face blown off.

How’s it stack up to Pioneer’s Kuro, one of the top plasmas in the game?
As far as motion-resolution goes—the all-important ability to maintain crisp images while they’re in motion on the screen—it's actually better. According to HD Guru Gary Merson (who was more interested in running his calibration discs on the 150 than sticking with us for some Counter Strike, God bless ’im), the 150-incher, even as a prototype, scored a resolution of 920 lines on a 1080i signal. Pioneer’s ’08 Kuros, the next best, scored 900. Our bet is that Dorothy can't best the Kuro in the contrast department, but as you can see from all of our shots, it's no slouch. Check out more performance specs in Gary’s 125-TV mega-guide. Below: Gary testing motion resolution.

How much power does she suck down, and at what cost?
Dorothy is addicted to raw electricity—we’re talking two dedicated 15-amp, single-phase, 208-volt lines which produce around 3,000 watts on average. Dorothy peaks at around 7,000 watts of direct consumption. Not exactly EnergyStar.

If I plugged Dorothy in at my apartment (that is, after removing my second-floor balcony door and window and much of the exterior wall while at it, and hiring a crane to bring the TV in), Dorothy’s juice habit would run me around $1.50 per hour of use, at ConEd’s current price of 22 cents per kilowatt-hour. So, after renting the Godfather Blu-ray set, factor in about $15 more in electricity charges for watching the whole thing.

How much heat does the thing put off?
We were expecting getting close to Dorothy was going to feel like putting our faces in a toaster oven. Even standard-size Kuros can feel a little warm. But surprisingly, up front, the heat was far from extreme. It very well could be channeled out the back, but we didn’t see any industrial-grade heat sinks behind her, either, or hear any fans blowing away. (Note: We're not allowed to show photographs of Dorothy's rear, though we did have a peek.)

How much does she weigh?
Around 1,700 pounds not including the stand. For comparison, an actual Mini Cooper with Adam in the driver’s seat weighs about 2,800 pounds.

How does Dorothy get around?
With great care and difficulty. After her inception at Amagasaki 5, Dorothy and her sisters were tested then sent on the trade-show circuit. Unlike the 103, they’re too big even for wooden crates. All that protects Dorothy and her sisters from the elements are the thin membranes of bubble wrap and Styrofoam wrapped around them, and the tarp draped over the open shipping cage. That’s all. Here's a fun fact: Only two 150-inchers can fit in a single 747 cargo hold at a time.

Although we saw a 150-incher at CES last January, Dorothy’s first trip was to IFA in Berlin this September. Afterward, she headed for Panasonic’s North American HQ in Secaucus, NJ where we got the chance to meet. She’s due to appear on Wall Street today (unfortunate timing for the poor girl) for the official US debut, then on to trade shows in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong before returning home again to Japan.

Thanks for the facts, but what was that about a "mind-meltingly awesome" experience again? Any way to demonstrate that, say with a video of Gran Turismo 5's in-car view?
Why yes we can, and we'll throw in the 42-inch steering wheel for free:

There's more where that came from: check out more hands-on 150-inch action here and here.

How big is too big? That's the question that you inevitably ask yourself once you spend any amount of time with Panasonic's new 150-inch plasma TV prototype. We visited it in Panasonic's towering warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey last Friday, running it through its paces with 4K footage, Blu-ray movies and Playstation 3 games. After spending a day with it, was it the type of thing I honestly wanted to set up in my living room?

Maybe. Maybe not. The standards that we use to measure other TVs don't apply here. Have you ever seen a TV taller than yourself? A TV that uses more energy than your washer and dryer? A TV that needs to be carried around on a forklift? I'm guessing you haven't. This thing is in a category all its own.

Man, is it impressive. If you stand within a few feet of it, it fills your entire field of vision, quickly making you motion sick if you're playing video games or watching a movie with lots of action. Even standing 20 feet away, you still feel like the TV is the only thing in the room. It's a 4K set, so if you've got the proper ultra-HD footage pumping into it, it makes 1080p look like a second-rate resolution, but even with 1080p, it's absolutely stunning.

Iron Man looked like he was going to jump out of the TV. Robert Downey, Jr.'s baby blues were the size of watermelons in anything closer than a medium shot. Everything was just so big. Seeing a shark leap fully out of the water to devour a seal in Planet Earth becomes even more mindblowing when the shark approaches life size.

And video games? Forget about it. You haven't lived until you've played Call of Duty with life-sized enemies. As I decimated Mahoney over and over again (note to Mahoney: you suck), I felt my hands getting slick with sweat on the controller, my head whipping back and forth to try to see him around corners. My body felt a dissonance because I wasn't moving my legs or having my body jolted with recoil from my automatic weapon.

I've played video games on big TVs before. I visited Panasonic last year to do similar, uh, "tests" on their 103-inch plasma. And while that was awesome, it still felt like playing games and watching movies on a really big TV. The 150 transcends regular TV to become something more. It's like something out of a sci-fi movie, a living wall, a form of primitive virtual reality. It's so overwhelming that you can't really fathom putting it in your house because you can't see it fitting into any kind of reality you inhabit.

Inside the warehouse, we placed a 42-inch plasma next to it that looked pathetic, like something you'd put over your toilet to watch SportsCenter while you take a leak. I wanted to put it in my pocket. Even the 103-incher looked sad and small next to it. And trust me, a 103-inch TV doesn't look sad or small in too many situations.

If this were a true review, I'd have to complain that, since a 4K TV does to 1080p what your new HDTV does to standard-def, you're bound to watch a lot of crappy looking TV on this. If 1080p looks bad, think about all of the channels that come through in standard def. And if you're planning on streaming Netflix movies via your Xbox onto this TV, be prepared for digital artifacts the size of your head.

But you know what? This TV isn't designed for you to put in your living room. Sorry. It's a TV from the future, generously time-teleported back to the present by our friends at Panasonic. You aren't going to hook a VCR up to this thing, and neither are they; it is designed to run with precision-mastered footage, and our current lack of worthy video doesn't diminish the ridiculous potency of the thing.

Believe it or not, Panasonic will begin selling the 150-inch plasma sometime next year, probably for about twice as much as the $70,000 103-incher. Will it be snapped up by anyone? Probably. There are always sultanates and NBA stars looking to have the biggest and most expensive TV in the world, and this definitely fits that bill. But again I'll ask: Is it something normal people would benefit from having in their living room?

I'd say no, but not out of broke resentment and the fact that this would quadruple my energy bill and require me to knock down most of the walls of my home to even get it inside. I don't think people should put this in their living rooms because, when you get down to it, this isn't a TV. I don't want to imagine people watching Two and a Half Men on it. To check the weather on The Weather Channel on this thing would be an act approaching sacrilege. It's more than a TV: it's a glimpse into the future, it's a brazen display of hubris and overkill, and it's a visceral, skin-searing experience. It belongs on spaceships and in museums, not in living rooms. It's only right.

On Friday, Mahoney and I went to Panasonic HQ to check out one of the first prototypes of their ludicrous 150-inch plasma TV. This thing puts the 103-incher that I checked out last year to shame, weighing a whopping 1700 pounds before the stand is attached and sucking up 7kW of power while it runs. We hooked up our energy-efficient-in-comparison PS3 and suffered through playing a bunch of video games on it to report back to you. You're welcome! Today, a taste, with me sizing up a weighted companion cube in Portal, above, and, after the jump, seeing what a 42-inch steering wheel on Gran Turismo would be like in real life and learning the ropes in Call of Duty 4. Check back tomorrow for a full report out Mahoney's in-depth FAQ on the set and my essay on our visit to Panasonic HQ.

Yes, my job is pretty awesome sometimes.