television

At CES, Samsung had a display that featured their newest plasma TV. The Samsung FP-T5894W is a flat panel, wall-mounted TV that is completely wireless.

The retail release is scheduled for September 2007. List price is expected to be $5,799.

If colorful, retro designs are appealing to you, you don't have to limit your fascination to furnishings to express your tastes. Telstar has resurrected the vintage Predicta brand and makes a number of different, retro models that have the look of yesterday with the technological advances of today. Although the designs of the Predicta TVs are vintage, the sets are not. They are made with entirely new parts, are compatible with VCRs, cable and satellites, and come with a distinctive remote control (if you'd rather have your remote match the set than use a universal). There are a lot of color options, as well as different finishes for the cabinets and mounts, and custom designs are available.

[via cribcandy]

With all the great flat-panel televisions, most of which seem to have high-definition screens, that we've seen in the past couple of months, is anyone ready to go back to something a little more three dimensional? The Cuboglass is an unusual TV that is built into a black, nearly-cubic case. When the TV is on, you can see it clearly through the case, but when it is off, the unit does not bring to mind a TV and you might not even guess that it was a piece of electrical equipment at all, were it not for the cord extending from the back. It is 15" x 13.5" x 15" and comes with the aluminum flight case pictured below it. Price: $1,191.

[via SciFi Tech]

Christie's Star Trek memorabilia auction wrapped up yesterday with a grand total of $7,107,040 in sales, more than double what organizers were expecting to bring in. There were 1,000 lots that included costumes, props, miniatures and more from the Star Trek TV shows and movies. The highest priced item was the 78-inch-long (198-cm) model of the Starship Enterprise, which was heavily use in making the TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation and sold for $576,000, far above its estimate of $15-20K. The purchase, by an anonymous bidder, is one of the "highest prices paid for any piece of Hollywood memorabilia."

Other noteworthy lots included a Klingon "Bird of Prey" ship model that sold for $307,200 and Dr. McCoy's space suit from the original series at $144,000.

Christies staff members, as well as auction participants, dressed in Star Trek costumes for the three-day event and the auction house said that its new online bidding system saw "its strongest response since it launched during the summer."

Edoc Laundry is a Seattle-area clothing company that designs t-shirts that use some sort of a secret code to draw interest from clothing fans, and even uses the clues in the shirts as part of an ongoing mystery at their site. If you're not into decoding your t-shirts, the designs are pretty cool, regardless. The shirts have a cult-following now, but that might just change next week when they are featured prominently in an episode of CSI: NY. The creators of the show teamed up with Edoc to create shirts especially for the show. In the episode (airing Oct. 11), the shirts are used by a serial killer to leave clues about his identity and his motives for killing. All four shirt designs (including Hydra, pictured) are available online, and if you get them before the show airs, you can always say that you were ahead of the curve.

Flat panel TVs look great, sleek and far less bulky than any ordinary TV, especially if you choose a large screen size. Unfortunately, unless you have a niche in the wall carved out for the screen - which is a good idea, but can be a hassle - there will be wires along your wall connecting the cable, DVD and any other relevant equipment. The Samsung SPD-50P7HDT Wireless is a 50" flat screen that solves these problems. It comes with a wireless AV center to which all of your extra equipment can attach. The center then transmits the signals to the screen, hanging wire-free (except for the power cord) on the wall. It's only available in Korea at the moment, and is priced around $5,000.

We talked once before about the TV show My Super Sweet 16, where parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a teen's birthday party. The new show on the WE network makes those parties look like small potatoes, but at least it does so tastefully. Platinum Weddings is all about how fantastically wealthy couples celebrate the biggest day of their lives. With budgets of more than half a million dollars - compared to the national average of $28,000 - these couples leave no stone unpolished and no rose petal unscattered as they perfect their weddings.

Lana and Victor Fuchs star in this week's episode (which airs July 30th at 8pm EST) have a budget of $1.5 million for their Vegas ceremony.

Since our last post on the subject of the 103" plasma screen TV from Matsushita, the Japanese parent company of Panasonic, the company has released its pricing information. The price tag will be $51,000. The Viera PZ600 high-definition TVs will come in 50", 58" and 65" screens, in addition to the 103" size, and prices for those will start at $5,800. It also sounds like the screens will be available earlier than we previously forecasted, with a release date as early as this fall, instead of next year.

[via New Launches]

Roughly 99% of all people in the US have at least one television in their homes and the average number per household is 2.24. One television is probably in the family room, but another is likely to be in the bedroom, since that is where people spend a significan portion of their time. With this in mind, it makes perfect sense that someone would eventually have thought to put a TV directly in the bed, just like the Ultimate TV Bed from Bim Bam Banana. With the touch of a button on the remote, a flat screen slips silently out of the footboard. The screen is only 22-inches, but because it's only at the foot of the bed instead of across the room, that actually seems like a good size for the distance. Price: $25,900.

[via Cribcandy]

Did you ever take a small, portable TV (probably of the variety that always got horrible reception) into the bathroom and set it up on a TV tray so you could watch Seinfeld (or other show) while taking a bath? Don't lie, of course you did. Baths are relaxing, but dull, and having something to watch while you enjoy the water and bubbles makes the experience perfect.

Aquavision TVs are designed to work in the one space where televisions, not to mention most electronic devices, have been traditionally unable to go: places with water. This means that can be used in the bathroom, shower, sauna, kitchen or any other place where they might be in a moist or humid environment.

All Aquavision TVs have heated screen areas to prevent the front misting up in humid conditions or even freezing up in cold conditions, and come with a floating, waterproof remote control. The super-slim units blend seamlessly into the wall and come in a variety of sizes (up to 40") and finishes, including a "mirror-vision" option that turns the screen into a mirror when not in use. 

It goes without saying that they offer a significantly better picture than those old portable TVs, too.

[via Cool Hunting]

Our friends at HD Beat brought this brand new service from DirecTV to our attention. DirecTV Titanium gives you access to every single thing that DirecTV offers - including all their HD channels, sporting events, movies, pay-per-views and adult programs - for a flat fee. It is $7,500 per year and includes ten HD DVR receivers as well as 24 hour on-call concierge service.

The website doesn't say what the concierge service includes, but it's safe to say that it probably doesn't extend too far beyond troubleshooting, given that DirecTV isn't likely to start a chauffeuring service anytime soon.

Titanium will be released at the end of this month, June 28th, to "a select few" subscribers. Want to be one of them? Just fill out their online form and someone will contact you.