In a town practically built by David Copperfield, Lance Burton and those clanging HDTV screens with the coin slots that make your money disappear, Samsung has performed a little magic of their own at the Consumer Electronics Show. Their 2011 PDP (plasma display panel) lineup features the unique new "Plasma+1" ultra-thin bezel, which manages to bring viewers an additional inch of screen size without increasing the outer dimensions of the TV. Put another way, where the 2010 collection delivered 42-, 50-, 58- and 63-inch screen sizes, 2011 will see 43, 51, 59 and 64 inches, measured diagonally.
Chief among their six new series are the D8000 Series and the D6500 Series PDPs. Samsung's D8000 Series of full HD plasmas arrives with a dark metallic bezel and the Touch of Color border. It features the Real Black Filter to cut onscreen glare, and the new panel enhances the black luminance, too. The Crystal Full HD engine with Cinema Smooth renders smoother motion effects from Blu-ray, and all of the new tweaks contribute to the 3,000,000:1 manufacturer-rated dynamic contrast ratio.
The 3D-ready D8000 Series is also compatible with Samsung's active glasses and multi-display Touch Control. This remote can be almost like a portable TV itself, and it offers a QWERTY keyboard for text input during web browsing, backed by built-in Wi-Fi, DLNA support and Smart Hub.
The new Smart Hub interface allows us to search all content on the TV as well as on DLNA-certified connected media storage, networked PCs and mobile devices, the Internet and video-on-demand. It also customizes recommendations based on our viewing history (yes, it keeps tabs on us), while also spinning a full web browser. Samsung Apps, meanwhile, provides a large variety of free and paid apps across the worlds of entertainment, information and social networking.
The striking D6500 Series combines a brushed metallic black frame with the translucent molded Touch of Color outer frame, and a silver stand, with a reinforced glass neck With Samsung's built-in 3D processing, viewers can easily upconvert 2D content and render it in HD 3D in real time. This series too provides a robust connection to the Samsung 3D active glasses, with built-in Wi-Fi as well. While not Smart Hub-enabled, it is DLNA-certified with support for AllShare connectivity to other media devices on a home network. It also supports Samsung Apps.
Both the D8000 and D6500 Series boast a chassis only one-and-a-half inches thick, fairly amazing considering their new levels of performance, their rich feature sets and that extra inch of screen size. The models are as follows: There's the 51-inch Samsung PN51D8000, the 59-inch PN59D8000, and 64-inch PN64D8000. In the D6500 Series, be on the lookout for the 51-inch Samsung PN51D6500 and the 59-inch PN59D6500. Pricing has not been announced, but we're told to expect both series to arrive this spring.
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