Samsung’s HU9000 is one of the TVs that works with DirecTV’s 4K video. Sarah Tew Just in time for the holiday buying season, the 4K content trickle is turning into a tiny stream. Tomorrow DirecTV will make a selection of nearly 20 movies from Paramount and K2 Communications available via video-on-demand in 4K resolution. The …

Sarah Tew The TV buying season, a.k.a. “holiday price cuts,” is officially upon us. This year the big question facing TV shoppers is whether to spend the extra dough to step up to a 4K TV. The quick and dirty answer is “Not unless you’re buying a high-end TV anyway.” As usual in the TV market, complexity, obfuscation and marketing …

Amazon’s original series “Alpha House” will be available via 4K streaming Amazon Begun, the 4K streaming price war has. Today Amazon said users who subscribe to its $99 per year Prime program won’t have to pay extra to get 4K versions of its video streams. “We want to be the best entertainment destination for customers. We’re confident that offering Ultra …

Daniel Terdiman/CNET Chromecast is closing the “app gap” with Roku and Apple TV. Today Google announced a key update that allows a major app to work with the $35 streaming dongle: Showtime Anytime. The video streaming app is Showtime’s version of HBO Go, delivering to movies and original series like “Homeland” and “The Affair.” (Editor’s note: Showtime is owned by …

A beautiful thing: Samsung’s PNF8500 is still the best-performing TV available over 55 inches in size. Earlier this year I called the Samsung PNF8500 series the last great plasma TV. In the last couple of days its price on Amazon has dropped to its lowest levels yet. The 51-incher now costs $1,198, the 60-incher $1,698 and the 64-incher $2,498. No, …

The image next to “long in the tooth” in the tech dictionary. Sarah Tew/CNET Back in March 2012, there was no Chromecast, no Amazon Fire TV , and no iPad Mini . The current iPhone was the 4S, and HBO Go was brand-new on the Xbox 360 . Streaming video and Apple itself have both come a long way since …

Clockwise from top left: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5S, Galaxy S5 Lori Grunin/CNET Aside from one another, the main competition for Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus comes from Samsung’s line of Galaxies, the Galaxy S5 and the upcoming Note 4 . On paper, the screens in the two company’s phones are one of the biggest differences. Apple …

Sarah Tew/CNET I guess we’ll have to keep waiting for a major update to Apple TV. Along with new iOS 8 software for its tablets and phones, Apple today rolled out a comparatively minor upgrade for the venerable streaming box , bringing its software version to 7.0. The biggest addition is an all-new app for Beats Music , the subscription …

The AX900 series will be Panasonic’s first TV with full-array local dimming. Panasonic It’s been just about a year since Panasonic announced that it was killing off its plasma production, and with it the hopes and dreams of videophiles — at least ones that aren’t independently wealthy — everywhere. A couple of months later at CES 2014, the embattled company …

Sony Curved TV screens may be an expensive gimmick that provide no overall benefit to picture quality, but that’s not stopping Sony from trying to sell them. The Japanese company debuted its new curved, 4K resolution TVs at the IFA show in Berlin. The UK model numbers are KD-65S9005B (65-inch) and KD-75S9005B (75-inch). Pricing was also announced at IFA and …