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Visitors to the Samsung stand at IFA 2006 were greeted by a wall of flat-screen televisions. Samsung had one of the largest stands at the show and at least half of it was dedicated to televisions of one type or another: LCDs, plasmas, rear-projection screens and even CRTs.
In particular, Samsung was promoting its new 1080p screens. The 1080p standard offers more detail than 720p and a smoother image than 1080i, giving you the ultimate high-definition image… for now. For more on high-definition standards, see our Get Ready for High Definition feature.
The magnifying glasses in front of these two screens enabled visitors to compare the pixels on a 1080p screen with those on a conventional LCD TV.
Crave peered sceptically through the lenses and was surprised to see a visible difference. The pixels on the 1080p screen were rock-steady, whereas those on the conventional screen showed some flickering.
Samsung is one of the few companies still investing in CRT televisions. The 32-inch HD Ready SlimFit TV (right) combines the brightness and contrast of CRT with support for the 720p and 1080i hi-def formats. It’s also relatively compact, compared to conventional CRTs.
From the side, you can see that although the SlimFit TV is deeper than an LCD or plasma, it takes up much less space than the behemoths of a few years ago.
Samsung’s Blu-ray Tech Zone was tucked away next to the CRT and rear-projection televisions. It was surprisingly low-key and easily overlooked.
Samsung’s Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, should be available in Europe in mid-October. It outputs hi-def content at 720p, 1080i and 1080p and will also upscale standard DVDs. Other features include a multiformat memory card reader.
The centre of the stand was devoted to room sets showing how Samsung technology fits into European home interiors. Here’s your Samsung kitchen, with a white-framed LCD mounted on the wall, a laptop on the bench and a YP-Z5 MP3 player sitting in a matching speaker dock.
Here’s a closer look at the Z5 in the co-ordinated dock, the YA-DS100. As well as enabling you to listen to your music without headphones, the dock recharges the Z5. The speakers can be powered with three AA batteries if you want to take your tunes outside.
Here’s your Samsung living room, featuring the new LE46F71B 46-inch LCD, which supports 1080p. It’s accompanied by the BD-P1000 Blu-ray player and the HT-P1200 home-cinema system. Green walls are optional.
And here’s your Samsung bedroom, with another white-framed LCD and a matching HT-Q100 2.1-channel home-cinema system. A USB port enables you to play music from your MP3 player as well as CDs and DVDs.
And here’s your other living room, with Samsung’s 50-inch PS50P7H plasma TV and HT-TXQ120 home-cinema system in the background. In the foreground, Samsung’s new SDC-MS61 camera is connected to an SPP-2040 photo printer.
Further down the stand, visitors entered see-through tubes to listen to music from Samsung’s new YP-K5 MP3 player, which has integrated speakers.
The speakers slide out from the back of the player, which automatically switches to landscape mode. It has an OLED display and touch-sensitive controls.
The SDC-MS61 camera captures 16:9 images that match the proportions of your widescreen television. It has a 6-megapixel sensor, a 3x optical zoom lens and a 76mm (3-inch) LCD screen.
To use the SDC-MS61, you need to slide the two halves of the camera apart, revealing the lens on the front and the controls on the back. It’s reminiscent of slider phones such as the Samsung D600, D900 and E900.
