At last, you can watch early ‘Simpsons’ episodes as intended on Disney+

As promised, Simpsons fans can now watch early seasons (pre-2009) in 4:3 format on Disney+. Beginning today, users can choose to view those episodes in either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. The 4:3 format won’t cut off sight gags like the one above.The c...

Vizio 47-inch 1080p LED HDTV for $379.99 at Target on Black Friday 2013


HDTV's are one of the things that many people cruise Black Friday sales looking to purchase because you can typically get huge discounts. Target has officially announced its Black Friday 2013 deals...

LG Intuition review: Optimus Deja Vu with a Verizon LTE twist

LG Intuition review Optimus Deja Vu with a Verizon LTE twist

It's not uncommon for US carriers to take an international smartphone under their wings, make a few adjustments to hardware and firmware, stamp their fat logos in multiple places and then sell it to the masses. Verizon is no exception: the LG Intuition is its interpretation of the Optimus Vu, a 5-inch phablet we reviewed over the summer. Perhaps calling it an "interpretation" is a bit of an overstatement: aside from a bump in firmware and Big Red's LTE, it is the Optimus Vu. In fact, going into this review, we had a difficult time believing our experience would be much different than our run-in with the Korean version.

Our first reaction is that this doesn't bode well for the carrier. If Verizon opted for the Intuition in order to fill a gaping hole in its lineup, we have a hard time understanding why it would choose to greenlight this particular device with the Samsung Galaxy Note II coming within the next two months. The device's quiet launch is a solid enough indication that the network isn't planning on throwing a lot marketing dollars behind it, so it feels as though the Intuition's main reason for existing is to bolster Verizon's rapidly expanding LTE portfolio. Is there something intriguing about the Intuition ($200 with a two-year commitment) that wasn't there when we first played with the Vu? Or will we find ourselves in the Twilight Zone, reliving the same moment over and over again? Let's find out.

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LG Intuition review: Optimus Deja Vu with a Verizon LTE twist originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could this be Apple’s solution to the iPhone letterboxing issue?

Is this Apple's solution to the iPhone's letterboxing issue

As things stand, empty voids at the top and bottom of an iPhone or iPad display come as standard with every widescreen video you might care to watch -- a problem that almost persists with the iPhone 5, since that phone's elongated panel is still a few pixels off 16:9. However, judging from paperwork recently filed with the USPTO, which mentions both mobile and TV displays, Cupertino thinks it has a general workaround: using a Photoshop-style technique to copy colors from each frame of video and use them to sympathetically fill in the letterbox bars, mimicking the appearance of full-screen footage.

The latest application -- filed in January of this year -- actually builds on an earlier one that Apple first submitted in 2006, when the original iPhone was in development. Since then, various other companies have had success with similar display-extending ideas, such as Ambilight on Philips TVs and the illuminated strip on an Xperia U smartphone, but nothing exactly like this smart-fill concept has so far taken off. Ultimately, the question is whether messing with the borders of a video clip in this manner would look better or just plain awkward. As yet, thorough testing in our mind's eye remains inconclusive, but it's almost easier to imagine this curing letterboxed apps (of which we'll soon see plenty on iOS) rather than video.

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Could this be Apple's solution to the iPhone letterboxing issue? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vizio unveils 21:9 Cinemawide 3D TV


Vizio has announced the launch of its new 21:9 Cinemawide 3D TV. The TV has a much wider aspect ratio than the typical TV offers so it matches with the 2.35:1 aspect ratio used when filling Hollywood...

Vizio XVT CinemaWide TV goes on sale, 21:9 movie purists celebrate the end of black bars

Vizio XVT Cinemawide TV at CES 2012

It's been a long, long wait for Vizio's ultrawidescreen LCD TV to show its face: the company was promising such sets starting around this time last year that ultimately missed the October and subsequent March targets. Vizio is one to eventually make good on a promise, though, and has just started shipping the first XVT series CinemaWide set. The lone 58-inch model's focus remains on that 2560 x 1080p screen, whose stretchy 21:9 aspect ratio fits what you often see at the movie theater without having to crop or adjust like you would with a typical 16:9 set. Whether or not you have a chronic aversion to black bars, the CinemaWide is still a respectable set in its own right, with edge-based LED backlighting, a 120Hz refresh rate, a Bluetooth remote and the common host of Vizio internet apps. The TV maker must be doing a form of penance for taking its time on the 21:9 display: the $2,800 regular price is a lot lower than the originally quoted $3,500, and you can pick up the CinemaWide TV for $2,500 if you act quickly.

Vizio XVT CinemaWide TV goes on sale, 21:9 movie purists celebrate the end of black bars originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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