AR tool lets you bring home a virtual Sony Bravia

Augmented Reality' from Sony helps you choose the perfect TV by allowing you to see how it would look in your home without ever having to set foot outside. Forget tape measures, gut feelings and guess work. This TV size-guide from Sony will show you how various TVs will look in different parts of your home. Just follow four easy steps and all is revealed. You might find that you can have a larger TV than you thought as televisions are sleeker and more compact today. Try 'Augmented Reality' software from Sony now and see what your future TV viewing could look like.

http://www.sony.co.uk/article/tv-size-guide


Sony has joined Panasonic and Toshiba in releasing an augmented-reality tool that lets users "visualize" the panels in their homes. As with its competitors' systems, a marker has to be printed and positioned accordingly, though Sony is taking a different approach to displaying the superimposed TV.

Rather than showing the AR image on a smartphone's screen, a photo of the surrounding space has to be uploaded to a Web site, which will prompt the users for the Bravia TV's model and render the composite picture. Watch the video above to get a better idea of the whole process.

Slashdot: Hot Or Not — 3D TV

From Slashdot

Hot Or Not — 3D TV
Several sources have written to tell us that in terms of hype at this year's CES show, there is none bigger than that surrounding 3D TV. Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, and Toshiba all have their own flavors of hardware and ESPN announced a 3D sports channel, but Microsoft seems to be bucking the trend with their apparent lack of 3D interest surrounding the Xbox product.
 
"We're yet to see any major brand at CES pushing a 3D TV that doesn't require them. In most cases these aren't the basic Ray Ban style you might have worn to watch Avatar. In many cases they'll actually require power. For example, Sony's 3D TVs use a 'frame sequential' display method, which involves active-shutter glasses that turn on and off in sync with the images. Some TVs come with the glasses and have the transmitter built in, but again, in some cases you'll need to buy the transmitter and glasses separately."

Toshiba announces 3D Blu-ray player, streaming models

Toshiba America Consumer Products has introduced three new Blu-ray players, under model numbers BDX2500, BDX2700 and BDX3000. All feature multichannel analog audio outputs, online connectivity, and support access to Netflix, Cinema Now, Pandora and VUDU. Additionally, the BDX3000 will add 3-D playback.

Features are as follow:

BDX2500

• 1080p/24fps playback of Blu-ray titles
• DVD upconversion
• BD-Live
• Online streaming capability
• Playback of MP3, HD-JPEG, WMA and AVCHD
• Advanced audio nboard decoding (Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio)
• Analog 7.1 channel outputs
• Wireless ready via USB port with optional Toshiba USB wireless dongle
• Price: $199.99
• Availability: spring

BDX2700

• Like the BDX2500, plus built-in wireless connectivity
• Price: $249.99
• Availability: spring

BDX3000

• Blu-ray 3D support
• New design
• A "wide-range of added features"
• Availability: third quarter of 2010
• Pricing: pending

links: CNET, Engadget