My, my -- no wonder the rest of the world says Americans toil too often and play too little. A recent survey, which was commissioned by Samsung, found that over half (54%) of the football fanatics polled would "most likely purchase a new HDTV for the start of football season if their budget allowed." Moreover, 51% of pigskin fans would "forego a one week vacation and put that money towards an HDTV purchase," which also means that a decent chunk of committed pigskin fans would willingly accept a beating from their SO. Other expected results include: 61% felt that "HDTV is required for a successful football-viewing party, more than surround sound or alcohol," and that 62% of fans believe watching the game in HDTV "allows them to make better calls than the referees in the game." That last one explains a lot about your friend Jim, now doesn't it?

You already heard CNET's opinions on the 46-inch 950 series LCD HDTV, but what if that one just isn't big enough for your ego / den? Enter the 55-inch sibling, which was recently critiqued by the gurus over at Home Theater Mag. According to the review, the LN55A950 managed to deliver black levels eerily close to those emitted by Pioneer's famed KURO line, although the off-angle viewing was deemed mediocre. For those who found a way to sit relatively close to dead-on in front of it, image quality was said to be nothing short of fantastic. In fact, these guys recommended that you not buy another LCD HDTV until you've checked this one out first, although you should probably pay attention to the $4,000+ price tag before you waste any time warming to a set that's out of reach. Bottom line? This is a marvelous LCD for those with the cash to burn, but four large is a steep price to pay for awesomeness.

Around this time last month, we learned that Netflix streaming would be making its way onto Samsung's BD-P2500 / BD-P2550 Blu-ray players. Today, Sammy has dropped another related bombshell: HD Netflix streaming is just around the bend. Beginning the first week of December (which isn't vague at all), owners of the aforementioned decks will be able to suck down a simple firmware update to enable high-def Netflix streaming. Enjoy the exclusivity, Xbox 360 -- it all comes to an end soon.

It's missing the nearly iconic glossy black bezel that has become such an expectation on Samsung displays, but the SyncMaster 2494HS would still be welcome at our cluttered work desk. The 23.6-inch panel sports an all-business, matte black motif with a native 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, 300 nits of brightness, a 5-millisecond response time, 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, inbuilt stereo speakers and DVI / VGA / HDMI inputs. The LCD is expected to go on sale in Japan next month for around ¥40,000 ($423), but if we were the betting type (an we're not), we'd expect it to roll onto fresh, moist US soil in due time.

[Via Impress]

Chalk another one up for MPEG-LA, as the licensing group's members have dropped lawsuits against Vizio stemming from the one-time value HDTV company's refusal to license MPEG-2 technology, claiming it's suppliers had already paid the necessary fees. Despite Amtran's pleas, just like Target's TruTech brand televisions and DVD players, that argument appears to have quickly folded, . It remains to be seen what direct effect this will have on price, but between this and Vizio's notable Black Friday absence they must be serious about changing to a more upscale image, we wonder if Sony will invite them to a special reception. (Warning: PDF read link)

If you skipped Walmart's pre-Black Friday festivities pat yourself on the back, as -- despite its lawyers hard work C&Ding unauthorized early ad postings into oblivion -- CNNMoney reveals the "doorbuster" highlights probably not worth getting trampled for this year. Between 5-10 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving the already-discounted Magnavox Blu-ray player drops from $198 to $128 (a BDP-S300 might still be a better value), 50-inch Samsung plasma of unspecified resolution is only $798 (720p, bet on it), and Xbox 360 + Guitar Hero III & wireless guitar pack (all the real plastic guitar aficionados have moved on to Rock Band 2) drops in for $199. Slightly lower profile are a $398 HP desktop PC and $175 gas grill but c'mon, we all know it's the high definition (it'll be a lonely holiday without the suddenly too-good for us Vizio) that will have you shivering outside your local retailer with the soccer moms and other deal hunters.

[Thanks, Jason]

At this point, the whole subtly curvaceous / glossy black motif on the SyncMaster line has become a tad unexciting, but we suppose it still gets the job done. Today, Samsung has unleashed five new ones to chew on, and if you weren't an expert on spotting differences in dimensions, you'd have a tough time telling them apart. For starters, we've got the 15.6-inch SyncMaster 633NW and 18.5-inch 933SN, both of which get stuck with just a VGA port and a 1,360 x 768 resolution. Movin' on up, we see the 20-inch 2033SW (1,600 x 900) and 21.5-inch 2233SW / 23-inch 2333SW (1,920 x 1,080), all of which tout a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 5-millisecond response time, 170-degree viewing angles, DVI / VGA inputs and 300 cd / m2 brightness. Expect the whole lot to show up in Japan within the next month for ¥18,000 ($187) to ¥30,000 ($312).

Say hello to the brightest LCD panel entering mass production - Samsung's 70-inch super bright digital information display will be burning out retinas near you next year. Taking local dimming LED backlighting to a new application, it features 200,000:1 contrast ratio and 2,000nit (cd/m2) brightness -- as much as four times brighter than the HDTV on your wall and topping the previous 1,500nit champ -- more than capable of displaying information or advertisements in bright sunlight or dim environments. The 1080p panel already nabbed a CES Innovation Award earlier today and will be sampled (in Las Vegas, surely) before the year is out, but you may want to grab some shades now just in case.

With the growing emphasis on ROHS (reduction of hazardous substances) and energy efficiency in the electronics industry, it's no wonder that LEDs are replacing fluorescent lamps for backlighting LCDs. So expect to see more partnerships like the one that Samsung and Freescale Semiconductor just entered into, with Samsung providing the glass (and some sweet moolah for custom parts) and Freescale bringing its LED drivers to the party. Heck, we figure even the cheaper white LEDs make it easier to achieve uniform illumination across the screen and higher contrast ratios, which get high marks around the Engadget HD offices; for folks not obsessed with picture quality (yeah, they're out there), LEDs offer up lighter and thinner displays.

Are you one of those freaks of nature who prefer your fonts as tiny as possible in order to best take advantage of every last square millimeter of screen real estate? If so, point your retinas to Samsung's latest marvel, the 23-inch 2342BWX. The LCD monitor boasts a thin black bezel, 5-millisecond response time and a memorizing QWXGA (2,048 x 1,152) resolution. Just to put things in perspective, that's enough pixels to view two A4-sized sheets side by side with room to spare for Vista's sidebar. Sammy's expected to loose this in South Korea soon for ₩399,000 ($315), but trust us, the challenge won't be procuring one, it'll be making sure your GPU can handle it.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

Pioneer may be licking its wounds, but at least there's one bright spot on an otherwise dark end-of-year. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall (read: patent troll heaven) recently found that "Samsung willfully infringed two Pioneer patents covering plasma display technology," leading to a settlement which involves Samsung handing Pioneer a check for $59,351,480. Samsung has yet to comment on the ruling, but it's pretty easy to imagine what it's probably thinking, wouldn't you say?

[Via SmartHouse, thanks Anthony]

Can't wait for Black Friday? Neither could two suspects in Virginia Beach. Reportedly, a crafty duo entered a local Walmart late last week, with one placing a Samsung Blu-ray player in her cart while the other placed a DVD / VCR combo unit in his cart. Once that was complete, the two met in the pet section, swapped the unwanted DVD / VCR unit out for a Blu-ray deck and proceeded to checkout. The cute couple paid for dog food and a rather inexpensive DVD / VCR player, yet arrived home with dog food and an improperly boxed Blu-ray player. Moral of the story? Blu-ray adoption would clearly soar if manufacturers would just price the players right. (We kid, we kid.)

[Via CDFreaks]

Yet again, we're facing just another "pretty good" plasma in the highly competitive realm of flat-panels. Samsung's largest 7 Series PDP (PN63A760) was recently reviewed over at CNET, and while the accurate primary colors, effective anti-reflective screen, smooth dejudder mode and built-in interactive content were fine and dandy, critics couldn't help but ding it for reproducing "relatively light black levels" and "tacking on" the aforementioned interactive services. Additionally, the streaming functions didn't support third-part DLNA servers, the "Smooth mode" didn't work with 1080p sources and the red color design didn't do much for some eyes. The bottom line? It packs a bountiful feature set and a unique look, but the lackluster picture quality just seemed to overshadow those other positives.

While Samsung's latest crop of Blu-ray players has had the ability to output DTS-HD High Resolution & Master Audio via HDMI 1.3 in the form of a bitstream from day one, many still have an older A/V receivers that doesn't feature HDMI 1.3. So today Samsung dropped us a note to let us know that that those poor souls in need a new A/V receiver will have to endure the DTS core track in our favorite Blu-ray movies a little longer. This is because the firmware update that was scheduled to deliver the new codecs to existing players is delayed. But don't fret, the good news is that Samsung is still optimistic that it can deliver the new feature before the year is up.

There's a slight possibility that you haven't noticed, but Samsung SDI is on fire. Like, seriously burning down FPD International 2008. After treating onlookers to a flexible OLED, a 40-inch Full HD OLED display and an assortment of other eye-enticing panels, the outfit has one-upped itself once more with a 63-inch 4k x 2k plasma. Sure, actually finding 4k x 2k content will be a challenge, but who wouldn't want to be ready for the inevitable worldwide domination of Super Hi-Vision? Most of the other specs (contrast ratio, luminance, where it's being stored with loose security, etc.) were sadly absent, but with a native resolution like this, the rest takes a back seat anyway.