November 2007 Monthly Roundup

November Has Past! Only 24 More Days Until Christmas, So Check Out Our Holiday Gift Guide To Make Your TV Shopping Quick And Easy

November has been an absolutely crazy month at TVSnob. All the hoopla in the weeks leading up to Black Friday was like trying to keep up with a freight train. We did try our best to help you out with your very own Black Friday Battle Plan as well as a little reflection afterwards.

Wal-mart started the month off with a bang announcing an early Black Friday and pricing the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player at only $99, although the player had broken through the $200 barrier for the first time only a week previous. Best Buy matched their offer only a few hours later and the race was on for buyer's to take advantage of this sweet deal. This proved too much for certain members of the Blu-ray party in the ongoing format war and police became involved in a dispute over at the wildly popular AVSForum.

Within 24 hours of this announcement, another bomb hit the wire when we found out that the much-anticipated Sony XEL-1 OLED television may hit US shelves by the end of 2007. Although we haven't heard anything more, we did get our hands on some pictures on the XEL-1 unboxed and working after it hit shelves in Japan.

Across the pond, Samsung also announced they've found a more cost-effective way to produce LCD panels which got us speculating about potential price drops for LCD TV's in the near future. We also got wind that Polaroid (yes, the camera company) released a 20-inch LCD over in Japan that took the cake as the ugliest TV release of the month. Stick to cameras, Polaroid!

The much anticipated Futurama DVD, Bender's Big Score hit shelves and the Hulu video platform which has been taking flack since the summer, finally went public in beta only to receive further, and much worse, flack.

Of course, the biggest news of the month has been the ongoing Hollywood Writer's Strike, but with all the great coverage on the web, we've chosen to focus on what it means for web TV. We definitely think only good things will come of this.

We released our Holiday Buying Guides for 2007 with run-downs on the best HDTV's and home theater accessories to buy this Christmas. And at the best prices of course. Then the proverbial "shit" hit the fan again.

Just after the release of Hulu, NBC debuted their NBC Direct service that allows you to catch primetime shows online at non-primetimes. Like Hulu, it succumbed to brutal reviews, all of which we synced with completely. We were impressed, however, with the Hitachi UT Series over in Japan, boasting only 35 mm thin panels. Hopefully, the new Hitachi's will hop the drink soon.

Both Playstation 3 and the XBox 360, hotsellers on Black Friday, received updates allowing them to now support the DivX video format. They are both fast becoming media centers rather than game consoles, something which I think is a good move on behalf of Sony and Microsoft.

Exhaustion set in for everyone in the week following Black Friday and things were pretty quiet for TVSnob's everywhere. We finished off the month with an interesting development though, as Venturer released a $199 HD DVD player to be sold exclusively at Wal-mart. With lower-end brands now making a move, we're anxious to see if prices will drop in the coming months.

Into December we go!

December 1, 2007

November 2007 Monthly Roundup