Go to any big electronics store and check out all the humongous, flat screen, HD TVs with speakers that knock you down; they are at once terribly thrilling and immensely boring. There are black boxes and there are silver boxes. Boxes. The rationale certainly has something to do with decorating, matching anything, being inconspicuous. For anyone who thinks that is a little too drab, HANNspree provides an alternative.
Animal plushie? Smooth wood? Trucks and trains for your son? Fanciful crystals for your daughter? The sports fan can get a TV to match a favorite team, and kids of all ages can appreciate the Disney licensing. HANNspree is about expressing your personality not just through what you watch, but how you watch it. Their website proclaims, “Our televisions are meant to be bold declarations of individuality, pride, and personal style.”
However, it’s obvious looking at one of these perky sets in action that the screen quality isn’t quite up to what you’d expect from the mainstream brands. The staff at the Flagship Showcase in San Francisco weren’t hiding the fact that, “It’s definitely a trade-off,” between technology and personality, but they also were quick to note that the screens they do use are made by Hannstar, one of the top 10 LCD display manufacturers.
Another potential concern is the small size of the screens. To address this, the company will begin to release larger models. One example is seen here, and I was able to take a look at pictures of some others. It seems that with the screen enlargement, the televisions regress back into simple boxes. I, for one, would have no problem with a giant plushie giraffe. Hopefully in the future some of the whimsy of the smaller TVs will be injected into the big screens.
Prices are currently being tested in the range between $199 and $999, but look for them to settle somewhere between $249/99 and $999. The larger models will increase the range of prices, as well as products. Since many people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a super hi-tech TV, it seems perfectly reasonable for others to pay hundreds for something that is so personal. At first, I was thinking kids would outgrow the more playful sets, but when I found myself picking out which one I would take home if I had a choice, I realized that’s probably not the case.
Next, Magnolia Pictures 
Now I’m just waiting for the Ethernet port to activate so I can remove the 25-foot-long phone cable running through my hallway and hook it up to my Buffalo wireless 4-port bridge (also connected to my Xbox, 
Other than the fact that I still won’t be able to watch any more 
Let’s face it. The transition to HDTV has been a painful and confusing one. It’s bad enough that there are now 10 different types of TV technologies available in the market, but what’s worse is that display makers, content providers, set-top box manufacturers, and the entire PC industry has been pushing several completely different ways of connecting high definition components since the launch of the first HDTV products in 1998. What’s the end result? There are now millions of high definition products in the market, and they all have different plugs on the back. Component video, FireWire, DVI, and HDMI have all graced the back of a TV set at some point over the last eight years, and now consumers are thoroughly confused.
ly content, they must use a secure technology, which IS provided through digital cable connections such as HDMI and DVI. Most important for you: if you HAVE the option to switch from component to either HDMI or DVI cabling, 
I received a flurry of emails regarding Moviebeam, and have a few more thoughts on it which I think are relevant to mention in conjunction with Davis’ post. Many people seem to compare Moviebeam to Netflix as a competitive offering. I disagree. Netflix, in my opinion, is great for people who want to individualize their queue, and generally put a lower priority on new releases or the “big” movies (not that they don’t watch them, just that they aren’t ‘must-haves’ on release weekends). This works out well as Netflix is able to satisfy this kind of a need. But Moviebeam does not have this capacity (or at least not today).