TV is going through a transformation the likes of which it’s not seen since the birth of Satellite TV.

New Internet TVs don’t just give you a TV with YouTube – they give you a whole new viewing experience that’ll transform your living room.

To guide you through the minefield of the different technologies available, we’ll take a look at 5 televisions that let you connect to that most social of video sites, YouTube.

TVs with YouTube – making the TV social again

Here at MediaMentalism, we’re all about the social. We’re also about the smart technology, but what really gets the MediaMentalism boat afloat is when the smart technology gets with the social.

Everything’s getting in on the act, from cameras that are Flickr friendly to blasting out your favourite tunes with a HiFi and Last.FM. Now even the TV is getting in on the social action, growing network interfaces and talking to the Internet.

Every TV manufacturer is doing things slightly differently though. To help you choose the best way of watching YouTube on your TV, we’ve looked at different models from different manufacturers, grouped according to the main TV tech being used.

Internet-equipped LED TV

Panasonic D25 LED LCD

While Samsung and LG have cornered the public’s eye with catchy adverts, Panasonic have quietly released their own LED LCD screen, the Panasonic D25 series. Keen AV followers will know that any Panasonic TV comes with an impressive heritage and the D25 is no exception.

Using a top-end LED backlit IPS panel, the D25 comes packed with Freesat HD to flex those HD pixels, 4 HDMI sockets, a very cool USB “HDD PVR” function which allows you to record onto a USB hard drive, and finally the all important Ethernet socket. Through this you have access to Viera Link, Panasonic’s web portal, which includes the usual news and weather, and also social elements like YouTube and even Twitter.

Now you can watch dancing mongoose and tell the world without touching a phone or PC!

The Top End 3DTV

Samsung UE40C8000 3D LED TV

Maybe LED is not enough for you, and you crave something that little bit more. Ok, how about the very cutting edge of television technology from one of the world’s biggest names in TVs?

Samsung’s 8000 series sets are not only the de rigeur LED LCD flavour but these uber-TVs have that trick up their sleeve that everyone wants – 3D. Looking stunning in brushed titanium, the 8000 is loaded with a full HD VA LCD screen (better than monitor-type TN LCD), Freeview HD, 4 HDMI sockets, 200hz motionplus and the all important network connection (WiFi optional).

Samsung’s web service is the very-90′s-named internet@tv and it offers an original take on the whole idea with widgets. You can add new widgets to the taskbar on the screen, from BBC iPlayer to Flickr and from Twitter to YouTube. The 8000 even has a Skype widget for video calls on the big screen, very 21st century.

If you are looking for possibly the most Web-aware and technologically advanced TV, the Samsung 8000 series must be at the top of that list.

The 3D LCD Bargain

Samsung LE40C750 3D LCD TV

While Samsung’s 8000 series is at the high end of today’s TVs, it also has a price to match, so in these somewhat frugal days it’s always worth keeping one eye on the cheaper option. Though it may not have the ultra sleek titanium frame and LED technology of its fancy brother, the latest Samsung 7 series LCD TV (the C750) is still getting plenty of praise for its deep black levels, impressive 2D to 3D conversion and great viewing angle.

Still equipped with a raft of socketry (including the now standard 4 HDMI) and Freeview HD, the C750 runs the same internet@tv as it’s bigger brother, so you still get access to cool widgets like YouTube, Lovefilm, Twitter and more, but big screen Skype is kept back for the big boys toys only.

The C750 offers a taste of the big time for small potatoes, so if you’re on a budget, go check it out.

The Refined Plasma TV

Panasonic G20 Plasma

The Plasma vs LCD/LED debate has been going for some time now and shows no sign of stopping. Both have their advantages and their disadvantages – LED TVs are razor thin with a sharp picture, but plasma sets have better black levels and motion handling. Horses, courses!

Panasonic’s G20 series are plasma-based TVs and are one of the best options if you want both plasma technology and YouTube in your new TV with Panasonic Viera Cast. Using Panasonic’s NeoPDP panels (the closest any panel has come to Pioneer Kuro black levels), the G20 packs in a whole lot of tech for a fantastic, lifelike and vibrant image.

A full 1080p display, 4 HDMI inputs, 600hz motion, intelligent frame creation, Freeview HD AND Freesat HD, the G20 has optional WiFi and it’s THX certified so you know it’s been calibrated to motion picture standards.

Another distinct advantage plasma holds over LCD is how well it handles SD video, with LCD tending to be very matter-of-fact and showing all blemishes and noise. Plasma on the other hand will gloss over much of the issues in a similar way to CRT TVs did with video files, smoothing them out and making them look more like regular film.

With YouTube generally being at a lower resolution, plasma may well be the best way to view it on a 42″ screen. Plasma is often (incorrectly) assumed to be old technology, but visit any decent TV showroom or audio visual forum, and you’ll see the enthusiast’s TV of choice will have a plasma screen.

The Cracking Budget Choice

LG 42LD690 LCD TV

LG’s sets have come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, with excellent budget plasma panels, highly reviewed LCD set and revered top end LED model all doing well. Even though it is the cheapest option here, the LG LD690 is still an excellent HD TV for the money and carries on LG’s good name.

Coming packed with Freeview HD, the LD690 can also boast 3 HDMI inputs, 100hz TruMotion and network connectivity. LG have used that inconspicuous little ethernet socket to give the LD690 DLNA capabilites, allowing you to stream videos from any computers or network drives that are sitting on your home network – no boxes needed.

They’ve also used it for NetCast, LG’s answer to Panasonic’s Viera Cast and Samsung’s internet@tv. Netcast offers the viewer weather reports, photoshare, Skype video calls (soon) and YouTube, all on a 42″ full 1080p high-definition screen.

Significantly, as a majority of Channel 4′s demand service, 4OD, is on YouTube, you can now watch it on demand and in your front room. While LCD may not handle YouTube as gracefully as Plasma, it’s a sharper image with HD sources like consoles and Blu Ray players, and in the LD690′s case, it’s a few hundred pounds cheaper too!

The Clever Box of Tricks

WDTV Live

What if you’ve got a great TV already? Let’s say you’ve spent a few thousand on a 60″ Pioneer Kuro and nothing bests it in your eyes, but you still want to dabble in social media and the web on a big screen, so what’s the answer?

Western Digital’s WDTV Live.

Western Digital’s little box of tricks is not only an excellent networked high definition media player, capable of playing back AVI, WMV and MKV up to 1080p, but it also has the all-important on-line action.

The WDTV Live allows you to access YouTube, Flickr and internet radio from Live365, all up on your big screen. It also has HDMI out and optical digital out to get the best sound out of the little box into your hifi or surround system. The WDTV Live is a great YouTube player with a simple but powerful media player in the package too, and makes a great media hub at a fantastic price.

Summary

Ok, so there you have six ways to get the power of the internet into your front room – and this is just the beginning. The internet and our front rooms are merging, with services like Google TV, Zune Videos on the 360, Apple TV and many more aiming to stream not only YouTube but high definition films into our living rooms over the internet.

Even YouTube itself is going high definition and even 3D, so it’s a very exciting time. The Web can be at your fingertips if you want it – enjoy yourself!

But I’ll give it a go

First up, the clue’s in the name – CELL TV, which features the CELL Engine processor, a variant of the CELL Processor that powers the PS3. CELL Processors are absolute beasts. The power of the PS3 has always been huge and even now hasn’t pushed the limits of the CELL Processor beating at its heart.

Toshiba, who helped develop the original CELL Processor, have decided that maybe a superb top of the range 3D capable HDTV would push it a bit more.

Turns out it wouldn’t!

To be fair, the CELL Engine offers 143 times the processing power of other HDTVs, so it wasn’t going to get out of breath any time soon. So as well as some incredible HDTV specs, such as a 480HZ frame rate, Toshiba had to add a few other remarkable features to the TV, just to give the CELL Engine something to do!

HDTV Specs

CELL TV offers superb HDTV pictures thanks in part to Toshiba’s KIRA2 LED panel technology. According to Toshiba:

KIRA2 is positioned as “Twice as Bright!” as it has an amazing 1,000 cd/m2 brightness. In addition, KIRA2 also has 512 controllable zones (5X that of previous local dimming models) for precise control over black levels. This allows the KIRA2 to create an unmatched 9,000,000: 1 Dynamic Contrast, creating the ultimate picture quality package.

9,000,000:1 contrast ratio?! That’s incredible! It was only a year or so ago that HDTVs were boasting of 1,000,000:1 contrast ratios!

And if you hate wires, you can use the CELL TV Set Top Box, which streams all the content straight to the ZX900 via Wireless HD.

Enhanced Internet Content

That’s still not enough for Toshiba though, so they added Net Resolution+, which analyzes content from the Internet and cleans it up – in real time. This means you can watch crappy YouTube videos on your ZX900′s 65″ screen and see a clean picture, rather than the mess of pixels you sometimes get.

3D TV

With all that power from the CELL Engine, there was nothing Toshiba could do to exhaust it with simple HDTV. So they decided to throw 3D into the mix as well.

The ZX900 supports MPEG4-MVC, RealD and other 3D formats, and splits the picture into two parts (one for the lef teye, one for the right eye), giving each part 120Hz.

Of course, there aren’t many 3D films or videos around at the moment. So the ZX900 will convert any 2D signal to 3D, again in real time!

Remarkable media features

Not content with making one of the best specified HDTV on the market, Toshiba threw a few other features at the CELL TV, desperate to defeat the CELL Engine powering it. For example:

Internet on your TV

The ZX900 is designed to bring everything you watch, from wherever it’s sourced, straight to the TV. Not only Blu-Ray discs and standard HD TV, but also anything you might have watched on your PC or laptop.

Only you don’t need your PC or laptop, as the ZX900 is equipped with an Ethernet port and 802.11n WiFi, so will connect to the Internet without the need for a PC.

To help you watch things from the Internet, the ZX900 comes equipped with Toshiba’s NetTV, a set of Internet-specific channels that provides instant access to films and content from Netflix, VUDU, and CinemaNow. Movies on demand whenever you want them.

But if you just want to listen to music, that’s OK too, as the ZX900 also comes with Pandora, letting you listen to all the music in the world on Pandora’s glorious music service.

Wireless media streaming from your PC

If you want to view things from your PC or laptop, though, then that’s covered too. The ZX900 is a Home Entertainment Server, allowing you to stream media straight onto its stunning super high-res display.

Terabyte of Storage

Want to store any content you’ve downloaded or streamed? No problem, the ZX900 comes with a 1TB Hard Drive. It also has a BD Player as well, in case you’d prefer to get your content from your existing library of Blu Ray discs

Transmit your content to any other device

As if all that wasn’t enough, the ZX900 can also transmit all your content from the hard disk to any other DLNA equipped device in the home. PCs, laptops, even mobile phones, all can share the content from your ZX900′s hard disk at the touch of a button.

Video conferencing too

And just one more thing (to coiin a phrase!) – the ZX900 also supports Video conferencing, and even cleans up the video signal using its Net Resolution+ system.

The undefeated champ!

Despite all of these attempts, Toshiba still were unable to defeat the CELL Engine. The ZX900 and the CELL TV system powering it are stunning examples of superb technology, and send Toshiba straight to the top of the HDTV league.

It’ll be available in 55″ and 65″ variants later in 2010, probably for a huge price.

[Source: Engadget]