At the strike of midnight, Best Buy announced their Smart TVs with the Insignia Connected TVs. Starting this week, consumers can head to their local Best Buy retailer and pick up a new Insignia Connected TV. The 120Hz 1080p LED HDTVs (armed with 4 HDMI ports along with 1 VGA ports w/ Wi-Fi N support) come in a 32inch (for $499) and a 42inch (for $699) sizes. The built-in TiVo is merely its UI as for easy search and access as Internet apps are also available like Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Twitter, Facebook, and Rueters News/Sports to name a few. Don’t think that this will help you cut the cord as the TiVo UI doesn’t grant DVR abilities as a cable/satellite box is still required. Curious, but wanna see how these HDTVs work for the everyday consumer as i reserve judgement. The official release lies after the break.
Insignia Unveils Connected TV with Award-winning TiVo® Design
Insignia’s Smart TV is first to combine the power of the Internet with acclaimed TiVo user interface, all in stunning HD
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (August 1, 2011) – Best Buy’s own Insignia brand today announced the arrival of the new Insignia Connected TV. Insignia Connected TV customers can simply enjoy broadcast and online movies, shows, and music. Simple, easy entertainment is what customers want in a TV, and Insignia delivers on this through its TiVo® Design partnership, providing award-winning Tivo ease-of-use, all without a paid TiVo subscription. The new Insignia Connected TV will be available in 32- and 42-inch models for $499 and $699 respectively, on BestBuy.com and at Best Buy stores nationwide.
Insignia’s Connected TV features a breadth of entertainment options from the most desired services, including Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora and Napster, plus popular entertainment and social media applications from the chumby content network, such as Facebook, Twitter, Photobucket and more. Developed by Insignia from the ground up, including ease of setup and ease of use based on Best Buy customer input, the Insignia Connected TV directly solves the most common challenges consumers face with other, more complicated Smart TVs. In partnering with TiVo, Insignia created a product and interface that offers consumers an experience that is easy to use, easy to connect and easy to find.
Easy to Connect: Connecting to broadcast and online entertainment is a snap with an easy step-by-step guided setup. The Insignia Connected TV virtually sets itself up!
Easy to Use: Insignia brings the fun back to TV entertainment, with all of the Insignia Connected TVs powerful features at your fingertips through the award-winning TiVo Design interface.
Easy to Find: Insignia makes discovering new online entertainment a breeze by allowing customers to search for online movies and shows from the most popular services.
“The Insignia Connected TV gives our valued customers a new way to easily set up and access the entertainment they want, when they want it,” said Patrick McGinnis, vice president of Exclusive Brands at Best Buy. “We’ve heard from customers that Smart TVs can be intimidating, and we’ve put 110% of our energy into making the powerful features of the Insignia Connected TV easy to enjoy.”
“TiVo has evolved from its roots as the DVR that changed the way consumers interact with entertainment, allowing us to customize and deliver solutions that best meet the needs of our partners like Insignia,” said Jim Denney, general manager and vice president of Product Marketing at TiVo Inc.”The Insignia Connected TV is the result of great collaboration and we are proud to bring the TiVo experience to this leading consumer electronics brand and innovative product.”
As part of Insignia’s ongoing partnership with leading content platform chumby, the Insignia Connected TV comes preloaded with the most popular chumby applications, including Twitter, Facebook, Photobucket, Accuweather, Reuters News and Sports, Stocks and Traffic. Customers can customize their experience by selecting additional content from the chumby network, which supports hundreds of applications for the Insignia Connected TV. It also benefits from chumby’s wide network of developers working on new content, and Insignia will continue to update and add applications to the Connected TV as new, high-demand applications become available.
Additional product features and technical enhancements include:
LED: Thin, elegant design and energy efficient, a perfect fit for modern households
1080p/120Hz: Stunning picture quality with full HD and clearer fast motion
Enhanced audio: Music and dialogue never sounded this good from a flat panel TV, enabled by Audyssey and SRS
Rocketboost-ready: Wireless, uncompressed digital audio input to the TV or output to speakers such as the Insignia Soundbar and the Rocketfish Outdoor Speaker
More information about the product visit www.bestbuy.com/insigniaconnectedtv.
