LG shows off razor-thin (6.9 millimeter thick) digital TV

LG Electronics kicked off press conference day at the Consumer Electronics Show today with some very cool technologies. Chief among them is a 6.9 millimeter thick LED TV with a big screen. LG’s previous thinnest TV was 23 millimeters thick.

These screens not only look like picture frames on a wall; they’re actually thinner than picture frames. No word on when the TV will ship. This year, the company’s 23-millimeter-thick TVs are shipping.

The South Korean electronics gaint also showed off a bunch of new technologies. Woo Paik, chief techology officer of LG Electronics, did a Skype video call, live on stage. The bandwidth in the room was weak, so the video was choppy. But it worked, and Paik said that, with a good broadband connection and a special webcam, it can handle high-definition video conferences. This definitely looks like it could make your flat-panel TVs much more entertaining with distant friends and family.

Also, this year the company will put wireless HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) connectors on many of its TV models, using Amimon wireless networking technology. It has a 30 meter range and can transfer HD video wirelessly. The company is upgrading its Blu-ray disc player with a 250-gigabyte hard disk drive built into it. And LG’s new web-connected TVs now come with Netflix, Vudu, Cinema Now, YouTube and DivX video services.

Paik said LG will go 3D on its TVs in a big way in 2010. It is also introducing a 3D projector, a 15-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) TV set. It will have network attached storage devices to store your photo, music and video collections. LG also has a new Chocolate cell phone with a 4-inch LCD display and a new type of antenna that can get better reception and reduce battery usage. The phone has a 1-gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a built-in pico projector that can display a big image on a wall. The company says it will introduce a number of Windows 6.5 and Windows 7 cell phones this year. An Android phone is coming this year.

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