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Samsung HDTVs to have built-in Skype

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Feb 2010 7:37 User comments (5)

Samsung HDTVs to have built-in Skype

Samsung and Skype have announced that the upcoming Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series HDTVs will come with built-in Skype software allowing for video and voice chats via your TV.
The first model will begin shipping in the "first half of 2010."

"Our consumers want their televisions to be a 'one-stop shop' for entertainment and communication delivered with the highest quality,"
added Kevin Kyungshik Lee, Vice President of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. "Including Skype on our TVs meets that expectation perfectly. We're thrilled that Samsung's consumers can now use our TVs to experience the rich video and voice communication that hundreds of millions of Skype users worldwide enjoy."

The HDTVs were first introduced at the CES show last month.



You will need to buy and connect a camera, which is available through both companies, and obviously have a Skype account, which can even be created through the remote control of the TV.

"Increasingly Skype users want to communicate away from their computers, particularly when it comes to video calling," says Jonathan Christensen, General Manager of Platform at Skype. "Thanks to Samsung, Skype is helping even more friends and families benefit from the meaningful connections that Skype's video and voice calling provides."

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5 user comments

125.2.2010 20:05

That's nice and all, but they still need to fix their power supplies in their TVs, that alone needs work the most, since apparently the people at Samsung still think it's a mystery that these parts go out, and think that you don't know what the hell you are talking about, but we know differently, don't we?

227.2.2010 17:52

I would like to see a Sony version of this. It is a great idea.

34.3.2010 18:19

I like this idea, it reminds me of the movie "Back to the Future".

I would hate to be "doing it with my girl" in the living room and all of the sudden you get a phone call from your TV from your mom and she starts screaming, "Hello, how are you... oh my god, what are you doing?"

I can also see others making live x-rated movies with this, you might think it's odd, but come on there are some sicker people out there than me...haha

44.3.2010 20:41

umm why wouldn't they build the camera into the tv? I understand that there could be a few problems with this but seems like a better idea to me.

54.3.2010 22:48

Can anyone hazard a guess at what kind of bandwidth would be required to take full benefit of HD viewing? I am assuming that the TV WILL include a high definition camera.

In almost all cases ISPs throttle the upload speed to no more than 1/4th of the download speed !

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