Thiel Audio held the first of a series of webinars for dealers and current and potential customers. The company plans to use webinars for distributor and dealer training, consumer support and media events, said Dawn Cloyd, Thiel director of international sales. As evidence of the hazards of first runs, Cloyd said the Thursday webinar was designed and intended for consumers, “but lots of industry friends,” including anyone who had signed up for Thiel consumer e-news on its website, received the invitation, “an error on our part.” The upside was a “great response,” Cloyd said, resulting in overbooking beyond the 25-person limit.

Strong demand for new games such as Red Dead Redemption allowed Take-Two Interactive to achieve a profit for a fiscal year that didn’t include a new Grand Theft Auto videogame release, CEO Ben Feder said Thursday. It was profitable for the year as well as Q4 ended Oct. 31, and revenue for each period grew.

Recent patent filings uncovered by Consumer Electronics Daily reveal more details of LG’s plan to cut the cost of 3D TV viewing with systems that use inexpensive passive polarization glasses, instead of higher-priced active-shutter eyewear (CED Dec 16 p1). The filings also show that LG is already looking at alternatives to polarization.

Technicolor will demonstrate at CES an app for “all handheld devices” that will extend the functionality of the BD-Live feature on Blu-ray discs, Bob Michaels, vice president of worldwide DVD for Technicolor’s Digital Content Delivery group, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Called Media Echo, the app will “align itself to what society is starting to evolve to,” Michaels said, “especially with the invention of the iPad.” He compared the feature set of the “second-screen” app to fantasy football apps that enable viewers to follow stats on players while they're watching a live game. Media Echo will wrap details including actor bios and interactive games around a feature film, he said.

LG Display launched production this month of LCDs with a film patterned retarder (FPR) technology that, paired with polarized glasses, could reduce total 3D TV costs 20 percent, company officials said. LG is starting with 32-, 37-, 42-, 47- and 55-inch panels that will feature an FPR applied to the top of the screen, a company spokesman said. The approach has support from six Chinese manufacturers as well as LG Electronics, Philips, Toshiba and Vizio, all expected to ship FPR-equipped TVs in 2011, an LG spokesman said. Skyworth already is demonstrating sets in China, the spokesman said. Chinese suppliers Changhong, Haier, Hisense, Konka and TCL also are backing FPR, the LG spokesman said. LG unveiled FPR panels at a ceremony Wednesday in Beijing sponsored by the China Video Industry Association and the China 3D Industry Association.

CE makers exhibiting “prospective products” at CES can’t put the Energy Star logo on devices that haven’t yet been certified, even if they expect them to qualify, the EPA said Tuesday. “The label may only be used in association with products that are qualified as Energy Star,” said Ann Bailey, chief of the Energy Star Labeling Branch. She was responding to a Nov. 24 letter from the CEA seeking clarifications and explanations of the applicability of new Energy Star testing and verification rules taking effect in January (CED Dec 16 p3).

Broadcom started sampling a single decoder/processor chip capable of decoding two separate 3D 1080p streams simultaneously (CED Sept 9 p1) as it chases a market for 3D-capable video gateway set-top boxes, company officials said at a conference in California.

LG will “have the organization realignment” that it recently announced (CED Dec 1 p5) completed by CES, Jay Vandenbree, senior vice president of home entertainment, told Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday night as the company provided a sneak peek at a small number of the new products it will spotlight at CES. LG also unveiled a five-story LED Times Square billboard it said is “dedicated to the distribution of good news” in keeping with the company’s “Life’s Good” motto.

That Best Buy “elected not to chase” the promotional TV business dominated by “large discounters” selling “third-tier” brands helps explain why the company’s U.S. same-store sales fell 5 percent Q3 through Nov. 27, CEO Brian Dunn said Tuesday on an earnings call. When the quarter began, Best Buy thought same-store sales would have “flat to modest” growth from a year earlier, Chief Financial Officer Jim Muehlbauer said.

Getting access to additional spectrum is the consumer electronics industry’s 2nd-highest priority, behind solving the federal deficit and economic issues, CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a meeting with reporters Tuesday. He said there’s bipartisan support for freeing up spectrum, and suggested that ultimately broadcasters might even be in favor.