Nintendo is sticking with its forecast of 19 million consoles for the year, likely out of an abundance of caution. However, it’s own figures show it has sold 11.4 million consoles in the last two quarters alone, nearly double over the same period last year.

To keep things rolling, Nintendo is reportedly working on a new Switch that’s set for release next year. It could be a high-end model, as the company asked “several outside game developers” to prepare 4K upgrades for their titles. That ties in with previous rumors that Nintendo has more Switch consoles planned and that Sharp could be making high-resolution panels for them.

TCL

Best of all, the prices are reasonable, considering that Mini-LED tech is still pretty bleeding edge. The 2020 6-series starts at $649 for the 55-inch model, while the 65-inch and 75-inch TVs cost $899 and $1,399, respectively.

TCL also unveiled the 5-series TVs with even lower prices. You still get QLED tech, albeit with fewer local dimming zones (up to 80), along with Dolby Vision and TCL’s bezel-free design. However, the 50-inch model starts at just $400. The company is also selling 55-, 65- and 75-inch models with for $450, $630 and $1,100 each, respectively.

TCL has collaborated with THX on the next edition of its 6 Series TV with a Certified Game Mode, continuing the company’s recent foray into gaming technology. Both companies say the pairing of TCL’s “superior visuals” and THX’s “world-class” technology make gaming on the new 6 Series even more immersive, according to a statement from TCL.

THX first announced the partnership with TCL and the advent of Certified Game Mode at this year’s CES. But we now know more about the 6 Series TV and what Certified Game Mode means for it. The device earned THX Certification, meaning it underwent more than 400 tests ensuring high fidelity of color, tone and images, the statement said. TCL and THX engineers collaborated to adjust the device’s white balance, luminance, black levels and gamma.

While you can use a Gorillapod or other portable mini tripod, Sony offers the ZV-1 in a kit with a shooting grip (along with a 64GB SD card). That gives you controls for things like zooming and recording, while converting into a mini-tripod via the retractable legs. I didn’t get a chance to use one, but with the controls and convenience, it looks like it’s worth the extra $150. 

As with most Sony cameras, you can use the touch display to set a focus tracking point, but not control the main or quick menus. That makes it hard to change controls when you’re vlogging, as you have to reach around the back to manipulate the control wheel.  Every other camera brand allows touch menu control, so again, it’s strange that Sony keeps holding out on this.

That’s a significant miss for a camera like this, which has very few manual controls, apart from several buttons and the wheel. It would make sense to use the nicely laid out quick menu controls, but it’s a royal pain to do so while vlogging without touch control. 

Because of all that, Sony really wants you to use the camera in automatic mode and as you’ll shortly see, it does have some unique features that make that easier. 

Steve Dent/Engadget

Unlike most of the solid metal RX100 series, the ZV-1 has a plastic body. It’s not weatherproof either, so this won’t make a great action camera and you wouldn’t want to go vlogging in a storm. 

The ZV-1 has a single UHS-I SD card slot, but this is a rare model where that’s kind of OK. There’s clearly not enough space for two cards, and UHS-I is fast enough for 4K 30p video. It’s not ideal for burst photo shooting, but if you need that, get the RX100 V. 

Another unwelcome blast from the past is the nearly obsolete micro-USB rather than USB-C port. That makes charging directly from the camera a bit slow, though the battery is so small it barely matters. In fact, it only lasts about an hour when you’re shooting 4K, so you’ll need multiple batteries and a charger when you go out for the day. Finally, on the plus side, the ZV-1 has a new, bigger record button and a tally light –yes! — that shows you when you’re recording.

Performance

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Now let’s talk about shooting video with the ZV-1, starting with the 24-70 mm f/2.8-4 lens. It’s fast enough for most types of shooting, but I would have preferred if to be a bit wider. It could particularly be a problem for folks with big heads/hair and/or short arms. 

While 24mm might seem wide enough at first, you can’t really use that zoom level for vlogging because of the stabilization. The optical stabilization alone adds no crop, but it can’t smooth out jolts when you’re walking or doing sportsy things. The active electronic SteadyShot stabilization makes vlogging very smooth, but it crops by about 25 percent.

Unlike most other Sony cameras, the ZV-1 stores gyroscopic data. That means you can go in after the fact and smooth your footage using Sony’s Catalyst Browse app — even if you had stabilization turned off. The results are better than what you’d get using Premiere or Resolve software alone. However, you’ll still get a small amount of cropping.

The best feature on this camera, by far, is the autofocus that’s borrowed from Sony’s latest RX100 VII and mirrorless cameras. As with those models, it keeps you locked in focus, even if you turn around or move out of frame. To track moving subjects, you just touch it and the camera will follow it around reliably as long as it’s distinctive from the background.

Face and eye detection is crucial for vlogging and can be flaky on other cameras. On the ZV-1, however, it’s nearly perfect. The only time it let me down was when I suddenly moved from dark to bright lighting or if there were two faces in the shot. I found it did work better if I slowed the focus settings down a notch. Note that the ZV-1 does have animal eye AF for a variety of pets and wildlife, but it only works for photo and not video shooting.

Steve Dent/Engadget

A lot of vloggers like to flaunt products like phones or makeup. The ZV-1 makes that far simpler with a new feature called “product showcase.” If you’re vlogging and you place any object in front of the camera, it will instantly focus on that rather than your face. That saves you the trouble of having to tap the screen to switch focus, potentially jostling the camera or missing the shot. Keep in mind that this feature must be used with a tripod, as the SteadyShot stabilization is disabled. Face/eye AF is turned off as well, switching the camera basic area AF. 

Another very cool autofocus feature is background defocus. That opens up the aperture as much as possible so that you can stand out against a nice, soft bokeh background. In fact, all the camera does is select the minimum aperture possible (and balances by changing other settings), but there’s no fiddling — you just have to hit a single button.

This can even work outdoors, because the ZV-1 has a built-in neutral density (ND) filter. It darkens the image by three stops, so there’s no need to crank the shutter speed to 1000th of a second or beyond. Using fast shutter speeds like that can create a staccato Saving Private Ryan effect, rather than smooth video with a slight amount of motion blur that most vloggers want. 

Keep in mind that there’s also a caveat with the ND filter, namely that you get no “auto” setting for it in any of the main video modes — you’ll have to manually turn it on or off. That’s too bad, because it would be nice if it kicked in automatically for use with the background blur mode. 

Steve Dent/Engadget

Another handy feature for vloggers is the soft skin effect (shown above). It uses AI to smooth out any blemishes or other skin issues, though it makes you look a bit plastic at the most aggressive setting. I think most folks would do well to avoid anything but the mildest “low” setting — and speaking from experience, don’t forget to turn it off if you don’t want it.

Auto exposure mode is usually a no-go for vloggers, because most cameras change exposure settings in a jerky, distracting way. However, the ZV-1 has a special face priority exposure setting. What it does is keep the exposure on your face constant, even if the sun goes from behind you to in front of you. 

Better still, when the lighting changes, the ZV-1 ramps the exposure smoothly. That makes it possible to shoot in shutter or aperture priority mode without messing up your shots — perfect for beginning vloggers who don’t yet know how to shoot in manual mode. If you do want to shoot in a completely manual mode, however, the ZV-1 can handle that too, of course.

Image quality 

As with other cameras in the RX100 series, the ZV-1 offers excellent video quality for a camera with such a small sensor. Video is shot using the entire sensor with and supersampled to 4K, so video is sharp and there are no issues with aliasing (jagged lines) or moire (color fringing). As with other recent models, Sony has tweaked the color science in the ZV-1 for more realistic hues, especially in the skin tones.

You’re probably wondering why anyone would want to shot a film in 12K. The idea here is not to so much to do that but to allow filmmakers to capture the smoothest possible footage at resolutions people are consuming their content in currently. Oversampling footage gives filmmakers more flexibility when it comes time for post-production, and the Ursa Mini Pro 12K can capture 8K and 4K footage without cropping. 

Besides its impressive sensor, the camera includes features like an interchangeable lens mount and dual UHS-II SD slots. Another nifty feature is that the camera encodes footage using Blackmagic own RAW codec, which the company claims will enable you to edit any 12K footage using a laptop.  

With a $9,995 price tag, the Ursa Mini Pro 12K is out of the range of most of us mere mortals. But compared to cinema cameras from the likes of Red and Canon, some of which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, it’s a reasonable price for what is a very capable camera.

As cinemas in the UK prepared to reopen after lockdown, they promised Star Wars fans a treat. Disney and Vue planned to release a 4K version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in theaters. That would have been the first time a UHD version of an original trilogy film appeared in theaters. But now, Disney and Vue are walking back on their promise. Instead, Vue theaters will show the original 2K version of the film, Variety reports.

This isn’t entirely surprising, as plans for reopening and release dates are still changing. According to Variety, exhibitors Vue and Cineworld have shifted their reopening dates from July 10th to July 31st. Apparently, Mouse House scrapped plans for the 4K release after talks with exhibitors broke down in the last few weeks.

MacOS Big Sur may be a worthwhile upgrade if you love to marathon TV shows. As 9to5Mac reports, users have discovered that Safari in Big Sur will play Netflix videos in 4K with HDR, whether you’re using Dolby Vision or HDR10. You won’t have to switch to another browser just to see more than a plain 1080p image. The upgrade comes thanks to long-expected support for HEVC in Apple’s web browser.

You’ll have to be picky about your choice of Mac if you want the full effect, either with the Big Sur beta or the finished release this fall. HDR is currently only supported with 2018 or later MacBook Pro models, 2018 or later Mac mini systems, the iMac Pro or the Mac Pro. You’ll need an HDR-capable monitor for the Mac mini and Mac Pro, too.

The Apple TV 4K hasn’t entirely lived up to its name — not when YouTube can’t stream beyond 1080p on the media hub. When tvOS 14 arrives, however, you won’t be held back. As 9to5Mac noticed, Apple has quietly mentioned that the new release will play YouTube videos in “full 4K.” It’s not certain what prompted the end to the years-long impasse (we’ve asked both Apple and Google for comment), but it likely comes down to a change in video formats.

For years, YouTube has preferred to stream 4K videos using its open VP9 codec. Many device makers have supported it, but Apple has balked at using the format (which has its share of patent disputes) in favor of technology like HEVC. YouTube 4K support on the Apple TV would require one side to adopt the other’s preferred video technology. It may just be a matter of who blinked first.

FuboTV is giving subscribers a new way to watch its sports-centric live TV streaming by launching on Microsoft’s Xbox One. That marks the first time on a console for the subscription service, which offers a mix of over 100 sports, entertainment and news channels. You’ll also be able to watch in 4K on Xbox One X and Xbox One S consoles, as FuboTV is one of the rare OTT live multichannel TV services that streams at Ultra HD resolution.

FuboTV will be available with most features found on other devices like live video launching, the ability to flip through other channels while watching live video, DVR recording with one touch for entire series and user profiles. The company will also add Xbox One-specific features over time, eventually making better use of the Xbox One remote and using the Xbox One’s speed to reduce buffering.