iPhones are great, but sometimes you don’t want to settle for showing off your photos or watching videos on a small screen while you’re sitting in front of a big one–such as your living-room HDTV. Here’s how to hook your iPhone up to your HDTV, with or without wires.

You can connect iOS devices to a TV in a few different ways. One of the easiest and most reliable methods is to use a wired connection.

If you have an HDTV with an available HDMI port, you can purchase an Apple Digital AV adapter.

The adapter also replicates the iPod connector, so you can charge your device while playing the content.

Rock out with Spotify on the iPhone, streamed to the TV

If your TV doesn’t support HDMI, or if it doesn’t have an available connection, you can link your device to the set through an analog connection, using an Apple Composite AV cable.

If you prefer, you can connect your device to your TV wirelessly, through a couple of different technologies.

Apple developed a wireless technology called AirPlay specifically for streaming content from iOS devices to other devices that support it.

Make sure that your iPhone is on the same wireless network as your other AirPlay devices. On your iPhone, double-tap the Home button. Swipe the list that appears to the right, until you get to the volume and AirPlay settings.

You can access the AirPlay settings by double-tapping Home and swiping to the right. Tap the AirPlay button to bring up a list of supported AirPlay devices on your network.Tap the device to which you would like to stream. A TV icon next to the device indicates that you can stream images, video, and/or audio, while a speaker icon indicates that you can stream only audio. In the example below, we selected our Denon AVR receiver. If you have a second-generation Apple TV and an iPhone 4S, you can select Mirroring here to mirror your device’s display to your TV wirelessly.

You can select your target device from this menu. Open the app with the content you would like to stream, and begin playing. In our example below, we used the Spotify app to stream music to the receiver. You can send Spotify to a big screen (with big speakers).

If you don’t want to shell out for an AirPlay-capable device, you may be able to use DLNA instead. These days, many modern TVs support streaming from a local network (wired or wireless) via the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standard. If your TV supports DLNA (or sometimes just “UPnP”) streaming, you can use your iPhone as a DLNA server. Just download and install a DLNA-server app–Media:connect, for example–and you’re good to go.

 3D technology sparked the most HDTV buzz at the International CES trade show. At this year’s industry gathering, however, 3D definitely took a backseat. Upcoming developments in high-definition TV are more varied and more interesting, and they offer a lot more mainstream appeal.

Big, beautiful HDTVs earned the most accolades at CES this year. Most notable were superslim OLED displays, voice- and gesture-control interfaces, and ultrahigh-resolution sets.

Sure, 3D is still around: Many of the new sets unveiled at this year’s show will have passive, active, or glasses-free 3D viewing when they come to market. However, 3D has moved significantly down the list of marquee features, even though we’ll see more 3DTVs in 2012 than ever before.

Some of the most interesting TV technologies we saw at CES are too content- or price-prohibitive to make a splash in 2012. That said, they offer an intriguing look at the near future of HDTVs. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the best of the show.

Judging by the initialisms alone, LED and OLED may seem similar–but when it comes to TV tech, they’re entirely different animals.

Samsung’s 55-inch OLED TV, at CES 2012A traditional LED (light-emitting diode) set is actually an LED-backlit liquid crystal display television–in such a set, LEDs illuminate an LCD screen from behind or from the edges. But in an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV, the source of illumination and of the resulting image are one and the same; with no backlighting needed, OLED allows for superthin, energy-efficient sets that produce deep blacks, sharp contrast from pixel to pixel, vivid colors, and a stunning picture overall.

At this year’s CES, companies showcased the promise of OLED beautifully. Gorgeous, 55-inch OLED TVs from LG and Samsung–as well as a Crystal LED prototype from Sony that uses similar technology–stole the show. What’s more, these sets are as razor-thin as they are razor-sharp: The thinnest, LG’s OLED model, measures less than 0.16 inch thick and weighs just 16.5 pounds.

Alas, while the LG and Samsung OLED sets are both slated to be available by the end of the year (Sony’s is strictly in prototype form at this stage), they’ll cost a pretty penny. Although neither company has announced pricing or release-date specifics just yet, the OLED HDTVs are expected to cost anywhere between $8000 and $10,000 when they arrive.

In 2012, even couch potatoes might get a workout, and quiet nights in front of the tube may involve a lot more talking. If CES was any indication of what’s to come, hand gestures and voice input may soon replace the standard remote control.

At CES, LG demoed sets that users can control with a Wii-like, movement-sensitive device, as well as remotes holding built-in microphones for voice control. Samsung, meanwhile, moved its gesture- and voice-control functions inside the HDTV, showing off a set that lets users change channels, control the volume, and perform other tasks with gestures and spoken commands. An embedded camera drives a face-recognition system that can log you in for customized features, parental controls, and access to social networking sites.

Numerous other tech companies are developing voice and gesture products that sit outside of the television itself. For instance, voice-recognition company Nuance announced Dragon TV, an app that adds speech controls to HDTVs, set-top boxes, and remote controls.

Will any of these alternative inputs supplant the tried-and-true analog clicker? That remains to be seen, but 2012 should be a testing ground for voice and gesture input, especially given the number of Web-connected sets that would otherwise require a keyboard to control them.

Want to see every pore, blemish, and cosmetic surgery scar on actors’ faces? Finding 1080p to be insufficiently detailed? Good news is on the horizon.

LG’s 84-inch 4K HDTVAt CES, LG demoed a so-called 4K TV that displays more than 8 million pixels at a resolution of 3840 by 2160–four times the pixel count of a 1080p HDTV. Samsung, Sharp, and Toshiba also showed 4K TV sets. And Sharp upped the ante by showing an 85-inch display with 8K, 7680-by-4320-pixel resolution (16 times that of a 1080p set).

In demos, these very high-resolution sets had notably better image quality, sharper lines, and finer detail than a 1080p set, even when upconverting 1080p footage from a Blu-ray player.

However, this is a TV technology best enjoyed up close, which seriously limits its potential for in-home viewing. From a distance, the 4K and 8K sets appear only slightly sharper than a 1080p set; but once you draw nearer, the extra detail and resolution are remarkable. For example, in a huge crowd scene on an 8K TV, you can see the facial features of people far in the back–about 80 or so yards from the camera–but spotting such detail requires getting very close to the screen.

Beyond that issue, not a whole lot of 4K or 8K content is available for these behemoths–there’s even less than the paltry selection of 3D content available right now. In the short term, this TV tech will be limited to sports bars and digital signage, as its most logical current application would be to display four separate 1080p signals at full resolution on a single screen.

TV-maker Vizio says to get ready to watch widescreen Blu-ray movies at home without any black bars on the top and bottom of the screen thanks to a new 58-inch 3D HDTV slated to launch in mid-March. Vizio will be the first HDTV maker to release an HDTV in North America with a 21:9 aspect ratio, the company said.

Currently, widescreen HDTVs have a wide format aspect ratio of 16:9, which means that for every 16 units of width the display is 9 units tall. The downside, however, is that any content displayed in cinematic anamorphic format (such as 2.35:1) cannot occupy the entire display. Instead, to maintain the correct proportions, the movie sits in the center of the screen with black bars above and below the displayed image. That will change, Vizio says, with its new 21:9 format. This format allows Blu-ray widescreen movies to use the entire screen, so no need for those top and bottom black bars.

Vizio has been showing off its 21:9 HDTVs during the annual Consumer Electronics Show for several years. PCWorld got its first look at the display technology back in January 2010 and then again in 2011. Both times Vizio was only showing off the technology and had no products to announce.

During CES 2012, Vizio announced three 21:9 aspect ratio sets including a 50-, 58- and 71-inch set. Only the 58-inch set is ready to ship, however, as a Vizio representative told PCWorld it had nothing to announce for the 50- and 71-inch models. An earlier report by USA Today said the 50- and 71-inch models will ship during the second half of 2012.

Vizio’s new 58-inch CinemaWide LCD HDTV features 2560-by-1080 high-definition resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, 5.5 millisecond response time, five HDMI ports, twoUSB 2.0 ports, Etheokrnet, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. You also get a Bluetooth remote with a QWERTY keypad and four pairs of 3D glasses. The set itself measures 56.7 inches wide by 29-inches tall (with stand), and is 1.8 inches thick (not including the stand).

Vizio also offers its typical suite of Internet apps including Flickr, Netflix, Rhapsody, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, VUDU, and Yahoo TV Widgets. When the new CinemaWide displays a TV app, such as Fantasy Football or Facebook, it shows up on the left side of the screen. The right side, meanwhile, displays a native 16:9 image.

The new 58-inch CinemaWide set will come with a hefty $3,500 price tag, and will be available in time for the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournaments, a Vizio representative confirmed to PCWorld. Vizio is not yet taking pre-orders for the new HDTV, but you can sign up for an email notification on Vizio’s site.

Panasonic’s 46-inch Viera TC-P46GT30 plasma HDTV has all the right features–Wi-Fi, a generous selection of Internet feeds, and multimedia via USB, SD, and DLNA. However, we gave it 3.5 stars in our review because we felt the sound and picture quality weren’t good enough for a HDTV that starts around $900. Right now, though, Newegg.com has a great deal on the Viera TC-P46GT30 that could make the HDTV more attractive: only $760, with an HDTV antenna included and free shipping.

Panasonic’s Viera TC-P42ST30 features 3D, Wi-Fi, USB, and SD Card support. Our reviewer wasn’t crazy about the image quality at default settings and gave the Viera TC-P42ST30 3.5 out of 5 stars (read “Panasonic TC-P42ST30 Plasma HDTV Review: Great Features, Subpar Sound and Image”). However, you might be able to overlook a few glitches when you learn that B&H is selling this 3D HDTV for almost $300 off the usual price–only $669, with free shipping.

The Panasonic Viera TC-L42D30 LED HDTV provides great simulated surround sound, yet we found its image quality to be somewhat lacking (read our review for details)–especially for the high $1079 at launch this past June. Right now, though, Amazon.com is selling the 42-inch Viera for only $743, and shipping is free. (Quantities are limited, though the HDTV was still available as of this writing.)

With a built-in Web browser and a second remote that works like a wireless mouse, the LG Infinia 47LW6500–successor to the Infinia 47LW5600 that we reviewed earlier this year–rates as one today’s better Internet-connected, 3d-supperting, LED-backlit LCD TVs. It also offers fine image and audio quality at a moderate price ($1900 list price; street prices in the range of $1400 to $1750 as of September 20), making it a very good deal for a 47-inch 1080p set with state-of-the-art capabilities.

We tested the Infinia 47L6500 in the same group as the Samsung UN46D8000, a 46-inch 1080p set that bundles similar features. In our juried image-quality tests; the Samsung edged out the LG overall, but it costs about $700 more. The 47LW6500 matched the Samsung’s high marks for color/skin tones and details/sharpness. But judges found the LG’s images on several test clips to be oversaturated; and on our motion benchmarks, it faltered slightly in its handling of a diagonal panning shot and on our “jaggies” test (jagged edges were visible on moving bars).

To help you adjust image quality to your liking, LG provides a very easy-to-use picture wizard–a calibration tool that lets you choose a target image for various qualities (color, tint, sharpness, and the like) and make adjustments to match it. You get a nice collection of presets, too.

Like most other LED-backlit sets, the Infinia 47LW6500 is quite energy-efficient, consuming no visible power when turned off and using 76.8 watts per hour (on average) while turned on. Its green score is 89 out of 100, which we consider to be very good.

The LCD is extremely thin–1.2 inches, not counting the stand. Ports are arranged in a squarish area on the left rear, with two USB and four HDMI ports facing sideways (and therefore readily accessible), and ethernet, PC video (VGA) and audio inputs, optical digital audio output, a cable/antenna coax port, and a jack for either a component video or a composite AV adapter cable all facing downward (making them tricky to access but usable with a wall-mounted set). Facing directly outward are an RS232C service port and one set each of conventional component and composite AV inputs, which you wouldn’t be able to use with a wall-mounted set.

The set comes with an 802.11n USB Wi-Fi adapter that operates only in the 2.4GHz band, which isn’t ideal for streaming media, especially in cities where your network’s signals must compete with those of many other Wi-Fi networks. Support for the 5GHz version of 802.11n would have been nice, since it’s less subject to interference.

The LG 47LW6500′s long, skinny standard remote has all the controls you’d expect on a current set, including the ability to program controls of other devices and a Quick Menu that lets you easily adjust aspect ratio, audio, video, and AV presets, closed captions, the channel editor, and other key features.

The Home button brings up a handsomely designed screen that gives you access to all connected TV content, including downloadable and some preinstalled apps, the Web browser, and buttons for launching the setup menu, switching inputs, and accessing favorites. The current TV content is displayed in a window in the upper left corner, and a customizable function menu in the center of the screen links to premium services such as streaming media and social networking sites.

LG’s Smart TV lineup includes Amazon’s on-demand service, Facebook, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Twitter, Vudu, YouTube Leanback (an HDTV optimized version of YouTube), and several other content sites. You can stream your own content from a USB drive or from any DLNA-compatible device on your home network; the set supports a dozen or so video formats, JPEG stills, and MP3 audio (as long as they aren’t copy-protected). You can create a slideshow with background music and apply a few effects to images.

If you plan to run the Web browser, however, you’ll want to set up and use the Magic Motion remote that comes with the set. This wandlike second remote is smaller than the standard one and uses motion-sensing technology to control the on-screen cursor, reminiscent of a Wii remote. You must pair the remote with the set before you can use it.

The Magic Motion remote lets you access the set’s features via a handful of buttons: a power button, a Home screen button, volume- and channel-changing rockers, a mute button, and a select clicker surrounded by a navigation wheel. It’s a welcome option for people who don’t like sorting through all of the buttons on the standard remote.

That said, using the Magic Motion remote for Web browsing on the Infinia 47LW6500 is an iffy experience. The absence of a hardware keyboard means that you must use the Magic Motion on an onscreen keyboard to enter text (such URLs or login info), which isn’t much fun. The browser supports Flash, but only through version 8 (10 is current), and unlike desktop browsers it doesn’t support HTML 5.

The TV’s audio is pretty good: The two 10-watt speakers achieved decent volume, and the surround-sound simulation worked reasonably well. It’s still no comparison to the audio from even a small home-theater setup, but it meets the challenge of providing appropriate accompaniment to 3D content.

LG provides four sets of passive glasses with the set; at this writing, several retailers are offering free additional glasses. These are basically the same glasses that theaters hand out for 3D movies, and the 3D quality is quite good. But the 3D version of Avatar on Blu-ray didn’t look as rounded as it did on the Samsung, which uses active-shutter glasses.

In most other respects, the Infinia 47LW6500 is very similar to the Infinia 47LW5600. In fact, LG provides the same manual (printed and online) for both models, along with a couple of dozen other LCD and plasma sets (which this makes pinning down some info on your specific model more difficult).

With the Infinia 47LW6500, LG continues to build on its reputation as a maker of affordable sets that deliver good image quality and technological innovation at a highly competitive price. Samsung and Sony should be watching their backs.

LG’s Infinia 47LW6500 features Smart TV, which gives you access to Netflix, Picasa, Hulu Plus, and YouTube, plus an app store and a built-in Web browser. This 47-inch 3D HDTV earned 4 of 5 stars in our recent review. The LG Infinia 47LW6500 lists for about $1900, but if you use coupon code S2226666 at Adorama you’ll pay only $950–plus shipping is free, and you get ten pairs of 3D glasses.

The Panasonic Viera TC-L42D30 LED HDTV provides great simulated surround sound, yet we found its image quality to be somewhat lacking (read our review for details)–especially for the high $1079 at launch this past June. Right now, though, Amazon.com is selling the 42-inch Viera for only $743, and shipping is free. (Quantities are limited, though the HDTV was still available as of this writing.)

Design and Peripherals

Sony outdid itself in designing the Bravia 46HX820. The set’s very thin black bezel almost disappears when the machine is turned off, thanks to a glass screen that extends to the bezel’s edges. The LG Infinia 50PZ950 has a similar “bezel-less” design, but Sony’s set pulls it off much more successfully because the turned-off screen is just as black as the bezel that surrounds it. At the bottom of the screen, a small Sony logo subtly lights up for a moment when you turn the TV on or off. The Bravia logo (located in the upper left corner) does cheapens the look just slightly.

A member of Sony’s edge-lit HX820 series, the Bravia 46HX820 measures just over 1 inch thick and weighs approximately 37 pounds, two characteristics that make it easily to mount on a wall. In case you prefer a more traditional set-up, the TV also comes with a black, rectangular, brushed- aluminum swivel stand that can turn 20 degrees to either side. The stand also tilts up 6 degrees.

Sony moved all of the set’s buttons and ports to locations behind the screen, so as not to disrupt the visual style. The physical buttons–including power, input, home, channel up/down, volume up/down, and an Energy Saving switch–are on the right side.

The 46HX820′s ports are located on the left side of the screen, and all of them run parallel to the screen to preserve the screen’s ultrathin profile. Though parallel ports are convenient for wall mounting, they can be difficult to access (especially when they face downward). On the port panel facing to the left, you’ll find two USB ports, two HDMI ports, a headphone jack, an optical audio-out, a PC connection, and a PC/HDMI 4 audio-in. The downward-facing panel has two more HDMI ports, a video/component-in, a cable/antenna hookup, and an ethernet port.

The Bravia’s backlit remote looks and feels like other Sony remotes we’ve seen, which means, unfortunately, that it’s blocky, heavy, and a bit uncomfortable to use. The remote is flat and shiny on the back, with a power button, but the front is concave. I can only assume that Sony adopted this design so that users can lay the remote face-down (without inadvertently pressing any of the buttons on the face) and enjoy its attractive, minimalist look. This may be visually appealing, but it’s kind of clunky to use.

Most of the remote’s dedicated buttons are located near its top, while numbers, channel up/down, and volume up/down buttons are on the bottom. The dedicated buttons include various input buttons; multimedia controls; and shortcuts to Netflix, Widgets, Internet Video, and Qriocity. In the center of the remote is a directional pad surrounded by navigational buttons–Sync Menu, Display, Options, Home, Return, and Guide. You also get four programmable buttons, each one a different color.

Internet-Connected TV, Basic Setup, and Onscreen Menus

The Bravia 46HX820 comes preloaded with Sony’s video- and music-streaming service, Qriocity, as well as with various Internet widgets and apps. The app selection includes Amazon On Demand, Hulu Plus, Netflix, NHL Vault, Pandora, Skype (though you’ll need your own camera/mic), Slacker, and YouTube. Widgets connect to eBay, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Weather, Yahoo Widgets, and some weird thing from Cracked.com called the Daily Puppy (it shows you a picture of a puppy).

Sony also supplies a Web browser for connecting directly to the Internet. The browser looks excellent and uses the available screen real-estate to the fullest, but it’s extremely tedious to work with. Sony uses number-pad typing for entering in text–a method that seems slow at first, but quickly becomes pretty easy. If you’d prefer to use a QWERTY keyboard, you can download Sony’s free Media Remote App for iOS/Android.

Initial setup for the TV is nice and thorough, covering not the regular options (language, viewing environment, country, date/time, and channel scanning), but speaker optimization, wireless or wired network setup, and automatic downloading of firmware updates.

Sony’s user interface is slick and easy to use. The onscreen menus look good: Transitions are smooth and easy to navigate, and they don’t obstruct your current content. The menus are a bit too numerous (why are there three menus for Internet content?), but they are generally easy to get around in. Pressing the Options button on your remote brings up a different menu, depending on the content you’re currently viewing: If you’re looking at a Web page, the menu lets you choose favorites or enter a URL; if you’re watching a YouTube video, it allows rating or favoriting the video; if you’re watching 3D media you can adjust the 3D settings.

If you want to adjust picture and audio settings, press the dedicated Home button on your remote. In the Home menu you’ll find all sorts of settings: Preferences, Sound, Picture/Display, Product Support, Network, Channels & Inputs, and an i-Manual (Interactive Manual). In the Sound menu you can adjust audio and turn off keytones and startup sounds; and in the Picture/Display menu you can adjust backlight, brightness, color, hue, temperature, and sharpness, as well as advanced settings such as gamma and white balance. The i-Manual is an excellent addition– easy to navigate, very thorough, and easy to understand.

Testing

The Bravia 46HX820 performed very well in our jury testing. One reviewer commented that our 720p Wheel of Fortune clip appeared to have fewer artifacts than we usually see in that clip. The set also did a nice job in our DVD upconversion tests of Phantom of the Opera, which other impressive sets haven’t handled so well. And the 46HX820 performed well in our horizontal and diagonal panning tests, though the picture on the screen looked a little too bright in our still-life image comparison test.

This 3D-ready HDTV ships with two pairs of active-shutter glasses–a nice touch, considering how expensive active-shutter glasses typically are. In our tests, 3D images showed excellent depth, but motion-heavy scenes were sometimes jarring and a little nauseating. The shutter glasses were a bit heavy, too.

Sony lets you adjust 3D settings while you watch 3D content. The 3D menu includes options for turning the 3D on or off, adjusting the depth (between -2 and 2), adjusting the brightness of the glasses, and turning on “simulated 3D.” Simulated 3D involves attempting to transform regular 2D content into pseudo-3D. It sort of works–basically the entire picture ends up looking a little recessed, but there’s no depth within the picture.

The Bravia 46HX820′s audio quality is extremely good. The sound system consists of three rear-facing 10-watt speakers in a 2.1 configuration. The maximum volume is quite loud, sound has depth, and the virtual surround sound option replicates real surround sound effectively.

Conclusion

Sony’s Bravia 46HX820 is a gorgeous 46-inch HDTV with superb picture quality, great sound quality, and plenty of Internet-connected options. The primary selling point of this set is obviously the design–as I said earlier, it’s one of the sexiest HDTVs I’ve ever seen–but it does have some drawbacks: fewer (and less accessible) ports than other TVs, potentially confusing menus, and a big and clunky remote. But if you’re looking for some HDTV eye-candy, this set definitely qualifies.