While LED TVs provide a brighter (and arguably better) picture than their LCD counterparts, consumers aren't embracing them at a pace the industry or analysts have been expecting.

That's likely to result in some changes to the sets – and they don't sound especially encouraging. NPD reports set makers are reducing the number of LEDs per TV set which will lower brightness and veer away from the slim designs and picture quality that have helped LED backlit sets.

“LED penetration in LCD TV was 7 points lower than our forecast a year ago, mainly due to high LED premiums,” said Yoshio Tamura, senior vice president at NPD DisplaySearch. "The premium for a LED backlight in a 32" LCD TV was 42 percent in Q4'11, although it had been expected to fall to 27 percent. Therefore, TV makers are changing their strategies on direct LED-backlit TV. Instead of high picture quality, set makers have chosen low-power consumption with a corresponding lower price as selling points for this new type of LED-backlit TV. This will increase its competitiveness with CCFL-backlit LCD TV and even CRT TV."

While sales are the ultimate goal, the trend is a disappointing one for videophiles. NPD did not cite any specific manufacturers in its report, but edge-lit LED TVs are much less dynamic than their backlit cousins. 

We're likely to hear a lot about 4K before the end of today – press conference day at CES – but the first couple of sets have already made their debuts.

LG has announced a trio of 4K sets, measuring 60, 72 and 84 – yes, 84 – inches). Each boasts a staggering resolution of 3480x2160 and they'll be available this July. Toshiba, meanwhile, showed off a 55-inch, glasses free 4K set last night.

There were no hard prices for either set, but they'll be incredibly expensive. And, while the picture quality is, indeed, beautiful on both, there's no need to camp out to be the first on your block to have one, as the library of 4K content is virtually nonexistent right now.

Kazuo Hirai, the one time leader of Sony’s PlayStation division and now Executive Deputy President, could have another promotion looming in the near future.

Japanese business paper Nikkei reports Hirai will be promoted to president as early as April. Sir Howard Stringer will remain chairman and CEO of the company.

Hirai has been on a fast track trajectory for the past few years and is the heir apparent to the top job at Sony. When Sony was under assault from hackers last year, Hirai was the public face of the company, with Stringer taking a background role and making little public comment.

The Sony board is remaining mum on the reports, saying it has not yet made a decision on whether to promote Hirai. 

OLED – or organic light-emitting diode - has been one of the longest running legends in consumer technology.

The screens, which are incredibly vibrant and accurate in their color technology, have been shown as prototypes, usually just no larger than 15 inches, but release dates have always been nebulous, due to the incredibly high cost of the technology. LG, however, appears ready to jump in at this year's CES.

The company plans to unveil a 55-inch OLED TV panel at the show. The set will be surrounded by a frame that's just 4mm thick and weighs just 16.5 lbs.

"Working closely with LG Display, we have a product which not only delivers on all the advantages of OLED over LCD but at a significantly lower cost than what could be achieved using existing OLED manufacturing technologies," said Havis Kwon, president and CEO of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. "OLED is clearly the future of home TV entertainment and LG is very focused on making this exciting technology as easy as possible for consumers to embrace."

LG didn't give any hints as to pricing or availability, though. We'll have to wait until next week to see if it's willing to commit to a launch date – as well as its definition of "lower cost". 

Microsoft continues to roll out new entertainment offerings for the Xbox 360.

The second wave of content providers for the recent user interface revamp of Xbox Live has hit the console, bringing some familiar names. Starting today, U.S. users will be able to access content from ClearChannel's streaming radio service iHeartRadio and Verizon FiOS customers will be able to access a limited selection of live channels.

Also joining the fun is YouTube, TMZ and MSNBC.com.

Verizon's FiOS customers will be able to watch up 26 live TV channels, including MTV, Spike, Food Network, Comedy Central, HBO, CNN and Nickelodeon. In order to use the services, Xbox Live users must prove they are subscribers to the cablers or satcasters, or in Bravo or Syfy's case, confirm that they are paying cable or satellite customers.

Other countries are getting different channels. Here's the complete list.

* blinkbox. United Kingdom

* iHeartRadio. United States

* MSN Video. Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom

* MSNBC.com. United States

* MUZU.TV. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

* Rogers On Demand (Rogers Media). Canada

* SBS ON DEMAND. Australia

* TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States

* RTVE (RTVE.es). Spain

* Verizon FiOS TV. United States

* YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

As the end of the year draws close, the inevitable year in review pieces are starting to roll out. The first, from Twitter, however, shows what the hot shows, music, movies and actors were with the Twitterati – and it holds some pretty big surprises.

While it's not exactly shocking that Charlie Sheen led the actor category, Elizabeth Taylor was the most talked about actress (and Raven Symone topped both Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lopez). And of all the shows on TV, ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" was the hottest topic.

YouTube sensation Rebecca Black was the year's hottest subject in music, while "Thor" was the most talked about movie. It's worth noting that the year's top four grossing pictures (year to date) – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" – were all absent from the list.

The hottest topics in select areas were:

TELEVISION

1. Pretty Little Liars
2. Two and a Half Men
3. The Craigslist Killer
4. Golden Globe Awards
5. People's Choice Awards

MOVIES

1. Thor
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. X-Men: First Class
4. Fast Five
5. Green Hornet

MUSIC

1. Rebecca Black and Friday
2. Nate Dogg
3. FEMME FATALE
4. Gerry Rafferty
5. Gil Scott-Heron

ACTRESSES

1. Elizabeth Taylor
2. Mila Kunis
3. Anne Hathaway
4. Raven Symone
5. Natalie Portman
6. Elisabeth Sladen
7. Jennifer Lopez
8. Nina Dobrev
9. Emma Watson
10. Fernanda Vasconcellos

ACTORS

1. Charlie Sheen
2. Macaulay Culkin
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Ricky Gervais
5. Pete Postlethwaite
6. Tracy Morgan
7. Jake Gyllenhaal
8. Ashton Kutcher
9. Colin Firth
10. James Franco

South Park has been around the video game block a few times, but its latest trip could be remarkably different.

South Park Digital Studios and Obsidian Entertainment, makers of "Fallout: New Vegas," are teaming to create a South Park role-playing game. THQ will publish the title.

"South Park: The Game" will put users in the construction paper shoes of a new resident of the titular Colorado town, where they befriend Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny and explore the city's eccentricities.

“Our goal is simple: to put creative talent first,” said Danny Bilson, EVP of core games, THQ. “Matt and Trey are arguably two of the most important comedic talents of their generation. Bringing their vision of South Park to the interactive space is a dream-come-true.”

The show, as mentioned above, is no stranger to gaming. Four titles have been made since 1998, with a fifth arcade style game for Xbox Live Arcade due in the spring of 2012. None, though, have been critical darlings. 

Google TV was the biggest thing that didn't happen at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. Released with a lot of fanfare in late 2010, it immediately hit resistance and most television manufacturers quickly scrapped plans to include it in their 2011 sets.

The system probably won't have much of a presence at the 2012 CES either, but it looks to have found an ally with one of the largest names in TV.

Samsung president Boo Keun tells Reuters that the company is in "last stage" talks with Google to launch a Google TV device. The big question is whether the technology will be integrated into one of the company's sets or if this will be a standalone set-top box, along the lines of Logitech's Revue (something the company's own CEO has dubbed "a big mistake").

Whatever form the alliance takes, it's unlikely Samsung will debut the product at CES. Keun says the company plans to unveil it at a separate event later in the year.

The Saturday morning serial model of the 1950s may be long dead in the film world, but a new eBook publisher is looking to bring it back in a more modern form.

Backlit is producing a string of Young Adult fiction in eBook form, recruiting Hollywood writers to pen the tales, which invariably end with a cliffhanger. It's a model that, if it works, not only guarantees a fairly predictable revenue stream, but has caught the eye of producers.

Jack Giarraputo of Happy Madison has secured a first look film and television deal with the company, which currently offers two series - Borrowing Abby Grace and The Start-Up – and has two more queued up.

Prices are kept low intentionally. Borrowing Abby Grace and The Start-Up cost $2.99 per 'episode' with a word count of 20,000-30,000 words. That's about 1/5 the size of a Twilight novel. (One upcoming series, entitled, The Dig, will charge $6.99 for a 60,000-80,000 word episode.) To ensure the material connects with its audience, Backlit has recruited Hollywood writers who have a track record of appeal to the demographic. (All authors write under pseudonyms to protect their day jobs.)

"There's kind of a renaissance in reading these days," says founder Panio Gianopoulos. "Teenagers today read more words per day than any generation before them. Of course, they're reading Facebook and Twiter and text messages, but they're not opposed to reading books."

The serial formula is no stranger to print, either, but hasn't seen a lot of success since Steven King revived it with The Green Mile.

The goal, of course, is to see these series expand to other mediums, but Gianopoulos declined to discuss whether Giarraputo has picked up any options yet. However, he said, "We think the eBook is the perfect way to create a television model for our series."

It's rare that a company is this candid about one of its products.

Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca, in an earnings conference call with investors this week, dubbed the company's Google TV set top box – officially called the Logitech Revue – "a big mistake" and said the company had no plans to build future versions of the product.

"We expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300," he said. "That was a big mistake."

De Luca, who wasn't running the company at the time, says Logitech "executed a full scale launch with a beta product and it cost us dearly." Combined with other missteps, he estimates the company lost $100 million due to operational miscues.

Not all of his comments were quite so harsh. De Luca said Google TV was, in fact, a "great concept" and he believed the success of it or a descendant is "inevitable", but the company would not be building a successor to the Revue.