tvs

Supercomputer, auto engineers dig into TVs at Hitachi

Hitachi is wielding a new weapon in the television market. Namely, automotive engineers.

The frame on the 35-millimeter-thick LCD TVs that the Japanese manufacturing giant will showcase at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week is made out of a polycarbonate from the company's automotive division, according to Bill Whalen, director of product development at Hitachi. Because the TV is thinner than most LCD TVs that size, it requires a stronger, more rigid frame, which the polycarbonate made possible.

Most people don't know Hitachi has an automotive company. "But if you have a fuel-injection system … Read more

CES 2008: Televisions and HDTVs

The annual International Consumer Electronics Show is all about trends, as opposed to actual product announcements complete with pricing, model numbers, and "click here to buy!" buttons. This year we're sure to see a few new trends join those old standbys from yesteryear--and the year before that and the year before that--so here's a quick rundown of what to expect from high-definition displays at CES 2008.

Larger OLED TV manufacturers have to find some way to shave profits from ever-more-commoditized products, and one of the best ways is to introduce a whole new technology. … Read more

Samsung retires from Japanese consumer electronics market

As of the end of October, Samsung no longer sells its consumer gadgets in Japan, according to the Associated Press.

The Korean electronics giant had actually pulled its products out of Japanese retail outlets a year ago, but as of the end of last month, it ended its Web presence also.

"We judged direct sales to individual consumers are less profitable than business-to-business sales," Lee Eun-hee, a Samsung spokeswoman, told the AP. Samsung will still sell flat panel monitors, LCD panels, and memory chips directly to businesses.

While Samsung is the largest provider of flat-panel televisions in North … Read more

Samsung regains TV lead; Vizio back to No. 2

A sense of order has been restored to the North American TV market this quarter.

A few months after newcomer Vizio stunned the flat-panel television industry by ranking No. 1 in market share for the second quarter of 2007, the old stalwarts have reclaimed their positions. Samsung moved back to No. 1 in overall flat-panel shipments with 11.8 percent of the total market, according to DisplaySearch. Vizio fell to No. 2 with a 10.2-percent share, down from 12 percent the previous quarter. The rest of the list includes Sharp at 10 percent, Sony at 8.6, and Funai (… Read more

A TV that's too big for your apartment

The crown for manufacturers that produce the "world's largest TV" seems more like a relay baton the way it's constantly being handed off to someone new.

Recently, JVC showed off a 110-inch LCD set at IFA in Berlin. Next up: Shinoda Plasma. The Japanese company says it will begin producing 142-inch panels based on plasma display technology, called "plasma tube array," by the end of 2008. That's roughly 12 feet measured diagonally. It will be up to TV manufacturers to put the displays into their own sets. No customers have been announced yet. … Read more

High-def TV in the great outdoors

Got some gardening to do but don't want to miss Oprah while you're out weeding?

Oregon-based Planar Systems is joining the burgeoning outdoor-display market with a 42-inch high-definition monitor designed specifically for outdoor viewing.

The weatherproof WP-42HD, manufactured under Planar's luxury video brand, Runco, utilizes LCD technology and glass with element-proof bonding to deliver a wide-screen flat-panel monitor that's supposed to withstand temperature shifts, exposure to moisture, dust and oils, and intermittent direct water spray--way more wear, in other words, than the TV in your living room.

Planar says you're free to leave the display … Read more

HDTV makers want consumers to do their homework

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.--To borrow from the real estate cliche, selling the "HD experience" is about education, education, education, according to the top-tier TV manufacturers.

Mainstream consumers, apparently, still don't quite get it, and the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of TV manufacturers, according to Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing for Sony's home products division.

"In the past year, if we were to grade ourselves, we were barely passing as an industry," he told an audience at the DisplaySearch HDTV conference here. Citing a study by Best Buy, 40 percent of … Read more

HDTV's evolving alphabet soup: LED, OLED, LCD, DLP

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.--So you've finally got your mitts on that 42-inch LCD TV you've been lusting after since last Christmas. Congratulations. The major television manufacturers would like to thank you for your business by finding ways to make your shiny new display look old and out of date very quickly.

It's nothing personal, of course. But such is the nature of a commoditized and maturing industry like high-definition televisions. There are more than 70 TV brands on retail shelves competing for your dollars and eyeballs, and the only way to differentiate themselves is to keep tweaking … Read more

Will Vizio lose its No. 1 crown in TVs this quarter?

Update--Vizio stunned the consumer electronics world when it became the No. 1 seller of flat-panel TVs in North America.

But it may be only a temporary victory.

During the second quarter, Costco and Sam's Club, the two primary retailers of Vizio TVs, asked the company for more TVs than normal to increase their own inventories, according to a Vizio spokesman. The store chains typically had been carrying one to two weeks of inventory. They requested that the inventory be increased to three to four weeks. (Costco, by the way, declined to comment.)

As a result, Vizio experienced a sudden … Read more