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Hey Asus, where's the $199 Eee PC?
Last week Asus finally revealed pricing and specs for their much anticipated Eee PC ultra-portable laptop. Anticipated not so much for the specs -- 7-inch LED-backlit LCD, 2 to 8GB of flash storage, up to 1GB memory, WiFi, and webcam -- but for the low, low $199 retail price. Rightly, more than a few of us were dismayed when the entry-level model was revealed to actually cost as much as US$358 in Taiwan and an expected $300 (pre-tax) price when launching Stateside before the month is out. The culprit? Well, according to DigiTimes' Taiwanese component insiders the relatively steep price is in large part due to an unexpectedly high cost for the 7-inch LCD panels. Asus had expected to source the panels for about $15 each but found themselves paying AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) up to twice as much for the hardware. Feel better for knowing? Yeah, didn't think so.
CMO's 42-inch 1080p LCD: $1,665 now in Europe, Q2 US
Look out Westinghouse and Vizio, Taiwan's Chi Mei has a new 42-inch, 1080p LCD TV looking for market share at the low-to-mid end of the big panel LCD spectrum. Shipping now in Taiwan and Europe, model DTL-742E500 is expected to make its US premier sometime in Q2 -- about the time we expect their 47-inch Quad HD LCD to ship. Their new set swaddles a Faroudja DCDi scaler and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) panel with a 1200:1 contrast ratio, 500cd/m2 brightness, 176-degree viewing angle, 6.5-ms response, and 2x HDMI inputs among a healthy collection of in and outs. Expected to pop at your local big box for right around $1,665 or less by the time it arrives. [Via Akihabara News]
CMO and CMEL develop 25-inch LTPS AMOLED TV
When its not busy taking colossal orders for Dell's (probable) 19-inch widescreen business, Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) is teaming up with Chi Mei EL (CMEL) to create an active matrix OLED TV panel and slapping a "world's largest" label on it. While we've certainly seen larger AMOLED displays before, this 25-inch rendition boasts its Low Temperature Polysilicon TFT technology as the differentiating (and record setting) factor. Typically, LTPS TFT screens are found in more pocket-friendly devices -- such as Minox's DC 8111 digital camera -- but this panel upps the ante by proving suitable for your average bedroom / living area. While shying away from specifics, CMEL did manage to tout the "fully functional, full color" television's "slim design, wide viewing angle, high contrast, and fast response time," but (unsurprisingly) failed to provide any foresight into eventual availability or price.[Via TGDaily]
CMO to ship 47-inch Quad HD -- 1440p -- LCD in 2007
Despite 1440p not actually being an official spec just yet, Chi Mei Optoeletronics has officially announced it will be mass producing a 47-inch Quad HD LCD panel in the second quarter of 2007. We've been drooling over the lovely 56-inch 3,840 x 2,160 resolution -- and apparently delayed -- panel CMO has been showing off all year, it looks like your first chance to surpass 1080p will come in a 47-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 resolution package. Its 3.68 million pixels are 1.78 times as many as are in current 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) screens, along with 450 nits brightness, 1,500:1 contrast ratio, 90% NTSC color saturation and a 6.5ms response time. Dual-link DVI and HDMI 1.3 connections have WQXGA resolutions like this in mind, so keep an eye out for a PlayStation 3 software update to 1440p, the only true definition of HD. The 56-inch panel is pictured above, hopefully we'll get a look at this panel later this week during the FPD International conference in Japan.[Via Digitimes]
CMO jumping into 52-inch 1080p LCD market, QuadHD delayed
Just because they don't have a shiny new 8G plant yet isn't stopping CMO from getting in on the 52-inch 1080p LCD battle. HDTVs from Sharp, Samsung and Sony are already on sale or coming soon, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics, plans to join them in the first quarter of 2007. While you may not know the name, their panels are in many HDTVs you do know like Westinghouse and Toshiba. They'll be showing their 52-inch LCD next month at FPD International 2006 in Japan, and plan to upgrade production to 180,000 glass substrates by December. Their current 5.5G plant can only get two 52-inch LCDs from each substrate however, while the newer plants produce six at a time. Either way, next year will have a lot of players competing in the 40 to 50-inch LCD space driving prices down, we see what they've been able to do at the 47-inch tier. It's not all good news though, CMO may be having trouble mass producing the 56-inch 3,840×2,160 resolution LCD they showed off last year. With four times as many pixels as current 1080p screens, they promise all new debates over how much resolution is actually necessary...whenever the technology is actually released.
QuadHD lives!
Everytime we hear about QuadHD, we just picture four high-def panels held together by duct tape in a two by two configuration. Luckily for you, we're not HDTV designers. We'll leave that to the folks at Chi Mei Optoelectronics since they can get 3840x 2160 resolution on a single LCD panel and will be modeling it at CeBIT next month. Before we get the "that's only double the res of 19801920x1080i" comments, make sure you do the math both on the x- and y-axis, as our geometry teachers loved to say. Granted, we don't yet have a signal for a QuadHD TV and it's likely we won't for a while since we're working on the final three years of our DTV transition, but could you just imagine playing Fight Night 3 on an 8.3 megapixel screen? We'd be down for the count for sure. Read [via i4u]
