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Panasonic 1080p VIERA PZ600 plasma HDTVs coming in September
Panasonic (Matsushita) showed off their long-awaited 1080p plasma HDTVs today, and unlike their smaller 1366x768 1080p-compatible LCD cousins shown off earlier this month these VIERA PZ600 sets give you every pixel of 1920x1080 high-def goodness. From the baby 50-inch to the mammoth 103-inch (which is already on sale & built to order, hopefully they bring it over here as well), they include not only full HD, but also their VIERA Link HDMI control system, 4000:1 contrast ratio and Panasonic's new 1080p PEAKS 16-bit video processing which they say will improve video scaling and provide blacker blacks. They are very proud of the fact that these HDTVs will display 100% more shades of gradation than the old TH-PX500 plasmas, as opposed to the 50% jump claimed in the PX600 series. The PEAKS system also powers the included Wide Intelligent TV Program Guide, for use with the included terrestrial, satellite and digital broadcast tuners. If that isn't enough for you, they've also thrown in an SD card reader and three 1080p HDMI inputs on each set. It appears that the just-released Pioneer PRO-FHD1 1080p plasma will be bested shortly when these are released on September 1. With a higher contrast ratio, additional features and much lower estimated price, the TH-50PZ600 could make a much more attractive prospect if/when it hits American shores. They will definitely all look good with your DMP-BD10 & friends. Check below for more pics.Estimated prices courtesy of AV Watch: 50-inch TH-50PZ600 - $5,138.30US 58-inch TH-58PZ600 - $7,279.26US 65-inch TH-65PZ600 - $8,478.20US 103-inch TH-103PZ600: $51,383.04US
Panasonic's 32 and 26-inch Viera LCD televisions
Panasonic just slipped a couple more LCD panels into their Viera line-up of televisions. Both the 32-inch TH-32LX65 and 26-inch TH-26LX65 feature a 1366x768 pixel resolution, 178-degree visibility, and a single HDMI-in on top of a slathering of Japanese D4, composite, S-Video, digital optical and Ethernet connections. And yeah, it integrates seamlessly with Panny's Viera Link HDMI remote for universal control over your HDMI-equipped home entertainment center. Both the 32 and 26-inchers will begin shipping in Japan on September 1st for ¥250,000 (about $2,193) and ¥210,000 (about $1,843), respectively.
Matsushita's biggest eva
It took a while for them to get all 103 of those inches in order -- we first saw this display in January at CES, and were promised a 2006 release in April -- but Matsushita is finally ready to sell their "world's biggest plasma" to well-heeled customers with large empty spaces on their walls. At 473 pounds, you'd better hope that's an incredibly strong wall, but as for price we're still in the dark. With a 1080p resolution, and a 3000:1 contrast ratio, the only display that comes close to this is Samsung's 102-incher, but not only does it miss a whole inch of real estate, Samsung still hasn't offered theirs up for sale yet. Around 5,000 of these will be made each year, so if you want to nab one by the holidays we recommend you pull out an indescribably large wad of cash and head on over to Japan before we beat you to it.
Matsushita puts plasma factories at full capacity
We can see it now. Some Japanese suit steps out on a balcony overlooking an endless factory filled with workers in hard hats and yells "Full steam ahead!" (in Japanese of course) The convey belts then start to speed up and their hands move at a now rapid pace while they all start whistling "Whistle While You Work" However it happened, Matsushita, Panasonics parent company, is now cranking out their plasmas at full capacity making their annual output at nearly 5.52 million units. This comes ahead of schedule as well. Originally this was going to happen in July but some big wig decided that now is the time. Perhaps they are thinking that Christmas is going to come early this year or they want to be ahead of the game for the holiday season.
Blu-ray MPEG-4, BD-J tools on the way from Matsushita (Panasonic) [Update 1]
The early impressions of Sony's initial Blu-ray releases are in and as you may have heard, they aren't so good. Many have pointed the blame at Sony's insistence on using MPEG-2 instead of the newer and more easily compressed MPEG-4. One of the reasons they cited for sticking with the older format was their insistence that the MPEG-4 authoring tools available were not of sufficient quality.Whether that is true or not, Matsushita (Panasonic) has announced their own set of MPEG-4 Blu-ray encoder and authoring tools, which support Java (BD-J) for the interactive features Blu-ray is also capable of. According to what we can interpret of the press release, this will be available July 1st in United States yet Panasonic's (US) web site has no mention of it yet. Also no mention of cost or license fees, although this probably won't be on the shelf at CompUSA anytime soon.Regardless, considering the apparent state of Blu-ray releases, we can't say for sure how much of the problem is the codec but one has to wonder how many discs will be released using the older technology if they continue to get poor reviews. Rumors have indicated the authoring tools made available by Sony support only MPEG-2 and for that reason all the studios have been using them. It will be interesting to see if there is any release date reshuffling of content in the same way some players have slipped, or if the other studios are able to get better results using Sony's own tools.[Via AV Watch][Update] HDTV UK has more information on the MPEG-4 equipment available soon at the Panasonic Hollywood Library in California.
Pioneer ejects DVD recorder business
The invisible hand of capitalism has pushed yet another major electronics manufacturer from one of its traditional businesses, as declining profits and product commodification have convinced Pioneer Corp. to drop out of the DVD recorder game. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun is reporting that its recording division's recent cash hemorrhaging has convinced the company which "pioneered" the commercial burner to cut its losses and form a strategic partnership with Panasonic-parent Matsushita, whose next-gen optical disc technology may help Pioneer succeed in the decidedly less-crowded Blu-ray recorder market. Pioneer will now begin to shift its focus to its more profitable in-vehicle electronics division, which is responsible for many of the popular navigation and in-dash entertainment products on the worldwide market.
NEC and Matsushita feel the love, cooperate on phone development
In the cutthroat mobile industry, sometimes it's better to make love, not war. NEC and Matsushita (better known by its biggest brand, Panasonic), sustaining heavy losses in their bids to make an honest buck against larger rivals, have drawn that conclusion and announced a broad-scale collaboration on phone development. Details of the collaboration are ambiguous at best, but NEC president Kaoru Yano insists the brands will not merge, a la Sony Ericsson. Insiders are suggesting, however, that a three-way deal involving Matsushita, NEC, and Texas Instruments is nearing completion and will produce a new joint venture to manufacture 3G chipsets and software. Hey guys, we have an idea to help you on your road to profitability -- how about a North American phone or two?
AVCHD format will enable 8cm DVD-equipped HD camcorders
Sony and Panasonic-parent Matsushita have teamed up to develop an encoding format based on MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 that will enable future camcorders to capture HD footage directly to standard 8-centimeter DVDs. Called "AVCHD," the new format is able to handle numerous resolution/frame-rate combinations, including 480i at 60fps, 720p at 24, 50, or 60fps, and 1080p at 24fps (or 1080i for 50fps and 60fps configurations), and can encode audio in either 5.1 channel AC-3 or up to 7.1 channel Linear PCM. The advantages of this format over the current HDV scheme used with MiniDV cassettes aren't exactly clear -- although you are getting random scene access thanks to the nature of optical discs, recording time is cut down from around an hour with MiniDV to only 20 minutes at the AVCHD "average setting." Even worse, DVD players will require special software in order to read discs containing content encoded in the new format, and even then, they will obviously only play back at a maximum resolution of 480p.[Via PCWorld]
Matsushita regains PDP lead
After losing the title of "PDP market share leader" to Samsung late in 2004, the parent company of Panasonic reclaimed the PDP title in the last quarter of 2005. Matsushita opened up new fabrication plants and is riding strong demand for it's Panasonic brand plasma set. In terms of PDPs supplied, the company took the lead with a 28% share over Samsung's 26.7%. LG is close behind Samsung with a 25.6% share for the quarter.Even more amazing is that HD plasmas outsold ED plasmas for the first time since 2003. With prices dropping as quickly as they are, there aren't many good reasons for an EDTV purchase these days, except in the case of a secondary set or if your budget still isn't ready for a full-blown HD set just yet.
