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LCDs aiming largely at Plasma space
It wasn't long ago that once you considered a flat-panel over 32-inches or so, plasmas were the way to go. The trend is changing and according to one marketing manager at Sharp, LCDs will become the clear choice in the 37-inch and up flat-panel market. Yes, he is a "a marketing manager", but Sharp is bringing their 8G plant on-line around mid-year and expects larger sized LCDs as a result. Back in the labs, Sharp has prototyped LCD panels with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, but panel size is more likely to contribute to sales than mega-contrast.
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.
New LG PDP and LCDs with HDD
The bookend models aren't included, but LG did include a 250 GB hard drive into their new high-def sets for the Korean market. A 42- and a 50-inch PDP is available in the XCanvas line, while the LCD side of the house adds a 37-, a 42- and a 47-incher. The drive is capable of storing 92 hours of programming, which sounds on the very high side for high-def programs. It's possible that 92 hours is the max for SD recording and that something in the 25 to 30 hour range is available for high-def, but you'll have to forgive us: we skipped class on "Korean translation" day.
Plasma TV's bring McDonalds uptown
You must have noticed that McDonald's is trying to raise their image up a notch or two with healthier foods and better looking restaurants. Apparently, they are even installing plasma TVs to liven up their sometimes stale interior. It is yet to be said if those widescreen TVs will be displaying HDTV, but it at least they look cool hanging on the wall.There are a couple McDonald's that have received "Extreme Makeovers" in my area. It took them 9 months to renovate one urban location and the results were astounding. There is nice tile floor, cool lighting and even a fireplace. It seems to be their new model but we are missing the plasmas. There are TVs, but only a few 20-inch Philips flat screen tubes.Have anyone seen these plasmas in their local Mickey D's? How do they look and is there high definition on them?
Pioneer's Elite PureVision PRO-FHD1 at 1080p
You'll have to wait until June for the Pioneer PRO-FHD1, but hey, that gives you enough time to save up the ten g's for it, no? We mentioned this fifty-incher during CES that's less than half the size of the Panasonic 103-inch PDP yet less than 10% of the price at $10k. Now we have to wonder why a recent press release only mentions Blu-Ray discs. OK, we get the fact that Pioneer is in the Blu-Ray camp, but does it really make sense to write HD-DVD off when your HDTV set will play those discs too?
LG's "Time Machine" tripling PDP sales
Those South Korean consumers just love time travel if PDP sales are any indicator. Ok, we actually call DVR-usage "time-shifting", but the whole time travel thing just sounds so much more advanced. The DVR functionality for LG's plasmas helped boost PDP sales in their home country from 30,000 units in 2004 to 100,000 units in 2005. We'd hop into our time machine to check 2006 year-end sales, but we figure there's no need; it's a safe bet that flat-panel sales growth will continue to increase since LG plans to intro commercial skipping on all LCDs 37-inches or bigger by mid-year.
HDTV we most want to see at CES
Unless we get some other killer pre-announcement, we're simply salivating over LG's Wireless 50-inch Plasma set that we pre-pre-mentioned back in November. The set uses only a single cable (for the power), which trumps our WMCE and XBox 360 WiFi set up we use for high-def. You can bet we'll do jumping-jacks in front of the wireless transmitter to "scientifically challenge" LG's set up. Watch your local news for Richard Simmons-like bloggers jumping around on the CES floor; if they broadcast it in HD, PVR it for us, wouldja?
Norcent can't wait for CES
So like, can someone remind us why we're traveling to Las Vegas this week? The way these electronics manufacturers keep pre-announcing their announcements, are we just flying out for the free peanuts? Add Norcent to the growing list; they've got a new line of LCDs and Plasmas to show us and in funky CE fashion, the line is hard to pronounce. The VION collection (say it with me people: Veé-ohn) is for the fashionista that craves HD. The LCD line comes in three flavors; 20-, 27- and 32-inches and ranges in price from $650 to $1,300. The VION plasmas had a growth spurt over their LCD bretheren and top out at 42- and 50-inches. The 10,000:1 contrast ratio is particularly appealing in these PDPs but we'll just have to get a look-see later this week at the Norcent booth.The smaller PDP will set you back $2,400 or so; Norcent hasn't decided on the 50-inch price point, but you can bet we'll ask; for a price or a demo set. (Thanks Dave!)
How not to buy a Plasma
Some folks found this one out the hard way, but we'll recap it for you so you don't become a PDP victim. A restaurant owner was phoned from one of his establishment's suppliers; the caller indicated that he had a good deal on some 50-inch Pioneer plasmas. A few phone calls later yielded a rock-bottom price of five-grand for three sets. The caller scammer then suggested they meet at Sears where the sets were overstocked. Five g's were handed over for a Sears receipt, only it wasn't (you guessed it) legit.When the restaurant owner went inside to get the goods, the scammer fled the scene as did the dough. Right off the bat, if I owned a restaurant, I would have questioned why Sears was supplying me with anything, but that's just me. Secondly, who has overstocks on hot flat-panel HDTV sets with demand going through the roof?
More Plasmas to come from Matsushita
Matsushita, Panasonic's parent company, announced earlier today that they were going to triple the amount of plasmas in the European market. That just makes us here at HD Beat smile. They already have the 27% of the world wide market, but recently LG announced they are going to over take that. Panasonic responded by saying they are going to pump out 500,000 in Europe by March 2006. Not only that, they are going to drop the prices in Europe just as they did in the US this week.Like we have said before, the only winners in price wars...is us!
Panasonic drops prices on best selling plasmas
There is nothing better then a nice price drop on great TVs. Panasonic is lowering the price on their best selling TVs up to a $1,000. From the 37-inch model all the way up to the big 50-inch are going to see price drops by September 1st. This would bring the price of the best selling plasma on the market, TH-42PD50U, under $2,000 for the first time and can be found lower even at brick and mortar stores like Circuit City. We were giddy about the upcoming price drop on LCDs, but hey, this is nice too.
Dell beats Sony...in TVs
Well it looks like the company that brought us the venerable Trinitron might lose the plasma battle. In a four city survey, consumers preferred Dell’s W4200HD (Dell?!?) over Sony’s KDE-42XS955. You might be asking “Why would Sony lose this battle of the PDPs?” Those that were surveyed only had the picture quality and price to choose for the one they would purchase. The administrators of the test quoted them a price “around $4,000” for the Sony and “about $2,800” for the Dell. Of course they choose the Dell in overwhelming numbers, which has a great picture but moreover, a great price. It is interesting to note that as I am linking the models to this article, the Sony online price is not $4,000 but rather $5,499. I can tell you that Sony TVs have always been overpriced and their slim selection of Plasmas is no exception. The XS series never has gained a foothold in the plasma market due to its price. I know that I would not spend the extra cash just to have something that says Sony on it. Would you?
Plasma HD sales overtake RPTVs worldwide
Is this a sign of things to come? According to DisplaySearch, overall PDP sales were up 89% last quarter in comparison to last year's second quarter. 1.13 million PDPs were sold in the quarter and PDPs now account for 2.9% of the worldwide television market. In comparison, Rear-Projection TVs (RPTVs) lost market share, going from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent.Other than in North America, PDPs are outselling RPTVs due primarily to larger screen demand. North America seems to favor 50-inch sets or larger, while the rest of the world craves smaller and less expensive sets. At least I live on the right continent; bigger is better!This is a bit of shocker to me for a couple of reasons. Where do the other flat panel sets come into play? Is Plasma the set of the future, or will LCDs continue to gain market share also? I don't see DLP on the way out simply because the new DLP chip supports 1080 vertical lines of resolution. I also expect SEDs to begin grabbing serious market share in the next two to three years. Thoughts?
Plasma TVs are the best, so the study says
Funded research studies are a hot topic on Jason's blog. Now I see that Pioneer paid the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) for a research study on plasma sets in comparison to LCD and DLP. The study findings are available at no charge and were released in tandem with a new Pioneer plasma product announcement.The 16-page Adobe PDF study is worth a read. There are some great tests and findings on burn-in rates, contrast, black levels, brightness over time and more. Those reasons alone might help a consumer understand some of the technical gibberish that we all take for granted. The issue I have is that I knew what the study findings would be even before I read them. How did I know? Simple: Pioneer only produces plasma sets and Pioneer paid for the study, so the result could be none other than "Plasma TVs are the best." Like I said, the study is worth a read, it's the result that raises my eyebrow. I'm all for product testing and information passing to the consumer. Let's be wary of our nomenclature though, product manufacturers. Paid "research studies" should be called one thing and one thing only: sponsored statements with some science to back them up, i.e., advertising.
New Plasma series from Pioneer
Funny thing about HDTV manufacturers; as soon as one announces new products, the others aren't far behind. Following yesterday's new Samsung line news, Pioneer says they have a new line too. The 6th generation Pioneer PureVision Plasmas are hitting the store shelves in September.The PDP-5060HD and PDP-4360HD will set you back around $6,000 for the 50-inch model and $4,500 for the 43-inch model. Both sets have some advanced features including Pioneer's Advanced PureCinema II, which is known as 3:3 pulldown. TV-Guide-on-Screen with eight days of programming and multiple HDMI inputs add to the expected standard features.No additional details or specifications are available on Pioneer's site as of yet. They claim that their new Crystal Emissive Layer and PureDrive II circuitry bring improved contrast ratios and better black levels, so we'll have to wait and see. All of the big trademarks sound impressive enough, but it's the picture that matters.
