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CEDIA EXPO 2004: HOP ON THE BANDWAGON |
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There’s no question that Cedia Expo has gone ‘mainstream’, what with over 24,000 attendees this year. If there are any projector, interface, RPTV, or flat-panel manufacturers that haven’t exhibited at the show by now, they are in a small minority. There were so many exhibit booths that the show spilled
into an upstairs ballroom and even a few conference rooms, not to mention
all of the off-site product demonstrations. Cedia Expo is truly bursting
at the seams and apparently has one more year left on its run in Indy,
then it’s off to Denver for 2006.
There weren’t too many “oh, wow!” demos at the show, aside from Silicon Optix’ launch of their Realta HQV video processor. This is basically the Teranex 3 rack unit broadcast-quality image processor condensed down to a single ASIC, and they’ll start popping up in consumer TVs in the next year. The Realta HQV is an amazing processor and lets you control
an almost-infinite number of image parameters (motion compensation,
cadence detection, chroma sampling errors, edge sharpness, color correction)
with all upgrades coming from software. Right now, it just leaves Faroudja/Genesis
and Silicon Image processing in the dust.
TRENDS Like We Didn’t See It Coming: As expected, Sony launched a rear-projection TV using their 1920x1080 Qualia LCoS panels (KDS-70XBR100) and a 200W lamp, with a price target of about $10K. But they didn’t show their 40-inch and 46-inch LCD TVs with LumiLEDs backlights. Who’s Your Daddy: The interbreeding
among plasma manufacturers continues. Samsung showed
a 55-inch HPP5581 ($9,999) integrated CableCARD plasma
TV. This particular PDP glass array comes out of the Fujitsu-Hitachi
factory in Japan and also popped up in the Yamaha booth
(as their PDM-5520) and Hitachi’s
booth.
What goes around comes around: Fujitsu had the 63-inch P63HXA30WS plasma in their booth, using the Samsung 63-inch PDP. (Last time I checked, it was priced at $24,999.) Fujitsu has also upgraded their 55-inch P55HXA40US (no price yet). It incorporates the new AVM II video processor, e-ALiS pixel imaging, and a new cabinet design. We’re Number Two: Cermax, a division
of PerkinElmer, had a private demo at Club Unique of a xenon-lamped
rear-projection DLP TV to prove that xenon is practical and cost-competitive
with UHP and similar mercury lamps for both rear and front projection
systems. It will be an uphill battle.
That’s Our Final Offer (Until Tomorrow): What was even more interesting was the clear evidence of downward price pressure on all kinds of display products from front LCD and DLP projectors to plasma and LCD TVs. This is a direct result of competition from Internet sales and aggressive marketing by companies in Taiwan and China. Some manufacturers refuse to acknowledge this fact and
persist in maintaining a “Cedia channel-only” distribution
model. But we’ve already seen drastic price cuts in flat panels
since CES 2004, no doubt influenced by huge production lines spewing
out LCD and plasma glass.
Example: ViewSonic had the N3200W, a 32-inch LCD monitor, out for inspection at a price-busting $2,699 MSRP. (There’s also a companion NTSC/ATSC set-top receiver to go with it.) In contrast, Hitachi’s 32-inch 32HDL51 LCD TV, which uses essentially the same glass, will hit the streets at $3,999, as will Toshiba’s 32HXL84 version. Example: Panasonic plans to limit distribution
of their new 65-inch TH-65XVS30U Onyx VS integrated
plasma TV ($19,995) to the Cedia channel. How long will that last? Six
months? Three months? You can buy NEC 61-inch and Samsung 63-inch plasma
monitors right now for under $10K with judicious shopping, and they
are both large enough to be considered “installation” products.
I’m Not Going to Pay a Lot for This Projector: Sharp’s new XV-Z2000 front DLP projector uses a 1280x720 DMD, delivers 1200 lumens, and is priced at $4,499. That’s a significant price cut from other single-chip 720p models (something you’d expect Optoma or BenQ to do, not Sharp) and may be one answer to the question, “why settle for 576p DLP resolution at $5K if you can have 1280x720 LCD for half the price?” Plug and Play, Albeit One Way: Another
trend at Cedia Expo was the migration to integrated digital TVs, most
of which will offer the one-way CableCARD slot. Depending on which industry
pundit you spoke with, there is a wide range of opinions about how successful
one-way CableCARD sets will be, what with video-on-demand (VOD) and
other cable services growing in popularity. Those services require a
two-way set-top box.
Hold the phone! At least one major cable service provider plans to purge all NTSC channels from all of its systems nationwide over the next two years to free up more desperately needed digital bandwidth. This action would immediately heighten interest in CableCARD
TVs, particularly for the large number of ‘basic cable’
subscribers who don’t want a set-top box, have no
interest in two-way services, and have been quite happily using
plug-and-play NTSC TV sets. Keep an eye on sales trends of Digital Cable
Ready (DCR) sets in about a year….
LG Electronics is now shipping three CableCARD plasma TVs: The 42-inch DU-42PY10X ($5,499), the 50-inch DU-50PY10 ($6,999), and the 60-inch DU-60PY10 ($14,999). All three were the only digital TVs at Cedia Expo to use the new 5th generation 8VSB chipsets, which have amazing multipath correction performance. In LG/Zenith demos I saw this past spring, simulated multipath/echo
environments were so bad that analog reception was simply impossible.
8VSB reception on 4th generation receivers (today’s models) was
good, but had significant dropout.
In contrast, the 5th generation LG/Zenith receiver simply chugged along without a care in the world. Combine that level of performance with full dynamic program guide for over-the-air broadcasts (as recently mandated by the FCC, starting in February, 2005) and an integrated CableCARD/terrestrial digital TV set starts to look like a real winner to the consumer. For the fans of still-expensive LCD technology, LG showed
the 42-inch DU-42LZ30 ($7,999) alongside 30-inch (DU-30LZ30,
$3,199) and 37-inch (DU-37LZ30, $5,999) models. LG’s
new 71-inch plasma monitor now has a model number – it’s
the MW-71PY10 (no price yet) and offers 1920x1080 native
resolution.
Sharp showed an integrated 45-inch LCD TV, the LC-45GX6U ($8,499), with 1920x1080 resolution and CableCARD and ATSC tuners. There are several configurations with speakers and inboard or outboard AV switching. Want other sizes? Sharp also demo’ed the 37-inch LC-37GD6U ($6,499), the 32-inch LC-32GD6U ($4,999), and the 26-inch LC-26GD6U ($3,499). All three are CableCARD and ATSC ready. Over in the plasma arena, Pioneer announced
a pair of Elite PureVision plasma monitors that have the new ISF C3
calibration mode. The PRO-810HD is a 43-inch model
with 1024x768 resolution and the PRO-1010HD is sized
at 50” with 1280x768 pixels. MSRPs are $9,000 and $12,000 respectively.
Two other ISF C3 plasma TVs (PRO-920HD, $10,500 and
PRO-1120HD, $13,500) incorporate CableCARD and ATSC
tuners.
Cedia channel newcomer NEC has revamped its line of plasma monitors with four new Showcase-series models. The 42VR5 ($2,995) is an EDTV model with 853x480 pixel resolution, while the 42XR3 ($5,795) has 1024x768 capability. The 50-inch space is covered by the 50XR4 ($7,995) and the 61-inch 61XR3 ($14,995) tops off the line. Samsung also unveiled 42-inch (HPP4261,
$5,499) and 37-inch (HPP3761, $3,999) plasma monitors
to complement the line, and went Sharp one better with the 46-inch LPT468W
LCD monitor ($9,999) featuring 1920x1080 picture resolution. One caveat:
Samsung called this product a “TV” in their news release,
but it does not have a CableCARD or ATSC tuner.
Rear-projection TV was another “happening” area. Toshiba is rolling out several new DLP sets (funny how fast they forgot about LCoS) using a new light engine and the Texas Instruments HD2+ chip and DC projection lamp technology, something I haven’t seen since the late 1990s. Look for the 52HMX84 at $3,799 and the 62HXM84 at $4,299. LG showed the 52-inch DU-52SZ61D,
which has that 5th-gen 8VSB chipset and the 1280x720 HD2+ imager, plus
a 1394 connection and HDMI. It’ll go for $4,199. Panasonic
pulled the wraps off three new LCD rear projectors, the 43-inch PT-43LCX64
($2,799), the 50-inch PT-50LCX64 ($3,299), and the
60-inch PT-60LCX64 ($3,999). All three use 1280x720
panels.
Epson has updated their Livingstation
line of ink jet photo printer-equipped LCD RPTVs with the 47-inch LS47P2
($3,199) and 57-inch LS57P2 ($3,699). RCA
put the spotlight on their 61-inch super slim HD61THW263
($9,999), a hang-it-up DLP set that’s just under 7 inches deep.
InFocus had a similar model, the ScreenPlay 61MD10
($8,999) and a 50-inch version, the 50MD10 ($6,999).
(Guess who makes the imaging engine for RCA? Read the previous sentence
again. You’re getting warmer….)
In front projection, there seems to be a logjam developing in the ‘value’ space. Epson’s PowerLite Cinema 200+ retails at $2,699 and is rated at 1500 lumens. There’s also a Cinema 500 version coming. NEC has jumped on the low-cost home theater projection bandwagon with the Showcase HT410 (854x480, $1,495) and HT510 (1024x576, $1,995). Both use DLP technology. Digital Projection had the iVision HD-7
(no price yet) on display. It uses a seven-segment color wheel and TI’s
HD2+ 1280x720 DMD. They’ve also got a new SXGA+ (1400x1050) skew,
the iVision SX+ (again, no price yet). A remarkably
similar-looking product could be found just outside the RCA Dome exhibit
area in projectiondesign USA’s booth, branded
as the Action! Model One MKII ($10,995).
Wrapping things up, Optoma had the single-chip DLP H77 set up in their screening room. (This chassis is also being sold by Mitsubishi as their model HD2000 for $10K). The ever-popular H56 now has an upgrade to the H57 (1024x576 DLP, no price) and a new 3500 lumens 1024x768 DLP projector (EP759) tips the scales at just under 8 pounds. ODDS AND ENDS Dish Network is getting into the flat panel biz with 30-inch and 40-inch models. Why?…Philips’ Cineos 44-inch and 55-inch LCoS TVs have potential, but need serious help with image quality, even in HD modes. But their MiraVision mirror/TVLCD displays were pretty cool…InFocus rolled out a 3-panel LCD projector for hardcore video game players under $4K…Faroudja now has a 1080p video processor, the DVP1080, plus a 1080p package with JVC’ recently-launched 2K LCoS front projector. So, why not a DLP package?…Terk was showing a couple of new UHF and VHF/UHF antennas for DTV reception that resembled the Antiference Silver Sensor. Kaleidiscape now has support for 720p and 1080i HD content on their K2500 Digital Movie Player, using factory pre-loaded Disk Cartridges. The server also comes with a 720p version of Digital Video Essentials…ViewSonic has a NTSC/ATSC set-top box for $399…Texas Instruments now identifies its different DMD chipsets by resolution and ‘dark’ matrix (ie 576p Dark Chip I, 720p Dark Chip II). Describing the line-up is like reciting episodes from Star Wars movies (who gets to play ‘Dark Chip?’) Aurora Multimedia now has a video scaler, the DIDO, with output resolutions to 1920x1080 and HCDP support…Gefen now makes a full line of DVI splitters and DAs, plus DVI to HDMI adapters… Panasonic’s DMR-E500H can record up to 709 hours of standard-definition TV. Two questions: (1) Why not support HD recording, if the hard drive is that large (400 GB)? (2) Who has time to watch 700 hours of TV in the first place? |
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