HD EVENT: MITSUBISHI 2005 LINE SHOW
On April 8, Mitsubishi rolled out their 2005 lineup of HDTVs in Orlando, and there were quite a few surprises on hand – some obvious, some not so obvious.
I have been attending Mitsubishi’s annual line show event for several years and they always put out the red carpet for journalists. This year’s event was staged at the six month-old Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, just a few miles down I-4 from Walt Disney World.
Mitsubishi has long been known for their high-end line of rear projection TVs. Over the past couple of years, the company has been transitioning away from CRT to microdisplay technology, also adding a line of flat panel LCD and plasma monitors.
The highlight of last year’s line show was Mitsubishi’s full line of 720p RPTVs, all using Texas Instruments’ DLP technology. So it was a bit of a shock when I found out that a scant twelve months later, Mitsubishi had turned away from DLP in favor of polysilicon LCD for all of their new 720p RPTVs. (That marriage didn’t last long, did it?)
Figure 1. Mitsubishi WD-52527 52-inch
LCD RPTVs
have a dynamic iris and 1280x720 resolution.
That’s not to say that Mitsubishi has given up on DLP – far from it. Instead, they also unveiled a line of 1080P DLP RPTVs. Gone are the “silver’ and “gold” series monikers. Instead, there are two classes of 1080p displays – the basic models, and “Diamond” models. Note that all 720p and 1080p models are CableCARD-ready and include ATSC tuners, IEEE1394 connections, Gemstar’s TV Guide On Screen OSD, NetCommand 5.0, and are tabletop designs.
The 720p sets are intriguing, starting with the WD-52527 (52-inch) at a suggested value price of $3,199 and continuing through another 52-inch model and a pair of 62-inch versions. Top price in this category is $3,999. Two of the models (WD-52528 and WD-62528) incorporate Mitsubishi’s new DeepField dynamic gamma system, and all four employ a dynamic shutter for continuous adjustment of the LCD grayscale and ‘darker’ black levels.
Why the move to LCD engines? Because it lets Mitsubishi compete better on price with other models of RPTVs. While there are plenty of DLP-equipped rear projection TVs out there, Sony still managed to hang on to the #1 spot in sales of microdisplay RPTVs in 2004, using (you guessed it) LCD technology. Evidently, some highly placed executive at Mitsubishi headquarters in Japan wants a piece of that action!
Figure 2. Mitsubishi’s WD-73727 73-inch RPTV
The 1080p ‘basic’ sets also come in 52-inch and 62-inch sizes and range from $3,799 for the WD-52627 (52-inch) to $4,699 for the WD-62628 (62-inch). There’s also a 73-inch version, the WD-73727 ($5,799). The Diamond series of 1080p TVs include 160GB or 250 GB digital video recorders and come in two sizes – 62-inch, and 73-inch. The fun starts with the $5,799 WD-62827 and goes all the way up to the 73-inch WD-74927 at $7,999.
Mitsubishi has rounded out its offerings with three new LCD TVs, also digital cable and ATSC-ready and carrying the Gemstar TV Guide. The LT-3280 ($4,299) is a 32-inch set with black bezel, as is the 37-inch LT-3780 ($5,299). There will also be a 42-inch offering, the LT-4260 ($8,499) with the same bells and whistles.
I’m not sure why Mitsubishi wants to get into the already-cluttered 32-inch LCD TV market with such an expensive product. Indeed, you can find plenty of 32-inch LCD TVs with analog tuners for well under $2,000, and CableCARD-ready models with TV Guide and IEEE1394 interfaces are already on shelves at major retailers for $2,700.
Figure 3. The LT-3780 37-inch integrated
LCD TV
can sit on a stand, or hang on the wall.
Bringing up the rear are two existing plasma monitors (PD-5050, 50 inches, $6,499 and PD-6150, 61 inches, $11,999) and a couple of new offerings. The PD-4265 is a 42-inch HD (1024x768) monitor with HDMI input, black bezel, speakers, and stand, while the PD-5065 is a 50-inch product (1365x768) with the same accoutrements. They will sell for $4,299 and $6,999 respectively when they hit stores in late summer.
Here’s a question for you: Why don’t these new plasma monitors, which are fourth-generation Mitsubishi products, include digital and analog TV tuners when every other model in the 2005 line does?
None of the Mitsubishi execs really had a good answer for me, although the words “aimed at the hang-on the-wall-market” were heard. Fine and dandy, except that two integrated digital LCD TVs in the 2005 line – the LT-3780 and LT-4260 – are also candidates for wall mounting, and they have on-board tuners.
Another question: How long does Mitsubishi plan to support two different 42-inch flat panel digital TVs that have a $4,200 price spread? CableCARD 42-inch HD plasma TVs are already available in abundance for $3,500, with some well under $3,000.
Figure 4. Mitsubishi’s fourth-generation
plasma displays are still missing internal
digital TV tuners, although they do come with stands and speakers.
All of these new TVs had nice styling and design. The picture quality wasn’t too shabby either, although many of the sets were set up too bright and contrasty with lots of edge enhancement. The bulk of the 1080i clips shown were animated material, such as Robots – fun to look at, but not much of a workout for these displays.
I would have liked to see more live fast-motion sports material demonstrated, content that is usually rich in interlaced scan and motion artifacts. Mitsubishi touts their 1080p display capabilities and one of the executive presentations talked about “being ready for 1080p programming”.
Well, good luck waiting for it. All major cable, satellite, and terrestrial networks working with the 1920x1080 format use 1080i/30 for live sports and event acquisition, production, and transmission, as do studio and remote production truck cameras. 1080p/60 sure would be an improvement, but the extreme data rate (over 2.5 Gb/s uncompressed), MPEG2 compression limitations, and restricted transmission bandwidth kinda rule it out for now.
Besides, we already have a perfectly good, fast-refresh progressive-scan HD format – 720p/60, which is tailor-made for sports. ABC, ESPN HD, and Fox are already showing just how good this format can look and how it is well-suited to the vast majority of HDTV sets both in use and available for sale.