Business News Holding

Tag: flat-panel

  • JVC Launches Full HD LCD Monitor Targeted at Digital SLR Users


    JVC is launching a super slim 42-inch LCD TV monitor that features a color space that is wider than a typical HDTV’s.

    The company says this effectively means the JVC Xiview LT-42WX70 has established a new category in flat panel TV design.

    It is being targeted at digital imaging professionals and enthusiasts using high-end digital SLR cameras.

    JVC claims the set allows them for the first time to see the subtle colors, details and textures of their images faithfully reproduced.

    According to a company statement, the monitor features expanded color space capacity encompassing 100 per cent of HDTV broadcasting’s (sRGB.904) color space.

    It also has a coverage rate of 96 per cent for Adobe RGB — a color space for still photographs taken on high-definition digital SLR cameras.

    This allows it to provide accurate reproduction of both video and still photographs.

    Depending on the source signal – video or stills – the user selects a color mode from among Wide (the TV’s color space), Normal (ITU-R BT.709; HDTV standards), x.v.Color (xvYCC extended gamut), sRGB (same primaries as HDTV) and Adobe RGB.

    The LT-42WX70 also features 52 picture-quality adjustment properties for tweaking both still and video images source-by-source to the exact colors and tones the user prefers.

    In addition, JVC’s GENESSA Picture Engine produces video images without blur, color bleed or noise for clear images with smooth movement.

    The JVC LT-42WX70 is available now and is priced at USD $2,399.95.

  • Samsung Announces Next Generation LED HDTVs

    Samsung revealed prices and market availability for its new species of flat-panel TVs, LED HDTV Series 8000, 7000 and 6000.

    The new portfolio of LED HDTVs use edge-mounted LEDs as their primary light source rather than traditional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL).

    All three of Samsung’s LED HDTV Series have Full HD panels, 2ms to 4ms response time, 120 to 240Hz frame interpolation with separate blur and judder adjustments, SRS TruSurround HD, 4 HDMI (HDMI-CEC) version 1.3 inputs and feature USB 2.0 Movie with MPEG4, DivX, MP3, JPEG decoders.

    Product Availability and Pricing (for the U.S. market)

    6000 Series

    • 32-inch class: $1,599.99, June 2009
    • 40-inch class: $2,299.99, March 2009
    • 46-inch class: $2,799.99, March 2009
    • 55-inch class: $3,599.99, March 2009

    7000 Series

    • 40-inch class: $2,499.99, April 2009
    • 46-inch class: $2,999.99, March 2009
    • 55-inch class: $3,799.99, March 2009

    8000 Series

    • 46-inch class: $3,299.99, May 2009
    • 55-inch class: $3,999.99, May 2009

  • Samsung Leading Global TV Brand, Full HDTV Sets Now Fifth of Market


    Samsung has maintained its place as the world’s biggest TV brand for the third year running.

    With a 21.9 per cent market share, the South Korean electronics manufacturer is some way ahead of second placed Sony, according to DisplaySearch.

    The findings are published in the researchers latest Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report.

    They also show that the 1080p share of global TV shipments exceeded 20 per cent of units for the first time in Q4 of 2008.

    China remained the largest market for TVs on a unit basis, accounting for just over 19 per cent, followed by Western Europe and North America at just less than 19 per cent.

    However, on a revenue basis, North America remains the world’s largest TV market despite strong quarter-on-quarter (Q/Q) revenue growth in Western Europe.

    LCD TV picked up market share in every region, with especially strong share gains in China and Eastern Europe.

    As the brand leader, Samsung remains clear at the top, holding its revenue share nearly unchanged at 21.9 per cent, more than 7 share points higher than second placed Sony.

    Sony, however, enjoyed the strongest share growth and Q/Q revenue growth among the top five.

    Samsung was also the overall unit shipment leader and was in the top three rankings in each technology category (except OLED) and led LCD TV shipments.

    Sony enjoyed strong Q/Q revenue growth, but its year-on-year (Y/Y) revenues declined by 7 per cent due to ASP erosion. LGE rounded out the top three TV brands worldwide at 11.5 per cent revenue share.

    It also maintained a very slight advantage over Samsung in the high growth emerging market segment.

    The report also showed that despite the difficult economy and concerns about consumer spending, demand for larger screen sizes grew during Q4 2008.

    The share of TVs shipped at 40"+ screen sizes reached an all-time high of 23 per cent, up from 19 per cent in Q3 2008 and 18 per cent in Q4 2007.

    This was largely the result of significant discounts by manufacturers and retailers, both hoping to avoid excessive inventory after the holidays.

    The volume weighted average price for 32"+ TVs fell 19 per cent Y/Y during Q4 2008, while under 32" was unchanged from a year ago.

    Global TV shipments fell more than 5 per cent Y/Y in the last quarter of 2008 to 57.7M units from more than 60M units a year earlier.

    This is the first Y/Y decline in total TV shipments for more than two years.

    Due to ASP declines, total TV revenues fell even more, declining by 7 per cent to just over USD $30 billion despite flat panel technologies picking up more than 10 per cent unit share.

    Combined flat panel TV revenues — which includes LCD, plasma and OLED technologies — posted the first annual decline in a given quarter, falling 3 per cent Y/Y despite 17 per cent growth in unit volume with falling prices affecting revenues.

    Globally, flat panel TV share surged from 57 per cent in Q3 200808 to 66 per cent in Q4 2008 as rapidly falling LCD prices stimulated a shift from CRT to LCD, especially at smaller screen sizes under 40".

    Annual LCD TV shipment results for 2008 as a whole were 105M units, up 33 per cent Y/Y.

    DisplaySearch said the positive results also pushed LCD TV past CRT TV worldwide for the first time on an annual basis and mark significant progress in the transition from tube to flat panel technologies.

  • Samsung Promises Thinnest Ever HDTV


    Samsung is to unveil a flat-panel HDTV measuring a waif-like 6.5-millimeters at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

    The TV set is reported to be between 6.5mm and 7mm across its width and has an LED (light emitting diode) backlight.

    There are suggestions that the TV tuner is not actually in Samsung’s set – located instead in a base station.

    That aside, if the dimensions are confirmed it would be the thinnest LCD TV yet demonstrated.

    Currently that accolade is held by Philips, which unveiled an 8mm prototype LCD television at the IFA electronics show in Berlin last year.

    At the same event Sony showed a 9.9mm set that is already available – making it the thinnest LCD TV in retail stores.

    Samsung has a news conference for Wednesday at which the TV set is expected to take centre stage.

  • Good hotel? Then today's guests expect HDTV

    Demand for best quality TVs will spur global hotel sales to 9.7 million sets by 2012, with growth in Asia a major stimulus

    Hotels upgrading old CRT-TVs in guest rooms to flat-panel HDTV sets will cause global hotel TV sales to reach 9.7 million by 2012, according to research.

    A report by analysts iSuppli says that worldwide macroeconomic fundamentals suggest that the hotel market will continue growing for the next few years despite the economic woes affecting many western nations.

    It said that a greater appetite for luxury accommodation was leading to rising occupancy and increased travel rates among both business people and consumers.

    Hoteliers are noting that their guests desire more than just the standard hospitality elements that satisfied them in the past, like CRT-TVs.

    Instead they are switching to Flat Panel Display (FPD) TVs, paralleling the shift that is occurring among consumers.
    Sanju Khatri, principal analyst for projection and large-screen displays at iSuppli, said this was mostly due to increasing disposable income in the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) region,

    She said the Asian market also is becoming a hotbed of hospitality growth because of an unprecedented upsurge in business travel to the region.
    “This is mostly due to strong demand from hotels in metropolitan areas such as Shanghai, Beijing, Macau, Bangalore and Mumbai,” she said.

    Khatri said that most luxury and mid-scale hotels now are offering guests a variety of in-room entertainment options, such as high definition television (HDTV), Video on Demand (VOD) and video games.

    By offering these types of quality in-room entertainment services they are hoping to capture more in-room entertainment revenue, differentiate their brands and ensure greater guest satisfaction.

    Business guests increasingly are bringing their partners or families along with them as they travel, creating mini-vacations by extending their business stays by a few days.

    Because of this, hoteliers are adjusting their approach to suit entertainment and leisure interests rather than simply catering to a business mindset.
    “Which has prompted hoteliers to turn to larger-sized displays with higher resolutions to provide a theatre-like experience inside their hotel rooms,” said Khatri.

    iSuppli’s forecast of global hotel TV shipments will grow to 9.7 million units by 2012, managing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 61.5 per cent from 894,527 units in 2007.

    The revenue growth also is expected to reach US$2.3 billion by 2012, up from US$1.1 billion in 2007.
    The Asia/Pacific region will generate the highest percentage growth for hotel TV shipments over the next few years.
    Shipments are expected to rise to 1.3 million units in 2012, increasing at a CAGR of 90 per cent from 52,031 units in 2007.

    In the EMEA region, a much larger hotel TV market than the Asia Pacific, shipments will rise to 3.0 million units in 2012, increasing at a CAGR of 72 per cent from 199,470 units in 2007.

    By 2012, EMEA will surpass North America as the world’s largest region for hotel TV shipments.
    When the US switches to a digital TV service February 2009, iSuppli expects to see more hoteliers-including lower-end lodging-to adopt HD service and flat-panel displays.

  • Gas released from HDTVs potentially far worse for climate change than CO2










    A gas used in the production of flat-panel displays for HDTVs is 17,200 times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a hundred-year period than carbon dioxide, the gas most associated with global warming.
    Michael Prather, of the University of California at Irvine, has completed a study into nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), which he describes as the “missing greenhouse gas”.
    Yet the synthetic chemical produced in industrial quantities is not included in the Kyoto Protocol’s basket of greenhouse gases or in national reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
    Concerns have led Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology to avoid using the gas, although Air Products, which produces it for the electronics industry, said very little NF3 is released into the atmosphere.
    Prather argues that as the gas is not controlled in the same way as other greenhouse gases, companies may be careless with it.
    The scientist, whose findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, is calling for NF3 emissions to be monitored.
    It wasn’t included in the Kyoto agreement when it was signed by 181 countries in 1997 because the compound’s manufacture at the time was miniscule.
    But increased use of NF3 in flat-panel display production means that’s no longer the case.
    NF3’s global-warming potential is second only to sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), the worst-rated greenhouse gas on the Kyoto list.
    Prather notes that the increased production of NF3 means that emission levels of the gas could potentially increase.
    “With 2008 production equivalent to 67 million metric tons of CO2, NF3 has a potential greenhouse impact larger than that of the industrialised nations’ emissions of PFCs or SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride), or even that of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants,” writes Prather.
    “If released, annual production would increase the lower atmospheric abundance by 0.4 ppt, and it is urgent to document NF3 emissions through atmospheric observations.”



  • No mention of Olympic factor as US market for flat-panel HDTVs remains strong despite economic down-turn

    Sales of LCD and plasma TVs showed a 53 per cent year-on-year increase in the US for the first quarter of 2008, with more than 7.5 million units sold.
    This represents a 7 per cent increase over industry projections for the period.
    While analysts in Japan have attributed a 35 per cent increase in flat-panel TV sales during the first half of June to the upcoming Beijing Olympics, industry executives in the US are being more cagey.
    But what those attending the DisplaySearch TV Supply Chain Conference in San Diego did agree on was that despite the state of the US economy, the North America TV market remains robust – so far.
    Paul Gagnon director of North American TV research at DisplaySearch, said the data also highlighted consumer preference for smaller LCD and plasma TVs.
    “Smaller TV sizes are doing better than larger sizes, while the larger sizes seem to be under pressure from weakened consumer spending,” he said.
    “For example, global shipments of 32” TVs exceeded our forecasts by 10 per cent, while all screen size categories above 40” fell short of expectations by 3 per cent or more.”
    The summer holiday season is expected to present a major challenge for US retailers if the present economic trend continues, according to a majority of conference attendees.
    That could translate into better deals for consumers, and those deals could remain even if the economy recovers over the next few years because panel manufacturers are adding more TV assembly lines.