May, 2007 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: May 2007

More HDTV Clearance and Closeouts

May 31, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

The new spring models have arrived on store shelves around the country, and more are set to ship throughout the summer. Many retailers still hold inventory of older models, and they have to get rid of them. So they put them out for sale at clearance prices. The database used to create Professor Poor's Weekly Price Intelligence Report makes it easy to keep track of the advertised specials. Below is...

SID 2007: Sony KDL-70XBR3

May 30, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

The Society for Information Display conference is like a candy store to a techie display guy like me. It's almost all about components and new technologies and future stuff that just over the technology horizon. But occasionally, there are commercial products worthy of note. For example, Sharp was showing their 108" 1080p LCD TV monitor, but that's more of a novelty than a serious product, and besides, they had shown...

SID 2007: HDTV Industry Goes Green

May 29, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Some may call it an inconvenient truth, but worldwide consumers are becoming more conscious of energy and environmental issues. (Do you think that $3/gallon gasoline could be a factor?) The big take-away from the SID 2007 conference is that the display industry hears that message loud and clear, and many companies were talking "green" about their products. Starting right at the component level, Corning Glass touted their new Eagle XG...

Monster HDTV Hiding Under Your Bed

May 28, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

There's a video clip making the email rounds these days. It's a clip of an under-bed HDTV mount from MK 1 Studio. This motorized lift slides your HDTV out from under your bed, and positions it at the foot of the bed. It can even automatically adjust the viewing angle to your preference. Now, this is a slick piece of engineering to be sure, but that's not why it's important....

SID 2007: Will 3D Be Big?

May 25, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Once again, there are lots of 3D displays being shown at SID 2007, but this year I've started to think differently about them. Until recently, I only saw them as niche products that had practical appear for narrow applications such as pharmaceutical design or medical procedures. Head mounted goggles are too bulky or geeky for consumer acceptance. Passive or active glasses may be a nuisance for people. And the autostereoscopic...

SID 2007: Laser TV Looks Great

May 24, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Rear projection HDTV sales continue to defy rational analysis as buyers choose to spend an extra $1,000 or more to get a flat panel model instead. One development on the near horizon that could change this is the arrival of the Laser TV. A Laser TV is really a rear projection HDTV that replaces the projection lamp (or high brightness LEDs) with lasers as the lighting source. This creates a...

SID 2007: Hope for Plasma HDTV

May 23, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

I am the first to admit that I have been bearish on plasma HDTVs. The rising tide of LCD has steadily eroded plasma’s market share, taking over larger and larger segments until we have reached the point where LCD owns the flat panel market below 50”, and is threatening to take over the 50” to 60” segment. Philips has announced plans to drop plasma from their lines everywhere but North...

Mitsubishi Goes 1080p for RP HDTV

May 22, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

One fact is becoming clear in the HDTV market; 1080p wins. It wins for a number of reasons, some good and some not so good. One of the weaker reasons is that many consumers shop by comparing specifications; 1080p has more pixels than 720p and more must be better, so 1080p wins. A more solid reason is that the 1080i broadcast content should look better on 1080p than 720p, as...

Diamond HDTVs?

May 21, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Okay, I've written in the past about diamonds in HDTVs, but they have been cosmetic features, intended to differentiate the model with a little bling. And yes, diamonds are pure carbon crystals, so in a sense you could say that using carbon nanotubes in a display technology would be a little like using diamonds. But I'm here to talk about using real diamonds to create the picture on the screen....

HD DVD Prices Drop!

May 18, 2007 | Author: Muneeb Mannan

Sony has reported dismal financials for last year, due in large part to all the money they lost on the Playstation 3 by selling them with Blu-ray drives at less than the manufacturing costs. Now Toshiba is turning up the heat in the high definition DVD race by cutting prices on their HD DVD models. A new rebate program offers $100 off the entry level HD-A2 model, starting Sunday, May...