Audiovox has purchased Thomson's audio and video consumer electronics ventures in the U.S., Canada, China and Hong Kong, as well as global rights to the RCA brand name for audio and video consumer electronics.

Audiovox will compensate Thomson with $19.7 million, a net asset payment and a five year fee for the RCA brand. Audiovox expects the acquisition to raise their annual income $150 million, plus additional royalty revenue. Audiovox stated the transaction should be finished by 31December, 2007.

Audiovox completed their purchase of Thomson's U.S. consumer electronics accessories division in January of 2007 for a sum of $59 million. In this deal, Audiovox also gained the rights to brands Recoton, Spikemaster, Ambico, Discwasher, Jensen, Advent, Acoustic Research and Road Gear.

J.D. Power and Associates released the results of their 2007 Large Screen HDTV Usage and Satisfaction Study last week.

Taking top honors in the sub-50 inch class was the Sony Bravia series of direct view LCD televisions. Coming in a close second and third was LG, with their LCD and plasma series in a dead heat with the Sony Bravias.

The 50-65 inch class was won by Pioneer's plasma televisions, who edged out Sony's Bravia series for first place in this class. Rear projection televisions are rated in their own class, and Samsung DLP televisions beat Sony Wega LCoS and Toshiba DLP in a very tight race. It should be noted that while Samsung won the class, both Sony and Toshiba topped Samsung in picture quality scores.

It should be noted that this evaluation is used to determine consumer satisfaction and is targeted at mass market consumption. A thumbs up from J.D. Power is a good thing, but if you're shopping for a television, please take the time to read some detailed editorial reviews, and make sure to go look at televisions yourself and let your eyes be the judge.

Oppo, maker of budget DVD players acclaimed for their superior video output, has announced the availability of their new HM-31 HDMI switcher.

For those who are using a pre/pro or AV receiver that does not support HDMI, Oppo's new HM-31 HDMI switcher is just the thing for handling multiple HDMI video sources. The HM-31 will accept input from up to three HDMI devices, and supports up to 1080p60 video resolution. The HM-31 also passes the audio portion of any incoming HDMI signal for those who have processors that handle HDMI audio. The HM-31 includes a remote control, so there's no need to leave the La-Z-Boy to change sources.

At $99 the Oppo HM-31 HDMI switcher is perfect for someone who has multiple HDMI devices but lacks the ability to accept more than one HDMI input. Available direct from Oppo.

OLED is one of the display technologies that we'll be talking about for some time, as it's been touted as one of the technologies that will supplant current display technologies.

OLED stands for organic light emitting diode. The benefits of OLED over LCD are that OLED requires no backlight, requires far less power than LCD or plasma to function and costs significantly less to produce. OLED also enjoys a very fast response time, about 0.01 ms or less. OLED is essentially printed on a polymer carrier, and because OLED requires no backlight the resulting display is very thin. This makes OLED especially suited for smaller displays where space is limited. With OLED, Dick Tracy-esque wristwatches with color televisions embedded in them are possible. The reason OLED has not taken the market by storm so far is that OLED has a relatively short life span. Manufacturers have been working to replace the chemical component of OLED with a phosphorescent one, in order to create a display that has a life span on par with technologies currently in the market.

Sony has announced their first OLED display, an 11 inch model, for sale in Japan this December. Hopefully it won't be long before OLED displays are available in home theater-friendly sizes.