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Written by Michael Lankton
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Wednesday, 19 December 2007 |
 Consumer electronics manufacturer Sony has announced that they have ceased production of rear projection televisions.
Sony will no longer produce their LCoS SXRD and 3 LCD rear projection series and supplies are limited to current inventories. Sony's announcement comes on the heels of similar statements issued by Philips, Hitachi and Toshiba. Sales of rear projection televisions were halved last year compared to the preceding year, and analysts forecast a similar outcome for the coming year.
It's unanimous, rear projection is dead. Look for similar announcements from Samsung, Panasonic, JVC and Mitsubishi in the coming year. |
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Wednesday, 12 September 2007 |
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 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. |
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Monday, 20 August 2007 |
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 Continuing their exodus from DLP rear projection HDTVs to direct view LCDs, today in Japan Toshiba has announced eleven new 1080p models in their Regza television lineup.
Details are incomplete and dependent on a Google translated Japanese press release. Of particular interest to AV Enthusiasts is the Regza Z3500 series. The Z3500 series models will be available in 37, 42, 46, 52 and 57 inch screen sizes. Native refresh rate is 120Hz, providing support for both 60Hz and 24Hz sources. Also included are ethernet connection, onboard web browser, firewire, and usb. DVR recording in mpeg2 is available via the ethernet or usb interface.
Models in the Z3500 series will be available this fall, and will retail for approximately $3000 to $8000. |
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Written by Michael Lankton
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Tuesday, 07 August 2007 |
 Panasonic today stated that their 1080p range of plasma televisions is rated at 100,000 hours until half brightness.
This is compared to 60,000 for their 720p models. Good news for plasma lovers, and if true, dispels the urban legend that plasmas are only good for 3-4 years. Improved life in plasma technology and decreasing price in LCD are going to put a lot of HDTV's in homes this holiday season. |
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