Vision - November/December 2007 - (Page 42)

With plenty of room for market growth, LCDs and plasma screens are not seeing major technological leaps in the near term. Instead, consumers will see better resolution, new types of backlighting and familiar enhancements, like 3D and more conventional LEDs, to advance flat-panel screens and breathe new life into display technologies like rear-projection TVs that conventional wisdom holds are on the decline. “A lot of what we’ll see moving forward is more about little tweaks to make the product better,” Pratt says. “We’ll see little features that have less to do with picture quality, but with usage and lifestyle—automatic volume levelers and different ways to turn the set on and off.” lcDs to Dominate The trends, Pratt says, should push flat-panel TVs into the mainstream officially. The “incremental” enhancements that manufacturers are adding, the analyst forecasts, will drive LCD and plasma TV purchases by first-time buyers. Further, those same enhancements will entice early flat-panel adopters to move their first LCD or plasma TVs into the bedroom to make way in the living room or home theater for the newer models. In 2006, 10.8 million LCD TVs, 3.1 million plasma sets and 2.3 million microdisplay rear projection TVs were sold in the U.S., according to Quixel, for a total of just more than 16 million sold. “Typically, the U.S. marketplace sells about 27 to 30 million TVs in a good year,” Pratt says. “We’re not even there yet. We have a lot of TVs to sell before everyone has a LCD or plasma TV.” which features 120-Hz panels in its 47-inch LCD product launched this year. “You’ll have response times of below four milliseconds. You’re eliminating that motion blur almost immediately.” Philips, which sells both 42-inch and 50-inch plasma sets, is nonetheless putting more of its focus on large-screen LCDs. “We are investigating larger screen sizes in LCD only, not in plasma,” Wight says. Scott Ramirez, vice president of marketing for the TV group at Toshiba Americas Consumer Products, says Toshiba is tackling the motion blur problem in larger LCD panels by deploying a processor that separates moving objects from frames with less motion. Toshiba calls the technology motion vector frame interpolation. “We take frame A and frame B,” Ramirez explains, “and actually create a frame in between them. We track any objects in that frame, and if they’re moving across the screen, we track that movement. The middle frame will track the motion of any moving object to make sure they’re all in the right spot. Smooth motion, no flicker, and no motion blur.” LCD makers also are working to combat washed out dark scenes and improve the depth of black levels in their product. Mitsubishi, for example, has introduced what it calls Dynamic Dimming, a backlighting technology that lets the manufacturer adjust lighting depending on the content, says David Naranjo, director of product development at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “That gains a higher contrast ratio and better black levels for the content,” Naranjo says. “We have a 12-bit picture processing circuit, and we’re looking frame by frame at the content and adjusting the brightness for the various frames. If there’s a dark scene, we might adjust the scene to bring out the black and adjust the contrast ratio.” Flat is sexy Those kinds of advances in LCDs, besides boosting the category, are encroaching rapidly on the projection TV market, Ramirez says. This year, roughly 1.8 million projection TVs were sold in the U.S., according to Toshiba numbers, and that could shrink to less than one million next year. “People are willing to give up screen size to get the form factor,” Ramirez says. “Maybe they were looking at a 50-inch projection TV and bought a 42-inch LCD flat-panel because the sexiness of the form factor was such a strong draw. We see this happening a lot.” But some manufacturers aren’t ready to sound the death knell for projection TVs just yet. Samsung, for instance, is not abandoning the rear projection, plasma nor even CRT TV markets, said Dan Schinasi, senior marketing manager of HDTV Product Planning for Samsung Electronics America. “We believe there is a place for all four TV technologies: LCD, plasma, rear projection and CRT,” Schinasi says. “There are unique advantages to each. There are budgets, aesthetics involved, form factor, whether it’s going on a wall or table, but most important is budget. We can start someone in high-definition for just over $500 in a tube.” Plasma “is not going anywhere,” Schinasi says. “It still shows excellent value when you get into the 50-inch and up range. LCD is catching up; the 120-Hz [technology] has been introduced. www.ce.org — Jon at h a n W igh t, P hiliP s e le c t r onics n . a . “In 2008 you’ll see 120-Hz, or double frame rate, panels become more readIly avaIlable, and tHat wIll be a bIg step forward In tHe lcd Industry In partIcular.” The narrowing differences between LCD and plasma are not the only reasons consumers will make fewer distinctions between the two technologies. LCD screens are expected to dominate the flat-panel market, with plasmas expected to fade. But that means that LCDs have to get past their shortcomings, such as motion blur, particularly in larger screen sizes. As a result, manufacturers are expected to introduce more LCD panels that produce images at 120 frames per second, or 120-Hz, double the typical rate, to combat the blur issue. “In 2008 you’ll see 120-Hz, or double frame rate, panels become more readily available, and that will be a big step forward in the LCD industry in particular,” says Jonathan Wight, marketing director for large screen flat displays for Philips Electronics North America, 42 November/December 2007 http://www.ce.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Vision - November/December 2007

Vision - November/December 2007 Contents Shapiro's Spectrum In This Issue The Economist C4 Visionary Tech Speak Going Global Eye on Business Tech Policy Special Supplement: CES Unveiled 2008 CES Technologies to Watch Eastern Europe Embraces CE M&A Fest Displaying the Future CEA Newsline Market Insider Just the Stats

Vision - November/December 2007

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