LCDs Eating Into The 40" Market

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/Flat-screen+war+heats+up%2C+LCD+catching+up/2100-1041_3-6045093.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Flat-screen+war+heats+up%2C+LCD+catching+up/2100-1041_3-6045093.html?tag=nefd.top</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Consumers are cheering their good fortune, watching prices for big flat-screen TVs tumble while makers slug it out to decide which display standard will become dominant--liquid crystal or plasma. With the price slide, demand is booming in the key battleground for TVs--flat screens in the 40-44-inch range--and analysts say makers of liquid crystal displays (LCD) will probably gain ground in a market that has been dominated by plasma displays (PDP)... In 2005, the 40-inch LCD panel price dropped 36 percent, faster than a 31 percent fall for 42-inch plasma screens. DisplaySearch expects the panel prices to decline at a similar pace this year, with 40-inch LCDs and 42-inch plasmas both falling by about 25 percent."</i><br /><br />I completely agree with this news here and now really is the best time to get in on the LCD bandwagon. They are absolutely flying off the shelves. Although, I have also noticed that retailers want to sell their plasma TV inventories and therefore you can often find a really good deal. Tell me about some of your cool TV purchases at low prices.

[Jeremy Charette]

Best TV deal going right now:

Syntax Olevia 42" LCD HDTV (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4056821)

$2199 - no rebates

Dual HDMI/HDCP inputs, 1366x768 pixels, displays 720p natively, down-converts 1080i. I just bought 10 of them for work, and they are amazing. Bright, clear, sharp, great color rendition, and a hell of a bargain. I think I'll be getting one for the apartment soon.

[Felix Torres]

Best TV deal going right now:

Syntax Olevia 42" LCD HDTV (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4056821)

$2199 - no rebates

Dual HDMI/HDCP inputs, 1366x768 pixels, displays 720p natively, down-converts 1080i. I just bought 10 of them for work, and they are amazing. Bright, clear, sharp, great color rendition, and a hell of a bargain. I think I'll be getting one for the apartment soon.

At those prices you might want to check out the Sceptre 42" model at Costco or the Westinghouse 42" model coming to BB later this month.
Both do 1080 video natively and accept 108op signals.

A bit higher, the upcoming Syntax/Brillian Signature line looks promising but those are likely going to be in the $2500-3000 range when they hit the street.

I saw a recent report on Digitimes where the panel makers were saying they expected 06 to be better than 05, with less of a price drop.
Instead of a 40% drop, like in 05, they only expect a 30% drop. :lol:

Sign of the times; me, I'm expecting annual drops of at least 25% for the rest of the decade and planning accordingly.

[Jeremy Charette]

I've seen the Sceptre. It doesn't compare. The Syntax Olevia is sharper, has better contrast, and darker blacks. It also doesn't have dual HDMI/HDCP inputs like the Syntax Olevia does.

Can't speak for the 42" Westinghouse, but I've seen the 37" and smaller models, and again, the 42" Syntax Olevia has deeper blacks and better contrast.

Trust me, I just spent $30,000 of someone else's money on flat panel TVs. I looked at all the options.

As for 1080p: There are currently no consumer devices that output 1080p (that I know of), nor is there any 1080p content. When there is 1080p content, it will have to be 1080p24 or 1080p30, as HDMI does not have the bandwidth to handle a 1080p60 signal.

I'm going to stick with a set that displays 720p native, with HDMI/HDCP inputs. 720p60 has better temporal resolution than 1080p24 or 1080p30, and therefore is better for video games or movies with lots of action or movement. 720p60 also has more vertical resolution per screen update than 1080i60 (720 lines vs. 540 lines), and none of the potential problems with jaggies that 1080i can experience.

720p60 is the way to go, at least for the next 2-3 years (I'm gonna guess for at least the next 5 years).

[Felix Torres]

Trust me, I just spent $30,000 of someone else's money on flat panel TVs. I looked at all the options.

As long as you did your homework and are happy. :-)

Point of notice, though; all HDTVs are supposed to be 1080 sets internally, you know: 720 displays still *have* to decode 1080 signals (which are the bulk of the HD content available) to the frame buffer before downscaling them to their native res. So the value of 1080 displays is that they don't *add* artifacting or degrade resolution in that extra (un-needed) step.

There is a reason 1080 sets are called FullHD (they natively map incoming signals, instead of having to shrink it to fit) and why there is such a big flap over sets that don't properly de-interlace 1080 video. The sets are expensive enough, as is, to get something that won't fully/properly display what it receives. Some people don't care but a lot more do than is commonly realized.
In the HD business, so far, there is way too much attention being paid to signal transmission specs (and non-HD performance) and not enough (by far) to the actual display tech and HD performance.

This will change.

Cheers!

[Jeremy Charette]

Will all of the up/down-conversion that goes on by the time a signal is displayed on an HDTV, it's nearly impossible to say which HDTV will look "best" for any particular home theater setup. For the time being, I'm going to rely on my Time Warner HD DVR and my Xbox 360 to scale any content I have to the right format (720p or 1080i).

I'm looking into an LCD TV for a variety of reasons, but it'll be a 720p set that I settle on. the 360 natively produces a 720p60 signal, and upscales it to 1080i. Those in the know say, however, that it's not a true 1920x1080 pixel render, but rather a 1920x540 pixel render that's being line-doubled. For that reason alone, I'd rather have a 720p set that can display video games from the 360 natively.

As for broadcast content, most of the sports channels are broadcast in 720p, whereas DiscoveryHD is broadcast in 1080i. I'd rather see those sports and action programs displayed natively and down-convert the DiscoveryHD content. Just my personal preference.

And as you said, HD performance is key, i.e. what do consumers actually see on the screen. And as of right now, it's crap. Massive macroblocking in dark areas, pixelation on some channels, and completely overcompressed MPEG-2 streams. I'm sorely disappointed, and the fact of the matter is that no HDTV no matter how good is going to overcome that.

I think I'm switching to OTA.