While Samsung have strengthened their lead in the global HD TV flat screen market, LG has crept into second place while Sony, due partly to the comparatively high Sony Bravia price tag, have slipped to third. This has meant that Sony may need to rely on 3D TV to bounce back.

The Korean one-two

DisplaySearch, a division of research company NPD Group, revealed these stats, which are compiled by adding plasma, LCD TV and OLED televisions to the total. The company has indicated 3D TV will fall into this category, too. What is immediately noticeable is that the top two television manufacturers are South Korean companies, representing an amazing shakeup of an industry once exclusively dominated by Japanese companies.

Photo: LG

While the Samsung TV division has continued to cement its position as the leading television manufacturer, with 23.3% market share in 2009, and an increase of 0.2% over 2008, and LG has climbed by 2% to 12.4%, Sony have slipped 2.9% to sit on par with LG.

Sony’s woes

Sony’s initial strength on the back of its still highly regarded Bravia TVs has been losing momentum for some time. The average Sony Bravia price has proven too expensive for consumers, with the Sony brand being toppled by Samsung LCD TVs of comparable quality with more competitive pricing. LG’s strategy of releasing a wide range of televisions, starting at a very low price point and scaling up to more expensive, quality units, seems to be working out for them.

The next phase: 3D

Photo: Sony

Even then, with global HD TV prices softening, all the major manufacturers are shifting their focus to what they believe is the next major hit in television technology – 3D TV. But keeping eyes firmly fixed on the present, Sony have given themselves an uphill battle in reclaiming an industry they helped define.

The Samsung 7000 and 8000 TV series will be Skype-enabled. Log into existing accounts or create a new one for free using your remote control. The Skype is already set up through the home network, all that’s needed is the low-profile Freetalk TV camera, which is sold separately, and you’re ready to get in touch with friends and family.

The benefits

Photo: Skype

Skype has always been an innovative and interactive product, accessible via mobile phones and computer screens. With the move to TV screens, it means the visuals are bigger and better. The remote control allows more control over the screen. With more options available on TVs, the consumer can customise the visuals to their liking.

Better quality

The Samsung 7000 and Samsung 8000 LED TVs have a quicker response time. Computers have the tendency to have blurry visuals, and make the other person almost seem robotic. The 7000 displays visuals at 100Mhz, whilst the 8000 displays at 200Mhz, making the Skype quality clearer and faster. With the use of LED lights rather than LCD, these new TVs have the potential to show pure black. On most TVs the black may be a greyish colour. With this improvement both the colour and contrast are better.

Photo: Samsung

Both these TVs are so thin and light that mounting it on the wall is no problem at all. This means that they can be better postitioned, and the Skype camera can be put anywhere on the TV without any worries, allowing more people to be involved in the Skype visual.

Availibilty

The Samsung 7000 and Samsung 8000 series have not yet been made available to the public, so pricing is also unknown at the moment. With Skype on your TV, communicating with friends and family overseas just gets easier and better.

Where Sony has the leverage of having its own Sony Style stores to promote its 3D TV range, Best Buy has been revealed as the official retail and marketing partner of the Panasonic 3D TV lineup in the US.

The big swing

Photo: Panasonic

Like the Sony Style strategy, dedicated 3D TV sections are being created in over 300 Best Buys. Nikkei reports Panasonic will price 3D TVs in the US at a discount of 30% on the recommended Japanese pricing, so as to drive greater sales volume. Given America is one of the world’s largest countries, with one of the largest – if not the largest – consumer electronics market in this world, this strategy could prove to be sound.

Panasonic 3D TV is hoped to make the difference in the company’s struggling television division’s profitability prospects. Through a combination of cost-cutting, falling prices on regular HD TVs and the high premium 3D TVs will be retailed for, the company’s chairman has stated that anything less than profitability is unacceptable come this financial year end.

3D TV as soon as Wednesday

Photo: Panasonic

Reports indicate the first televisions will creep into Best Buy stores as early as Wednesday. Whereas the UK is getting the VT20 range, the US has the VT25 series as its Panasonic 3D TV lineup. Starting at 50-inches and peaking at a generous 65-inches, each of these displays is full HD, running at 600Hz with the now ubiquitous Viera Cast built in, as well as having one pair of 3D shutter included in the purchase.

Pricing is yet to be locked down, but with Samsung’s 3D TVs already in the wild and Panasonic’s due for release shortly, one can finally say the 3D wars are on.

It’s no secret we think little of 3D glasses. Not only does the exclusion of these expensive glasses misrepresent the real price of getting a 3D experience from 3D TVs, they look dorky and ruin much of the social act of watching TV. The CeBIT conference confirmed that those who make the tech are trying to do away with 3D glasses, too.

The challenge

Photo: Sony

3D TV is achieved by showing a different image to each eye. Either polarising glasses, which show different colours to each eye, are used, or shutter glasses that block out alternating eyes at different frequencies to create the 3D effect are used. For display makers to overcome this challenge, they have had to figure out how to display different images to each eye without having you, the viewer, needing glasses to do that. To this extent, the manufacturers have had to, ostensibly, shift the ‘lenses’ from being on your person to being back where people are accustomed to having them – on the screen.

CeBIT promise

On display at CeBIT were various pieces of technology that indicate 3D TV minus the glasses is on its way. Three companies in particular, Sunny Ocean Studios, SeeFront and the Fraunhofer institute impressed. Their technologies, all different in composition, aimed to achieve the same thing, 3D minus the glasses, with their differing solutions including a combination of on-screen lenses, moving cameras to track the viewers seating position and multi-point projection technology to achieve the 3D effect.

RealD’s play

Photo: RealD

A small handful of companies have built a large portion of their businesses on selling 3D glasses, implying they will either fight back, or need to find ways of evolving. It is unlikely cinemas already fitted with 3D screens will switch that technology, meaning RealD, who make and sell the bulk of the polarising glasses used in cinemas, will have still have an income stream from those cinemas, but once glasses-free 3D technology exists affordably, it is unlikely the glasses stand any hope of surviving. The big question, of course, is how long before we can stop wearing dorky sunglasses indoors?

Given what’s happened in Haiti and Chile recently, everybody secretly fears a natural disaster could affect them in whichever part of the world they are in. Now, it has come to light that large LCD panels’ manufacturers in Taiwan had to shut down operations after a 6.4 Richter scale earthquake hit the region.

Safety precautions

In the interest of safety, Hannstar Display Corporation and Chi Mei Optoelectronics briefly stopped producing large LCD panels. Given research firm iSuppli estimates that between the two of these companies 16.3% of the world’s large LCD panels are manufactured, any protracted halt on production could have a significant impact on big screen LCD TV supply.

Photo: Hannstar

Even with a very brief halt in production, in taking 12-24 hours to getting the factories powered up and production ready, a considerable volume of supply is lost, as well as proving a very costly situation for the manufacturers involved.  If, however damage has been done to the manufacturing equipment, shutdown periods can be of a significantly greater duration, considering these factories source their machinery elsewhere or have it custom made to spec.

The aftermath of the quake

Regarding the quake itself, deaths have yet to be reported, however thousands of those within Taiwan’s borders are presently without electricity.

LCD, the next frontier

With 3D televisions being on the verge of release and LCD TV sets being common place, it is expected that LCD production will increase at a record high rate, meaning downward pressure will be applied to HD TV pricing due to manufacturers wanting to ensure they move excess inventory. This is certainly a positive for consumers who are beginning to see true budget HD TVs, but it’s not so encouraging for manufacturers who see their television businesses making a loss, considering margins will only get smaller as prices get lower and lower.

Display and collaboration company inFocus has released three glorified HD TVs for the corporate and educational environments. The company, which is more known for its projectors than anything else, hopes these corporate grade televisions will find a moderately sized audience so as to bring them very healthy returns.

Large panels, thin television

The screens are all Full HD 1080p panels that come in 42-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch varieties priced at £930, £1730 and £4985 respectively. The feature set, which inFocus claim ‘can’t be found in consumer flat panel TVs’ includes: a splitscreen option to accommodate different video sources at the same time, anti-burn-in technology so business clients can keep a still image up all day without worrying about the damage it will do to the screen, an array of inputs, as well as a metallic finishing for added durability.

Is it worth it?

Photo: Panasonic

The professional grade screens come with a very professional price, which leads to the question: is the difference so big that corporates should be prepared to pay double the price for the entry-level television up to four times the price for the top of the range television? Panasonic plasmas, whose PW6 range is used in Heathrow airport, are up there with the best televisions in the world and cost a fraction of that price. Is it conceivable that a business would rely on television panels more than Heathrow Airport? Probably not. Other than for heavy duty use in places like factories or labs, is the added metallic safety worthwhile? Probably not.

But inFocus is betting they can find traction, and corporations who tend to have better budgets than individual consumers could very well see the purchase as being worthwhile. The drawback is the display technology is simply not better than consumer grade equivalents that cost a fraction of inFocus’s proposed price.

Panasonic, the world’s largest Plasma maker and widely considered one of the top 3 HD TV makers in the world may soon turn its loss making television division profitable. The corporation hopes through a combination of accelerated sales through its 3D TVs and cost reductions focused on its manufacturing plants as well as the outsourcing of its smaller, less important LCD TV division, it can improve its financial outlook and health.

Major losses

In the quarter ending 31 December in Japan, the corporation suffered losses of £75 million. With regards to these losses, the cost cutting operations also include slower expansion and the division in two of its manufacturing plants. Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo has laid down the gauntlet within his company saying an increase in revenue come financial year-end March 2011 is imperative and a net loss is absolutely unacceptable.

Self-hindering

Photo: LG

The biggest challenge Panasonic, Sony, LG and Samsung have with being the leading manufacturers of 3D TV technology, though they all hope the business will help them return to positive growth, is that with the production schedule these companies have, early market saturation could lead to premature downward pricing pressure.

This would mean the margins from 3D TVs these companies so rely on could be killed too soon. This is currently the case with regular LCD TVs, but it took some time to get to that point. The sad thing is they would be bringing this about themselves.

3D is a crapshoot

Photo: Panasonic

And finally, Panasonic and others could find the consumer electronics space does not respond positively to 3D TVs. If this is so – and it is not outside the realm of possibility – the company could find itself in a very deep financial hole for placing a huge bet on something that did not pay off.

The 2010 Panasonic Viera HD TV lineup is as mouth watering as imaginable, with the G20 already setting tongues wagging and their 3D TV looking promising. Below is a snapshot of what to expect from Panasonic Viera throughout the year. A quick look at Panasonic’s web page reveals every single television set they have in store for the world, whereas below is an analysis of the Plasma and LCD TVs headed to European shores.
The company’s full 2010 European range includes the G20, V20, VT20, S20 and X20 televisions.

The S20 series

The S20 series is the entry-level Panasonic Viera series. With built-in Freeview HD, out of the box HD television will be available for this range of TVs available in 32-inch and 37-inch varieties in LCD, and in 42-inch, 46-inch and 50-inch for Plasma.

The G-series

Photo: Panasonic

Being in some hands already, the early verdict on the G20 is more of the same as offered by the G10, but with improvements where it matters most – depth of blacks, better colours and slight improvements on the network capabilities.

The V20

The V20 range is available in both Plasma and LCD, with Plasma televisions sized at 42-inches and 50-inches and LCD televisions sized at 37-inches and 42-inches. These 600Hz, 1080p HD TVs are THX-certified and Freeview HD- and Freesat HD-ready.

The VT20

Photo: Panasonic

At its core, the VT20 is everything the Plasma V20 series is, with the added extra of 3D. In varieties of 50-inches and 65-inches, these massive panels are what Panasonic hope will be the 3D TVs a cut above the rest and worth the cost. This is the television that many expect Panasonic will throw its marketing weight behind.

All of the televisions come with proprietary Panasonic Viera technology, ranging from bare bones Viera Image viewer right up to Vieracast and integrated Skype technology. Panasonic, who are revered in the HD TV market as being pioneers, and the benchmark for performance are throwing everything they have at 2010,

the year that will probably be remembered for 3D more than anything else. However competitors Sony, Samsung, Toshiba and LG hope they can make a good showing as well in 2010.

A new innovation in TV technology will soon hit the market – a chip capable of enhancing the picture quality of LCD screens looks set to change the way consumers shop for televisions as it enables higher contrast on LCD screens and increases picture quality all round on cheaper televisions, letting their quality come close to that of their costly competitors.

How does it work?

The new chip is attached to the television set’s scaler chip or image processor, and from this position it’s able to efficiently adjust white balance, sharpness, and contrast to provide optimum picture quality. The chip looks to be commercialised later this year. Chip technology providing an improved TV experience isn’t altogether new: last year a tuner chip was created to provide better TV reception.

Who does it work for?

Photo: Samsung

The new chip will be ideal for those who are unable to afford more expensive TV models, as cheaper LCD TVs will now be able to provide a picture quality that comes close to matching that seen on expensive screens. In general, LCD TVs are seen to have a picture quality that’s somewhat inferior because of their difficulty in producing absolute black – that’s a result of the fact that they’re displaying through an LCD panel. Their main advantage, however, is the fact that they don’t lose picture quality in areas of light, and as an added bonus there’s less strain on the viewer’s eyes when watching LCD, no matter what angle it’s being watched from. For those people who don’t want to miss out on all of the LCD advantages, the contrast-enhancing new chip will be great for ironing out all of its little disadvantages.

More good news

Photo: Sony

An important advantage of innovations like this new chip is the positive impact that they have on the environment – anything that can allow a simple upgrade rather than a full replacement of a piece of technological equipment is good news for those concerned with trying to reduce the huge amounts of electronic waste generated each year. Of course, this is unlikely to be the reason why most people who buy the chip do so – its cost-effectiveness is the main drawcard – but there’s no harm in a positive side-affect.

All that and a bag of chips?

The chip set to increase the quality of cheaper LCD TVs has its critics – mainly those who don’t really believe that LCD technology in general is worth its cost, or the ‘you get what you pay for’ brigade, who contend that there’s nothing that can make a cheaper TV look like an expensive TV. Both of them might have a point, but it seems unlikely that the producers of the chip will lose out – after all, there’ll always be those who are willing to give something new a try. Perhaps the key is to not expect too much – then the capabilities of the chip might be a pleasant surprise.

Danish brand Bang & Olufsen have come out with a new TV, the BeoVision 7. Not only is it a beautiful piece of art, but technically it’s a masterpiece.

Features

Photo: Bang & Olufsen

The Bang & Olufsen BeoVsion 7 is a 55-inch high definition LCD TV with an LED backlight with local dimming to control contrast, and a 120Hz refresh, rate so no more blurry quality. It also comes with a central speaker for crystal clear sound.

Impressively, the BeoVision 7 is the first TV to come out with a built in Blu-ray player, so those who buy it will know they’re getting top of the range quality. In a spark of genius, the BeoVision 7 offers better quality signal processing due to the BeoSystem 3 video engine.

Clear sound

The BeoVision already comes with a central speaker, and the BeoLab 7.4 and the BeoLab 7.6 speakers, which have a fancy 3-way bass reflex system to get that surround sound feeling. Enjoy the feeling of going to the cinema on your own couch with this home entertainment system. Additionally, the speakers allow for a more customised audio setup.

Where to put it

The Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 7 is perfect for any table top. It comes with two motorised floor stands, one high and one low, and with the touch of a button you can customise the height and angle of the TV.

It’s got the look

The BeoVision is perfect for that classy look. It’ll be hard not to notice it just because of its sheer size and clean, modern look. It oozes wealth and seeing that it costs £11,150, it’s a pricey way to watch TV for many, but it’s definitely worth it for those who can afford it. The Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 7 comes in aluminium, black, blue, dark grey and red.