More on dropping TV prices...

steveinaz

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050526/tc_nm/tech_displays_dc

bignorm

Wonder why no mention of DLP???

bknauss

DLPs basically aren't even present in Asian markets. Apartments/condos are small, so LCDs and plasmas are the TVs of choice. Don't know what sells well in Europe though.

kberg

Excellent - waiting it out will be well worthwhile, and give me the time to start saving the cash right now!

Lsi9

Lcds are the future of TV especially when they will be back lite by LEDs, it is very expensive now but in few years it'll come down




In November 2004, Sony Corp of Japan released the 40- and 46-inch QUALIA 005, the first liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions to use red (R), green (G) and blue (B) LEDs for the backlight. Engineers throughout the industry responded with wonder and acclaim. As one LCD panel manufacturer put it, "Sony is flying ahead... I still can't believe they were able to commercialize it so soon!"

Backlights illuminate the LCD panels from the rear, and generally consist of a light source and optical components such as spreaders. Large-size LCD TVs have used cold-cathode florescent lamps (CCFL) for this purpose, but now Sony is switching to 3-color (RGB) LEDs.

It seems certain that a number of LCD TV manufacturers will follow Sony's lead, launching models with LED backlights at volume production in 2005. Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd of Korea, for example, was reported in the Korean press as launching volume production in the first half of 2005. Many TV manufacturers are eagerly amassing expertise in the field, striving to develop LED backlights as soon as possible. The key reason is that LED backlights are expected to provide a major boost in the value-added content of LCD TVs.

Color Performance

There are a number of advantages to using RGB LEDs as the backlight light source. Most TV manufacturers are especially intrigued by the heightened freedom when it comes to color. It will become possible to achieve color reproduction ranges in excess of 100% of National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) specs, and freely adjust white color expression.

Not only do RGB backlights offer a significantly wider color reproduction range than conventional CCFL backlights, they also make it much easier to reproduce colors difficult to achieve with phosphors in cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma display panel (PDP) or Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display (SED) technologies. A number of LCD panel manufacturers agree that as far as color is concerned, LCD panels offer the best performance of any of the devices available, and that the key technology is the LED backlight.

Sony was the first to commercialize a product based on this view. The firm is considered a late-starter in the thin TV market, and many observers in the industry believe that it pushed ahead with productization of the LED backlight as one means of boosting its brand name recognition in the TV receiver market. "It's pretty easy to imagine that Sony is looking at this LED backlight technology as the next Trinitron," a number of LCD panel engineers have said.

Sony is not the only manufacturer to position color as a key point for competition, of course. The competition in LCD TVs until now has emphasized higher luminance and definition, larger screen size and lower cost, and all manufacturers would love to add a new characteristic for competition to these existing indices. A source at an LCD manufacturer claimed that Samsung Electronics has been hiring color experts recently, evidence of its determination to attack the color issue full-scale. Already the spotlights are beginning to illuminate the fierce competition shaping up in color.

Spur to Competition

Along with these activities of the equipment manufacturers, peripheral component manufacturers involved in the LED backlight sector are also getting interested. A number of engineers working at backlight or LED firms agree that Sony's bold move will spur development competition. The initial target dates of 2007 or beyond will no doubt be moved up, they have commented. The component manufacturers are swinging into action to prepare to cope with expected demand.
Most manufacturers working on LED backlights are using LEDs from Lumileds Lighting, LLC of the US. At present, they offer the highest output and are available in all three (RGB) colors.

Competing LED manufacturers are of course taking action. Toyoda Gosei Co, Ltd of Japan, for example, plans to ship a high-output LED suitable for LED backlight use in 2005, offering all three colors. According to Ota Koichi, director, Optoelectronics & Intellectual property at the firm, "The LCD television backlight market is a very exciting one, and we want to make it one of our major business sectors." Showa Denko KK of Japan, a chip manufacturer which only just recently entered the blue LED market and began to ship samples in November 2004, is also hot, as Kazuhiro Mitani, project leader, GaN Project, Electronics Sector explained: "We plan to add green LEDs to our product line-up in 2005, which will give us all three colors."

Possible Content Changes

The adoption of LED backlights could lead to the release of TV receivers capable of exceeding 100% of the NTSC color reproduction range specification. If that happens, it could easily lead to changes in the content itself, because the TV receivers would then have richer color expression than the content.

Color information for video content such as TV broadcasting, or packaged media saved as Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) imagery, is created to match the range of color expressions of CRT televisions. In other words, it only contains the sRGB standard color information equivalent to about 70% of the NTSC spec. The Sony QUALIA 005, therefore, uses a proprietary algorithm to convert video signals from broadcasts or other sources, expanding the range of displayed color outside the sRGB standard. If many TV sets with this capability appear on the market, it will lead to increasing demand for content offering a wider color range.

In fact, the trend is already picking up steam, as evidenced by the new video color space standard called xvYCC now being discussed by the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). It is intended to define a color space wider than the sRGB standard. A comparison with the Munsell Color Cascade, an extensive series of color samples, shows that the sRGB standard achieves only 55%, while xvYCC will hit 100%. JEITA proposed the xvYCC standard for international standardization to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in October 2004, and it could be adopted as early as 2006. If the standard is officially adopted, it could well mean new color information for content.

Color Mixing

Backlights using 3-color RGB LEDs are the most effective means at present of expanding the color reproduction range, but they will not be easy to utilize effectively.

The first shock for engineers hoping to utilize LEDs is unevenness of luminance and color. According to one backlight manufacturer, luminance variation is about five times that of CCFL and color variation five to seven times. One engineer working for a backlight maker said, "I was so shocked to see the prototype actually lining up LEDs and turning them on for the first time. I believed this technology would never succeed." Sony has yet to disclose technical details, but appears to have resolved the problem in the QUALIA 005 through stringent LED selection procedures. Lumileds, which supplies the Sony LEDs, has commented that its shipments are now required to meet considerably tougher standards than originally imagined.

Dr Hiroaki Sugiura, manager, Imaging Color Group, Imaging Engine Technology Dept, Advanced Technology R&D Center of Mitsubishi Electric Corp of Japan, said, "Backlights for televisions will almost certainly be direct-LED designs, because they make it easier to increase luminance." Sony's QUALIA 005 is a direct-LED design

LuSh

I honestly don't think 1% of the people that post on TV's and video display devices have a clue. LCD offers by far the worst picture performance of all avaliable technology's. Followed closely by LCD rptv. Transition and grey scale's are the two most important criteria's when watching film and or high quality HDTV. Anybody that is telling you something different doesn't watch TV and or film using these sources. Try watching a single movie that is dark lit or has extended scenes in darkly lit backgrounds. Watch an LCD for 2hrs. Perhaps the movie Se7en or Star War's attack fo the clones. Then watch those same two movies again on a Plasma, CRT device. You tell me which device offers more information.

In fact, to really understand what a videophile is trying to acheive or understand what video quality refers too watch somebody spend 2hrs ISF calibrating a CRT projection TV, watch that set for 1 week, then come back to understand which technology's offer the consumer the greatest chance of watching cinema type quality within their own home.

Toxis

Originally posted by bignorm
Wonder why no mention of DLP???

because they're talking about flat panels, not rear projection. And as already mentioned, rear projections are non-existant in the Japanese market. Everything's flat panel.

Lsi9

I guess no one read my post above

Toxis

why? I've known about this for about a month and half.

Lsi9

anyhow, I think If you don't need to upgrade too much, its worth waiting maybe, considering the large purchase

bknauss

Originally posted by LuSh
I honestly don't think 1% of the people that post on TV's and video display devices have a clue. LCD offers by far the worst picture performance of all avaliable technology's. Followed closely by LCD rptv. Transition and grey scale's are the two most important criteria's when watching film and or high quality HDTV. Anybody that is telling you something different doesn't watch TV and or film using these sources. Try watching a single movie that is dark lit or has extended scenes in darkly lit backgrounds. Watch an LCD for 2hrs. Perhaps the movie Se7en or Star War's attack fo the clones. Then watch those same two movies again on a Plasma, CRT device. You tell me which device offers more information.

In fact, to really understand what a videophile is trying to acheive or understand what video quality refers too watch somebody spend 2hrs ISF calibrating a CRT projection TV, watch that set for 1 week, then come back to understand which technology's offer the consumer the greatest chance of watching cinema type quality within their own home.

Although LCD doesn't give the PQ of a plasma or DLP RPTV, it has two nice features that help in the consumer market:
-Small
-Doesn't suck up a ton of power

Plasmas look wonderful, but they suck up a ton of power, are noisy, and have burn in problems.

I do agree with you on the comments about LCD, but basic consumers don't put quality of video/audio/whatever over everything else. Look at how MP3s and other compressed formats have boomed over the past 5 years...

LuSh

You're right, what a sad world we live in.