SED TV Reviews

http://ifa2006.net/toshiba-sed/

Someone’s apparently snuck a camera into an SED TV demonstration. I haven’t yet viewed this video due to my abysmally slow dialup connection, so if it sucks, please leave a comment. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: SED TV

Surprise and Wonder

Apparently Toshiba sees the SED TV as not just another product.

One quote;

“We will supply the world with “surprise and wonder” from the beauty of the SED images”

They are pretty confident that SED television technology will change the future. Considering all the hurdles yet to be overcome, including pricing and limited initial  supply, they’ve still got a long way to go to reach this vision. Check the above link for Toshiba’s vision of the future of HDTV technology.

Technorati Tags: SED TV, SED television, Toshiba, HDTV

According to smartofficenews.com.au, the Australian distributor of Toshiba consumer electronics products could lose Toshiba’s SED TV range. A quote from the article follows:
“A senior Japanese Toshiba executive has told SHN that the new SED TV’s that are due in Australia mid 2007 may not be sold via Castel but via Toshiba Australia. the executive who did not want to go on record also said that Castel would need to invest a lot of marketing dollars to compete in the SED market and that this may be a problem for them.”

That’s kind of a bold statement about one of their major distributors. Castel has been distributing Toshiba products since 1996 with 900 retail outlets nationally and an after sales network of over 300 service agents throughout Australia. One has to wonder what kind of marketing dollars Toshiba thinks may be neccessary to launch the SED television line.

Also, Toshiba claims that there is no hurry to launch the SED TV onto the Australian market. Yoshihide Fujii insisted that Toshiba can fully impact the SED TV by launching it after establishing a volume production line at its Himeji Operations, instead of using the minimal amount of panels currently manufactured in a pilot line at a Canon plant.

Technorati Tags: Toshiba, SED TV, SED

On September 8, Canon Chairman Fujio Mitarai said that Canon and Toshiba plan to begin constructing a mass production line for SED (surface conduction electron emitter display) flat-panel televisions by the end of this year. They had planned to roll out the SED TV this past spring, but delayed its launch until next year because of the rapid decline in prices of LCD and plasma TVs.

In line with their initial plans, the partners plan to invest a total of 180 billion yen to build the production line at Toshiba’s Himeji factory in Hyogo Prefecture.

“We want to be able to mass-market the products in time for the shopping season for the Beijing Olympics in 2008,” Mitarai said. But “we have not yet established the manufacturing technology for mass-producing SEDs at low cost,” he said.

Mitarai regards the next five years as an expansion period, during which Canon will develop new businesses as well as actively pursue mergers and acquisitions in Europe and the U.S.

Currently, the first SED HDTVs sets are expected to appear in the U.S. market towards the end of 2007 — hopefully in time for holiday buyers.

With info from:  www.digitaltvdesignline.com

Technorati Tags: Canon, Toshiba, surface conduction electron emitter display, SED TV, HDTV

Here’s an excerpt from a very interesting article called “The State of HDTV” from www.guidetohometheater.com

It’s a very good look at the future of HDTV and well worth reading.

August 20, 2006 — In mid-2005 the average selling price of a 50″ plasma display began its yearlong plunge from over $5,000 to a June 2006 average of just above $3,000. The number of sets sold at the new prices more than tripled, even accounting for the traditionally hot fall (2005) selling season.

This was just one of a flurry of statistics presented at the DisplaySearch 4th Annual HDTV Conference held last week at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. DisplaySearch (www.displaysearch.com) is a service that conducts market research—forecasts, technology assessments, surveys, studies, and analyses—of the video display business. The conference touched on a wide range of related topics, including high-definition discs, HD programming, the sales and outlook for various categories of high-definition televisions, and even a session on audio for HDTV.

Most of the major video companies provided spokespersons for the event, most of who managed to squeeze in more than a little promotion for their own company’s products! When Toshiba’s Scott Ramirez called up one of his slides that promoted his company’s products, he noted the conference rules that only two slides per presentation should promote one’s own company. But he added, half jokingly, that he was apparently the only one who read the guidelines! Scott did make the only mention of SED flat panel technology I heard at the conference, noting that Toshiba expects its first SED set to be available by the end of 2007.

Technorati Tags: HDTV, SED, Toshiba