Panasonic's PT-AE500U made waves in fall 2003 with its low price and improved color rendering over previous Panasonic LCD projectors. Plenty of them were sold, and the model made many reviewers' "Best Of" lists for the year.
There's an old saying: "Good things come in small packages." In our industry, however, there's often a perceived correlation between the size of an AV component (speakers, amplifiers, plasma TVs) and its level of performance. Here, the working mentality seems to be "the bigger (or pricier), the better."
RCA's 61-inch Scenium Profiles DLP RPTV created quite a buzz when it was first shown at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. Brought to market this past fall, this big-screen microdisplay TV (and its smaller, soon-to-be-released 50-inch sibling) is only 6.85 inches thick, as opposed to conventional DLP RPTVs with cabinets that occupy as much as 17 inches of space behind the screen.
I was intrigued by the idea of a 45-inch LCD TV when I first saw it last January, at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. LCD TVs in smaller sizes are a dime a dozen, and their prices are plummeting. ViewSonic showed a 32-inch LCD at the CEDIA Expo 2004 that retails for just under $2700.
Sharp's XV-Z2000 front DLP projector raised more than a few eyebrows when it first appeared at CEDIA Expo 2004. Was this indeed the first 1280x720 HD2+ DLP projector for less than $5000? If so, it would represent a seismic but long overdue change in DLP projector pricing, which has typically kept the MSRPs of 720p models above $7000—and, by extension, non-competitive with 720p LCD projectors that retail for half of that price or less.
For better or worse, electronic display technology is going flat. Slowly but surely, as Asian manufacturers jettison older high-volume, low-profit picture- and projection-tube assembly lines, the venerable cathode-ray tube is being supplanted by such exotic items as Digital Light Processing (DLP), and liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panels (PDPs).
As the transition from analog to digital TV chugs along, there have been some significant advances in the design and performance of set-top receivers. The earliest models, from 1997 to 1998, including RCA's DTC-100 and Panasonic's TU-DST50W, were fairly large, heavy boxes painted an imposing dark gray that had a limited amount of functionality and weren't all that sensitive to terrestrial 8VSB digital TV broadcasts.
<LI>Price: $2099</LI>
<LI>Technology: LCD</LI>
<LI>Resolution: 1366x768</LI>
<LI>Size: 40"</LI>
<LI>Inputs: One HDMI, two component, one each composite and S-Video, one RGB on 15-pin DSUB </LI>
<LI>Feature Highlights: Over-The-Air and cable HD tuners, Picture-In-Picture, built-in DVD player, built-in speakers, tabletop stand.</LI>
It's a fun and crazy time to be shopping for a new HDTV. Prices seem to drop about 10% every two weeks as screen sizes get larger and larger. In the flat panel market, the price and screen size wars continue between plasma and LCD technology, with LCD continuing to gain ground in market share.