Consumer Plasma TVs To Drop In Size

Last week, Hitachi announced that, on April 10, it will release what it describes as the world's first 32-inch HDTV plasma TV, the W32-PD2100. The company says that this will be followed by the release of a second version of the set with a built-in BS (Broadcast Satellite) digital receiver on June 11. Both TVs will intitally be released in Japan. Hitachi says it is also planning to introduce a 37-inch HDTV plasma TV at a later date. Pricing for all models is to be announced.

According to Hitachi, the HDTV-compatible plasma display panel (PDP) has a visual size of 32 inches (measured diagonally) and employs ALIS (Alternate Lighting of Surface Method) technology. Image resolution is said to be 852 pixels horizontally and 1024 pixels vertically. The TV is provided as two separate units: the monitor section, and the audio-visual control (AVC) station unit, which includes the tuner and picture processing circuitry. Hitachi says that this enables the monitor and AVC station to be flexibly positioned to match various room layouts and configurations.

To date, plasma displays for home theater use have been either 40 or 52 inches in size and commanded a hefty price. The company says that it has developed the smaller PDPs in response to the fact that 32-inch CRTs are now the most popular format on the market, in spite of their bulk and weight. "So far," says Hitachi, "the main demand for PDPs has come from commercial applications that want to catch the attention of large numbers of people, or from the large-screen home theater market. In order to grow the market for PDP products in ordinary homes, however, the task has been to implement smaller PDP screens."

Hitachi explains that the monitor units used in these initial plasma-screen TVs, developed for the Japanese market, have also been designed for worldwide use. The company says it intends "to focus on using the European market as a launch pad for the creation of a new, worldwide market for plasma-screen TVs."

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