Audio Video News

Limited viewing angles have always been the Achilles' heel of LCD flat panels when used as a TV or other video-viewing device. Gradually move off-center while looking at an LCD TV and, at some point, you'll begin to notice changes in the brightness and color of the image on the screen. Although there have been significant improvements over the years, Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation ("Sanyo Epson") thinks they've figured out a way to say "sayonara" to the problem once and for all.

Sanyo Epson says it has developed high-resolution liquid-crystal displays with a wide viewing angle technology called Photo Fine Vistarich. The technology - along with a previous innovation called Photo fine Chromarich, a wide color gamut technology that enables over 100-percent coverage of the NTSC color gamut - allows the displays to produce images that can be seen clearly from 180 degrees in all directions (top, bottom, left, or right) without noticeable changes in color.

Although I'm sure you can come up with some of your own favorite applications, Sanyo Epson thinks the new displays will be great for watching DVD movies in the back of a car where it's difficult for more than one person to sit directly in front of the screen. Then there are the obvious uses in digital cameras, video-enabled mobile phones, and etc.

Sanyo Epson plans to begin volume production of displays using the Photo Fine Vistarich technology in five sizes (2.4-inch, 2.5-inch, 2.8-inch, 7.0-inch, and 10.1-inch) beginning later this year. No word yet on when they'll have the technology available in a 100-inch size...