Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) have expressed they have no intentions of completely suspending production during year-end 2008 or the Lunar New Year in late January, despite facing falling utilization rates for the first quarter of 2009.

According to AUO, the panel supplier is looking to utilize less manpower, and hence lower productivity, to compliment its poor outlook for the first quarter of next year. The company will start its annual maintenance at the end of this month, but said it has no plans to cease production completely.

CMO said that the company is aware capacity will be underutilized and has scheduled routine maintenance and R&D efforts for the duration. Despite its falling utilization, none of CMO’s plants have stopped production or operations entirely, according to the company. Meanwhile, CMO is encouraging its employees to take unpaid holidays amid the economic slowdown, said the company.

CPT also said that it is encouraging more unpaid leave and is also running a new working schedule at its production sites. The company has no plans to implement layoffs or production halts, and annual maintenance is scheduled to take place over the Lunar New year holiday, the company said.

Market watchers have estimated that LCD panel makers will experience a sequential utilization rate drop of 10-20% for the first quarter of 2009.

Matsushita and Panasonic parent Matsushita are to extend their flat-panel display development deal.

The two Japanese giants said today they will work together on “superthin” plasma panels for TVs and combine their efforts to make such screens more energy efficient.

Hitachi will also buy Matsushita-made glass panels and use them in the production of its plasma TVs from April 2009 onwards. That will costs its own production operation ¥40bn ($382.6m) in lost sales, but the company claimed that won’t impact its current earnings forecast.

The two said they would also work more closely on LCD TV development and production – something they already do through their jointly owned IPS Alpha Technology venture. But they did not go into details.

Both plasma and LCD plans are about increasing the ability of both firms to stay competitive in a world where plasma and LCD TV screens are falling in price and so many suppliers are punting products to consumers. Plasma makers are finding it particularly hard to keep up with the runaway success of LCD.

That’s why Fujitsu, the first company to introduce plasma screens, ditched the TV technology back in December 2007.

In March 2008, Pioneer said it was getting out of plasma production and would instead buy in panels from another supplier. The following month, it named Matsushita as that partner.

Samsung LE32A558 32in LCD TV

So successful has Samsung been with its media-friendly ‘hint of red’ A656 LCD range that it hasn’t really seemed as particularly bothered about marketing its other LCD TVs. Certainly it’s taken us an age to get our hands on something from the brand’s ‘5 Series’.

But our perseverance has finally paid off, and we have a 32in LE32A558 sat on our test benches as we speak. And first impressions of this new set are, well, mixed.

The problem is that it’s hard not to feel an immediate pang of disappointment at how relatively ‘straightforward’ the A558 looks versus the red-tinged glories of its A656 siblings. But to be fair, once you’ve got over this, you start to appreciate that the design is actually still very nice, partly thanks to the extreme minimalism of its gloss black lines, and partly due to the quality of its finish. Continue Reading…

JVC's new LCD TVs feature integrated iPod dock

The impact of MP3 and MP3 players on the way we consume music has been massive – more people now listen to music than ever before and there has been a fundamental mindset shift about the portability and accessibility of music. Video too seems destined for the same mindset shift and the latest pointer to this is that JVC’s latest LCD Tvs all feature JVC’s new TeleDock®, a flip-down iPod dock at the base of the set, providing a direct connection for playback through the TV.

The new JVC P-Series includes the 32-inch LT-32P679, 42-inch LT-42P789, 47-inch LT-47P789 and the 52-inch LT-52P789. The LT-32P679 is a 768p model, while the others offer 1080p resolution.

When an iPod is docked, a menu appears on the TV screen for selecting music, music shuffle or video playback. iPod can be controlled from the TV’s remote, which includes a circular keypad with a control scheme that mimics the iPod’s control wheel. Photos can also be displayed as a slide show along with music. During music playback, song title and artist name are displayed on the TV screen. During video playback, low resolution files, such as internet videos, can be displayed in a small screen mode. Higher resolution video can be shown in nine aspect modes at full screen. There’s also the option to play music files while the TV displays television programming. In addition, the iPod will charge while docked whether the TV’s power is on or off. Continue Reading…

A little while back we looked at and were impressed by Toshiba’s HD Ready 32CV505DB, finding it a mighty fine 32in budget TV. So now we’re more than a little intrigued to find on our test benches the 32XV505DB: another Toshiba 32in LCD TV which brings a Full HD resolution to the table while adding less than £100 to the price.Aesthetically the 32XV505DB – part of Toshiba’s strangely-named Regza TV range – looks identical to the 32CV505DB, so far as I can tell. Which is no bad thing, as the combination of a slender gloss-black bezel, silver outer trim, and thin ‘speaker strip’ jutting out along the bottom make it one of the better looking small LCD TVs in town.

Connectivity is good for the money, too, particularly thanks to the inclusion of three v1.3 HDMI inputs, a component video input, a D-Sub PC port, an optical audio output, and even a subwoofer line-out should you feel inclined to add a powered bass speaker to your setup.

As we made clear at the start of this review, the absolute key specification in the 32XV505DB’s make-up is its 1,920 x 1,080 resolution – in fact, it’s Toshiba’s first ever Full HD 32in TV. This resolution is joined, as with any Full HD TV worthy of the name these days, by a pixel-by-pixel mode for showing the UK’s 1080-line HD sources without any image scaling involved to mess things up. Continue Reading…

Enclosed in a sleek, thin-bezel design, both the LCD TVs screens claim to minimize power consumption. These super-slim JVC LCD TVs feature a cabinet that measures 1.5 inches in width with a maximum depth of just 2.9-inches at the panel’s centre. Weighing 26.4 lbs, the latest JVC models are believed to consume a mere 145W.

Offering 1920×1080 (1080p) resolution, both TVs come in a newly developed backlight unit, which is around 40% slimmer than the traditional ones.

VESA compliant, the JVC LT-42SL89 and LT-46SL89 are equipped with three HDMI, a headphone jack, USB picture viewer, an illuminated universal remote control, two components, one S-Video in and a PC input along with next-generation touch sensor controls, leaving behind the conventional buttons system.

JVC has planned to reach US with the super-slim LT-42SL89 and LT-46SL89 TVs in July for an estimated price of $1,899.99 and $2,399.99, respectively.

Outdoor TV-viewing goes at large with Sanyo’s new 52″ LCD high-definition monitor that boasts marine grade construction.

Sanyo CE52SR1 model features sun-readable LCD panel with tamper-proof glass designed to take-on harsh weather with vengeance. The protection against water is so substantial that it can withstand low-pressure jets of water sprayed directly on the front glass. This new model is lightweight and uses less electrical power then similarly sized plasma monitors. The outdoor TV packs a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, a stunning 1500:1 contrast ratio and 1500 cd/m2 on-screen brightness.

The 52-inchie comes with a one-year warranty and will be available in October 2008 for approx. $14,000.

Custom made TV displays are all the rage these days and this ravishing set from Hong Kong-based manufacturer Loewe certainly stands out in the crowd.

Christened the Loewe Individual, the crystal-studded television with an 80 centimeter (diagonal) screen is available in high gloss white or high gloss black and comes with an integrated hard disk recorder. With pictures being displayed in 16:9 cinema format, the high-definition 1366 x 768 pixels LCD panel comes fully laced with the new Loewe Digital+ platform and CRX sound system to give out the best picture and sound quality possible. The TV can be set up on a floor-to-ceiling pole that will allow users to rotate, tilt or moved it up and down to suit their wish while the functional brushed aluminum screen paravent coupled with seven front color options and matching insets on the side turn this TV into a sculpture.

To add to the exclusivity of the set, Loewe will only manufacture 20 of these sets setting them to retail at HK$68,000 (US $8,710) each.

Sony has unveiled its top-end range of Bravia LCD TVs, some of which feature a panel backlit by three colour LEDs – instead of the normal white light – to improve the screens’ colour quality.

The new XBR range is split into three series, the XBR8, XBR7 and XBR6. However, only the XBR8 family features “Triluminous” LED backlighting. According to Sony, this feature uses clusters of red, green and blue LEDs to backlight the screen.

Sony claimed the colour clusters have the advantage of “significantly elevating colour purity”, when compared to a screen with the more commonplace single white LED backlight.

The XBR8 series features a 46in and a 55in model, each boasting 1080p ‘full HD’ resolution and a setting for dimming a screen’s darkness within individual areas – essentially providing blacker blacks and whiter whites.

Both screens use 120Hz technology to stop images juddering and can connect up to four HD sources, thanks to the four built-in HDMI ports.

The XBR7 range holds both a 70in and 40in TV, whilst the XBR6 range offers a 37in, 40in, 46in or 52in option. Sadly, neither range sport the Triluminous feature. But each screen does have a 1080p resolution and a USB port.

All screen sizes will be available in the autumn, but prices haven’t been put on display yet.