about-electronics.eu

DigiTimes: In order to improve its TV business, Philips plans to take a restructuring charge of 40 million euros in the third quarter of 2009, according to the company.

The company has been reorganizing its TV business over the last year, divesting itself from the North American market and seeing its TV related sales drop 54.57% on year to 587 million euros in the second quarter of 2009.

As part of its makeover in the display market, the branding licensing agreement between Philips and TPV for monitors came into effect on June 1, 2009.

Overall, Philips’ second quarter sales of 5.23 billion euros were down 19% on year. Net income totaled 45 million euro in the second quarter, down 93.88% from 735 million euros for the first quarter.

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BBC: Dutch electronics giant Philips has said it will “vigorously oppose” any suggestion that it and Korean firm LG fixed the prices of LCD flat screens.

Philips’ comments came after European Commission competition regulators sent it a “statement of objections” to formally outline their suspicions.

Brussels suspects Philips and LG may have been part of a wider cartel. The investigation relates to a jointly-owned Philips and LG business – LG Display – which was set up in 1999. Philips has subsequently sold its share in the unit.

Issuing a statement of objections is the first formal step in European Union anti-competition investigations, under which the Commission first informs the parties concerned about the objections raised against them.

It does not prejudice the outcome of an investigation, and firms can reply to the objections. Last November, LG Display pleaded guilty to LCD price-fixing in the US, paying $400m (£249m) following a parallel investigation by US competition regulators. Japan’s Sharp and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tubes were also fined by US authorities in that case.

Brussels has not said which other firms are involved in its investigation. The news comes on the same day that Philips reported a 94% drop in second quarter profits due to a big decline in sales.

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Electronista: Philips has priced its 56-inch, 21:9 aspect ratio Cinema 21:9 HDTV it first introduced just after CES in January. While release dates are still unknown, the TV will cost the equivalent of about $7,400 (€5,243) in Europe.

The unique aspect ratio results in a complete absence of horizontal black bars without distorting the image found in movies that are shot in the widescreen format.

While images are not stretched, the TV uses Philips’ smart pixel technology to manipulate everything else to fit the screen. The set also has a record number of pixels, at 8.3 million.

To get the full benefit of the set, however, users need to play movies recorded on Blu-ray discs. There is still no indication of exactly when Philips will ship the set in the UK, but as the company announced it is leaving the North American market, the TV will not be sold in the US nor Canada

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Trusted Reviews: Are slow start-up times putting you off buying a Blu-ray player? Philips thinks they might be and, further, with its BDP7300 purports to have solved the problem, “by offering quick offering quick start up times but without the need to use any extra power usage in standby mode.”

Although quite what quick means in, say, seconds is anyone’s guess.

Anyone expecting Full HD, 1080p24 output capabilities, with Deep Colour support, as well as DVD up-scaling to ‘near-HD quality’ won’t be disappointed.

Decoding of Dolby TrueHD audio and DTS Master Audio Essential, with 7.1-channel output, is featured. BD Live (Profile 2.0) content is supported, with 1GB of local storage provided and the requisite Ethernet port offering internet connectivity. Despite it’s claimed quick start-up time, the BDP7300 manages to draw a paltry 0.2W in standby – hardly extravagant.

A front-mounted USB port means DivX WMV, MP3, WMA and JPEG files can be played from a removable storage device. AVC HD support enables video to be played from most HD camcorders with no messing around with conversion software. Can you think of a better use of £249 (€291) once the player hits retail some time this month?

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Electronista: Electronics giant Philips is drawing a close to its public efforts in 3D imaging, a Dutch site reports.

The company is noted to be closing its 3D Solutions division entirely, and putting an end to the production of displays using its WOWvx technology.

The technology is unique in the industry for simulating 3D on an LCD TV, without requiring viewers to wear special glasses. The cost and/or inconvenience of such glasses has traditionally been a major obstacle to the adoption of 3D displays.

The end of Philips’ 3D efforts is being attributed not only to a global recession, but a slower adoption of the technology than previously hoped for.

Though the company says it may eventually return to the field, the profitability of 3D is believed to be too minimal to justify present activity. Past WOWvx products have included a 22-inch commercial screen and a 56-inch prototype.

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NewLaunches: The Philips DCP951/37 portable DVD player features more than just allowing you to watch your favorite DVD on the move.

It actually lets you attach your iPod via its slide out dock that allows you to store the iPhone/iPod when not required and just enjoy the video.

The screen comes with a below par resolution of 640×220 but supports most formats for playback from DVD and SD memory cards.

It features a 3.4mm stereo jack, an MP3 player and can rock for 3.5 hrs non stop.

The Philips DCP951/37 portable DVD player will cost you approx $140 (around €109) and is compatible with older models of the iPod Nano or Classic.

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Core77: Philips’ Master LED bulb has the same form factor as the old-fashioned kind, making it “simple for people to use and feel good about using.”

The bulb draws just 7 watts but gives off light equivalent to 40 watts’ worth, and lasts 45,000 hours, as opposed to the 1,500 of its incandescent predecessors.

The bulbs are now available in Europe.

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Gizmodo: Compact discs weren’t always impromptu drink coasters. Once, in the not-so-distant past, they played music, contained pictures, and let people play video games with tacked-on FMV sequences.

And today, the venerable CD turned 30. Happy birthday! 1979-2009.Thirty years. Pretty amazing that it’s been that long since those crazy Dutchmen at Philips spun the technology off of laser discs as part of an optical digital audio disc demo in Eindhoven.

Of course, the CD didn’t immediately take off right then and there. It needed a little help from Sony, which worked with Philips to get the format standardized.

The standard they named Red Book, which included everything from playing time (initially 60 minutes), to the disc diameter to sampling frequency. Put simply, the collaboration worked out, and Red Book was a success.

In the book The Compact Disc Story, Philips reps lauded the task force they established with Sony. The CD that team created was “invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team,” Philips said. If only Apple and Microsoft could say the same, no? Oh, the things they could build.

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T3: Looking for an MP3 player you just might lose down the back of the sofa? Well, the Philips Go Gear Spark could be the player for you.

Yes it really is that small, sized at around 1.6 inches across, but still with room for an even smaller OLED colour screen for displaying tiny album sleeves you’ll barely be able to make out or even some track details for the truly eagle-eyed.

Mind you, small is beautiful when it comes to pocket media players. Thankfully it’s not small on everything, with a battery life of 27 hours and storage ranging from 2GB to a very useful 8GB.

There’s also MP3, WMA and JPEG file compatibility, ‘SuperScroll’ navigation, a built-in equaliser, optional FM radio and according to Philips, top notch audio – although you might want to put that to the test before you open your wallet. Prices for the Philips Go Gear Spark range start at £39.99 (€44 ), moving up to a top end of £59.99 (€67).

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TWICE: Manufacturers of Blu-ray Disc products may soon find it easier to acquire licenses to the technology through a one-stop-shop licensing program being coordinated by key patent holders Panasonic, Philips and Sony.

Representatives for the three consumer electronics companies said Wednesday they are now working with other Blu-ray Disc patent holders to establish the licensing program.

The companies said the resulting single license will cover essential patents for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD, and is expected to be available around the middle of the year. A new independent licensing company is being set up and will be based in the United States with branch offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America, the companies said.

Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP at IBM and more recently CEO of Open Invention Network, will be CEO of the licensing entity. “By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray Disc products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor,” stated Rosenthal.

The three founding companies said they expect the program “will stimulate the growth of the market for Blu-ray Disc products.” The companies are inviting any essential patent holders for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD patents to join the licensing pool as a licensor and shareholder.

The fees for the new product licenses are $9.50 (around €7.50) for a Blu-ray Disc player and $14 (around €11) for a Blu-ray Disc recorder. The license fees for Blu-ray Disc software will be 11 cents for a read-only disc, 12 cents for a recordable disc and 15 cents for a rewritable disc. As a result of the efficiencies obtained with the combined license offering, the royalty rates for Blu-ray Disc products are expected to be at least 40 percent lower than the current cumulative royalty rates for individual Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD format licenses, the companies said.

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NewLaunches.com: Philips has unveiled its internet based TV service, NET TV, for the customers in the United Kingdom.

Initially it will be targeting the high-end TV lineups enabling partnered internet contents to be displayed and browsed through a user-friendly and a simplified web-TV layout.

Currently it includes, You Tube, Tom Tom, eBay, MetreoGroup, Funspot, MyAlbum and Netlog.

Contents from these are optimized with Philips-friendly web-TV app and are accessible via remote control on a home-network wired LAN (8000 series) or a wireless connectivity (9000 series).

The Net TV is said to be live from April.

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EngadgetHD: Europeans can look forward to three more BD-Live-capable players in the near future, all of which support 1080p24 and upscale DVDs to 1080i.

As of now, details are pretty scant about the low(er)-end BDP3000 and the mid-range BD5000; all we’re told is that they’ll be DivX Certified, and the latter of the two will boast a USB 2.0 port for multimedia viewing.

The top-end BDP7300 will include integrated 7.1 audio decoding along with 1GB of storage, but prices for the three are still undisclosed. Though, we shouldn’t be waiting long, as the 7300 should land in March with the other two following shortly after.

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