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Born Rich: Designed to stimulate the eyes, excite the ears, complement the room, and to take your imagination to the very limit, here’s the Bang & Olufsen’s exclusively-new flagship Smart TV, the BeoVision 11. Described to be a masterpiece of design, spectacular sound, best-in-class picture, full-connectivity, and digital entertainment, the BeoVision 11 has originally been conceived to provide the entire family with a comprehensive array of up-to-date digital entertainment of the highest caliber. (more…)

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Electronista: The California Energy Commission has approved a new set of efficiency standards aimed at regulating televisions sold in the state, according to CNET News.

The rules apply to displays 58-inches or smaller, requiring retailers to stock TVs with 33 percent less energy consumption by 2011.

The terms increase once again for 2013, with mandatory reductions in consumption by an average of 49 percent.

The Commission claims the mandate will reduce electricity costs by up to $8.1 billion. The group also expects the rules to eliminate the need for building a natural gas power plant of 615 MW capacity.

The Consumer Electronics Association has opposed the bill, arguing that the regulations will effectively kill the plasma TV market in California.

The Commission, however, claims that CNET and Energy Star test data shows that plasma screens utilizing new phosphors with enhanced gas mixtures will be able to meet the 2011 and 2013 standards, especially if the technology is paired with automatic brightness control.

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HD News: Panasonic have unveiled their new entry level range of HDTV ready Plasma screens which are due to arrive in the UK this March. The TX-P37X10, TX-P42X10 and TX-50PX10 are already available to pre order from some retailers.

As entry level screens all of the new panels offer an HDTV resolution of 1366x 768 pixels along with three HDMI inputs and two scart sockets.

Panasonic are claiming a 20,000:1 Native Contrast Ratio and 1,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio for all of the models in the PX10 range. All of the new screens will sport the latest incarnation of Panasonic’s famed V Real picture processing technology in the shape of V-Real 4. Panasonic’s 100Hz ‘Double Speed’ technology takes the frame rate up to 100 fps (frames per second).

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Dealerscope: Worldwide shipments of plasma display panels fell along with the global economy, as they dropped 12 percent year over year in the fourth quarter. That’s according to numbers released Monday by research firm display search.

According to DisplaySearch’s Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report, Plasma and LCD TV Panel Shipment Module, shipments of the panels dropped 12 percent to 3.8 million in the final quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, 1080p panels grew in share, representing 25 percent of those sold.

Meanwhile, Panasonic widened its market share lead to just under 50 percent, followed by Samsung and LG; Panasonic was the only brand whose sales grew in the quarter.

“Due to the demand reduction brought about by the economic crisis and manufacturing line shut downs by each plasma panel maker, it is hard to expect optimistic results for 2009 PDP shipments,” DisplaySearch’s Director of Display Technology and Materials, YS Chung, said.

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HD News: LG’s flagship PS8000 Plasma series for 2009 includes technology for smoother more natural frame-to-frame transitions, 600Hz ‘Smooth Motion’.

600Hz ‘Smooth Motion’ increases the rate at which the plasma pixels refresh to improve High Definition motion tracking. It is worth noting that the figure is not directly comparable to an LCD refresh rate.

The 50in and 60in panels also come with THX certification. THX display certification has been designed to set a benchmark for flat panel display performance, driving quality in manufacturing and helping consumers to simplify their buying decisions.

The PS8000 series will feature “THX Media Director” which has been designed to simplify operation and ensuring optimised settings.

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Pioneer Europe: Recent press reports claimed that Plasma TV technology may be banned from the market soon for energy efficiency reasons. Such statements are factually incorrect, according to EICTA (link opens PDF).

According to the pertinent EU directive a technology such as plasma cannot be banned from the market as long as the TV sets (using this technology) comply with the energy efficiency requirements.

The EU and its member states are currently working on new regulations to ensure improved energy efficiency of TV sets across all technologies, including Plasma TVs, LCD TVs, CRT based TVs, etc.

All manufacturers will be required to meet these new minimum efficiency standards in order to continue producing, importing and selling TV sets on the European market. This regulation is expected to be published during the second half of 2009.

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Telegraph.co.uk: Giant flatscreen televisions have been dubbed the ’4x4s’ of the living room because they can consume four times as much energy as traditional televisions. Now European governments are finalising a mandatory EU regulation to set minimum standards for televisions. The worst performers will be phased out, and the rest will have to be labelled with energy ratings.

Britain has 60 million television sets, one for every person in the country. In the past five years the main television in many households has changed from being a 24-32in cathode ray model to a 32-42 flatscreen television.

Power consumption goes up as the screens increase in size, so a big plasma model could use four times as much electricity and be responsible for the emission of four times as much carbon dioxide as the biggest CRT, and they account for twice as much as a fridge-freezer.

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TWICE: The Plasma Display Coalition (PDC), a multi-company body promoting sales of plasma display technology, released the model numbers of 43 flat-panel plasma TV sets that qualified for new tighter Energy Star power-consumption standards.

Under the new system, the PDC said, “it’s now possible to replace an old big-screen color TV picture tube television with a slim profile, widescreen plasma HDTV that actually consumes less energy than the TV screen it replaces.”

Members of the coalition include: Hitachi, LG Electronics, Panasonic and Pioneer, each of which offers models that were among the 43 plasma TVs introduced by its member companies in the last nine months that have earned the new Energy Star rating and have been placed on the EPA official roster of qualifying HDTV sets.

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HDTV UK: Panasonic has announced that its TH-65VX100 and TH-50VX100 (65- and 50-inch, respectively) VIERA plasma TVs will be arriving in the UK from January.

According to the press release, there’s new-generation plasma technology on board including a “Dynamic Black Layer” positioned at the front end of the panel which is supposed to reduce the amount of predischarge to one-sixth that of conventional models.

In English, this means that the contrast ratio is a self-proclaimed 60,000:1, offering deeper, richer blacks and expanding the colour gamut.

Also on board is an 18-bit digital signal processor, “Digital Colour Reality” technology for fine gradation from light to dark.

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Fox Business: As if plasma televisions weren’t thin enough, manufacturers are gearing up to launch models that will be miniscule in depth and promise even brighter picture.

In the next couple of years, consumers should expect to see advances in plasma TVs on the market from the leading display-panel manufacturers.

“The plasma market is only about eight years old,” said Jim Palumbo, president of the Plasma Display Coalition. “There’s a lot of room for tremendous development.”

While these new plasma displays will come with a premium, they should quickly come down in price given the nature of the consumer electronics market, which sees prices drop precipitously each year. The moves on the part of the industry are in response to the huge demand for flat panel TVs that hang elegantly on your wall.

“Plasmas are going to get even thinner and have extremely better quality,” said Palumbo. “Flat panel is where the industry is moving.” According to Palumbo, 30 million plasma televisions are expected to be sold this year, up from around 25 million last year.

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AV Zombie: Disgruntled plasma buyers in Korea have besieged Samsung with complaints after their beloved flatscreens turned black.

Owners have even turned to a consumer rights group for help in demanding that Samsung immediately recall all of its plasma televisions.

Four models in Samsung’s 42-inch plasma range (the SPD-42S5HD, SPD-42S5HDM, SPD-42P5HD, and SPD-42P5HDM) appear to be affected by the terminal fault, which results in half the screen turning black after approximately a year’s use.

Samsung has confirmed that the black-out is due to a technical fault with the set and has offered free repairs to owners, however the CE giant is refusing to recall any screens. It has said however that if complaints grow it will consider extending its free warranty period from one to two years.

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Kommersant: Russian daily Kommersant reports that at the beginning of July this year, Samsung will begin to manufacture plasma televisions at the Telebalt factory in Kaliningrad, and LG Electronics is expected to launch a similar project in August at the region’s Rolsen plant.
According to the report, Samsung intends to begin to produce “several thousand televisions” per month at the Telebalt factory, which has the capacity to produce around 5 million televisions annually. Meanwhile, a source at the Rolsen plant, which has an annual production capacity of 3 million units, confirmed that the plant will begin to produce plasma televisions for LG Electronics in August.

According to ITResearch, the volume of the Russian market for plasma televisions has reached 240,000 units annually, a trade that is worth around $670 million.

Data from GFK-Russia shows that in 2006 the market grew by 24.2% financially and 66.5% physically. The three market leaders are Panasonic, Philips, and Samsung (ordered alphabetically).

Experts in the Russian market expect the share of sales of plasma televisions (14.3% of total television sales last year) to increase by up to 5% by the end of this year as the beginning of production in Kaliningrad drives prices down by 10-20%.

Manufacturers in Kaliningrad, which is a special Russian economic zone, do not pay customs tariffs on imported components for the assembly of plasma televisions (10%) or VAT (18%). Whether this really will make plasma televisions from Kaliningrad much more affordable than models from Southeast Asia remains to be seen.

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