It's Official: Sony to Stop Making Plasmas

The AP reports this morning that Sony has officially announced that it will halt plasma display production. As part of an earnings report that was rosier than anyone expected, Sony said that it will focus on its Bravia line of LCD displays and quit the plasma business altogether, at which it was never particularly good anyway (my opinion, not part of the official statement). Sony claimed the number one market share for its Bravia LCDs during the recent Christmas shopping season and rightfully will focus its ongoing efforts on LCD and its SXRD version of LCoS.

Here's the full story:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060127/news_1b27sony.html

Another Take on New DISH HD Networks

The Rocky Mountain News ran a piece today regarding EchoStar's claims of DISH Network offering the most HD channels in the market today. While it's true to an extent, there's a caveat or two.

Read more here:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_4407868,00.html

DIRECTV Offering Free HD System After Rebate

Leafing through the Sunday circulars this week, I saw that both Best Buy and Circuit City are offering a free DIRECTV HD system after a $200 mail-in rebate. The satellite provider's HD-DVR from TiVo is $399.99 after the same $200 rebate. This comes on the heels of recent reports that the company will begin offering an equipment lease option sometime in the next few months -- something it has never done before. Although if it is essentially giving away the equipment now, why the need for a lease?

As a side note, the Sony SXRD LCoS-variant are being heavily promoted at both BB and CC. The 50-incher is advertised at $3,499.99 at both stores, although CC has an additional $350 in undefined "savings" on top of that price. BB lists the 60" for $1,000 more than the 50".

HDNet to Air U2 "Vertigo" Tour

HDNet announced this week that it will debut the HD premiere of U2's "Vertigo" Tour this Sunday, Jan. 29th at 9pm EST. The company says that "the electric performance features songs such as "New Year's Day" and "Where The Streets Have No Name," right up to date with "Vertigo," the smash hit from their the number one studio album "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb."

More info is at http://www.hd.net/U2.html

MTV's MHD Launches, But Only on Cox Cable

With great fanfare, MTV took the wraps off of its first public foray into high-def broadcasting with the launch of MHD on Monday. According to the company, it has been filming in HD for the last year and a half to build up a library of content that the new network will use. Until mid-April it will broadcast from the ski hamlet of Vail, Colorado; after ski season is over, various outlets report that it will move to a more tropical venue for the summer.

MHD so far is only available on Cox Communications, which is the dominant cable company in areas such as New Orleans, Phoenix, Orange County and San Diego. MTV says that it is in negotiations with the other cable and satellite providers for distribution throughout the U.S. My guess is that at least a few more deals will be announced very soon, with the satellite and telcoTV guys perhaps beating the cable companies to the punch.

Panasonic Chief: Plasma is Company's Focus

In an interview with CNET at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Panasonic USA CEO Yoshi Yamada said that his company's product focus is "very simple: plasma, plasma, plasma." Since reallocating marketing and HR resources to the plasma TV division in August 2004, the company has been the market leader in plasma sales every month since. According to Yamada, the company's market share climbed to 40-50% over the holiday season.

The Panasonic CEO also has some interesting things to say about LCD, SED and the future of the business. The full story is here:

http://news.com.com/Panasonics+plasma+pusher/2008-1041_3-6027524.html?tag=st.prev

I'm inclined to agree with Yamada's points about plasma's manufacturing and technological advantages over competing technologies, most specifically LCD. Many of the questions I get from readers of this blog and visitors to my BuyingHDTV.com site have to do with perceptions of plasma that are several years old. Many of the previous disadvantages to plasma, such as burn-in and high power consumption, while not totally mitigated have at least been softened enough so that they do not represent reason enough not to buy a plasma TV. I always encourage people to see as many of both technologies as they can with their own eyes and make a decision as to which they prefer. For me, although LCD is catching up in terms of both quality and size, plasma still wins out every time.

Pioneer Intros 50-inch 1080p Plasma

Pioneer at CES unveiled a 50-inch 1080p plasma that will carry an MSRP of about $10,000. The Pioneer Elite PureVision PRO-FHD1 plasma with 1920 X 1080 resolution can up convert all other video sources for improved HD image detail, color accuracy and fast moving image clarity. It will accept sources from 720p and 1080i to DVD and Blu-ray Disc, and will automatically convert it to deliver the highest resolution picture possible.

Also notable is the Pure Crystal Emissive Layer sandwiched between the plasma glass and the individual light cells, which conducts energy more efficiently so each cell is charged and discharged at a faster rate, improving contrast and brightness while using less energy. Swift charge and discharge of individual pixels results in a smoother transition from color to black for blacker blacks and increased detail in dark scenes.

The full release:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/press/release/detail/0,,2076_4313_291805820,00.html

Update: New DISH HD Nets Only Available via MPEG4

As part of its announcement that it is adding ESPN2 HD, Universal HD, 5 VOOM HD networks and HD local channels in 50 markets this year, DISH Network also stated that these new high-def programming options will only be available to customers who upgrade to DISH's new MPEG4 receivers.

DISH said that The ViP211 HD satellite receiver, the first model in the ViP series that supports both MPEG4 and MPEG2, is available for $49.99 for new lease customers. Also included in the ViP series is the ViP622 DVR, the world's first MPEG4 multi-room high definition and digital video recorder satellite TV receiver with the ability to view independent programs -- one in high definition and one in standard definition programming -- on two televisions at once. It features a large hard drive with a recording capacity of up to 25 hours of high-definition and up to 180 hours of standard-definition content. The ViP622 DVR will be available in the first quarter of 2006 for a one-time upgrade price of $299 for new lease customers, which includes a dish antenna and free standard professional installation (monthly DVR fee applies).

DISH Adds ESPN2 HD, Universal HD to Lineup

DISH Network announced at CES that it has added ESPN2 HD and Universal HD to its high-def programming lineup, along with five new VOOM channels to its high-def programming lineup. The satellite provider also said that it will be adding local HD channels in up to 50 markets this year, starting with Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York in February, and reaching more than 50 percent of U.S. TV households with HD locals.

The new VOOM networks are:

-- Worldsport HD -- Live sports coverage from premier arenas around the globe.
-- Family Room HD -- Movies and entertainment for the whole family.
-- Gameplay HD - Enter the virtual worlds of video gaming for the first time in HD.
-- Treasure HD -- Live auctions and original series for and about people with a passion for collecting.
-- World Cinema HD -- Award-winning and top-performing movies without borders.

http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?dist=nbk&param=archive&siteid=mktw&guid=%7BED28D03D%2D85CF%2D4EC1%2DA4AB%2DED448614F293%7D

http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?dist=nbk&param=archive&siteid=mktw&guid=%7BDDC552EA%2D61EB%2D4162%2D8E01%2DAB70DABDA87B%7D

Panasonic Displays 103-inch Plasma at CES

Panasonic parent Matsushita today unveiled a 103-inch plasma display prototype that is the world's largest, one inch bigger than a prototype Samsung rolled out at last year's CES. While great for show, neither of these behemoths is actually available for sale and it is unclear when -- if ever -- they actually will be. The largest production plasma is an 80-inch monster from Samsung currently available in Korea for about $130,000.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060105/tc_nm/japan_matsushita_dc

Group Unveils $500 HD DVD Player

The HD DVD Promotion Group announced at CES today that HD DVD players will be available this March, with prices starting at $499.99. Online retailers, including Amazon.com, Best Buy.com, Crutchfield.com and Tweeter.com, have started accepting pre-orders.

Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, HBO Video and New Line Home Entertainment also announced that nearly 50 HD DVD titles, including "Aeon Flux," "Batman Begins," "The Bourne Supremacy," "Jarhead," "The Matrix "and "U2: Rattle & Hum," will be available this Spring to coincide with the launch of the players. The studios also outlined plans to release additional titles throughout the year. More than 150 titles are expected to be available in time for the 2006 holiday season.
http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?guid=%7bF9F7FEF6-A079-4493-8627-0C6B4112127F%7d&siteid=mktw&dist=nbk&symb=

Hitachi Shows Off 55-Inch 1080p Plasma at CES

Hitachi is providing demonstrations of what it says is the industry's first 55-inch full-specification HD 1080p plasma display at the Consumer Electronics Show, which according to the company "combines the best advantages of plasma, including incredible color reproduction, rich black levels, rapid motion response and wide-viewing angles, with a full high-definition pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080 with progressive scanning in the most popular 55-inch screen size for today's home theater installations."

Hitachi is also using CES to unveil new plasma and LCD TVs that feature an internal hard-disk recorder offering built-in HD recording functionality. Separate HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc recorders are also on display.

HDMI Update Detailed

The founding companies of the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) announced at CES that the next version of the technology will include higher speed, deeper color, greater PC/CE convergence, a new mini-connector and new compressed audio formats. More details are here:

http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/newsarticle.asp?dist=nbk&param=archive&siteid=mktw&guid=%7BD5749F87%2DC0E0%2D46CF%2DA155%2DF15D78C18A83%7D

More than 17 million devices featuring HDMI were shipped in 2005.

New Blu-ray Titles Announced

Despite a format war that so far shows no signs of abating, several Hollywood studios have announced film titles at the Consumer Electronics Show that will arrive later this year in HD DVD or Blu-ray. 20th Century Fox has named "Fantastic Four" and "Ice Age" among the 20 titles to come later this year in the Blu-ray format, while Sony Pictures will release "The Fifth Element" and "Hitch" in Blu-ray.

Warner Bros. plans to name titles that it will release in both Blu-ray and HD DVD later this week at CES.

http://news.com.com/Studios+announce+next-generation+DVD+titles/2100-1026_3-6017037.html

Cable Downconverting Not Allowed Under New DTV Bill

Multichannel News reports that the new Digital TV bill nearing final stages of approval in Congress won't allow the cable industry to downconvert digital signals to analog, meaning that potentially millions of analog customers might have to rent set-top boxes to receive local broadcast signals. The change to the legislation in the conference committee is a victory for the National Association of Broadcasters, who successfully lobbied Senator Judd Gregg (chairman of the Budget Committee) to include the provision in the Senate's version of the bill.

The final bill should be voted on later this month or early next month.

DIRECTV Launches HD Locals in NY, L.A.

DIRECTV announced Friday that it has begun offering high-def local channels via MPEG 4 technology in New York City and Los Angeles. DIRECTV will carry each of the four primary broadcast networks that offer an HD feed in the market. Customers who subscribe to a programming package that includes local channels will receive both the standard and HD signals at no extra monthly charge.

DIRECTV now offers HD locals in 12 markets, with another 24 scheduled to get them sometime this year.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=127160&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=799206&highlight=