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usatoday.com
11/17/97- Updated 01:41 PM ET
Manufacturers ponder look of new TVs
Wondering what the new digital TVs will look like? So far, manufacturers' design plans are not as clear as the high-resolution TV pictures they're promising us.
Few manufacturers are talking about what they'll offer consumers in the fall of 1998. Two things are clear: Digital TV buyers should think big and get ready to drain their wallets.
"Initially, you won't find the highest-resolution, highest-definition TV available in anything but a projection TV," says Marty Zanfino, product development manager for Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America. Although cabinet sizes have not been determined, Mitsubishi's first-generation HDTVs will include floor-standing console models with 64-inch and 73-inch diagonal screens.
In late fall 1998 or early 1999, Mitsubishi plans to offer digital TVs similar to their current 40-inch diagonal DiamondPanel TV, which has a flat-panel plasma display that can hang on the wall, sit on a table top or stand on the floor. The DiamondPanel TV (suggested retail price $11,999) is just a few inches thick and weighs less than 65 lbs. Eight DiamondPanel TVs fit in the depth of a traditional 40-inch television.
Zenith Electronics also will offer large-screen projection models in the 60-inch range followed by direct view sets - those that use picture tubes - in later years.
Other manufacturers aren't so forthcoming.
Sony Electronics: "The technology prototype we've been reviewing is a direct-projection TV, like a Trinitron TV," says Sony Vice President Rick Clancy, "and, yes, rear projection is feasible as well." The direct-view prototype's screen is a 36-inch diagonal, Clancy says. "But it may not be what we actually introduce." Thomson Consumer Electronics, makers of RCA, ProScan and GE televisions: "We're not ready to say anything," says Thomson spokesman James Harper. "The way this industry works, everybody seems to guard very closely their product plans. No one wants to get too specific." Sharp Electronics: "Nothing is cast at this point," says Steve Search, director of audio and video marketing. "What the actual size will be remains to be seen."
Industry observers can't put the picture into focus, either.
"Everyone is being unbelievably cagey at this point," says Marc Horowitz, editor of Video magazine. "They don't want to scare consumers into stopping buying televisions right now. They think they know what they're going to do, but they can retool and readjust very quickly if the climate changes."
"The majority are all going to be large-screen TVs or rear-projection TVs, and at least 30 inches or larger," says Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association spokeswoman Lisa Fasold. "You're not going to find any 19-inch TVs in digital in the fall of 1998."
Her prediction: "Most of the manufacturers will probably announce what they're going to do at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas."
Don't expect big changes in digital TV's look. "The only thing that's going to be apparent to the consumer is the shape," says Horowitz. "Nothing else is going to tell you this is a digital TV."
Digital TVs will have a more rectangular shape, similar to the dimensions of a film screen. Standard TVs have an aspect ratio of 4 to 3, which means that for every 4 inches of screen width, there are 3 inches of height. Digital TV's aspect ratio is a wider 16 to 9.
And if consumers aren't fazed by the rectangular shape, they'll be blown away by the price. "The cheapest digital TV at the rollout could be as low as $3,000," says Horowitz, "but I emphasize 'could,' and that would be a direct view model. Probably it will be more like $3,000 to $8,000, and the upscale stuff will be even more than that."
By Carol Memmott, Special for USA TODAY |
