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Technology Stocks : Zenith - One and Only -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Utne who wrote (3781)	12/30/1997 11:16:00 AM
From: Robert Utne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6570

Latest International CES Reporting by Communications Daily (summarized) My read is that Zenith is clearly in the lead in terms of introducing HDTV to the consumer market since LGE earlier announced that it will be producing with Zenith 64" HDTVs sets in March or April 1998. Whether or not Zenith will keep to this time table is unknown. The other competitors will not introduce either HDTV or SDTV until late 1998 and the formats will be highly varied with many CE companies only producing converters. 1. 14 CE manufacturers will demonstrate DTV sets at the International Consumer Electronics Show, January 8-12 in Las Vegas. 2. Projection sets will dominate DTV prototypes at CES, with exhibits from at least nine companies. Premise is that HD impact is most perceptible on largest displays and, for time being, that HD 1080i resolution is achieved more economically than with direct-view CRTs. Sony has been showing retailers 34" widescreen Trinitron XBR set, tentatively priced at $10,000 for Oct. 1998 delivery. 3. JVC and Sharp will show direct-view set among its DTV exhibits at CES. Sharp also will exhibit set-top DTV-to-NTSC converter. 4. Panasonic will "lead" its DTV offerings with converter box. JVC will pursue set-top market. "The industry has sold more than 22 million direct-view sets 32 inches and larger over the past 2 years, so there's rather a lot of high-quality displays out there that need a way to get the DTV signal," said David Kline, JVC gen. mgr.-strategic product planning. "It's important that we as an industry offer converter boxes as an option, so we can keep NTSC analog sales going." Although Mitsubishi and Zenith will demonstrate DTV projectors with receiver/decoder as separate module, executives said systems are prototypes and companies won't address converter-box issue at CES. 5. Mitsubishi 73" widescreen rear-projection monitor will display HD output from receiver module, but neither is final product, said Martin Zanfino, mgr.-product planning. Company also will exhibit 100" HD image from data-grade front projector on rear-diffusion screen. Mitsubishi sideshow will be 46W-plasma SD display. Flat panel is slated for 4th quarter 1998 delivery to consumer home theater market. Mitsubishi showed prototype at Japan Electronics Show and last month's Comdex, but previously had discussed only industrial applications for panel. It handles 480p vertical resolution, Zanfino said, and 852-pixel horizontal resolution yields 16:9 aspect ratio for DTV. Philips, Sharp and Sony have similar SD-capability in 42W plasma-addressed LCD (PALC) panels, but haven't divulged plans for CES or beyond except for usual boilerplate about showing variety of approaches to DTV; ditto for Pioneer, which has conventional plasma widescreen. Sharp will exhibit LCD front projector for DTV. 6. 55W Samsung DTV rear projector -- entirely home-grown product including chipsets and 7" projection CRTs. Mark Knox, senior mktg. mgr-digital products, said HD set has tentative price tag in $5,000-$7,000 range but cost will depend on fluctuating exchange rate of Korean won, as first sets will be built in Korea from domestic components. Eventually, Knox said, set might be made at Samsung's Mexican plants and with 9 " CRTs. Plant doesn't yet have rear-projection know-how as Samsung doesn't sell category here, Knox said, noting that company builds and sells models in Korea and produces own projection CRTs. Samsung is likely to offer converter box eventually because company designed its DTV universal-format converter with flexibility in mind. He said it can output DTV or NTSC (480i) at 3 resolution displays -- 1080i, 720p or 480p. Current 55W prototype will upconvert NTSC broadcasts to 1080i, he said. That compares with varying approaches such as Sony's, which upconverts NTSC and 480i-SD to 960i, while Hitachi-Thomson 61W rear-projection set will boost NTSC input to 540p (effectively 480p), Thomson engineers told us. 7. Zenith at CES will show 64W rear projector and data-grade Pro 900 front projector. Spokesman said latter will take HD input from outboard DTV receiver/decoder. Company planned to announce Dec. 29 it has licensed Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder (DAVID) from Des Moines-based Microware as system software for its DTV products. Zenith said DAVID is cost-effective solution for DTVs. Company previously licensed software for its telecomm digital set-tops but new pact marks first use of Microware program in TV receiver. 8. Also planning to preview DTV sets at CES are Ampro, Pioneer, Runco, Vidikron.