HDTV, DVD Take Center Stage
By Andy Patrizio
It may have been a slow Christmas for retailers, but that isn't stopping consumer electronics vendors from showing off some of the highest-priced high-tech toys ever at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The star of the show is the high-definition television (HDTV), which has been gestating since 1981, and the digital versatile disc (DVD), a video disc format the size of a music CD that can hold an entire movie.
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Hayward, Calif.-based Runco International, maker of high-end projection television sets, introduced a 200-disc DVD changer called the SAR-200 for $14,995. The player, which ships this month, comes with a SCSI port that lets users daisy-chain up to six players, if they feel the need to watch 1,200 movies.
Faroudja Laboratories, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., rolled out ultra high-end TVs and DVD players at the show -- including Faroudja's new RP4800 and RP5800, a duo of 48-inch and 58-inch rear screen projection wide-screen systems that sell for $18,900 and $35,000, respectively.
The televisions come with line-resolution doubling technology and built-in support for all of the HDTV signal specifications that are now under consideration. They also have data ports and PC-grade resolution, so PCs can be hooked up to the set.
Faroudja's DV1000 DVD player comes with a line doubler, which doubles the resolution on the television. It also has support for both Dolby Digital and Digital Theater Sound -- two high-end audio formats for home theater aficionados. The DV1000 sells for $5,495, more than 10 times the price of most DVD players.
The reality of digital video is said to be right around the corner. The majority of U.S. broadcasters expect to have a digital television signal on the air by the year 2002, according to a new study by Harris, a manufacturer of digital television transmitters in Melbourne, Fla.
Digital TV will allow broadcast television signals with twice the visual detail of current systems, plus CD-quality sound and services. The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that DTV signals replace analog signals for public TV by the year 2003.
The study found 93 percent of the 481 broadcasters surveyed said they were very likely or somewhat likely to convert to DTV within five years, and 66 percent said they could afford the conversion, compared with 42 percent in Harris's survey last year. Seventy-six percent said keeping prices low would be the key to success for these vendors.
That isn't stopping Hitachi Home Electronics from moving quickly into the market. The company announced one of the first HDTV sets, the 61-inch UltraFocus set, which offers full support for the HDTV specs. Pricing has not been set.
Hitachi also announced a smaller, 36-inch TV set that is ready out-of-the-box to connect to DTV set-top boxes, laptop or desktop computers, and PC or game systems through VGA or SVGA inputs.
One company not jumping on the HDTV bandwagon yet is JVC. "What's the rush to get a set out when there's nothing to receive?" said Bill Mandalke, regional manager for color television products at JVC, based in Aurora, Ill.
At this point, no one is broadcasting an HDTV signal.
As an alternative to expensive HDTV sets, JVC plans to sell a set-top converter that will convert all of its existing sets to support HDTV. The converter should sell for roughly $1,000, far less than the $7,000-$8,000 price tag HDTV sets are expected to command.
"When the market is here and there is demand, we will have it out," said Mandalke, adding that JVC won't release the set-top box for at least a year.
One new technology that will not be on the floor is the Digital Video Express (DIVX) player, a pay-per-view version of DVD designed by retailer Circuit City and a Los Angeles law firm. DIVX has been the source of incredible ire on the Internet since its announcement last September, since DVD players would be made obsolete by DIVX because DVD players are not backwards compatible with DIVX machines.
Zenith Electronics is expected to announce a DIVX player at the show with an estimated price of $499, but none of the players will be on the floor. Instead, DIVX players will be shown in a private suite nearby.
"HDTV is going to happen; it's only a matter of time," said Simon Bender, vice president of Diplomat Merchandise, a consumer electronics distributor in Brooklyn, N.Y. "When the price comes down, I think people will step up and buy. There's so much confusion in the market with DIVX, DVD, and HDTV, there needs to be a shakeup. Too much is being thrown at the consumer and they are being confused."
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