Samsung has announced the first commercially available 40″ LCD TV with a LED backlight echewing the traditional CCFL-based backlight. CCFL has been the king of backlight but is now being challenged with LED. LED has advantages: very slow degradation of light output through 50,000 hours versus CCFL’s slow but sure decline. LED also provides much better color gamut that can exceed 100% NTSC. CCFL, with recent developments, have reached 92% NTSC with traditional CCFL’s at 72%. The LE40M91, however, limits the excitement with a low resolution of only 1366 x 768. Although DailyTech is reporting that the color gamut is 146%, I highly doubt it is that high. I am sure it is wrong because the article states a typical color gamut of 127%, which is absolutely not correct. Contrast ratio is 10,000:1 but this is based on actively managing the backlight to enhance contrast ratio (dynamic contrast). Non-managed (static) contrast ratio would be around 1000:1 at best. Brightness is at a standard 450 cd/m2.
What I would have liked better is to see a 1920 x 1080 resolution screen. Samsung is clearly targeting high-end consumers by using a modern LED-based backlight system. But then Samsung degrades the model by applying it to a very low-specification 1366 x 768 screen. As I have mentioned many times before, at 1366 x 768 every single source of video whether it is SD or HD will need to be scaled–decreasing the video quality. Up-sampling 1080i content to 1080p and then completely filling the beautiful screen would have been a better choice.
[tags]Samsung, LE40M91, 40″, LCD TV, LED Backlight, Full HD, 1920 x 1080, 1080p[/tags]
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Sony is aiming a 50% share for its TVs sized 40″ and larger. That share was only 30% last year. And to make sure that everybody is listening, Sony will let consumers slap down $6,838 for the KDL-52X2500. This is a bargain considering you have to pay north of $15,000 for a 65″ LCD TV from Sharp. Sony is also targeting a 6 million LCD TV sales number for 2006. 50% of that is 3 million and that’s not a small number. Earlier to the 52″ introduction to the world, Sony will unveil 10 new models in Japan around mid-September with a global rollout a bit later than that. Of the 10, two will be SXRD models that use LCoS technology.
Sony SXRD LCoS Engine
The KDL-52X2500 will incorporate Sony’s Digital Reality Creation (DRC) circuitry that up-converts non-1080p video sources to display on 1920 x 1080 resolution screens. Also, it will have a Wide Color Gamut CCFL (WCG-CCFL) powering the backlight to make colors more vibrant; the color gamut should be more than 90% NTSC. Contrast ratio will be 1500:1 using dynamic contrast enhancing software-based algorithms, brightness will be a lukeworm 450cd/m2 with one HDMI input.
One interesting note about the model numbers is that they are based on color. Model numbers that end with a certain 4-digit number means a certain color:
2000: Grey
2010: Dark Grey
2020: Silver
However the numbers 2500 and 2510 seem not to be based on the color scheme that Sony has been using. These massive TFT LCD panels are manufactured at S-LCD, the joint venture between Samsung and Sony that now has two G7 fabs.
Source: Bloomberg
[tags]Sony, KDL-52X2500, 52″, LCD TV, 1920 x 1080, 1080p, Full HD[/tags]
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On September 14, 2006, Texas Instruments (TI) featured a prototype SIM2 HT-5000 3-chip 1080p projector at CEDIA Expo 2006. Digital Projection (TITAN 1080p-250) and Runco (Video Xtreme Series) were also demonstrating 3-chip 1080p DLP projectors. DLP set makers are incorporating BrilliantColor technology that uses 6-color processing for better color saturation and a 50% increase in brightness in mid-tone images. There will be ten DLP makers that will announce 1080p products: Digital Projection, InFocus, Marantz, Optoma, Panasonic, Planar, projectiondesign, Runco, Sharp, SIM2.
SIM2 HT-5000
The SIM2 HT-5000 3-chip 1080p front projector has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, uses TI’s 0.95″ 1080p DarkChip3 DMD chips, and has a contrast ratio that exceeds 5000:1.
Source: Yahoo! Finance, SIM2
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Taiwan-based Unity Opto Technology, a LED manufacturer, developed RGB LEDs that can be used to illuminate from the side of a LCD or from the back. Unity also began shipments of its backlights for 7″ automotive displays and 12″ notebook PC displays. The company is also stating that it has entered the car dash lighting market. For the first eight months of this year ending August, Unity has generated NT$1.48 billion or US$45 million in sales, which is a 4.4% Y-over-Y increase from 2005.
Unity already manufactures and sells automotive tail-lights that have 22 LEDs (MAL-C065R). The company also sells many LED chips that are based on InGaN, AlInGaP, AlGaAs, GaP, and GaAsP.
Source: DigiTimes, Unity Opto
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Samsung’s new LN-S3251D is a 32″ LCD TV that has a retail price of $1,800. Adrienne Maxwell over at Home Theater seems to think that the $1,800 is a great price and wonders if Samsung cut any corners. Well, let me break it to you: $1,800 for a 32″ LCD TV is about $600-$800 too expensive in my book. You should be able to get a decent 40″-class LCD TV for that price. For about $2000 or so, you should be able to get a 40″-class LCD TV with 1920 x 1080 resolution! Continuing with the LN-S3251D… it has two HDMI ports, a VGA connection, and tuners: ATSC and NTSC.
Actually, Amazon has it for less than $1200 and that’s about where the price should be. The resolution is a limited 1366 x 768 with brightness at 500 cd/m2. Amazon’s specification adds “super-fast” to a response time of only 8ms. Contrast ratio is a respectable 4,000:1 (this is dynamic contrast ratio) with a 178-degree viewing angle. Most consumer-grade LCD TVs have 8-bit sub-pixels that generate 256 colors, each for RGB. But to make sure that these colors are processed accurately, they are processed using 10-bit algorithms and such is the case with Samsung’s LN-S3251D. The overall design looks pleasing enough, but I would strongly recommend getting something slightly bigger so you can enjoy beautiful pictures at a full 1920 x 1080 resolution.
Source: Home Theater, Amazon, Samsung
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