Saturday, January 11, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Set for the resolution revolution

Future of television features thinner, sharper built-in-feature-packing machinery

John Taylor, vice president public affairs and communications for Zenith Electronics Corp., shows off a 60-inch HDTV plasma monitor television set Thursday at the International Consumer Electronics Show. The show continues through Sunday. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Television's big picture is getting thinner, sharper and wider. And the sets of the future will integrate peripherals, such as digital video disk players and cable boxes to eliminate clutter and offer all-in-one entertainment.

High-tech televisions occupied a large chunk of the Las Vegas Convention Center's South Hall at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show. And John Taylor, the director of public affairs and communications for Zenith Electronics Corp., said his company is ready to equip consumers for the high-definition TV and digital revolutions.

"We see 2003 as the year of high-definition," said Taylor, who works from Zenith's Linconshire, Ill., headquarters. "It's really started to take hold."

Nationwide, he said, 700 stations are broadcasting digitally.

Zenith is ready. Ninety percent of its 2003 product line is digital; 40 of the new sets unveiled at CES are digital.

Taylor said CBS and ABC both broadcast their prime time lineups in HDTV and ABC will broadcast this month's Super Bowl in HDTV. Zenith is already there, too; some sets featured built-in HDTV tuners, DVDs, or personal video recorders.

Taylor said he expected HDTV's growth to spawn new interest and TV sales, just as color's advent did years ago.

"Until there was programming," he said. "Consumers didn't have the incentive to buy."

At CES, Taylor said, Zenith unveiled what it touted as the the industry's first digital light processor rear-projection integrated HDTV. The company also offered a series of plasma sets, ranging from 42 to 60 inches, measuring the screen diagonally. The prices are dropping, he said. The 60-inch plasma would have cost $25,000 last year, but the price will fall below $15,000 this year.

Even as Zenith pushed HDTV and coming technology, Philips pushed sets to improve current technology. Philips' Pixel Plus system takes conventional signals and doubles the number of lines and pixels per line. With DVDs, videocassettes, and clean digital cable signals, the system can deliver up to 2.1 million pixels of detail, compared with 378,000 from normal unenhanced analog.

"In the end, whatever you're looking at has to look as good as it can," said Anthony Fonzo, Philips' product marketing manager for digital television.

Gregg Lee, a a senior training development manager for Seacaucus, N.J.-based Panasonic, said sets are streamlining. Last year, a wide-screen plasma display was basically as display, needing connection to audio speakers and set-top cable boxes. This year's models, he said, such as a 37-inch plasma model retailing for about $4,500, features speakers and cable tuners already built-in. The goal, is he said, is to make machines supersimple for easy, and instant, gratification.

Sony, meanwhile was showing sets that would let gadgets work in concert. In his Thursday keynote, Sony President Kunitake Ando said he envisioned TV undergoing a rebirth as the center of all media.

Sony's Grand Wega sets, for example, featured memory stick slots. A digital camera user could transfer his stick from camera to television to view an instant slideshow of the stored pictures. Combining memory-stick functionality with high-definition, liquid-crystal display and plasma technology will help make television viewing as real as possible, Sony retail specialist Chase Anderson said.

"People want to feel like what they're watching is almost real life," he said. "Almost as if they were looking out the window."