Audio | Flatscreens | Presentation, Conference & Video Systems | Projectors |
Pete Putman’s Show Summary | Exhibitor & Attendee Reactions
NEC-Mitsubishi took the wraps off a new 40in. TFT LCD monitor, the LCD4000. First announced in February, this 1280×728 design brings another major player into the rapidly growing big-screen LCD market and puts more pressure on plasma. Sharp showed the LC-M3700, a 37in. LCD monitor with 1366×768 resolution and wide viewing angles that is adapted from their consumer TV offering.
Mitsubishi finally got their super-thin, 10in. deep VS-60XT2OU MegaView DLP projection cube to market. This design measures 60in. diagonally and has XGA (1024×768) resolution. Orion showed the NeoDigm, a tiled 84” plasma made up of four 853×480 PDPs. Given that NEC also has an 84” plasma with the same approach, this is likely an OEM product looking for a distribution channel.
Panasonic announced its 6th generation 42in. SDTV plasma, the TH-42PWD6UY (852×480 resolution). Spectacular colors and deep blacks are a Panasonic tradition, and this screen was joined by the new TH-42PHD6UY (1024×768 ns resolution). Panasonic also announced a line of proprietary plug-in video interface modules for these products and their 50in. offering.
Samsung finally unveiled the SyncMaster 403T, a 40” 1280×768 TFT LCD multimedia monitor that is one of several LCD products intruding into the 42” plasma market space. Samsung also announced third-generation versions of their 42” PPM42S3, 50” PPM50H3, and 63” PPM63H3 plasma monitors, and topped things off with the SVD-50D1S 50” DLP rear-projection cube. It is unique in providing 1280×720 resolution and measures just under 24” in depth.
Toshiba had a full range of DLP projection cubes on hand, ranging from the 38” P380DL (1024×768, 400 nits) to the 60” P600DL (also 1024×768, 300 nits). Synelec featured Indisys, a 16 Gb/s Ethernet backbone which they claimed to be the world’s first all-Digital Control room solution, a new 40” 1280×768 LCD monitor, and the LM-1200, an 84-inch DLP SXGA (1280×1024) display cube that is the largest currently available.
Clarity showed an upgrade to their Bobcat monitor and it now claims longer life for the backlight as well as LAN-based monitoring and control. Sony announced a new public display plasma monitor, the PFM-42V1 PlasmaPro. This 852×480 monitor supports a wide range of analog and DVI signal sources, but no word on support for network control.
BenQ took the covers off a 30” LCD TV in Orlando. The DV3080 has 1280×768 resolution and built-in NTSC tuner. It’s also a PC monitor with support to XGA (1024×768 and 1280×768) signal sources. Panasonic also showed a 22” WXGA TFT LCD monitor in their booth with no specs available at press time.
