California Proposes Ban on Energy-Hogging HDTVs Starting in 2011

The California Energy Commission is proceeding with a proposal this summer to ban the sale of TV sets that do not meet new efficiency standards when they are turned on and displaying a picture — a measure of power consumption that is not currently regulated at all.

But the market and technological advances may already be advancing this goal, as large-screen plasma sets fall out of favor and LCDs become more energy efficient.

The CEC proposal is set up as a two-tiered system. The first enforces efficiency standards beginning in 2011 and would save 3,831 gigawatt hours (and bring down overall TV energy consumption by 33%) by placing a cap on the active mode power usage (in watts) of individual TVs. Current standards in California only regulate TVs in standby mode, at a cap of 3.0 watts.

According to the Commission, energy used in standby mode only represents about 5 percent of all TV energy consumption.

The program’s 2013 second stage promises to reduce energy use by 49%. If they are enforced, the new standards are expected to save Californians between $18 and $30 a year per TV set in energy costs. As noted by the Commission, current LCDs use about .27-watts per square inch and plasmas use 0.36-watts per square inch.

This isn’t the first time Government has stepped in to regulate the energy efficiency in a gadget. More than thirty years ago, regulations on always-on refrigerators were passed and were first seen by companies as oppressive. Those companies eventually adapted and the result was a more efficient product. Similar acts have managed the energy needs of air conditioners and other gadgets.

Energystarlogot1 Not surprisingly, several TV companies are seeing this proposal as an all out declaration of war. On the front lines are the folks that put on the Consumer Electronics Show every year, members of the Consumer Electronics Association. They think they’ve done enough to self-regulate their industry, including setting up tougher energy criteria with the new Energy Star 3.0.

Currently, the standards set up by the Energy Star project are not as stringent.

The Energy Star caps are set by a formula that uses native vertical resolution and visible screen area. Power Integrations recently noted that the Energy Star formula (PMax = 0.240*A + 27), with a TV-viewing area between 680 inches and 1045 inches, limits 42-inch TVs (754 in.sq.) to 208 watts in consumption. More than 300 TVs qualify at that limit right now, including some energy-hogging Plasmas.

It’s important to note that the Energy Star program is voluntary, and most of the TVs that would be banned by the proposal would be larger TVs that are already losing steam in the market anyway.

CeclogocopyThe CEA, working on behalf of companies likely to be most affected by the proposal (over-40-inch CRT and Plasma television makers), says pushing through this law would immediately take out 25 percent of TVs off the market. They claim that removing any TV options would harm companies already hurting from the recession.

Those who’d benefit from the new law don’t share the same belief. The LCD Manufacturers Association, including up-and coming TV makers like Vizio, are supporting the proposal.

The Commission, says the law’s main goal is to reduce the strain on the energy grid, which will help avoid building expensive new power plants. It cites the fact that TVs are among the fastest growing electronics in the business and are slated to grow further.

But that’s a deceptive citation because recent TV growth has focused on LCDs and other ‘greener’ TVs.

Energy-hogging TVs are on their way out, without the help of the government or an overriding desire by consumers to own energy-efficient TVs. Most buy LCDs because they’re simply cheaper and are finally approximating the quality of larger plasma televisions.

As we noted recently, the next six years are expected to follow this model as well, with super-efficient OLEDs growing in popularity and availability.

So this might be a moot issue after all, even if you take into account the very largest TVs, which the CEA says will be ones most penalized.

Consider the Mitsubishi LaserVue Laser TV, which comes in huge sizes over 65 inches. Its laser technology not only produces good video, but is also the most energy-efficient, with long-lasting lasers that never need replacing.

So the intention of the commission is generally positive, but it looks like consumers are already ahead of the game here. No matter what happens with the proposal, energy-hogging TVs will be gone within two years.

-wired.com

Honeywell Announces Entry Into LCD Space with 82-inch Behemoth Or Mitsu Laser TV

Honeywell is such an old company that in order to survive the changing manufacturing needs of the country, it’s been forced to reinvent its product line numerous times. Over the last 103 years, it has sold everything from home thermostats, to Garrett turbochargers, and even cluster bombs and napalm (!).

Now, Honeywell is partnering with Taiwanese company Soyo to launch a new line of LCD televisions. And in order to get the attention in a market saturated with TV manufacturers and decimated by the economic depression, they’ve decided to come out with the high-end, super-sized (303-pound), 82-inch 1080p Altura LE LCD in the next few months.

Consider us firmly aware, Honeywell, but also slightly confused. Our first reactions come down to this: Soyo, really? And 82-inches, wha? Soyo’s previous LCD panels have been panned for their below-average image processing and quite poor black levels and really don’t inspire confidence.

As for the size, we find it difficult to believe that anyone would pay a huge premium for size without assurances of excellent picture quality. They haven’t mentioned a price, but somehow I don’t think this will be any cheaper than $5,000. Currently, the only TVs that are selling well are LCDs from top companies that have significantly reduced their price points. And the only high-end pricey TVs that are showing up on Amazon’s top 50 list are the Pioneer Kuros, generally considered the best overall TVs.

Owning an 82-inch screen is an admittedly sexy idea, but the reality is that people are broke and even high rollers are hedging their bets. Plus, you could just pick up a Mitsu Laser TV and enjoy yourself with a cool new technology.

Still, we wouldn’t mind checking it out all on someone else’s dime. It will feature a 120Hz refresh rate (eh), Full 1080p HD, 178 degree view angle, and a bunch of other HDMI, Component, and VGA ports. Plus, it will have a 120,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (already surpassed), and come with a potentially cool, but somewhat strange five-year warranty that loses small warranty privileges over the years, like labor and LCD panel repairs.

The Honeywell TVs will also come in four smaller sizes,and will be available everywhere in a few months for an undisclosed price.

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Launches LaserVue Carbon Neutral Campaign on Facebook Encouraging Consumers to be Mindful of Energy Consumptio

Campaign Follows Launch of Environmentally Friendly LaserVue(R) Laser Television, Delivering Twice the Color at One-Third the Power

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. today announced the LaserVue(R)(3) Carbon Neutral Facebook campaign. The campaign encourages awareness of harmful carbon dioxide emissions and wasteful energy consumption. It also provides a means for individuals to learn how to become "carbon neutral" by reducing electricity use and supporting renewable energy through the purchase of carbon offsets. The LaserVue Carbon Neutral Facebook campaign underlines MDEA's commitment to reduce waste and set higher standards of efficiency throughout the television industry. LaserVue is one of the most energy-efficient, large-screen televisions available on the market today.

The LaserVue Carbon Neutral Facebook campaign seeks to educate consumers about the importance of managing their carbon footprint. Nearly everything we do, make, or buy, adds to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. The LaserVue Carbon Neutral Facebook campaign aims to inspire individuals to calculate their carbon footprint, reduce what they can and then mitigate the rest with carbon offsets.

For the first 5,000 Facebook and Twitter users to join the LaserVue Carbon Neutral group or follow its Twitter page, MDEA will apply one dollar per person (up to $5,000) towards the purchase of 500 "carbon offsets" from the non-profit organization, Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF). The net revenues generated from the campaign will be reinvested by BEF to support the development of new renewable energy sources.

"Through the LaserVue Carbon Neutral Facebook campaign, MDEA hopes to prepare consumers with the information and resources necessary to make a difference in the environment and recognize the importance of purchasing carbon offsets," said Frank DeMartin, vice president of marketing, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. "We are honored to work with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, an organization devoted to engaging people in solving the environment's most pressing issues."

Announced and available to the public in 2008, MDEA's LaserVue Laser TV not only delivers twice the color(1) of many of today's HDTVs, but it also uses exponentially less power(2) than comparably-sized LCD and plasma TVs.

"MDEA's Laser TV technology is evidence of their commitment to make a positive impact on the environment, and we're excited to be part of the LaserVue Carbon Neutral Facebook campaign," said Patrick Nye, head of Bonneville Environment Foundation's Climate Business Group. "The carbon offsets purchased through the campaign will help support the development of renewable energy in the U.S. including; solar power systems for schools and public buildings and; wind power systems for farms, ranches and communities."

-Livenews

Review: Mitsubishi LT-52149

For about two years I’ve been steadily following Mitsubishi’s progress toward a laser TV—a DLP rear projection TV that uses lasers rather than lamps to produce light and color.

So it was a bit of a surprise at a recent electronics industry trade show to see an innovation even more interesting that that. The TV in question is the 52-inch (also available in 46-inch model ) LT-52149 integrated sound projector model. While it’s a mostly-conventional LCD TV, what makes it stand out is the built-in sound bar that really works.

The LT-52149 is a full 1080p LCD TV with standard backlighting (CCFL not LED), a 6ms response time, 120Hz anti-judder feature, 4 HDMI inputs and a fairly wide 178-degree viewing angle. All that alone would make it a TV worth paying attention to. What really gets attention is the feature found under the screen—the speakers.

Most flat panel TVs these days go out of their way to hide the speakers. In fact a lot of manufacturers assume buyers won’t be using the built-in speakers anyway, opting instead for a full home theater system. While I agree that’s the best audio option, If my friends and relatives are a representative sample, there are a lot of people who just don’t want the hassle of placing 6 speakers around a room. Several speaker companies offer single-cabinet speaker bars as alternatives to separate surround systems. The Mitsubishi iSP TVs include just such a speaker bar built-into the TV.

The “sound projector” on the Mits TV is made up of 16 individual 3-inch drives with crossovers separating them into five discrete channels (front R/L, center, rear R/L). Each channel is designed to use timing and reflection to create an accurate surround experience while sound technically comes from the front. There’s also a subwoofer output to add the .1 of a 5.1 system (which I found necessary to the setup). A virtual surround option is not unheard-of in a flat panel TV, but the control and performance if this one makes it unique.

Cosmetically, this is an attractive TV, with a glossy black finish and minimally thin bezel surrounding the screen. The speakers are not hidden the way some recent Samsung and Hitachi TVs hide their speakers. When you’ve got 16 drives, it’s difficult to hide them. However, they’re not objectionably large. The TV is also a bit deeper than others we’ve had in here recently, measuring close to 5-inches deep.

From a picture standpoint, this may be the best-looking Mitsubishi LCD to date. Using the Blu-ray Digital Video Essentials disc to set up the TV and the Blu-ray version of Casino Royale I found the TV to deliver excellent color and contrast, better than most LCD TVs I’ve used. Subtle details in dark areas rivaled what you can get from better plasma TVs. The 120Hz scan rate feature, which takes incoming 60Hz video signals and converts them to 120Hz, effectively removed the motion judder sometimes seen on LCD TVs.

This can be a big deal for sports fans as judder can be very distracting when watching players race across a field. Other people in the office noted that the picture exhibited a lot of depth, owing to the good contrast.

Of course, the audio feature is what makes this TV stand out from others. To get the most out of the iSP, you need to customize it through the setup menu. Within the audio menu, you can tell the system where the TV is in relation to your seating area (front, center, angled) as well as the distance.

Further, you can go into a deeper menu to control each individual channel to more accurately direct how that channel reaches your ears. Built-in white noise test patterns and a visual representation of the sound projection let you steer each channel. I was shocked by how well it all worked. While you don’t get quite the directionality of a true 5.1 system, the TV delivered a convincing surround experience that filled the room and placed surround effects on the left, right and rear as needed. I did find that the addition of a subwoofer helped to fill out the effect.

All told, this TV performs excellently on both video and audio fronts and would be a smart consideration for people who don’t plan to hook up separate speakers.

-egear

Progress in TV technology continues -- at a price

This is not a good year for technological advancements in televisions.

It's not the fault of science or engineering. Several new types of TVs hit the marketplace in 2008, and they're breathtakingly wonderful.

But they're also expensive, for the most part, and that's the problem. A state-of-the-art TV isn't going to be at the top of many shopping lists during hard times.

On the bright side, new technologies eventually get cheaper. Lots cheaper.

Just three years ago a 42-inch, liquid crystal display television cost $10,000. This shopping season, LCDs in that size might go for as low as $700.

So don't even look at the price tags on the following newfangled televisions. Just put them on a mental wish list, and prepare to wait them out.

Laser TV -- Analyst Richard Doherty of Envisioneering Group minced no words in praising the first laser-powered TV, Mitsubishi's LaserVue.

"It has the richest colors other than Mother Nature itself," he said.

The set, which arrived in stores last month in a 65-inch screen size, is essentially a rear-projection digital light processing model, but with a laser as the light source. It's also highly energy efficient.

Suggested retail price: $7,000.

LED backlighting -- The vast majority of LCD TVs use tiny fluorescent lights as their source of illumination. But the trend is toward using light-emitting diodes instead.

The LEDs allow for truer blacks and richer colors. And the sets are more environmentally friendly for disposal because, unlike the fluorescents, LEDs don't contain mercury.

Sony, Sharp and Samsung all have LCD sets with LED backlighting. Currently, a 46-inch Sony model is about $5,000. But you can get a 46-inch Samsung set for about $1,700.

Doherty estimated that 10% of LCDs on the market used LED technology. By next year, he expects it to be 25%.

OLED -- The images displayed by televisions with Organic-LED technology are so clear that they practically shimmer like water.

The only OLED set on the market costs about $2,500.

Not bad, except that the Sony XEL-1's screen is only 11 inches, measured diagonally.

So unless you don't mind a TV that's a glorified postcard, wait for larger sizes to emerge.

But who knows at what price?

-LATimes.com

The Top 10 TV Gift Guide Last Holidays 2008 includes Laser TV

--from i4u news, i4u.com

Top 100 Holiday Gift Guide. As you know we started our main Gift Guide for 2008. We segmented our 100 tech gift tips in 10 categories and several are already complete like the Top 10 TV Gift Guide.

Our eclectic list of TV recommendations include large panel and small panel HDTVs and TVs with special features like iPod dock or integrated DVD drive. Of course the new category defining LaserVue Laser TV is also part of our Top 10 TV recommendations for the 2008 Holidays.

The list of the top 10 links to a description of the product
Top 10 TVs:

* 1. Vizio VP322
* 2. Sony Bravia XBR8 HDTV
* 3. 65" Panasonic TH-65PZ850U Plasma HDTV
* 4. JVC 42 inch HDTV with iPod Dock
* 5. Samsung LN55A950 55 inch HDTV
* 6. Haier HLT71 7-inch LCD TV
* 7. Toshiba 19LV506 HDTV with internal DVD
* 8. Mitsubishi LaserVue Laser TV
* 9. 103 inch Panasonic Plasma HDTV
* 10. Pioneer KURO 60-inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

see all with direct and up to date pricing information from Amazon.com.

Consumerscope : The Future of the Display Market

The display market is the largest sector of the CE industry, with shipment revenues expected to hit $27.8 billion by the end of this year. It's also probably the most fiercely competitive sector in the industry.

Young and old industry players work feverishly to develop the next big thing in displays.

With innovation taking place on a number of fronts, a host of new display technologies and capabilities will reach markets sooner than many realize. There are four areas of development worth watching.

Energy Efficiency and Green Designs
Although televisions rank behind many household appliances in terms of energy consumption, manufacturers and consumers will seek greater efficiencies in all their powered products. This stems from a desire to reduce expenditures on electricity but also to embrace a "green" lifestyle of reduced wastes and strain on the environment. Beyond maximizing the energy efficiency of existing technologies, such as LCD or plasma, several manufacturers hope to disrupt the market with new approaches such as OLED, laser TV and LED backlighting. Nearly nine in ten consumers rate energy efficiency as a desirable trait of their next television purchase.

Enhancing the Viewing Experience and Product Design
Better picture quality, thinner displays, new form factors and 3-D images are or will be upon us soon. Full HD has quickly become the near default high-definition television. CEA expects 55 percent of HDTVs shipped into the marketplace next year will be 1080p displays, up from 34 percent in 2008. Incremental improvements also give way to new technologies. Eighty percent of consumers would like even better picture quality, while 73 percent hope for a thinner shape and 41 percent would like a more elegant design.

Despite the lackluster embrace of the 3-D movie experience, manufacturers and studios remain optimistic about 3-D's potential. About one-third of consumers responded with interest in 3-D television, which signals they are intrigued by the concept but not completely familiar with the technology.

Displays Move Beyond the Living Room
One of the most interesting areas of development for displays has been outside the confines of the standard living room television stand or mount; think backyards, floors, restaurant menus, gas pumps or subway walls. On the commercial side, video displays continue to make their presence felt in a number of ways. Undoubtedly, consumer attention will gravitate towards what's most interesting, a fact not lost on developers of next generation display technology and advertisers.

Children may help drive the market for backyard movie equipment. The thought of watching a Disney movie under the stars with the family led to relatively strong interest among parents with children (20 percent vs. 9 percent for households without children).

Connectivity Completes the 360-Degree Experience
According to comScore, Americans viewed 11.4 billion online videos during July for a total of 558 million hours. With more content available online and faster broadband connections, some consumers began viewing online video as a substitute rather than a complement to their TV. According to the research, 61 percent of consumers say they see Internet connectivity as a desirable feature of their next television purchase. While this is a high figure, keep in mind it falls well behind many other criteria, so at this stage it may still be premature to declare this convergence a done deal. Nonetheless, many of the pieces have fallen into place to enable more efficient connectivity within the living room. Whether it's a set-top box, a media extender, or a direct connection to the television itself, consumers have more choices than ever to expand their content offerings.

Connectivity may also entail eliminating wires within the home theater set-up. With nearly three-fourths of consumers wanting wireless connectivity, the market potential for technologies solving this issue shows tremendous upside. While the interest is certainly there, manufacturers must remember that consumers have little tolerance for television disruptions.

Other Matters
Don't expect another concentrated upgrade cycle on the scale of the transition from analog to digital television. The industry will soon hit the physical limits of human senses. Greater advancements in picture resolution will eventually be undetectable by the human eye. Most consumers will live happily ever after with a 4-inch deep flat panel display, so ultra thinness may not be the next big thing either. Energy efficiency and connectivity will likely have the biggest impact on the display market in the short to mid-term.

At some point though, all TV manufacturers have a brand or model with these traits, so any competitive advantage by a first mover quickly disappears. In the slightly more distant future, look for flexible displays in everything from "smart" wallpaper to folding pocket displays to interactive digital billboards to make their mark on how society interacts with information.