Full HD TV Systems are set to be one of the hottest products on display at this years CES Show with both LG and Samsung set to launch new panels up to 63″ inches.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are bringing full high-definition TVs, fresh from their laboratories, to the event, the world’s largest expo of electronics appliances.
Samsung plans to unveil two LCD TVs and three PDP TVs as big as 63 inches under a new brand name to fight off the “Real Full HD” TVs of Sony, its biggest rival.
Sony has insisted that its Bravia TV is the only one that meets the full HD standard and Samsung and LG lack the necessary software technology. The two Korean companies have laughed off the claim.
LG plans to introduce three new full HD TV models up to 60 inches in a joint-promotion with Japanese video game giant Sega. The company will display popular Sega games such as “Virtua Fighter 5” and “Sonic” on its full HD TVs at the expo.
“This joint promotion will give LG a great opportunity to highlight our advanced displays by showing Sega’s full HD content on our full HD TVs,” Kim Young-chan, executive vice president of digital display global marketing at LG, said in a release. “Our customers demand the highest standards in technology, and we will continue to expand our offerings to meet everyone’s needs from movie buffs to gamers to companies in need of digital displays.”
The full HD screen is composed of about 2 million tiny color pixels. It has about double the picture quality of ordinary HD TVs. Picture quality is about six times better than non-HD TVs.
However, high prices and a lack of content have been obstacles to its commercial success. Movie titles and TV broadcasting in the format are virtually non-existent in Korea. Only Samsung Electronics is selling a full-HD player, and it costs about 1 million won. Video game consoles such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are the only way to enjoy the true full HD now, but they also lack a large array of titles.
The price of full HD TVs is about 25 percent higher than that of normal HD models. At an LG Electronics shop in eastern Seoul, a regular 42-inch model is being sold for 2.4 million won, while the full HD model of same size costs 3 million won.
Only about 10 percent of units sold are full HD models, according to a shop manager, while Himart, the largest electronics retailer in Korea, estimates that the portion is as high as 35 percent in mid-size LCD TVs.
According to Display Bank, a market researcher, the portion of full HD TVs 40 inches or larger will increase from 3.9 percent in 2006 to 11.8 percent this year and to 57 percent by 2
