NOTE: This page is an archive for previously posted news stories from April 2004 - Since most of the links are now inactive, they have been removed. However, the headlines and summaries are still posted to historically document the news headlines from the dates listed.
04/30/04
Dubai Factory Powers JVC's Regional Growth
Despite continuing political instability in the Middle East, consumers in that region are purchasinng more consumer electronics items, and manufacturers are seeing increased growth.
04/29/04
DVD-Audio Sales Five Times that of SACD...
Both SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-Audio are vying to replace the traditional CD, but the roadway has been rough for both formats as marketing strategies and resultant sales have not been enough to really excite the average consumer; last year, even vinyl records outsold both formats combined. However, there is a silver lining, at least for the DVD-Audio camp, as sales of DVD-Audio discs vastly outpaced that of SACDs. For further information, check out the report from High Fidelity Review.
04/28/04
InFocus Launches Flagship Three-Chip DLP Home Cinema Projector...
Video projectors are become an increasingly popular element in home theaters. Part of this success is a result of DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology, developed by Texas Instruments, which has helped to bring down the price and size of video projectors, without sacrificing performance.
As testament to this, InFocus has announced the release of its new Screenplay 777 DLP video projector. The core of the new 777 are three 16x9 DLP chips with 720p native resolution, for true HDTV compatibility.
For more information on video projector technology, check out my article Video Projectors - What You Need To Know.
04/27/04
JVC Updates HTiB Plans
JVC will be introducing two new home theater-in-a-box systems featuring DVD recorders and 6.1 channel audio processing.
04/26/04
Satellite Radio Irks Broadcasters
Although satellite radio is experiencing steady growth, it still has a way to go before displacing popular local radio broadcasts amongst a majority of mainstream consumers. However, the potential impact of offering local weather and traffic reports in some local markets via satellite radio is creating a new turf war between terrestial radio operators and XM/Sirius satellite radio services, similar to that between cable TV and local television stations. It is felt that such moves, if not regulated, may lead to increased local programming over satellite radio, and spell the death-knell for traditional, local, radio stations. For complete details on this issue, check out the report from Stereophile.
04/25/04
Broadcast Lobby Rallies Against 'Cable Cartel'
Although about 1,200 local television stations and network affiliates now broadcast digital and high-definition signals, during at least some portion of their broadcast day, cable subscribers may not be getting the full benefits of the increased quality of those signals. It seems that many cable services have a habit of downscaling digital and high-definition broadcast television signals they provide to their subscribers in order to save bandwidth space.
04/24/04
Toshiba, Drexel Heritage To Market Home Theater
Recognizing both the growing popularity of home theater and the increased power of the female consumer, Toshiba and Drexel Heritage Furniture Stores are teaming up to promote both home theater components and related furniture in a single, relaxed, environment specifically targeted to the female consumer.
04/23/04
TNT-HD On Schedule For May Launch
Turner broadcasting is the latest to join the HDTV programming schedule with the debut of TNT-HD later this Spring.
04/22/04
Best Buy Begins Rolling Out Customer-Centric Stores
Whether you are a "soccer mom", "swinging single", a "gadget geek", or a small buiness owner, Best Buy may soon have individual stores designed specifically for your needs.
04/21/04
Sony Debuts Luxury CE Brand, Qualia
Would you be willing to pay $3,900 for a two-megapixel digital camera, $2,600 for a pair of stereo headphones, or a $1,900 portable Minidisc player? Sony, seems to think some consumers will as it introduces its new high-end Qualia brand consumer electronics products. Here's an interesting promotional idea; Donald Trump could give them away as consulation prizes to his next "Apprentice" finalists when they get fired...
04/20/04
Sony Pushes Paper Blu-ray Disc
The future of High Definition DVD may just hinge on one of the most low tech information storage mediums available; good old fashion paper! How and why is Sony pursuing research on this?
04/19/04
Mitsubishi Announces Return To DLP TV
Being the first television manufacturer to abandon the traditional CRT-based direct view television several years ago to devote its resources to CRT-based rear projection televisions, Mitsubishi has claimed a big piece of the big screen television pie. Now, with competitors, such as Samsung and RCA experiencing success with rear-projection televisions based on DLP technology, Mitsubishi is quicking coming online with its own DLP-based televisions.
04/18/04
HDTV Services Grow
Although, currently, only 2 million households in Japan, 1.5 million households in the U.S., and a scattering of households in the rest of the world are actively receiving and viewing HDTV, the demand for HDTV services is steadily increasing and is expected to mushroom in the years ahead.
04/17/04
Feds Aim To Turn Off Analog TV By 2009
The original planned conversion to digital television broadcasting included the shutoff all analog television signals by broadcast television stations in 2006. Now, it seems that this deadline may be pushed back to 2009.
04/16/04
Bright Picture For Digital TV Sales, Study Says
The trend towards digital television is on full-steam ahead with increased sales of flat panel televisions, increased availability of digital TV tuners, the Wal-Market factor, and the explosion of both the Chinese manufacturing sector and consumer market. For more details, check out the report from CNET.
04/15/04
Samsung Launches SACD Players In Europe
Samsung is the latest DVD player maker to introduce DVD players with SACD playback capabilities, with the impending release of its DVD-H745 and DVD-H945 models into the European market. In addition, these units will also feature DVD-Audio playback and DVI outputs for High Definition upscaling of DVD video.
04/14/04
DISH Offers $79 DVR Upgrade
In an effort to retain subscribers and provide a new service, DishNetwork is offering its users a new satellite receiver/DVR (hard disk digital video recorder) combo, with a 100-hour recording capacity, for $79. For
04/13/04
Pioneer to Accelerate Flat-Screen Capacity Expansion
Pioneer is scrambling to increase its producton capacity for the manufacturing of Plasma display screens in order to both keep up with its competition and meet increased consumer demand for Plasma TVs.
04/12/04
Hitachi Forecasts Bullish Year For Plasma, Projection TV
According to Hitachi, although sales of Flat Panel televisions were vey good in 2003, 2004 is expected to be the breakout out year for Plasma and LCD televisions. Hitachi predicts that LCD televisions will begin to replace 36-inch and smaller size CRT televisions, while Plasma televisions will begin to dominate larger screen sizes. In addition, the rear-projection television market is also expected to remain healthy, with predicted increased sales of both DLP and CRT-based units.
04/11/04
Should You Put Your Home Theater In Your Mortgage?
With more and more consumers building expensive custom home theaters in existing homes and more contractors building home theaters in new housing projects, many are beginning to see built-in home theater setups as an asset, rather than just a bunch of depreciating gadgets. For an interesting perspective on how home theater might fit into home selling and buying, check out the report from Audio Revolution.
04/10/04
Sears Exiting Seven CE Categories, Revamping Departments
Next time you go to Sears to purchase a PC or a film camera, you might just be out of luck as the retail giant is pulling out of several key consumer electronics product categories. However, as some products will disappear from Sears' shelves, products, such as Digital TVs and Digital cameras, will have more offerings.
04/09/04
Pioneer DV-563a DVD-Audio Compatibility Issues
The Pioneer DV-563A is one of the hottest DVD players on the market. Selling for less than $150 on the street, this unit offers DVD/CD playback with progressive scan output for DVD, plus playback of the two high resolution audio formats, SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-Audio. However, current owners of the 563A are finding out that it has incompatibility issues with some of the new DVD-Audio releases from the Unversial Music Group (UMG). If you own a Pioneer DV-563A or are planning to purchase one, you might want to check out the following report from High Fidelity Review.
04/08/04
Wal-Mart, Kmart To Sell Parent-Friendly DVD Players
Citing the increased demand for more family-oriented video products, Wal-Mart, Kmart, and RCA are teaming up to sell a line of DVD players equipped with firmware that provides more palletable viewing of R-rated and PG-13 films. In essence, the consumer can play a DVD, such as "The Matrix" and the DVD player will automatically cut and/or trim violent and/or sexual oriented scenes, as well as offensive langauage, in real time, as the DVD is played. Clear Play, a Salt Lake City software firm developed the technology.
04/07/04
Consumer Electronics: Price War Hotting Up
Not only is India experiencing explosive job growth, some of which may be at the expense of workers in the West, but is also a growing market for consumer electronics goods, such as DVD players, televisions, and kitchen appliances.
04/06/04
TV-VCR Carts Recalled
Sauder Woodworking, well-known maker of kit-based Audio/Video furniture, has announced a recall of over 500,000 TV/VCR carts, due to a defect that may result in the carts tipping over and causing injury and, in one case, caused the death of an infant.
04/05/04
Hollywood Writers Seek Bigger Cut Of DVD Money In Contract Talks
With sales DVD becoming as important to television and film studio revenues as theatrical distribution and television first-run and syndication penetration, more and more players in Hollywood want a piece of the action and a piece of the revenue pie. The Writer's Guild Of America is the latest to seek compensation for the success of their work that appears on DVD.
04/04/04
UPDATE: Klipsch Cites Victories In War On Transshipping
Previously, I referenced a report that well-known loudspeaker maker, Klipsch, was filing lawsuits against unauthorized dealers and online retailers. These dealers and retailers engaged in unethical practices, such as receiving Klipsch products via third parties, changing and/or removing serial numbers, thus making Klipsch warranties invalid, and then selling the products to consumers. As a result of the lawsuits, Klipsch has reached agreement with several unauthorized dealers that will prevent them from selling its products or engaging in third-party transhipping practices.
04/03/04
Gateway Ends Retail Operation, Cuts 2,500 Workers
After recently making a big move into the general consumer electronics retail market, Gateway suddenly announces the impending closure of its brick-and-mortar retail outlets.
04/02/04
Sony May Expand ‘Style’ Stores To Ten Top Markets
Sony may be coming to a neighborhood near you! Sony has been one of the most recognizable brand names in consumer electronics for over four decades; their products are in almost every retail store in the country. However, with increased competition recent years, Sony has had some uphill battles selling its branded products. As a result, Sony is commiting some of its resources to opening more Sony Style Company stores in upscale shopping malls to give consumers a more intimate shopping experience, with a special effort to target female shoppers. Sony will be joining the ranks of Sharper Image, Bose, and Apple-Macintosh, which also have small, specialized, mall stores.
04/01/04
Cable HDTV Now Available in 99 of Top 100 U.S. Markets
Cable TV subscribers around the country have more reasons to get out and buy HDTVs as more HDTV channels and programs are becoming accessible via their local cable services.
For additional News Stories check out my Home Electronics Industry News Archives.
