Home Electronics Industry News -- JULY 2001

NOTE: This page is an archive for previously posted news stories from July 2001 - 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.

07/31/01
Sony Reports Loss, Cuts Forecast
Japanese electronics giant SONY experiences a big revenue loss, despite increased sales in some categories, for the last quarter.

07/30/01
Tight Window For Phantom Menace DVD Before Movie's TV Debut
Why buy the Star Wars: Episode I DVD when you can see it for free?

07/29/01
DVD-A Recording Format Still In Development
With several recordable DVD-video formats slugging out in the marketplace, along comes prospects for a DVD-Audio recording format. With standalone CD recorders and computer CD Burners all the rage these days, is there room for another audio recording format?

07/28/01
WGN To Air Cubs Game In High Definition
The August 7th baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Colorado Rockies will be the first locally televised event to be broadcast in High Definition in the Chicago Television market.

07/27/01
DTV Set-top Decoder Boxes Promise Better Reception
Plagued by initial reports of poor over-the-air reception of DTV signals, manufacturers of Digital Set-Top Boxes have been racing to improve the situation.

07/26/01
DVD Producers Appear At San Diego Comic-Con
DVD is indeed everywhere as an audience of over 2,000 were on hand at the San Diego Comic-Con for a presentation and preview of upcoming DVD releases from several major studios.

07/25/01
Study: DVD Now Playing In One-fifth Of U.S. Homes
Have you gone to your local CE retailer to buy a DVD player and find out they are out of stock? The reason just may be that they are flying off the shelves to fast for retailers to restock as 20% of U.S. homes have at least one DVD player.

07/24/01
Samsung, CompUSA Team Up
In an effort to promote itself as more than a computer store, CompUSA teams up with Samsung for a unique "store-within-a-store" concept featuring Samsung digital products, including DVD players, digital audio players, and LCD monitors.

07/23/01
Fujitsu Adds 50-inch Model To Plasmavision Line
Fujitsu introduces three new Plasma Screens, including a new top-of-the-line 50 inch model selling for $15,000 and a "budget" 42 inch model selling for about $7,000.

07/22/01
RCA DIRECTV® System With UltimateTV™ Service From Microsoft Records Two Satellite Shows At Once
RCA amd Microsoft expand the trend towards convergence products by offering a satellite receiver that not only has a satellite dual-tuner, but also has the ability to record two separate satellite feeds at once on its built-in hard drive.

07/21/01
Tweeter Fiscal Q3 Net Increases 18.3%
Despite a mixed-economy, upstart Tweeter is making a strong impact in the retail market in the third quarter, holding its own against retail giants, such as Best Buy, Circuit City, and Sears.

07/20/01
Copy-Protected CDs Quietly Slip Into Stores
Taking a page from DVD movie distributors, the music industry is quietly imbedding anti-copy technology onto music CDs. Will this spell the end of the CD-Burner?

07/19/01
Sales Of Surround Sound Speakers, Components Continue To Flourish In May
The popularity of home theater is still on the rise as consumers gobble up surround sound speaker systems and other home theater components.

07/18/01
Philips Q2 CE Sales Drop 18%
Despite new product introductions and strong sales of digital-based products, Philips exeperienced an 18% decline in consumer electronics sales, compared to the same quarter last year.

07/17/01
Losses Double At DirecTV Parent
Despite an increasing revenue and subscriber base from its DirecTV operation, Hughes Electronics posts a larger than anticapated profit loss for the latest quarter.

07/16/01
FCC Postpones Auction Of TV Spectrum
With the turnover to complete DTV broadcasting going much slower than expected, the FCC has postponed auctioning off the analog TV frequency spectrum for other uses.

07/15/01
Thomson Rolls Liquid-Crystal-On-Silicon HDTV
Now, along with Plasma, LCD, DLP, D-ILA, and CRT projection comes RCA's new LCOS TV. Also unvieled are new Plasma and Flat Screen Tube sets.

07/14/01
Philips Reveals Its New DVD Recorder Offering Unique Consumer Benefits
Philips introduces what it hopes to be the most versatile, but simplest DVD recorder yet, including complete compatibility with existing DVD players and sophisticated, but easy-to-use editing featrues.

07/13/01
Sharp Introduces First Portable Audio Product Equipped With Dolby Headphone
Now you can enjoy surround sound on the road without disturbing others as Sharp and Dolby Labs introduce a new portable Minidisc player equipped with Dolby Headphone. For more details, just click on the above press release.

07/12/01
Pioneer DVD Recorder, DVR-7000, To Launch In U.S.
Pioneer finally announces the details on its latest generation stand-alone DVD recorder, the DVR-7000, which will be available at U.S. retailers by this fall. Utilizing the DVD-R/RW formats, Pioneer promises compatibility with most current home DVD players. However, the cost is still high at $2,800.

07/11/01
TiVo Projects Threefold Revenue Increase Next Fiscal Year
Anticipating increased licensing opportunities for its technology, and a steady growth of service subscribers, TIVO (the remaining PVR hardware maker, after the departure of ReplayTV) projects a big revenue increase in the coming year.

07/10/01
Marantz Introduces The World's Largest Plasma Display Monitor: The New Widescreen 61-Inch PD6120D
Marantz is the latest to break the Plasma screen size barrier with the introduction of its new 4.5-inch deep, $29,000 61-incher. The question for me is: "How heavy is it?".

07/09/01
Britain Forced To Pay Highest Prices For DVDs
Are Hollywood and the electronics industry conspiring to squeeze higher DVD prices out of the British consumer?

07/08/01
VHS Getting Disc-located On Shelves
DVD movie titles are quickly taking over shelf space previously devoted to VHS. Does this fortell the doom of pre-recorded VHS movies?

07/07/01
RadioShack Sales Up 8% In June
Despite slow sales experienced by other CE retailers, Radio Shack just seems to roll on with an 8% increase in sales for June.

07/06/01
Report On Interactive Television Technologies Documents New Threats To Privacy
As Interactive TV increases in popularity, is the consumer surrenduring valuable privacy rights?

07/05/01
Toshiba Adds Three New Models To Industry's Most Advanced Lineup Of DVD-Video Players For 2001
Progressive Scan, MP3 Playback, and an emphasis on DVD-Audio highlight the new 2001 DVD player lineup from Toshiba.

07/04/01
DirecTV Emboldened By Landmark Use Of DMCA
Beware of those ADs offering equipment to obtain DirecTV satellite services for free. The Feds are cracking down on satellite signal piracy.

07/03/01
Toshiba Improves And Expands "Purely Flat" FST® Pure™ Color TV Lineup
Even with Plasma and Projection TVs increasing in popularity, the traditional tube TV is still with us. Toshiba pushes the envelope in tube TV with its latest line of Flat Tube TVs. Ranging in picture sizes from 14 inches to a 34 inch widescreen model, Toshiba is giving the Sony WEGA series a definite run for the money.

07/02/01
Citizen Kane coming to DVD
The greatest film of the 20th Century gets the 21st Century treatment as the classic Citzen Kane makes its DVD debut later this year.

07/01/01
NEC Technologies First To Mass Produce 61-Inch Plasma Monitor
Plasma screens are not only making a big impact, but are getting bigger, as evidenced by the latest entry from NEC coming in at 61 inches. If you have $27,995 you can own one.

For additional News Stories check out my Home Electronics Industry News Archives.