April, 2007 | HD TV PROFESSOR

Month: April 2007

Toshiba Sues over DVD Licenses

April 16, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

The battle rages between Blu-ray and HD DVD to become the high-definition DVD format. One question I often hear is "Why can't they just agree on a compromise format?" Aside from the technical issues that account for significant physical differences between the two formats, the best answer can be found by following the famous advice, "follow the money!" The two different standards are based on different technology, and lots of...

OLED HDTVs This Year!

April 13, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Reuters reported that Sony said yesterday that the company will market OLED HDTVs before the end of this year. By Sony's own admission, the new sets will be "very expensive" and will initially be marketed "as a status symbol". Sony plans to start initial production at about 1,000 units per month, which is a trickle compared with the 6.5 million LCD TVs that are expected to be produced each month...

Blu-ray Calls to Gamers

April 12, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Online Buyer Beware: Shipping Prices

April 11, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Conventional wisdom says that HDTV buyers will research their purchases online, but when it comes time to put cash on the barrelhead, they head for retailers at the local mall. I believe that a major factor in this is that they want one last chance to kick the tires before making their choice, and they want to be able to drive home right away with their purchase. (Or at least...

Panasonic Makes Big Plasma Play

April 10, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

At the Panasonic spring line show last month, the company showed rear projection and direct view LCD models in addition to their new plasma line, but it's clear that the company is committed to making a big play for plasma. While some other companies -- including Philips -- are pulling back from plasma displays, Panasonic is moving forward. Parent company Matsushita has budgeted $2.4 billion to build a third manufacturing...

Reader Question: LCD TV with DVD

April 9, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Q: I would like your advice on the purchase of my first LCD TV. I have researched this but the more I read, the more confused I become! What model(s) would you recommend in the 26-32" range that are reliable, have a sharp picture, and are also capable of playing CD's? Does that even exist? I would like to spend less than $1000, if that's possible. Karen Kubert A: Karen,...

Sharp Plays Ball with HDTV

April 6, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

The boys of summer have taken to the fields of dreams, and once again, the spring air is filled with the hopes of new beginnings. There's nothing new about sports driving HDTV sales, however, and baseball is no exception. Sharp has entered into a deal with Major League Baseball to be the official HDTV sponsor, in return for making "significant" commitments to advertise on the networks that broadcast the games....

Tough Times for Tweeter

April 5, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Late last month, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group announced that they were closing one third of their consumer electronic stores, and laying off more than 20% of their employees. The company has had its share of financial woes in recent years, and the price wars of the past holiday season punched more holes in the hull of the corporate ship. The company plans to close "underperforming" stores and focus on "consumer...

When Do You Watch IPTV?

April 4, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Okay, the dirty secret is out. Video content over the Internet -- IPTV -- may cause a bigger hit to American worker productivity than Freecell and instant messaging, and that's saying a lot! HDTV champion Mark Cuban (billionaire owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks and chairman of HDNet) has an excellent blog called "Blog Maverick". Mark has a lot of interesting ideas and insights, and I don't say that just...

Another DRM Card Falls

April 3, 2007 | Ibex Marketing

Apple's iTunes service owns the lion's share of the legal music download business. EMI Group claims to be the world's largest independent music company. Clearly, these are two heavyweight influencers in the music marketplace. So it was a bit of a bombshell when the two companies announced that iTunes will be allowed to start selling downloaded songs from EMI's catalog without digital rights management (DRM). As I have stated here...

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