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Dell Enters HDTV Market with Plasma Display

Posted by timothy on from the pushing-pixels dept.

ThinSkin writes "It was only a matter of time before PC giant Dell would jump headlong into the HDTV market. But what does a company built around making inexpensive PCs know about HDTVs? ExtremeTech has done a full review with benchmarks on Dell's offering, the Dell W4200HD 42" Plasma HDTV."

19 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no, the tuner scare again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    having the ATSC tuner built in is a big plus, since a standalone ATSC tuner will set you back another $200-300

    Blah! I have to say that the cost of a tuner is either in or out of the price. I mean that if a TV sells for $3000 with a tuner than I bet a bargain based TV will sell for $2700-$2800 without a tuner. The cost doesn't magically go away. Besides I like the tuner to be outside the TV so I can upgrade one component for a little money verses buying a whole new TV when (I-Z)DTV comes out or when I want new features that haven't been invented yet. Read tuner not tuna, so no dolphins were injured in the making of this post.

    1. Re:Oh no, the tuner scare again by mzwaterski · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Having a built in tuner is a feature added component. It doesn't lock you into using that tuner as long as the TV has the same inputs as the tunerless model (DVI, HDMI, Components, etc...) If you are going to have to buy external tuner 1 for the same price as the increase for the internal tuner you might as well reduce the number of cables/remotes and just get the included tuner.

      If your cable company provides a tuner for a cheap rental fee, that is when you may want to save the money on no internal tuna.

    2. Re:Oh no, the tuner scare again by Kevin+Stevens · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, I have experienced four different providers in the past year (time warner in upstate ny, cablevision on LI, comcast in NJ, and RCN in NJ) and to get cable HDTV, each service needed you to use one of their boxes which have the tuner built in. This is not to say that you can't get it over the air, but presumably if youre buying a high end tv, you are going to be getting digital cable. For the low end market I agree with including tuners, but on high end HDTV's 40" and over, I would rather save the space, weight, and price and have the speakers and tuners left out. Its just a completely different market.

  2. Selling plasma HDTVs is not a rocket science... by slobber · · Score: 1, Insightful

    But what does a company built around making inexpensive PCs know about HDTVs?

    Gateway seems to do it just fine, why not Dell?

    --
    "You mortals are so obtuse." -Q
    1. Re:Selling plasma HDTVs is not a rocket science... by klubar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What does a company known for making expensive computers know about portable music players?

  3. Re:They do it well by Mantorp · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Dell is a smart company that runs a lean & mean R&D machine

    If that means "Dell doesn't really invent anything they just take already good ideas and commoditize them", then I agree.

  4. Please mod me down right now! by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "But what does a company built around making inexpensive PCs know about HDTVs?"

    Who cares? Do you honestly think manufacturers build their own parts? Evderybody is selling something to someone else. A SONY DVD player with Panasonic chips and a Matsushita mechanism with a taiwanese PCB designed with Japanese software... Sold in Europe to play American movies.

    Dell will probably re-brand someone else's design, or outsource the design. Remember the Casio products re-branded as Tandy in the 80s? Same idea.

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
    1. Re:Please mod me down right now! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "But what does a company built around making inexpensive PCs know about HDTVs?"

      Not much, I'd wager...since said company doesn't know much about making inexpensive PCs to start with (see above post).

      What Dell does know a lot about is marketing inexpensive PCs...and I'll bet that knowledge can be made to apply to the HDTV market fairly easily.

  5. Dell probably hasn't much to do with it by kalpol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Dell is really good at taking people's money and selling them someone else's product with their name on it (which is not a bad thing if the product is good-quality and well-supported). I doubt that they ever really own their inventory - they just transfer it from one place to another.

    --
    12:50 - press return.
  6. Re:They do it well by Jerf · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And that implies Dell isn't a smart company, how? Like the guy said, sounds like a good business model to me.

  7. disposable $4000 appliances by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I love how everything is disposable these days. Lithium Ion, for example...the wonder technology that lasts only a year or two. Hard drives that suddenly aren't designed for "continuous or heavy duty use". Capacitors in everything from stereos to motherboards that last a few years before leaking all their electrolyte out and maybe starting a fire.

    Plasma TVs are being pushed like crazy, but the things burn out, guaranteed. A friend of mine said a coworker dropped well over $4,000 on a top of the line plasma screen from Sony several years ago. One day, he pushed the power button, there was a fizz noise, and...that was that. He said sometimes they go dim, or parts stick on or off like a defective LCD, etc...sometimes it just doesn't turn on one day.

    Since when was that acceptable? We pay 4-8 times less for a dishwasher, refridgerator, washer, or drier...and they are considered "major appliances", and expected to last at least a decade!

    I know at least in Massachusetts there's an "implied merchantability"(implied warranty, to grossly simplify) on any product...and wouldn't you expect a TV, devices which traditionally last decades, to last more than 3-4 years?

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
    1. Re:disposable $4000 appliances by ad0gg · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Plasma TVs are being pushed like crazy, but the things burn out, guaranteed. A friend of mine said a coworker dropped well over $4,000 on a top of the line plasma screen from Sony several years ago. One day, he pushed the power button, there was a fizz noise, and...that was that. He said sometimes they go dim, or parts stick on or off like a defective LCD, etc...sometimes it just doesn't turn on one day.

      You pay the price for being an early adopter. New plasma screens have a 60,000 half life(Half brightness on screen). Thats 6 years of it being on constantly on. As for price, plasma tvs are relatively new. Hence they are expensive. They used to be $10k a piece. I have feeling they'll drop to below $1000 in a couple years. There's many choices for the consumer, you could get an lcd rear project, tube(42" tube would way a few hundred pounds), dlp.

      --

      Have you ever been to a turkish prison?

    2. Re:disposable $4000 appliances by AsimovBesterClarke · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > Since when was that acceptable?

      Oh, I don't know. Perhaps about the time rebooting or flat out reinstalling became the accepted means to fix a computer problem?

      --
      Ads are broken.
  8. What do they know? by Shkuey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But what does a company built around making inexpensive PCs know about HDTVs?

    Apparently not much, because at a native resolution of 1024x768, that panel is NOT HD.

  9. Rectangular pixels by doormat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The pixels on this display are wider than they are tall. Which is what'll end up happening if you watch too much TV.

    Yea, I agree, it is dishonest to say this is a HDTV since it isnt 1280 wide.

    --
    The Doormat

    If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
  10. why would you blow your money on one of these? by utexaspunk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    when you can get the 30" apple cinema display for less? Sure, it's 12" less in the diagonal dimension, but is TV really any better that much bigger? And at 2560x1600 (as opposed to the Dell's measly 1024x768) it can actually display HDTV, and will be much more usable for computing. ...not to mention that it looks way cooler...

  11. Re:They do it well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    R&D doesn't have to be applied directly to inventing cool new tech toys you know?

    There is many things a company can R&D.

    For instance researching and developing better, cheaper methods for building computers so they can make more proffit and pass savings on to customers. That is R&D.

    What about research and development of their online business?

    Me thinks Dell does a lot more than you think.

  12. Don't lump LCD in with Plasma! by Valdrax · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sheesh! LCD doesn't have burn-in and makes an excellent PC monitor. I've getting a Sharp 45" AQUOS primary for use with my HTPC.

    Sure, it's pricey, but everything with better than 720p resolution is pricey, especially the coming 1080p DLP sets. Then again, if 1280 X 720 is good enough for you, then price becomes a compelling factor as you say.

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  13. Re:Advertorial Alert by null+etc. · · Score: 3, Insightful
    This fellow, ThinSkin, is a schill for ExtremeTech.com. Check his user info. In February, ThinSkin has submitted four articles that were accepted for Slashdot publication and all of them were links to ExtremeTech.com content.

    Or, these are the only two websites he ever reads.

    Still, I have to admire his ability to get submissions accepted. In my six years here, I've never done so, even though my submissions usually cover topics of substance.

    Hmmm, I'm clearly going about this all wrong!

    I'll set up a script that automatically checks for new articles on ExtremeTech, and then submits them to /.!