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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."

4 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 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. 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.

  3. 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.