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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."

20 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. They do it well by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Dell is a smart company that runs a lean & mean R&D machine. They seemingly put a lot of thought into new product introduction as well as price point. These folks are going to be hellish successful for a long time. It doesn't really matter much what product they are putting out, they seem to do it well. Hate 'em or love 'em, you gotta admire them.

    They are particularly good about not reinventing the wheel, rather, working with other vendors or manufacturers who have already figured it out (so to speak) and then putting the Dell spin on it if needed. Once again, a pretty cool business process from my point of view.

    As an aside, I don't work for Dell and I don't buy their products (I like Sony Vaio's and HP printers for some reason) but I do admire their business acumen and their business models. (I do, however, have extreme HDTV Plasma Display envy).

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. 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. 24" 1920x1200/12msec LCD is pretty interesting too by xmas2003 · · Score: 4, Informative
    While the W4200HD is pretty cool but a bit pricy (nutshell summary of the article), a perhaps more interesting display coming from Dell is the 24" LCD offering 1920x1200 resolution and 12-16 msec response time - also reviewed by Extreme Tech with a sticker price of $1,199 ... although I have not see it for sale yet on Dell's websitee. This is going to put a lot of pressure on the large LCD makers, and with the occasional 25% off deal from Dell, could drop below $1,000.

    My christmas lights and BBQ Grill would look HULK'ing on that monitor! ;-)

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
  4. One page version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.extremetech.com/print_article2/0,2533,a =146388,00.asp Far easier to read, IMHO.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

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    12:50 - press return.
  7. Plasma/LCD vs DLP by Bruha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sorry but there is no compelling reason for me to ever want a plasma tv. We've got plenty and they have all had burn in issues.

    I dont think image quality is better than a CRT

    And I dont need to mount it on the wall.

    I consider either a DLP big screen or projector as a more logical choice and the price helps also.

  8. Plasma short lifespan... by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I dunno. Unless plasma TV have gotten a lot better...I don't want one. I guess I'm old school, but, when I lay out money for a nice, large TV, I expect to get more than 2-3 years use out of them. We have plasma tv's in the lobbies of the bldgs I work at...they're on during the day on the news channels. They have to be replace almost annually as you can see where the logos and talking heads of people are....the first ones were early ones at $25K each...cheaper now, but, still. My $2K 60' projection tv has a great picture on it in my living room...is on every hour I'm at home...and doesn't have the problem with display degradation over such a short period of time.

    Are LCD tv's any better?

    If I'm gonna lay out over $3K...I expect a tv that will still be working well for at least 5-10 years. All my old ones did....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  9. Not HDTV by mamer-retrogamer · · Score: 5, Informative

    At 1024X768 this "High Definition" television can not fully render neither of the two High-Def resolutions of 720p (1280x720) nor 1080i (1920x1080 interlaced).

    -Mike

    --
    Schrödinger's cat is not amused—maybe.
  10. Not a true HDTV by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 4, Informative

    I quote:

    "The W4200HD has a native pixel resolution of 1024x768, and as such, isn't a true HD device, since it doesn't have enough pixels to draws [sic] a 1280x720 (720p) HDTV image."

    Which means it also can't do 1080i (which requires 1920x1080, almost twice the horizontal resolution this TV is capable of).

    --
    Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  11. 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.
  12. Maybe just wait for SED display. by zymano · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Flat panel SED

    Photos of SED

  13. There is a bigger fish to be had... better n cheap by zioncity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A friend of mine recently got a Pioneer Plasma at Best Buy recently. The size is like 42 or 43 inches... After all rebates, 500 from Pioneer, 100 from Comcast and also with buying the 4 year warranty for like 400 clams.. and taxes... I believe the set was costing about 3500-3550. Now he also got a 300 dollar best buy gift check and 200 in bonus bucks... for 500 in extra spending cash.

    This set also comes with their PureDrive video processor which handles processing, filtering of all HD, SD and ED signals... for those rednecks out there... Standard TV or SD, ED or 480progressive signals and of course, HD or 720p. This processing unit on his tv.. a 43 inch now confirmed, fuckin rocked serious ass. Cartoon Network and Dexters Laboratory or Toonami never made Standard TV look so good and for us size queens,.. bigger is better... LOL.

    But seriously.. even with the PixelWorks chip... the Pioneer is not only superior quality in terms of longevity, but that PureVision Box rocks and is an excellent video processor for the buck. Another comparison is my 30 inch Syntax Olevia HDTV lcd has the same PixelWorks chip and contrary to popular belief... it is freaking awesome for the buck... especially after you fine tune each input via the setup on the remote, each input has it's own settings...

    So unless Dell can come up with a better trick,.. I say go Pioneer for Plasma... Syntax Olevia or other for a better deal and and better quality LCDs. By the way... I got mine for $999 at MicroCenter in Boston and with my Denon 1910, with DVI and 720p upscaling... Finding Nemo, Sky Captain and LOTR 3, Return of the King with very good night fight scenes on the Syntax... gave me a good ole woo... er uh... you know what I mean.

    Nuff said.

    Zion

  14. Advertorial Alert by SethJohnson · · Score: 4, Interesting



    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.

    Clearly this is paid placement to increase traffic to ExtremeTech.

    --
    $5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
    1. 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 /.!

  15. If and only if R&D == by drjzzz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Repeat & Duplicate!

    --
    to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...