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Sony Profits Low, Halts CRT Production
mtndue1 writes "Forbes is reporting that with lower than expected profits, Sony is halting the production of CRT's for televisions at many of its plants. The restructuring move is meant to catch the company up with other manufacturers who moved to LCD displays more quickly." From the article: " In the second quarter to September, net profit dropped 46.5 pct to 28.5 bln yen, pressured by 32.3 bln yen in restructuring expenses to write down the impaired value of its cathode-ray tube (CRT) plants. Under the plant closure program, Sony will shut down some of its CRT television assembly factories by March 2008 in order to shift its focus to the flat-screen TV business ... In a bid to revive its game division, Sony plans to release its next-generation stand-alone PlayStation 3 game console in the spring. To speed up development of PlayStation 3, Sony plans to devote 410 bln yen to capital investment in the year to March, up from 356.8 bln yen a year earlier."
LCD may not be superior in all ways, but for the average consumer the small size is ideal. Although sony isn't the best, I'd hate to see them go the way of the dodo.
You can tell I'm an aries because of my ram.
I wonder if this means Sony is going to start improving their LCD TV quality finally? When I was shopping for an LCD TV recently, the Sony ones were overpriced, ugly and had poor image quality compared to competition.
CRTs?! Is Sony also still making rabbit ears as well?
I havent seen any at sony retailers in 3 years at least! heh.
Coding projects blog - Code Slim
If this means there is a much greater supply of LCDs then the price should drop. Does anyone buy who isn't budget constrained buy CRTs anymore?
(Note: I'm looking for replies based on experience with Japanese reality, not on anime. TIA...)
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
It looks to me like Sony are beginning to bet the farm on the PS3. The Walkman range is now outsold by Apple branded players, the TV market is awash with other makes of TV.. I could go on in any other markets (maybe brodacst - admit not too sure on that). They also seem to be losing their grip on their legendary quality of years back (though my admittedly late-era PSP is still a thing of beauty IMHO - lets ee how it stands up to time) - My Sony 6 CD player in my less than year old car has already taken to playing no CD's and has a radio that likes to retune at random... I could go on.. Sony are to me, at least, beginning to look more like a games company than anything else - if they don't succeed they may well be dodo, if not severely crippled.
I have been looking at the Sony 30 inch wide screen CRT, can they drop the price on it $100 or so
I don't think this is very good news if you're in the market for a large screen TV in the future and want a CRT. With the supply from Sony dwindling, prices won't be dropping as much as we'd like them to in comparison to LCD. And I wonder how much easier it is to recycle components of an LCD screen device, compared to a CRT's? There will be less lead I'm guessing, but are there any rules about throwing LCD monitors/TVs into the landfill?
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I havent seen any at sony retailers in 3 years at least! heh.
Sony oem's a large number of Trinitron crt's for other manufacturers.
And now Sony is going to sell a couple million Playstation 3's at a loss? Good luck.
Bah /. is dead. Long live Digg!!
I love my old CRT TV! It's picture is so, well, it reminds me of being a kid! I don't want to grow up! This opinions expressed in this post are totally random and have nothing to do whatsoever with the posters true feelings or the feelings or opinions of your local stations. Thank you.
/.! Life is good
--
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it can only mean that other display types will become more affordable. Right now, the really nice TVs are way out of reach for Wal-Mart shoppers such as myself. I look forward to the changes coming soon.
It's too bad that Sony is phasing out it's CRT production. Granted, flat-screens have much better resolution, a smaller footprint and are lighther, but they're still extremely expensive. A 32" Sony Trinitron is going for around $400, while a 32" Sony LCD Wega flat panel is more than $2,000 (the cheapest 32" LCD flat screen I could find goes for $1,300). I just don't understand why anyone would buy one flat screen when they could get four or five CRTs for the same price.
It must have been a hard choice for mtndue1, torn between hyping up his scoop so that he would have a chance to be published on Slashdot and not telling outright lies. So he took both approaches:
Sony is halting the production of CRT's for televisions at many of its plants
Sony will shut down some of its CRT television assembly factories by March 2008 (emphasis mine)
No, I didn't read the fine article, but I did laugh out loud.
I think I'm right in saying that most people here would thank Sony for allowing them to buy the Playstation 3. A large percentage of us are looking forward to spending our money on it when it is finally launched.
However, it's interesting to see the Forbes' take on the release: In a bid to revive its game division, Sony plans to release its next-generation stand-alone PlayStation 3 game console in the spring.
Funny how a slightly different viewpoint casts a whole new light on a subject...
38,500,000,000.00 JPY = 334,047,807.86 USD
32,300,000,000.00 JPY = 280,239,409.58 USD
410,000,000,000.00 JPY = 3,556,690,039.42 USD
356,800,000,000.00 JPY = 3,095,187,819.67 USD
Thanks xe.com
racist? How is series of exploding AAl major marketin6 counterpart,
Of course, myself, I got a second hand 21" Sony Trinitron VGA monitor for about $80, so I'm fine :)
Mmmm, obscenely high resolution...
The implication there is that it needs reviving. As far as I'm aware it's the healthiest part of the company by a long shot. Sony really are banking on SCE: when the PS2 began to approach saturation point (pre-slimline PS2) and sales dipped, Sonys profits dropped by some obscene percentage.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
How much of the money will really go into development? How much into Marketing and overpaid Managers??
Boo hoo! So their PROFITS are down. That only means they're not stealing as much from the poor. I call that a move in the right direction! Let's face it folks! Companies only profit by exploiting the poor. The very existence of poverty is all the proof you need! What do they need all of that money for? They have a civic duty to share their ill-gotten fortunes with the society they exploit to create their riches. Companies should be forced to operate at a break-even limit. Any excess profit proves that they are charging too much for their product, and exploiting the poor. Such immoral profiteering should be illegal! There are so many people that need that money more than those greedy, racist executive robber-barons! The slavery must end, people! If we don't stick up for the poor now, who will fight for us when it's OUR turn to be robbed?
Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
For computer monitors CRTs are still superior for a number of reasons.
Some examples:
Much higher contrast between black and white.
better color definition.
gamma/color/brightness doesn't change based on fewing angles.
much faster response/no ghosting.
People who complain about flickering with CRTs are usually just running the monitor at a to high of resolution. There problems are more related to not spending enough on their monitors rather then serious flaws in CRT monitors.
even on very nice LCD monitors I get headaches. This is because I habitually read scrolling text. This works on CRTs, but ghosting and inferior response rates blur everything. I bought a LCD monitor a while ago and I learned this. I bought a CRT to replace it and gave the LCD to a friend.
Of course now bunches of people will jump on me to justify buying a LCD monitor instead spending a 3rd of the price on a CRT monitor with similar capabilities. (You probably spend a lot more on your jeans then me, too. Oh and ipods with harddrives and unreplacable batteries that have failures with batteries and harddrives, rather then going out and buying a flash-based device for a 4th of the cost and 400% of the reliability.)
LCD is a dead-end technology. It's great for places with low amounts of space... like if you want a 50 inch TV in your living room, or 30 inch displays on your desktop, and in laptops, but it's not ever going to go anywere beyond that.
Once we get stuff like OLEDs or whatever replaces LCD, then it will be superior to LCD AND CRTs in terms of price, performance, energy usage, and mass.
With the failure of the PSP, Sony is already cutting features left and right to curb its losses drastically for the PS3. Maybe we'll see a $300 release price after all.
better yet:
38.5 Billion JPY = 334.0 Million USD
32.3 Billion JPY = 280.2 Million USD
410.0 Billion JPY = 3.56 Billion USD
356.8 Billion JPY = 3.10 Billion USD
A 42 inch flat screen standard aspect ratio trinitron. Weighs 215 lbs, cost $1000. At 215 lbs I don't worry too much about it getting stolen!
It has an incredibly annoying useability problem. It's capable of shrinking the scan lines so you can get widescreen format without wasting scan lines, makes widescreen DVDs a whole lot sharper.
It takes 12 button presses on the remote to get there, and if you shut off the TV, it's standard aspect again even though it's still showing the same DVD requiring 12 more button presses.
I didn't know Down's Syndrome was so prevalent in Japan. It should have a dedicated remote button (it has half a dozen buttons nobody would ever use) and as long as you don't change channels it should stay widescreen. Dumb dumb dumb.
They make a better noise when you throw them out of the window?
No one wants to purchase CRT. DLP is the new Plasma.
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WOuldn't it be funny if one day, only the expensive TVs will come with CRTs, what with the better colors and saturation...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
It's hard for me to say that CRTs are still superior to LCDs because I haven't actively researched the best LCDs, but of the many LCD displays that friends and labs use, I can't imagine what I'll do when my current CRT comes up for replacement. There's simply no comparison. The LCD blacks are fake on many of the Dells (they seem to cheat to get a good contrast ratio - perfect black is dark, but the dark grey levels are much lighter). There's also the abrasiveness of the tri-color split of LCD pixels.
I guess I'm an old-fashioned dinosaur, and maybe the CRT v. LCD battle is comparable to the tube v. solid state amplifier battle, but this day marks the end of the era of beautiful CRT displays. I'll mourn.
Forbes is reprinting a story it didn't even write. Don't give them the credit. Give it the outfit that did the actual reporting: China Xinhua news agency. Anyone see the irongy of the Capitalist Tool reprinting news published by Communist China's official News Agency?
Umm, those support wires are there by design. Calling it a defect is misrepresenting the product. I own a 21" Trinitron monitor and was well aware of the presence of these wires before purchace. Some get hung up on it, some never notice it.
Don't confuse personal preference with a "defect" that requires "fixing".
Oh where, oh where, has my Trinitron gone,
Oh where, oh where can it be?
With its lines ultra-sharp but its price set so high,
Oh where, oh where can it be?
But with this talk of LCD tvs and CRT's, I'm wondering if there is a comparison out there, or if anyone has any advice for what I should buy for a HD big screen tv for my new apt. How do LCD's compare to DLP's as far as cost, quality of picture, and size go?
"In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
Aside from CRTs having better picture quality than LCDs they
were also invented in 1897, not 1990 (which I suspect is when
you were born sonny).
Current cost to Sony, about four thousand pounds. Well, it makes me feel better... It was a kick ass RPG too - the Alderac designers ROCK.
PS: Don't buy Sony stuff.
Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
Sr. Executive: "Profits are down. Somebody should really look into this. Brenda, who works for me?" Brenda: "Let me check." Sr. Executive: "No time, my jet is landing. Just send one in." ... moments later
Jr. Executive: "Sir?"
Sr. Executive: "Profits are down. Take care of that."
Jr. Executive: "Right." ...later that same day
Jr. Executive: "So, what is it that we make here?"
Engineer: "Televisions."
Jr. Executive: "Ok, stop making those."
Engineer: "What are we going to sell?"
Jr. Executive: "That's marketing's problem."
-End
Yes I realize they'll still make LCD tvs...
I bought a 17 sony trinitron over 15 years ago for $1700. It is still going strong. When I went looking for an HDTV replacement nothing is better than a CRT. The Sony line is quoted as being the standard for which all others are measured, even LCD. Sony stopped making the 40" model. I guess that was a sign. Considering the quality of Sony's products, known by there reputation; I'd say that Sony is suffering losses because of their high quality.
Thanks but I chose to stay with CRT's forever.
I do not like LCD or flat panel TV's or monitors at all.
The response time is god awful, the resolution is god awful.
They just flat out suck... Not to mention the abysmally short life span of the LCD/plasma/whatever screens.
I have a number of 21" Sony Trinitron CRT's stockpiled as backups.
I have a matched pair sitting on my desk right now and 4 spares stuck away because I KNEW this was going to happen...
I have a few 27" TV's that I never really watch but I suppose that sometime in the not to distant future I'll go out and purchase a few of the very large Sony Trinitron CRT TV's. My uncle is a big Sony fan (100% Sony in his home) and has several very large Sony Wega CRT sets in his home and man, I'm here to tell you those sets have magnificent pictures!
I can imagine they are very expensive but I expect the price to drop as Sony tries to push old stock out the door to make way for the dinky little flat screens that all the LEMMINGS just *have to* run out and buy. It's the "me too syndrome". You know, keeping up with the Jones and all that.
People are basically stupid and will buy stuff just because the voice on the idiot box tells them it's cool and trendy and that you MUST run out and get yours today.
Not me. I stick with yesterdays technology. It's tried and tested and no one is jealous of my Fred Flintstone equipment and decor... Not to mention, I save a lot of money by not replacing all my stuff every commercial break..
... by volume. In poor markets, LCDs are still to expensive for doing the same job, less well, their only advantage is that they take up less space and look cool. In richer markets, people are starting to realize that CRTs' image quality is better. I don't know how fast LCD technology will progress, but i'm guessing CRTs will prove a bit more resilient than most people expect. So I'm not sure it's a smart move for Sony, especially since their Trinitron screens are quite good, though not the only game in town anymore.
What also bothers me about Sony is that they fancy themselves a high-end brand, but I had a couple of discmans fail right out of the box, sent each 3 times for service, they came back as broken as they went (so quality AND quality control AND service suck). Luckily, my retailer let me exchange them for another brand. I wrote to Sony, got a started "too bad" customer service letter.
Maybe they'll come out of their memory stick delusion sometime too... many people I talk to won't buy Sony stuff because of these. I know I won't.
Their latest phones, notebooks and digital cameras seem fine, though.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
How about they stop manufacturing worthless proprietary media?
The human race is artificial intelligence created using object orientated programming.
I'd like to see them go the way of the dodo.
Yeah, yeah, -1 troll.
Seems odd the warranty wasn't still good on the Sony - I remember crappy ADI monitors and the like offering three years...
I'll be sad to see CRTs finally become extinct. Although LCD and plasma screens have come a long way in the last few years, there's nothing like a good CRT when picture quality really matters, and this news of Sony cutting back production brings back nostalgic memories of the old days.
Many people today don't realize how far CRT TVs have come in quality and usability. I got my first TV set, a 19" Admiral B&W set, for my 8th birthday back in the 1960s. Admiral was one of the big brands back then, along with such former household names as Philco, Zenith, and Packard Bell. Japanese TVs were as rare as Japanese cars.
My TV was a tube set, of course. Not just the CRT itself, but all of the active circuit elements were tubes. If you think today's CRTs generate heat, then you've never seen a tube set--they're in a totally different league. I don't miss the heat, but back then TVs had a warm, satisfying orange glow eminating from the rear of the set, and a peculiar smell as well.
Tuners were not digital PLL back then either. They were analog with click stops for the VHF channels and a fine tuning ring around the main tuning dial to make fine adjustments. UHF tuners didn't even have click stops--you tuned until you found the station you wanted--and the channel numbers on the dial sometimes weren't even close.
Then there were the controls I haven't seen on a TV in 30 years--horizontal and vertical hold. These were used to prevent the picture from "jumping" vertically and smearing out horizontally. The settings would drift, requiring frequent readjustment, and a trip across the room, as remotes were nonexistant.
When a TV broke down back then, fixing it was an adventure. You took the back off the TV and removed all the tubes and took them down to the supermarket or drugstore and plugged them into a tube tester. You'd look up the settings for the particular tube in a book, set a bunch of dial settings, and then push the "test" button. If the meter needle moved into the green, the tube was OK. After buying replacements for the bad tubes, you went home and plugged them all back in and hoped everything was fixed. In my experience, replacing tubes fixed 90% of all TV problems.
Ah, the good old days!
I bought the short wave radio -Skysensor 5800 made by Sony for the first time at age 13. At that time I greatly enjoyed listening to the broadcasting from overseas. I started listning to FEN at age 21, and I started listning to BBC at age 27. I changed the short wave radio three times and all were made by Sony. Now I sometimes listen to the radio through the Internet. Radioes are no more needed. Times have passed.
Ancient Greek Philosophers -18c Enlightenment Thinkers -Slashdotters
although only a handful of folks still care about being able to see exactly what's going to get printed.
The response time is god awful
Plasma and newer LCD screens have fine response time, exhibiting no ghosting at all. Early-generation technology will never be that great, but it has gotten a lot better.
the resolution is god awful.
God-awful resolution? 720p is the same on a CRT than it is on an LCD/Plasma/DLP.
They just flat out suck... Not to mention the abysmally short life span of the LCD/plasma/whatever screens.
Modern plasma screens (at least Panasonics) have a life of 80,000 hours. That is approx 3333 hours, which is nine years of uninterrupted play. Sure, I have a CRT that is 14 years old that I still use today, but I also have a 52" Widescreen DLP because that CRT wasnt cutting it any more for me in the main TV-viewing area.
This nine years can be extended signifigantly by lowering the contrast to the proper level, as most TVs ship with it at max. This will also lower the risk of burn-in.
These were neq technologies and they all had major flaws, but they are all past their third gen (DLP being the newest, in its fourth generation right now) and these flaws are rapidly disappearing. The ones you cited were the first to be corrected.
I have a number of 21" Sony Trinitron CRT's stockpiled as backups.
My DLP will only last me about three years on its original bulb, but those can be purchased new from Mitsubishi for about $150. Not a problem to maintain a large television. I would rather spend $150 for a warranteed bulb every few years than have two or more CRTs taking up space somewhere.
My uncle is a big Sony fan (100% Sony in his home) and has several very large Sony Wega CRT sets in his home and man, I'm here to tell you those sets have magnificent pictures! I can imagine they are very expensive but I expect the price to drop as Sony tries to push old stock out the door to make way for the dinky little flat screens that all the LEMMINGS just *have to* run out and buy. It's the "me too syndrome". You know, keeping up with the Jones and all that.
People are basically stupid and will buy stuff just because the voice on the idiot box tells them it's cool and trendy and that you MUST run out and get yours today. That is a bit of a contridiction. The only reason Sony sells stuff now is because theyre a much bigger and trendier brand name. Their PQ is far outclassed by other manufacturers, even the budget ones, and they cost an arm extra compared to the other big names.
This article basically details that Sony's hype doesnt sell their products any more, as consumers are getting smarter and buying on picture/audio/feature quality and not brand-name. Sticking to Sony is fine for people, but they are limiting themselves to inferior products in a large majority of cases.
I've noticed that if I change the settings on my video card (I have a GeForce FX 5900XT) under "Digital Flat Panel" to "Video Card Scaling" (actually, I prefer "Aspect Ratio Scaling" even better), the picture at sub-optimal resolutions looks outstanding. Apparently what it does is use the scaling features of the video card to output a lower resolution to the monitor at the monitor's optimal resolution. Seriously, you need to try it and see it for yourself, but it can be night and day for certain monitors.
Since neither of these technologies will work on an LCD TV (no scan beam to track) is anyone aware of functional replacements for 3D viewing and gun tracking? Sure, my retro collection is useless no matter what, but is there any hope for the future?
Thanks for putting it in more comprehensible terms, but that only helps us Americans. Do you think you can convert that to even more intuitive units like Rolex watches or pirated CD values?
I still use a CRT, although its as big as a house. I use it because I am under the convention that CRT displays graphics better, sharper testures, lines etc... I know the LCDs have come along way but graphics are as sharp as CRTs. I haven't done any testing on this theory other than what I read a few years ago. So my question is are LCD's up to par now with CRTs in this arena? If so I would switch to save me some desk space.
OMFG I had to help a friend move a 36" Sony TV down 4 flight of stairs...that alone required use of an inclined plane to slide the TV down as it was just too dmned hard to hold onto. Thank goodness for apartments with sliding closet doors that come off their tracks :D
I find the images are a bit warmer (or maybe that's just the tube).
Got one or more Sony Trinitron monitors or TVs that are in great operating condition?
;-)
Quit using them now (to stop wear & tear on the tube) and stash them away. When CRT monitors and TVs disappear from the market after a few more years and there will be no more spare replacement tubes available, you'll be able to sell a good working unit to the CRT addicts for much more money than they are worth on the used equipment market right now.
I'm unsure if I'm being serious or sarcastically humorous on this comment
I have a Sony 34" Wega HD and a couple of Sharp LCD TVs. While Sony beats them hands down on sound, Sharp's LCD quality is excellent and in many cases outperforms the Sony. The LCD weighs less, has less EMI and uses less electricity. I'd also be willing to bet is easier on the environment in manufacturing and recycling.
Your argument sounds like the guys who still like vinyl albums over cd's although with less technical facts and thought.
....... Thus ends my attempt at wit or whatever
Modern plasma screens (at least Panasonics) have a life of 80,000 hours. That is approx 3333 hours, which is nine years of uninterrupted play.
Since when is 80,000 hours approximately equal to 3,333 hours?
If you play fast moving games, don't buy an LCD screen. They may tell you it's fast (Xms !!!1) but they will still show a streak when a bright character is moving in front of a dark background.
LCDs suck for living room video as well, there are LCD types that are fast enough for video (TN type) but which distort their colours when viewed from the side even by a little bit. Sucks for the people at the ends of the couch. The other type of LCD has nice viewing angles but isn't fast enough for action sequences.
The type of display that combines all the good features of LCD and CRT is SED
They'll be available at the start of 2007 and might be affordable at the end of that year. Hopefully the manufacturers aren't too greedy to make a profit.
Stay with a CRT until then, if you can.
- -- Truth addict for life.
Dad, is that you?
The minidisc could have done so much better in the US if Sony hadn't forced consumers to transcode their mp3's to ATRAC3 to put them on disc. Same with Sony's first HDD players. It could have continued even better if Sony had used it for PSP instead of inventing that stupid UMD disc (which for the most part seems to be a minidisc platter in a differnt sleeve).
I have had 3 Sony Trinitron's in the past decade and they have seen huge advancements and helped me through all my entertainment needs. I have owned a Sony Trinitron 27", a Sony Wega 27", and now my Sony Wega HD 34" XBR. The color reproduction on my 34" HDXBR can't be matched by any plasma, lcd, dlp, rear-projection crt, front-projection, you name it. CRT is still the standard when it comes to perfect contrast and color reproduction. The only place that I wish my CRT was a Plasma is when it comes to using it as a HTPC. Having a fixed pixel (i.e. 1280x720, 1280x768, 1366x768, 1920x1080) display is great when using it as a computer screen because there is absolutely no overscan or geometry issues. CRT's biggest downfalls really are that it doesn't have perfect geometery across the screen and it doesn't have uniform sharpness across the screen, the outside edges are always blurry in comparison to the center of the TV. For the purpose of a TV though this really doesn't make a difference though most of the time, because as long as there isn't a static picture on the screen (i.e. computer desktop) you would never see this. The most rewarding and exciting way to play computer games these days is in the dark and on a CRT HDTV. If you try to play in the dark on a LCD there is going to be white light from the backlight even on a 1000:1 contrast ration monitor. Not to mention that I can still see that LCD's aren't perfectly smooth like CRT's, even on 6ms response time LCD's! They don't ghost, they just stutter to the very sensitive eye (especially if you play a FPS). Please continue to provide me with quality CRT HDTV's Sony incase I ever need to buy another one before a new technology comes out to replace all these current ones.
sorry, 3333 days of uninterrupted play, though I suspect that you may have guessed that it was a typo/brainfart.
We have a couple of those 44" Mitsubishis where I work. They're
beautiful TV's, but we had to build a special heavy duty cart
to move one around on. The other is in a "kiosk" exhibit, and
has a problem with the HV circuit. It is literally too heavy to
be safely moved from its current location to be serviced. Those
things are at least 200 lbs, and front-heavy.
Are there even CRT's available in 1080P? Seems like LCD is the only way to get "true" hdtv resolution.
Except that, you can't produce/manufacture big-screen televisions.
The main advantage of flat-panel tv (lcd or pdp) is that companies can produce gigantic screen like 50" or 60" or even 100" somewhat economically. You could possibly buy a projection tv with those types of dimensions but projection tv have even worse display quality than flat-panel tv.
So under 30", CRTs rule and will maintain its dominance for a while (2~3 years). But you can't even find any CRT tvs greater than 36" in any volume.
Television manufacturers are betting that consumers will easily sacrifice some quality in favor of having a big screen (for watching dvd, watching sports, etc)
He's just got his karma up, and he's about to goatse us.
Minidisc transcoding was done without the user even noticing. It may have made it hard for Linux users (read: 0.5% of the market) to use, since they would have to write a transcoder in C themselves, but for Windows users, it was easy.
In Europe we have recent environmental legislation, which makes the retailer responsible for the disposal/recycling of electronic products for the *entire life* of that product. If your customer buys a TV from you, in 20 years they can make YOU collect and recycle/dispose of it. This has obvious cost implications for the retailer. CRT screens are NOT easy to recycle into anything useful - you can't use the recycled glass for foodstuffs for instance. In an industry where margins of 1 or 2% can make or break a retailer, it's understandable that they'd go for the lighter, more easily recycled/disposed of option - LCD screens.
Maybe this is another nail in the coffin of CRTs?
The poster may be a troll but his comment isn't. Transcoding degrades music quality and people with large libraries of music didn't appreciate having the size of their collection double on disk just so they could use it on their MD.
Apple actaully let folks use whatever bitrate they wished (rather than three to six choices like Sony). I would have abandoned Minidisc far sooner if the iPod had had the battery life and recording abilities an MD unit did.
The CRT TV plants are only to be closed in 2008. Geez, will they be able to sell both CRT TVs they still plan to build then?
Oh well, what the hell...
Television manufacturers are betting that consumers will easily sacrifice some quality in favor of having a big screen (for watching dvd, watching sports, etc)
The problem is that when you increase size AND decrease quality, the flaws become even more evident.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
The colors still aren't quite as good as CRT, nor the blacks, but they're very, very close. It's leaps beyond RP LCD (or DLP) (I say as an LCD and previous CRT HDTV owner).
The contrast ratio on the new TVs is listed as 5,000:1, for whatever that means. And the response time is 3.5ms.
I don't know how fake those numbers are. I'll just say this. I saw one, and it's incredible. It uses the same technology that knocked people's socks off at $40K with the Qualia 004. Some said the picture was "perfect". Well, maybe it's not perfect, but it's incredible. Good LCOS units like this one will tear away all but the most diehard of diehard CRT fans.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Several months back it started becoming impossible to find Sony's PVM series of professional broadcast monitors. Then I was told by my Sony distributor that Sony had ended all production of the PVM monitors. This caught me off guard, because the PVM monitors are THE standard in the video production industry. As has been mentioned, we're simply not at the point where you can judge color-accuracy on an LCD or plasma or whatnot. But then you have to consider, what are people color-correcting to, if there are so many display standards out there now, and NTSC is about to fade away in another few years? It's a very confusing time for the broadcast/video industry.
Methinks the superior resolution and image quality of those CRTs you're stockpiling won't mean much when the computer you're borrowing from Microsoft won't trust you to play HD movies on it.
All these posts, and nobody has mentioned the latest TV technology: SED._ display/
:-)
http://www.canon.com/technology/detail/device/sed
IMHO this will blow away all other flat-panel technologies (assuming nobody sells a triple-MEMS version of the DLP design, thus eliminating the color wheel). SED has low profile and uses the same phosphor screen as CRTs. Aside from price and having to wait a year or two for the USA rollout, SED is perfect.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw