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3 Firms Confess To Fixing LCD Prices, Agree To Pay $585M Fine
Oldyeller89 writes "LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes pleaded guilty to charges of price fixing in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. They fixed the prices on LCD screens used not only in their products but also in other products such as Apple's iPods. The three companies agreed to pay $585 million in fines. Perhaps this will cause the price of our TVs to drop?" The New York Times also has a story on the outcome of this case.
The LCD's in question were not sold directly to consumers, they were in devices like cell phones and ipods. The cost was absorbed by the manufacturers of these devices, and if it drops, good for them... but do you really think they'll pass that directly on to consumers? The illegal markup per unit probably isn't all that big. This will amount to a small increase in the profit margins of the device manufacturers, if it amounts to anything at all.
My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
Chunghwa makes panels for Vizio, Syntax, and even Samsung and many others you would expect to have their own panels inside. Even Sony and Sharp have shipped products with Chunghwa panels inside, simply because they're cheaper.
everything in moderation
actually their customers are Apple, and other product makers that paid a few bucks too much per panel and missed sales, not "consumers". So the public really doesn't see any of it as they paid the manufacturer and retailer of the product they bought a market price for the device.
5:4 screen will always have more pixels than 16:10 with the same diagonal, as the aspect ratio is closer to square. It has nothing to do with LCD/CRT monitors.
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Almost all 17" LCDs are 1280x1024 which is 5:4. Anyone know why they use this and not 1280x960 (4:3)?
It's not burn-in; it is image persistance and the display is not permanently damaged. How to fix it? Play a high-contrast full motion video for a few hours, or better yet, an animated image which turns all red pixels on then off (red then black), blue on then off (blue then black), then white (all pixels on) then black (all pixels off). Let each image display for at least a few seconds per.
My first iPAQ (a Pocket PC) exhibited this from the start menu, and running a slide show resolved the issue.
It's not burn-in. Burn-in is an actual evaporation (well, sublimation really) and/or burning of phosphors and cannot be corrected. Burn in "correction" on a plasma screen actually wears out the screen because those utilities are designed to burn in the rest of the screen to make the whole display more consistent.
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agreed.
you get much better colour and contrast on a CRT.
But, most people don't do graphics work for a living, and they won't care about getting accurate colours, they just care that they look good enough. LCD's use less power, look nice, and save desk space, these are things most people care about.
Also, LCD's don't flicker, and are much better for long jobs, as they cause less eye strain. I get headaches if i spend more than 4 hours in front of a CRT.
personally, I've been using both kinds of monitors, so i can get the best of both worlds. 90% of my work is done on a cheap LDC screen, then for the final 'touching up', before i send something off to be printed, i switch to a CRT to tweak the image.
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An LCD screen shows different colors depending upon your view angle. This is not good for graphics professionals.
agreed. CRT burn-in and plasma burn-in are two entirely different animals. Even if it were to be solved at some point in the future, it doesn't help the plasma TV you spend $4000 on today.
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