Panasonic shares details on new TVs, Blu-rays, audio gear

Panasonic revealed the pricing of the new iPod/iPhone-docking compact audio systems and new soundbar in its 2011 audio lineup, and revealed more details about a variety of new features and technologies available for the first time on its new 3D Blu-ray HTiBs.

All four compact systems are thin, vertically-oriented single-chassis models, that range from 2.5 to 2.75 inches deep, of which two of the models can be wall-mounted. These four new compact systems, as well as, the three new 3G Blu-ray HTiBs, are the company's first products of its kind to take in music in PCM digital form, from a docked iPod/iPhone to improve sound quality. Meanwhile, two of four new docking compact stereo systems are the company's first with ability to select favorite Internet radio stations for playback, via the systems' included IR remote. Three of the four compact audio systems incorporate AM/FM tuner and MP3-CD players which retail between $99 and $199. The fourth system lacks CD-tuner, and retails for a suggested price of $179. Unfortunately, Panasonic's oversight in providing access to Internet radio in two of its systems leaves users having to pay $1.99 for a vTuner app that accesses Internet radio stations via Apple devices' embedded Wi-Fi radio. The music is then streamed to the compact systems via stereo Bluetooth.

The new soundbar, the SC-HTB520, features wireless outboard subwoofer, one 3D-capable HDMI 1.4 input, an HDMI 1.4 output with audio return channel, built-in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 decoders, and Dolby Virtual Speaker to create virtual surround. The SC-HTB520 features a taller, thinner subwoofer, with downfiring driver.

Panasonic's new DVD HTiB launch is bringing 2D-to-3D conversion to the company's Blu-ray HTiB line, and offering a 3D Effect Controller for the first time. The 2D-to-3D conversion converts 2D video on DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and SD Cards to 3D. The new HTiBs upconvert streaming video-on-demand services to full 1080p, feature built-in WiFi, and allows users to customize the Blu-ray homescreen.The base price of a 3D-equipped HTiB retails at a suggested price of $399 to $499 The top two models priced at $499 and $599 priced are the company's first HTiBs with HDMI inputs. They are also the first two Panasonic HTiBs with optional Skype video chat. All three HTiBs feature 5.1-speaker systems, 1,000-watt outputs, faster loading integrated Blu-ray players, HDMI 1.4a input with audio return channel, and Cinema Surround Plus.

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3DTV's: Early answers to some questions

The Dallas Morning News did a nice write-up last week on 3DTVs that coincided with the launch of both Panasonic and Samsung's products at retail. The article provided what I thought was a good perspective on whether the average consumer should run out and buy a 3DTV set:

"Unless you're rich and impatient, you might want to hold off for a year or two. The first batch of 3-D TVs is more expensive than standard HD sets, and analysts expect the prices for 3-D sets to drop dramatically over the next few years. Also, it will be at least a year before 3-D Blu-ray movies and TV channels are widely available. And there's a chance the technology will flop and makers will lose interest."

Overall, I think that this is pretty good advice, and I was wondering just how strong the demand would be for 3DTV sets, as I referenced in a blog last week. News from Panasonic, however, would indicate that early results were quite positive. Now, if only these consumers will be okay with waiting for the 3D release of "Avatar," on Blu-ray, which isn't supposed to happen until sometime next year.

So, there's early market demand, but one other question that I've had is whether the proprietary nature of the 3D displays themselves would present a hurdle to sales. This is why the announcement by XspanD about the release of "universal" 3D glasses is good news. The company notes that they are getting requests from both manufacturers and retailers to have a universal active pair of glasses.

Perspectives on 3DTV

This week has turned out to be 3DTV launch week, with major announcements from Panasonic and Best Buy, Samsung, Sony, LG, and others. With that, I've fielded some questions from the press that I thought I'd also post here. Here are some of the common questions we're getting, along with our analysis.

What should we expect in terms of 3DTV displays as a percentage of all HDTV displays?
In this article, Samsung notes that 3-4 million of the expected 35 million TVs sold in North America will be 3D, whereas Sony hopes for 10% in its next fiscal year.

We've been pretty cautious about 3DTV (and you'll hear why in the next comments), and even the Consumer Electronics Association, which had originally projected four million sales in 2010 has backed off that and is now projecting about one million units.

In a few years, I do think that 3DTV capabilities will be integrated into TV sets, much as we expect Web connectivity to be a part of most displays. If you want to compare the potential growth path for 3DTV to Web-connected TVs, in 2010, we forecast that 24% of HDTV sales will be Web-capable, and this will grow to 80% by 2014. So, I do think that you’ll see the 3DTV integration occur. Perhaps it won’t be quite as strong as 80% in five years, but it could be significant. I heard other CE manufacturers at CES indicate that 30-40% of their displays may be 3D capable in five years, so they’re being more conservative.

Is there an immediate interest in customers to buy 3D TVs, or will it take a while to trickle into living rooms? How long?
First, awareness of 3DTVs is low. Only about 10% of consumers are highly aware of a 3DTV, compared to 19% highly familiar with the concept of a Web-connected TV. I do think that it will take awhile to trickle into living rooms, as consumers who just went on a huge spree in the last 4-5 years to put the HDTV in the living room are going to be hesitant to quickly replace that set.

What challenges may face 3D TVs getting to living rooms? (Premium pricing, lack of content?)
There are questions about how expensive the glasses will be (we don’t see the quality in auto-stereoscopic sets improving to the point of seeing them in living rooms in the next few years), whether the glasses themselves will be proprietary to each manufacturer, pricing, and lack of content as key inhibitors at this point.

3D has seen some ups and downs before it made an impact on movie screens? Will it face as many of the same challenges as it trickles down to TVs?
I think content is going to fuel the growth, so getting lots of high-quality 3D programming is going to be key. I don’t think that re-rendering 2D to 3D is going to cut it. I saw the demos at CES, and I wasn’t all that impressed. Nearly 40% of consumers indicate that they would be interested in seeing movies in 3D in their living room, so Hollywood is going to have to be putting out lots of good content. About a quarter of consumers indicate that they would enjoy sports in 3D. That presents the challenge of producing live sports in a 3D format. You’re going to need new cameras, new production equipment, and producers will have to re-think how to shoot sports to make this compelling. So, there are definitely some production challenges.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that it took HDTVs about 10 years to get to where we are now (more than 50% penetration). I think 3DTV has even more potential pitfalls, so I would think pretty conservatively about how quickly we’re going to see this grow.

Panasonic Debuts Multimedia Audio System Photo Frame

Panasonic announced the debut of its first audio system with iPod dock and photo frame. The MW-10 sounds as good as it looks, pumping out audiophile-quality sound from its built-in CD player, and its FM/AM radio tuner has 45-station (30-FM/15-AM) Preset Memory.

Boasting a 9-inch WVGA LCD, the MW-10 can display photos from a CD, SD Memory Card and internal memory. The 4 GB of internal memory stores image data for up to 6,000 photos. In addition to a full-screen photo slideshow, the advanced display has the following: clock and iPod track menu, calendar and photos, clock and photos, and audio and calendar.

The MW-10 is Energy Star qualified, and its UniPhier LSI integrates all video signal processing circuits onto a single chip, which lowers power consumption and reduces the number of components.

For the full press release, please click here.

Oregan Networks Unveils Onyx Browser for Connected TVs

Oregan Networks announced the Oregan Media Browser 4.0, which they've dubbed Onyx. It's aimed at the DTV and set-top box markets and provides "simplified accessibility to multiple sources of trusted Internet and personal content on TVs through a single resident TV application that requires minimal set up and can be easily 'called up' in the form of a widget and dismissed without leaving regular broadcast channels or switching TV inputs."

Interesting times in which we live. I talked to Steve Tomlin, Chumby's CEO, this afternoon. He gave me an update on the widget development that they're doing, which includes work and demonstrations with major silicon vendors such as Broadcom, Freescale, Marvell, and Samsung.

I also touched base with Panasonic and got the update on the VIERA Cast applications that they are bringing to both DTVs and to Blu-ray players. The addition of Amazon.com Video On Demand content is a significant value to that particular solution.

On Tuesday, I caught up with Mike Harris at AnySource Media, a company that has developed a platform to bring in Web content to a connected TV. It's very different from other approaches, in that the "normalization" of content is done in the cloud and not on the TV itself, giving TV manufacturers greater ability to create rich content libraries and not subject users to just a few offerings. There is also an ad component to what AnySource is doing, and I think this story is going to play out in a significant way as the connected CE platforms develop. For CE manufacturers to differentiate and potentially get access to growing ad revenues, they're going to need to be able to use assets like navigational pages and on-screen guides for ad real estate. I think that's also the beauty behind the Macrovision Neon CE guide. Obviously, the main goal of the guides will be to help consumers discover and organize all kinds of digital media assets, but it will be interesting to see how the ad revenues work in this realm.

IFA Puts "Consumer" Back into Consumer Electronics

Additional observations from Berlin, where the sky is cloudless and the air has that October feel and the beer is, well, flowing. After all, it is the weekend and anyone remotely curious about electronics has turned out to wander the 30 exhibit halls which make up a large rectangle around, what else, a Biergarten. The mood is festive at Messe Berlin and the halls teaming with dealers, press, company executives and families who have ventured out to see the latest gadgets. Admitting consumers to this event is, to the seasoned American electronics veteran, unusual. Yesterday while discussing next-generation TV strategies with a global silicon company, a nice German family sat down at my table and unpacked their picnic lunch – curiously eavesdropping on our stimulating discussions.

Observing consumer reaction to products, however, is an added benefit to the IFA event. As I sat in Sony’s exhibit to check email, I found myself surrounded by 9 teenagers who were fascinated by the Rolly – an MP3 playing, dancing, light-flashing mini-entertainment robot, if I have properly captured the category name. I had walked past the Rolly casually dismissing it as the latest under-appreciated Sony engineering desperately seeking a market. Moments later, some of the teens were up on my bench, dancing with the Rolly – seeking to either teach it their moves, or imitate its own – which one, I could not determine.

Also in the Sony booth, OLED is in production. OLED’s incredibly thin (and expensive) display technology creates new form factor possibilities for TVs. Sony has developed an elegant mini TV set, about 8 inches diagonal, which would fit beautifully under a kitchen counter, in a desk or in a dorm room. This beautiful creation is not much larger than a digital photo frame but costs a whopping two thousand Euros and won’t be offered in this size to the U.S. market.

Other highlights of IFA include wireless HD. Wireless HD is being touted by Panasonic and several other large TV manufacturers – with wireless HDMI solutions becoming mainstream this year. Also spotted at IFA is 3D for the TV. The Fraunhofer Institute, inventor of MP3, showed compelling 3D technology and demonstrated early methods of converting 2D content to 3D, requiring no stereoscopic glasses. Following several other sightings of 3D TVs around the industry throughout the year, this is a trend to watch (pardon the pun).

Digital photo frames continue to abound, not only as new product offerings, but as compelling digital signage for displays. One new innovation offered from a company called PRINICS is a digital photo frame with integrated printer – now grandmother can simply tap on the picture she likes and out pops a glossy print – assuming she knows how to load paper, ink and, if she is really good, figure out which supplies to pick up at Office Depot.

In the Really Cool department is a pocket sized projector from Epson. The projector is about the size of the average clam shell mobile phone, but much better looking. While its range and duty (30 inches to the display wall) are merely for personal show-and-tell at this point, the possibility of carrying a board room quality projector in one’s pocket in a not too future date is music to the road warrior’s ears.

Surprisingly not many Intel Atom based mini-PCs were seen. One that I did notice was from Korea’s Wibrain. The device is pleasantly easy to use and, of course, familiar given that it runs Windows XP. Wibrain’s marketing message “Sorry Blackberry” can only bring a chuckle to the road warrior as this device is literally the size of brick. Perhaps the message should be “Sorry Symbol” as I can envision this device in the hands of the UPS delivery man, assuming he needs Word, Excel and Solitaire behind the wheel of his brown truck. Nice product but I am unsure of the application.

Of considerable note is the continuing drumbeat of “green.” Toshiba went so far as to dedicate a very large section of its multi-thousand Euro hall to being green. In this space was featured Toshiba’s Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2008, describing the company’s steps in keeping up its responsibility to the environment. Sony’s entire exhibit space was an eerie white “forest”, complete with giant white plaster tree trunks, projected sunsets, cricket chirps and bird noises. While entertaining, I never saw any synergy with the products and technology being displayed with the forest that housed them. As a matter of fact the stark white trees were in such contrast to the sexy glowing products on display that it reminded me that energy-sucking, flashing plastic products just don’t seem environmentally friendly. The question remains, will consumers prefer green companies, or is green becoming a “check box” item which is a requirement of corporate political correctness? Better do some research here.