White Paper on Plasma Display Panels

Plasma display panels or PDPs are self-emissive flat panel displays that are being increasingly used to display video and computer images for both business and consumer applications. Because of the their wide-viewing angle and large display area, plasma displays are becoming a leading display technology for public information and consumer messaging applications. It is important to understand both the advantages and disadvantages of the plasma displays to make most appropriate use of PDPs for these applications.

Read the complete White Paper (requires Adobe Acrobat)

- Dr. D.

Looking for a Plasma Display?

New this month from Planar is the PD42ED 42 inch plasma display, perfect for home theatre. It's quite simply the best plasma television in its price range today. Setting a new benchmark for large-screen viewing and versatility, this display combines enhanced brightness, contrast ratio, and power consumption with ultra-performance features such as an integrated TV Tuner, as well as a staggering variety of video inputs.

Learn more at Planar's PD42ED page.

- Dr. D.

65V-inches World's Largest LCD Color TV

Sharp Corporation has successfully developed a 65V-inch AQUOS LCD color TV, the industry’s first and world's largest. The TV's full-spec, high-definition, 6.22-million-dot panel is manufactured at the Kameyama Plant, an integrated LCD TV production facility for complete manufacturing from panel fabrication to final TV assembly. Such a quantum leap in screen size - well beyond the 45V-inch size that many thought was the limit for LCDs hows that LCD technology still has plenty of room to evolve and grow.

Learn more at PhysOrg.com

Westinghouse cuts price of LCD TVs

Westinghouse Digital Electronics announced on Wednesday that it has cut up to 25 percent off the price of two of its liquid-crystal display TV models. The company's 27-inch model is now going for $1,299, and its 30-inch model is selling for $1,799. The price moves reflect declining production costs for LCD TVs, according to the company. Inventory of LCD panels have been building up in the industry because of lower-than-expected demand, which has resulted in lower prices, analysts and panel suppliers have said.

Westinghouse entered the LCD TV market earlier this year, in expectation that its strong brand would attract new consumers. Motorola, which also recently entered the business, announced earlier this week it would be exiting the market because of a difference of opinion with its partner Moxell Technology.

Learn more at CNet News.com

Small-size LCD panel market to grow at 3% a year

Driven by increasing demand for mobile phones and digital still cameras (DSCs), the market for all types of small-size LCD panels will swell to 3.2 bln units by 2008, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3% from 2.8 bln in 2004, iSuppli predicts. Market revenues will increase to US$22 bln in 2008, rising at a CAGR of 4% from US$19 bln in 2004. iSuppli defines small-size LCDs as displays that are less than 10 inches in diagonal size. The market for small LCDs includes both active- and passive-matrix (AM and PM) displays. Although the CAGR for small-size LCDs may seem low, the growth rate of the AM LCD segment is much more vigorous than that of the overall market.

The market for small-size AM LCDs will grow to 850 mln units in 2008, up from 404 mln units in 2004, representing a CAGR of more than 20%, iSuppli predicts. AM revenues in the small-size LCD market will grow to US$19 bln in 2008, up from US$12 bln 2004. The share of small-size LCD unit shipments accounted for by AM LCD displays will rise to 26% by 2008, up from 14% in 2004. AM will account for 86% of all small-size LCD revenues in 2008, up from 63% in 2004.

More on this story at AlwaysOn

Shanghai SVA NEC Liquid Crystal Display Starts TFT LCD Manufacturing

NEC Corporation today announced that Shanghai SVA NEC Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd., its joint venture company with Chinese electronics and components company SVA (Group) Co., Ltd., has commenced manufacturing operations of TFT color LCDs at its new factory located in Shanghai.

Learn More at PhysOrg.com

Welcome to the Display Guru

Hello,

I'm Doctor Display or Dr. D. For short. I'm going to tell you about the latest and greatest technologies and applications with regards to flat-panel displays on this blog. As this is the first posting, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. I'm of course not a real person but a virtual persona made up of I and O just like the rest of us on the Web. I actually consist of a number of people, all contributing under my name. These people are display experts with a combined century or two of experience in the industry. Most of them work for the sponsor of this blog, Planar (www.planar.com) but occationally a guest geek takes over my mind and speak through my blog.

The goal of this blog is to help people like yourself learn more about the different flat-panel display technologies out there. I'll talk a lot about LCD and plasma displays since they are the most "mainstream" of the current technologies but we at Planar do a bonch of other stuff too. I'll talk about what's best for different applications such as home theatre, gaming, etc. and also talk about some of the cutting edge ways flat-panel displays are used today. I hope you enjoy learning more about flat-panel displays and don't forget. If you like what you hear, syndicate.

- Dr. D.