HDTV manufacturers are trying to make the task of buying a set much more difficult than just choosing between LCD and plasma, 42 inches (106 centimeters) or 46 inches.
To stand out amid fierce competition, they are adding exotic features, and even a little bit of color to the plain black bezels that have been de rigueur. They are also chasing each other to zero ... zero thickness, that is. Apparently, you cannot be too thin if you are a TV.
All major Asian brands revealed new sets at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which started in Las Vegas on Monday. Most of the innovation comes from big names, like Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic and Toshiba, which are trying to keep HDTVs from becoming a commodity product.
If one 42-inch LCD is the same as another, the buyer is going to be looking mostly at price, and that kills the manufacturer's margins.
This happened to DVD players years ago: when unknown Asian manufacturers were able to slap together players and sell them for US$50, Sony could not make money in the category.
"The goal is to break away from the commoditized market," said Ken Shioda, general manager of display products for Pioneer Corp.
Pioneer is one of the companies working to put its sets on a diet: it demonstrated a plasma TV with a thickness of just nine millimeters, claiming it is the thinnest 50-inch set so far. It is just a prototype, however. Pioneer said sets that thin would not be on the market this year, but possibly next.
Hitachi Ltd is showing off an LCD display that is twice as thick: three-fourths of an inch. That is also a prototype, but the company is bringing LCDs that are 1.5 inches thick to the United States market in the second quarter after launching them in Japan in December.