Posted on 10/19/2011 3:32:49 PM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
Washington, D.C. (October 19, 2011) -- It's been a tough year for TV makers and a TVPredictions.com poll and other surveys suggest it could get even tougher this holiday season.
Asked if they planned to buy a HDTV this holiday season, 60.7 percent of our readers said no in an online poll taken here last week. Only 21.7 percent said yes while 17.6 percent said they weren't sure.
The dismal numbers follow an equally depressing survey result last week from the Ipsos organization. The company found that 45 percent of consumers plan to spend less this year compared to the 2010 holiday season. Only 11 percent said they would spend more.
While the survey did not specifically address consumers' plans for HDTVs and CE products, the overall numbers would suggest that people will keep a tight grip on their wallets this year.
Of course, for TV makers, this is just an additional topping of bad news. Thanks to the sluggish economy -- and consumers' lukewarm reception to new 3D TVs -- sales of new HDTVs have been flat this year. In the first quarter, sales of LCD sets even fell, albeit by 3.5 percent.
TV makers, and their CE retail partners, have been hoping that the holiday season would help turn the year around. But if the surveys reflect reality, that may not happen.
Consequently, I think you'll see TV makers slash prices even further than expected during the holiday shopping season. And, if they are smart, they will continue to downplay the 3D features of new sets and focus instead on how great the HD picture is.
Almost 18 percent of our survey respondents said they are not sure if they will buy a new set this holiday season; the TV makers better give them a good reason why they should.
I ditched the cable tv...still have the internet cable.
What’s a “TV”?
/semi-sarc
Thanks Las Vegas Dave. 3D TV appears to be a massive waste of money. But the fact that demand will be well under the supply is a good thing. :’)
Funny...this is the year we’re finally planning to buy a new TV, and a house to put it in.
One nice thing is that a lot of the old Christmas specials you've seen in the past can now be seen on ABC Family, which is generally part of most basic cable TV or satellite TV packages.
1. Buying one or the other TV will not limit your ability to view content designed for the other— because no such design differences exist.
2. Plasma TV is (still, may change) superior to LCD in terms of brightness, contrast and to a lesser extent color quality. This superiority (a) comes at a price (plasma costs more) and (b) is nearly invisible to the naked or untrained eye. People will bypass the “best” in favor of the “good enough” if there's sufficient price advantage.
I'm still watching a 1997-model 19” CRT, and so are a lot of other people. This year I plan to pick out a 32” LCD panel in 720p. 32”-ers are available in 1080p, but in that size I don't see the advantage to higher resolution. With a dreamland unlimited budget, I'd probably go for a 50+” plasma in 1080p and then die of butt calluses during my 4,853rd viewing of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Best thing about HDTV: it is totally awesome for football (both the American and soccer kind), totally awesome for basketball, and has actually made baseball and hockey watchable again.
I almost went with a Panasonic 42” 1080p plasma TV, but back in March 2010 they tended to use more power at reasonable brightness levels than the Sony KDL-40EX500 40” LCD I finally got. I do like the current crop of 42” plasma displays, though—they’ve really improved the power consumption and because plasma displays have a “natural” refresh rate of 600 Hz, it also means no motion blurring on very fast motion like what you see in action movies and live sporting events.
NFL football is just amazing to watch in HD. Heh, I hike my chair up to about four feet away...:)
Hey, thanks for that. My thing was will there be just a standard TV where LCD would be the one? Are there many sales of plasma or that one with mirrors or whatever?
TV’s are thrifty - - it’s the cable cost that amazes me.
I’m considering setting up my old CRT or going to the local pub to watch football. It would be cheaper and I get to flirt with the waitress.
Reruns/Podcasts are on Rush’s website
But you have to pay to hear them. : (
I figure, if I don’t buy something I don’t need, then I’m richer to the extent of what I didn’t pay.
So, as a country, the more of something we don’t need that we don’t buy, the better off we are as a country.
That goes for TV’s that we don’t need.
So, this is good news, right?
I may be the only one who feels this way, but I do not like the LED TV’s...prefer the LCD picture.
Two friends have the large screen LED’s, and to me it makes movies look like they were filmed with the average camcorder. Have watched several different style movies, and all have that same look on LED.
I hope they never phase out the LCD’s.
Like, for instance, there is a market for Ferraris. I have a minivan. Both burn gasoline to carry the driver from point A to point B a lot faster than I can walk, but with the Ferrari you're paying for performance and workmanship that you don't get in the domestic minivan market.
There's also a matter of taste; don't get me wrong, I think Ferraris are way cool, but aside from the fact that I don't have that much money in the car budget, my wife and I just really like the comfort and cargo capacity of our minivan. Likewise, a 32" panel set will just "fit better" in our living room, the "cool factor" of a giant screen notwithstanding.
Have you seen a set made up of an array of LEDs? Could you point me at a store ad for one?
An LED TV does not use LEDs for the pixels, that part is still LCD. LEDs are used for the light source instead of the older fluorescent tubes. And while the first implementations may be somewhat lacking, it is the future.
Well, at least until they get LEDs to provide the pixels.
I dont have a tv, planning to purchase on though. I have decided not to darken another theatre and am trying to set up a film room.
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