JVC's Slim LCD TVs Coming in Mid-2008

LAS VEGAS -- Japan's JVC will launch new flat-panel LCD TVs in the U.S. this year that it says are the world's thinnest, the company said today on the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show here.

The 42-inch and 46-inch models are just 1.5 inches thick across most of the back of the panel -- which is significantly thinner than most flat-panel TVs on the market today -- but are just under 3 inches at the panel's center, the company said. Both offer high-definition resolution and will hit the U.S. market in "early summer," with pricing to be announced at that time, JVC said.

Thin Is In

After several years of developing sets with ever-bigger screen sizes, the flat-panel TV industry appears poised to focus on the thickness of sets and several companies, including JVC, Hitachi and Sharp, all recently showed prototype TV sets that were around 1.1 inches thick.

JVC managed to thin down its TV by using a new backlight unit -- the light source that sits behind the LCD panel in the set -- that is 40 percent thinner than those used on its current TVs. It also developed a new power-supply that is both thinner and more efficient so overall power consumption of the new TVs has also been cut to 145 watts.

The same techniques are being pursued by JVC's competitors and both Sharp and Hitachi are expected to show their thin-LCD TV prototype sets at CES, which officially kicks off on Monday.

OLED TV

Sony and Samsung, two of the biggest names in the TV industry, are working on TVs based on OLED, a new technology to the TV market that doesn't require a backlight and so promises significantly slimmer TVs.

Sony just put the world's first OLED TV on sale in Japan. The 11-inch set is just 0.1 inches thick -- less than a tenth that of JVC's promised "thin TVs" but ,at least for the time being ,LCD retains several key advantages. OLED is difficult to make in larger screen sizes and production even at small screen sizes is costly: the 11-inch Sony set carries a $1,834 price tag in Japan.

Sony is expected to announce U.S. launch plans for the OLED TV at CES, and Samsung has said it will display a 31-inch prototype OLED screen. The Samsung panel, which hasn't yet been seen in public, would be the largest OLED screen yet unveiled by a panel maker if it appears at CES.

Read PC World'songoing coverage of this giant technology show at the CES InfoCenter.