The location: somewhere in transit between Osaka and Kameyama, Japan. Its a cold winter morning, though there is a hint of excitement in the air as we head for a place that has the potential to enthrall. The occasion: LCD pioneer Sharp was providing us Indian press delegates with a sneak preview of its upcoming range of high-tech LCD TVs.
These TVs, which will release officially in March, belong to a new series called the A series. The models names will be 52A83, 46A63 etc. Interestingly, a few pieces have already started retailing... I wonder where they came from!
Sharp's Kameyama 8th-gen LCD factory
Currently, the Sharp LCD plant at Kameyama is putting nut to bolt at a frenetic pace, cutting out A series LCD panels from 8th generation mother glass. A note about LCD generations for the uninitiated: the term ‘generation’ corresponds to the size of the mother glass out of which LCD panels are cut. The sharp guys provided us a lot of info about the generation trend, and about the LCD industry on the whole.
It wasn’t some boring press conference where MDs talk about market share, instead they provided an insight on the manufacturing process, technical trends, and cool stuff like the first LCD TV ever made, samples of the liquid used in Liquid Crystal Displays, magnified views of glass panels and pixels, triple-view LCD screens – but I’ll elaborate on these later; they are simply awesome! We'll also be putting up web videos of all that this week, so watch this space.
The A series pieces being tested for durability
The New A series Lineup
The A series will be state-of-the-art panels, ranging from 19-inch WXGAs to 52-inchers at full HD. These are all 8th generation panels, with some cool new physical and technical features. The first that deserves mention is the slim design, with a bezel that is 25.5 mm at the sides, and a thickness of 90 mm overall. The physical volume of the piece is thus reduced 35 percent over the PX5 series.
The USP of this device, which has been exhausted this CES by many brands, is the 100, 120 Hz frame rate doubling. A proprietary algorithm doubles the frame rate of 50/60 FPS and aims for a smoother moving image. It’s got full HD 1920 x 1080, and weight-wise it's just 21 kgs (for a 42 incher!) The 3 HDMI ports plus specs like 500 cd/m2 brightness and 10,000:1 dynamic contrast are impressive. Prices haven't been divulged yet, but we were told they will be competitive.
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