Zenith Announces Industry's First Integrated Digital TV Under $1,000

20-Mar-01

The first integrated digital television (DTV) set with a retail price under $1,000 was announced by Zenith Electronics Corporation.Zenith, one of the primary developers of the FCC-adopted DTV broadcast standard, said it plans to ship the 27-inch standard definition television (SDTV) digital model in the second half of 2001, priced under $1,000. A 32-inch digital TV model, expected to sell for slightly more than $1,000, also will be available.""Early in the transition to DTV, Zenith and others in the industry have been concentrating primarily on large-screen, higher end, high definition displays that require expensive optics,"" said Richard Lewis, Zenith Senior Vice President, Research and Technology. ""Large HDTVs will always offer consumers the ultimate home theatre experience, but widespread DTV deployment will require mass market products at mass market prices. ""Technology has now progressed to the point that, for a relatively small price increment over conventional analog TVs, more consumers will soon be able to enjoy many benefits of digital television - snow-free, ghost-free pictures and CD-quality sound,"" Lewis said.These basic digital TVs will feature all-format digital decoder/tuners designed to receive all 18 ATSC video formats. The crisp digital images will be displayed in the SDTV format on 4:3 aspect ratio picture tubes. The Zenith DTVs will include an analog NTSC TV tuner and Zenith-developed software that allows the viewer to ""surf seamlessly between analog and digital broadcasts,"" Lewis said. These digital cable-compatible sets will incorporate a QAM demodulator for direct connection to digital cable systems, in addition to a VSB demodulator for over-the-air DTV broadcasts.For more information about Zenith Electronics Corporation, visit www.zenith.com.

Read More:
http://www.zenith.com