First European Showing By Vestel Of Large-Screen Table Top TV Based On DLP Technology At IFA

""Outstanding Image Quality, Small Size, Low Weight Especially Attractive To European Consumers,"" Says Texas Instruments

30-Aug-01

Providing further evidence of the rapidly-growing acceptance of DLPô technology in home entertainment projection/display applications, and the likelihood of it becoming the projection/display technology of choice for consumer applications, Texas Instruments (TI) (NYSE: TXN) announced that Vestel has demonstrated a first prototype of its planned DLP technology-based, large-screen, table top TV at IFA (Berlin, August 25-September 2) at the Vestel booth.The Vestel prototype, a 43-inch (110cms) diagonal, 16:9 aspect ratio table top television, weighs just 75 pounds (34 kg) and measures only 18 inches (46 cm) front to back. The production version is expected to weigh even less at 55 pounds (25 kg), with a depth of just 12 inches (31 cm), and will be suitable for mounting on a shelf or tabletop. It is designed with the needs of European consumers in mind, and is optimized specifically for the burgeoning digital widescreen PAL market. Target price for the commercial product is $3,000.""We are delighted to be working with Texas Instruments on this project,"" said Hakan Kutlu, Product Manager, TV for Vestel. ""We have an exciting opportunity to be first to market with a revolutionary home entertainment product which we believe will have significant appeal for consumers worldwide. DLP technology is enabling us to design a system which has many advantages over systems based on alternative technologies, coupling small size, light weight and an elegant enclosure with digital accuracy, outstanding image clarity and the ability to provide optimum support for video and graphics.""""It is very exciting for us to be working with Vestel for a number of reasons,"" said John Reder, Tabletop Home Entertainment Business Unit Manager at TI's DLP Products division. ""They have rapidly established themselves as one of the largest suppliers of TVs to the European market -- a market which is key for us. Beyond that, they have a very impressive high volume manufacturing capability, coupled with an aggressive business approach. These factors, together with their significant experience and expertise, lead us to believe that Vestel can help us establish DLP technology as the technology of choice for consumer projection and display applications.""Reder went on to describe how DLP technology uniquely addresses many of the issues found with large screen TVs based on alternative projection and display technologies.""The most important thing,"" he said, ""is that DLP technology allows Vestel to deliver the best possible large-screen image quality. The fact is, the images enabled by DLP technology deliver market-leading performance in clarity, contrast, color saturation, sharpness and motion reproduction, and without any of the visible flicker that's often noticeable on PAL material.""Reder alluded to the fact that a variant of the DLP technology used by Vestel -- DLP Cinema technology -- is currently taking the world of movies by storm. ""DLP Cinema technology is widely acknowledged by all who have seen it as the best digital projection technology available in terms of image quality,"" he said. ""It is designed specifically to enable film projectors to be replaced by digital projectors. Over two and a half million cinema-goers have seen for themselves that DLP Cinema technology can deliver images that are better than those delivered by celluloid. This prototype home entertainment system is based on the same underlying technology.""""Beyond enabling Vestel to deliver second-to-none image quality,"" Reder continued, ""DLP technology is allowing the company to develop a large-screen TV that will be a fraction of the weight and depth of large-screen TVs available today -- especially direct view TVs based on CRT technology. We expect that that alone will make it attractive as consumers -- especially in Europe -- demand the large-screen experience, but want it in a lightweight, small footprint, aesthetically attractive package.""""Finally,"" he concluded, ""the inherent brightness of DLP technology means that Vestel will not have to use high gain screens to compensate for the low brightness of alternative technologies. The impact of this is that DLP technology allows the on-screen image to be viewed from a much wider angle -- as wide as with a conventional TV.""