Philips and Sony TV Business - Up in Smoke

[admin]

Two electronics companies, two different approaches to dealing with failing TV divisions… Philips, the Dutch manufacturer that still makes the TVs seen in America under the name Funai, has decided to fold and step back from televisions in favor of more profitable business. While Sony has decided to double-down to try and restore the TV division to its former glory with a secret ingredient Sony hopes to unify all of its devices into one powerhouse content-sharing service PlayMemories Online.


Discuss "Philips and Sony TV Business - Up in Smoke" here. Read the article.

[bikdav]

From my standpoint, the "stand-alone" TV isn't as important as it once was. A lot of over-the-air programming has gone down in quality. Many people _ like myself for example _ are doing lots of their "TV viewing" on the internet via desktop, laptop, or portable units [the iPad and their Android and Windows counterparts are picking up big time]. We can view just about anything on the internet on demand when we have time to do it.

[BMXTRIX]

I think that a quality TV at a fair price is what most people are after at this point. Philips was a crud company most of the way with their TV division. I mean, they invented the Pronto remotes, but their own TVs couldn't reliably be turned on, off, or to the proper input with them! They never had an engineering manager that had a clue how to make a controllable TV, and while their TVs were often inexpensive, they were never as cheap as their image quality was, and they never offerred enough quality to justify the price.

Sony, in contrast, has just been dealing with the Chinese/Korean invasion and a run of very high quality displays from the competition while dealing with their high overhead rates. Unfortunately, there has been little to set Sony apart from the competition. No 'Trinitron' which just was a step ahead of everyone else. Had Sony figured out the skinny TV before Samsung, and perhaps pushed for more Chinese builds at high quality the way we have seen other companies do, they would likely be leading the game.

Want to know three companies which consistently make TVs which can be controlled wonderfully with a universal remote?

Samsung
Sharp
Sony

Know who also responded to early complaints about this issue and now all their TVs are properly controllable with a universal remote?

Vizio

I'm sad to see that Sony is having issues in the display game as the primary manufacturer, but they have also failed to stay ahead of the competition. I believe they are in talks with Samsung for their panels now, which is not really a bad thing for those who like Sony displays, but it likely will do nothing but put Samsung further ahead of the competition. Once again, not a bad thing as Samsung has been a class leader for a while now.

I'm not sure where the TV game will be headed in future years. There is still certainly demand for TVs as monitors without all the 'Smart' functionality, but more and more people think they want that functionality in their TV.

But, a decent computer costs $500+ and people want that type of performance built INTO their $1,000 TVs these days. It's unrealistic and causes serious quality corners to be cut. No, really, stabbed, beaten, drawn and quartered... the quality is just garbage on most built in 'Smart' capabilities.

To make it worse, the audio connection to an external A/V receiver or switching solution can be abysmal.

The new hook is all about selling the razor blades. I've got enough expensive toys with enough need to buy razor blades without adding my TV watching to the mix.

I think it would be nice to see a quality display without ANY bells and whistles in the box. Sell it at a very good price. No added cost for speakers, Smart, or even a ton of connectivity. But, then, give those options to people if they want/need them. A standard card based system across an entire product division. Cards which could contain HDMI 1.5, or DisplayPort for those who want it. A card with Smart/PC functionality. A card with HDBaseT connectivity. Or an amplifier card with a couple of speaker/speakerbar options. Get your TV YOUR way, but start with a base model/configuration which is more cost effective for those people who want to go to component systems like so many of us here already do.

I would be VERY interested in that TV, but it would still have to be extremely high quality for video while staying thin and looking good... with a very competitive price structure.

[PhilCohen]

Obviously, the analogue to digital T.V. changeover(which forced consumers to buy new televisions) caused an enormous boom in the sales of televisions, but this couldn't last forever.

Like many consumers, I've got nothing against 3-D, but I intend to use my existing televisions for as long as they last, and have no plan for the foreseeable future to buy a 3-D television. Many consumers are doing the same thing that I'm doing, and it is because we are in the new great depression, and don't have so much money to spend.