Thin-tube Tvs: Will We See The Technology On

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EINDHOVEN: Old-fashioned tube televisions are getting a new lease of life as engineers have reduced their depth by a third to 35 cm and are shaving off another 10 cm to better compete with liquid crystal displays (LCDs), the world's biggest cathode ray tube maker said.

LG.Philips Displays, the 50-50 joint venture between LG Electronics and Philips Electronics, has started selling the 35 cm thin tube and believes it can slim down the depth of a 32-inch-screen (81.3 cm) TV tube further, to as little as 25 cm in two years.

"What we want to achieve is a TV set without the hump on the back," said Gert-Jan Hesselink, global product manager for non-widescreen TV tubes at LG.Philips Displays.

His firm has cut the depth to 35 cm by squeezing the curve on the back of the glass tube until it is almost flat.

The electron gun and deflection coil still protrude, and engineers are working on those, Hesselink said on Monday. "We expect slim tubes will become a success. In 18 to 24

months we want to continue on that road by introducing a tube that is 25 to 30 cm deep," he said in an interview.

While 25 cm is not as thin as the 10 cm of fashionable LCD and plasma screens, it is slim enough for most consumers while offering superior picture quality at a much lower price than LCD or plasma thin display TVs, said Felice Albertazzi, vice president for European sales and marketing.

"This gives us hope for the future," he said, adding that the company's efforts might slow down the decline of cathode ray tube (CRT) sales.

LG, which said last month it expects the CRT market to decline by 11 per cent in 2005, has just introduced its first TV with a Super Slim tube in a TV with a 32-inch screen. It is

available in South Korea at 1.49 million won ($1,431).

South Korean rival Samsung Electronics has also announced its first thin tube TV, slated for launch this month. Most premium-brand 32 inch TV tube sets sell between 800

euros ($1,028) and 1,200 euros ($1,542) depending on features.

This is significantly below retail prices of thin LCD TV sets that can be hung on a wall and start at around 2,000 euros.

Hang tv on the wall?

Consumer research has found that less than 20 per cent of consumers mount their expensive thin TV on a wall. Most put it in a 40 cm deep cabinet or even in a corner, where the new thin tubes will also easily fit, LG.Philips Displays said.

TV industry analysts and executives agree that picture quality of tube televisions is still much better than LCDs, which suffer from a limited viewing angle, less contrast and

smear -- when the pixels cannot keep up with fast-moving objects.

Electronics companies are developing a range of tricks to solve these problems, but now they are also faced with the question of whether to put development money into old-fashioned tubes which they had reckoned were on the way out.

"If we were alone in this, perhaps TV set makers could ignore us and concentrate on LCD. But Samsung is also entering with thin tubes. 80 per cent of today's 180-million-unit-a-year

TV market is still CRTs. TV makers have to defend their market shares in that segment," an LG.Philips Displays spokesman said.

The tube maker is talking to major TV set makers, but so far only LG has a 32-inch-TV Super Slim tube, Albertazzi said. The use of Super Slim tubes in much smaller 21-inch screen TVs, launched last year, is well under way.

While the depth reduction on this size TV and PC monitor is less dramatic, set makers in China and Europe are using it, Albertazzi said. In the hugely competitive, low-price 21-inch market segment, TV manufacturers are particularly interested in cost savings.

"There is huge interest in the product. The total savings per tube in logistics, materials and packaging are $6," he said. Super Slim tubes will be priced only a few per cent above

normal tubes, which should help their up-take, Albertazzi said.