Rebecca Day

Low power consumption, slim design, and high performance have LED-based LCD TVs poised to pass CCFL TVs in shipments by the end of 2012, said the Quarterly LED Backlight Report from DisplaySearch. But that could be threatened by shortages of key components for LED backlights that impacted production for this year’s first quarter. The market research firm projected 80 percent market penetration of LED-lit LCD TVs by the end of 2012.

Media playback may be shifting online, from hardware, in the PC world, executives said on Dolby Labs’ Q3 earnings call. The company reported 80 percent growth in standalone Blu-ray players but “flat to moderate” growth in the attachment rate of Blu-ray players to desktop and notebook PCs. Viewers’ exposure to Blu-ray through standalone players and living-room TVs may spill over into demand for Blu-ray on laptop and desktop PCs, “but that’s a guess on our side,” Dolby CEO Kevin Yeaman said: “We're not seeing the strong double-digit growth that we saw around this time during the DVD uptake. Apples to apples, the Blu-ray uptake in PC attachment is significantly lower than the DVD uptake at the same time 10-12 years ago.” Yeaman pointed to the recent release of Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 10 software package, which supports multiple digital-video formats including Blu-ray, as an example of the shift. “It could mean that online is taking over the optical-drive experience in the PC, or it could be the consumer hasn’t gotten the full Blu-ray experience at home to transfer and put demand on the PC and laptop,” he said. “We're waiting and monitoring this area.” Dolby reported Q3 profit of $63.5 million, 55 cents a share, up from $51.1 million net income, 44 cents, a year earlier. Revenue was $230.3 million, up 34 percent, the company said, driven by the PC and broadcast markets. “We continued to make progress in important growth markets, including in broadcast, where, one of India’s leading commercial broadcast services, Airtel Digital TV, announced its selection of Dolby Digital Plus for its high definition programming, and in cinema, where we continued to experience strong demand for our 3D systems,” Yeaman said. The company is looking for growth in online, mobile and further penetration of “the growing 3D opportunity.” Dolby sees strong demand for 3D cinema continuing into next year and peaking in late 2011 or 2012, he said. Dolby shipped more than 1,000 Dolby 3D systems in Q3, making roughly 4,400 total, mainly overseas, Yeaman said. The company also released Dolby Surround 7.1, “which enables content providers to add more audio dimensions to the 3D experience,” he said. Disney and Pixar recently released Toy Story 3 around the world in Dolby Surround 7.1 and plan to do more, he said.

DisplaySearch nudged its 2010 projections for 3D TV sales upward for the North American market from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, with overall market penetration of 37 percent predicted by 2014, according to the latest Quarterly TV Design and Features Report. Paul Gray, director of TV electronics research for DisplaySearch, told Consumer Electronics Daily that the new forecast reflects an extension of 3D product ranges from TV set makers. “Clearly, few sets would be sold at $2,500 price points,” he said. “For a surge in volume, prices will have to drop sharply. We are now expecting basic-level plasma sets with 3D late this year.” At the start of the year only three set makers were offering 3D, and most countries outside of the U.S. and Japan had no 3D plans for pay TV content, he said: “The change over the year is that these waverers have decided to launch some 3D products.”

Pointing to “an incredible surge in orders for Blu-ray 3D titles in the second quarter into the third quarter Q3” for 3D Blu-ray titles due in the market by year-end, Bob Michaels, Technicolor’s vice president of worldwide DVD services, told Consumer Electronics Daily that the ball is in retailers’ court to manage demand for the next-gen format. “The manufacturers have released TVs and Blu-ray players, and broadcasters have started showing 3D channels,” he said. “The next shoe that needs to drop is what’s going to happen at a retail level. How are they going to position this product?” Observing “a lot of Catch-22 going on,” he said content providers are concerned about delivering titles without a consumer base to support the rollout.

Silicon Image reported second-quarter earnings of $2 million, $0.03 a share, on revenue of $44.6 million that beat projections for the quarter despite an “industrywide supply-chain constraint,” CEO Camillo Martino said Tuesday on a conference call. The company credited the results to an increase in production of digital TVs, citing DisplaySearch forecasts of a 28 percent increase in 2010 DTV shipments, to 204 million units. Silicon Image said its market share has increased from expansion into the mainstream TV business and from sales of audio/video receivers and Blu-ray players, especially in Japan. A Japanese government incentive program to promote energy-efficient products has increased demand for ICs, Martino said.

ESPN 3D will telecast its second round of homegrown 3D events this week with eight hours of X Games 16 sporting events from the Los Angeles Coliseum. 3D programming will run on Thursday 8-11 p.m. and on Saturday 7 p.m.-midnight. Events to be shown in 3D include men’s and women’s Super X racing, Moto X Freestyle, the Big Air skateboard competition, Rally Car, Super Rally Car and BMX Big Air, the cable programmer said.

NEWMARKET, N.H. -- Nearly a year after buying a home automation company, Colorado vNet, distributed audio company Russound is solidifying a two-tiered custom electronics strategy based on networked integration, retrofit solutions and cloud-based content and services, company executives told reporters last week. Russound’s position in the custom electronics market has been focused on multiroom distribution of audio and video, but limited growth potential in that segment has Russound looking to networked home automation for future growth.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) pegged “UltraViolet” as the brand name for its cloud-based digital content management system, the consortium’s top executive told Consumer Electronics Daily. “I liked UltraViolet because it was outside the visible spectrum,” Mitch Singer, DECE president and chief technology officer at Sony Pictures Entertainment, told us. “Wherever you go, it’s always there.”

Verizon FiOS continues to dabble in 3D program offerings to whet subscribers’ appetites, but is still mum on plans for a formal 3D offering. Shawn Strickland, vice president of FiOS product management for Verizon, said in April that the company plans to have a formal 3D offering for subscribers by the holiday season, and a spokeswoman told us last week that Verizon is sticking with those plans. Meantime, Verizon is showing a 3D episode from Wealth TV on its video-on-demand channel. The 3D “Wealth on Wheels Classic,” is being shown exclusively on FiOS, the company said. Verizon also showed both games of YES Network’s recent 3D experiment with New York Yankees baseball and has offered several movies in 3D over the past few months, the spokeswoman said. “These are additional opportunities for us to show our subscribers with 3D TVs what it’s all about, especially with FiOS quality,” she said. She said the FiOS VOD channel is available for free to 70 percent of the FiOS subscriber base.

Pioneer is bringing a line of sub-$100 consumer headphones to the U.S. market as part of a larger plan to broaden its product portfolio in the wake of exiting the flat-panel TV business last year, Russ Johnston, executive vice president of Pioneer’s home entertainment department told Consumer Electronics Daily. “Our goal has been to spend more time filling out the rest of our product portfolio,” Johnston said. “When we had panels, it was a large project that took a lot of time to manage, sell and market, and we didn’t spend enough time on the rest of our portfolio.”