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LCD Firms Plead Guilty to Price Fixing, Ordered to Pay $585 Million

Paul Lilly — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:26:29 -0600

Sharp, LG, and Chunghwa have each agreed to plead guilty to a price-fixing conspiracy related to LCD display panels and will pay $585 million in criminal fines, the Justice Department said. The plea agreements were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California.

"These price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of America consumers who use computers, cell phones, and numerous other household electronics every day," said Thomas Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Justice Department n Washington.

The extent of the losses as a result of the alleged price fixing conspiracy remains unknown, but Barnett said he expected to outline the damages at the time of sentencing. According to the Justice Department, LG Phillips, who plead guilty to participating a conspiracy from 2001 to 2006 to set LCD panel pricing worldwide, will be hit the hardest and ordered to pay $400 million. That ranks as the second highest criminal fine ever imposed for price fixing.

Sharp will pay $120 for its alleged role in three separate conspiracies with unnamed partners who sold price-fixed panels to Dell for monitors and laptops, Motorola for Razr phones, and Apple for use in iPods. Chunghwa will pay $65 for participating with LG and other unnamed co-conspirators.

The Justice Department warned that the investigation is ongoing, meaning more charges could be brought against individuals from each firm or from other firms.

Ask the Doctor: Windex Worries

The Maximum PC Staff — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:00:00 -0600

A couple weeks ago I received a Dell Inspiron 6400 from a friend of mine. I was told that he used Windex directly on the screen, which dripped into the bottom of the LCD (between the screen and the housing). It now has a small, permanent “white fire” pattern on the bottom-center of the LCD screen. It appears not to be a physical effect, as I cannot see it when the laptop is off, but I can see it even when the backlight is turned off.
What should I do to fix my display?

—Jason Wesley

Check out Jason's answer, after the jump!

Leaked Images Show New 23 Inch LCD From Dell

Paul Lilly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:15:42 -0600

Tech news site Engadget got the early scoop on a new Dell 23-inch LCD monitor courtesy of an anonymous tip, one in which our neighbors to the north can already purchase. Available for $419 on Dell's Canadian portal, the SP2309W widescreen display packs a pretty impressive spec sheet.

Dell's billing the monitor as an out of the box "video conferencing solution with excellent functionality and convenience," and towards that end the 23-inch LCD comes with an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam. Other notable specs include a max resolution of 2048 x 1152, a 2ms response time, 1000:1 dynamic image contrast ratio, a 160-degree viewing angle, a 98 percent color gamut, and VGA, DVI-D, and HDMI inputs.

No word yet on when Dell plans to make the display available in the U.S.

Samsung Boasts the World's Thinnest LCD, Measuring 7.9mm Thick

Paul Lilly — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:29:25 -0500

If thin is in, then Samsung moves to the front of the class. The company just put its prototype 40-inch LCD on the runway at the Korea Electronics Show in Seoul last week, a scintillating model which measures just 7.9mm thick. That's enough to earn 1/10th of a millimeter worth of bragging rights over Phillips, who showed off what was previously considered the thinnest LCD at 8.0mm at the IFA exhibition in Berlin this past August.

So how did the two companies fit all those electronics into an ultra-thin frame? The answer is they didn't. Instead, each company's respective prototypes moved the tuner and much of the electronic inner-workings into an external box located near the screen. Whether this approach ultimately leads to a consumer product remains to be seen, as neither company has talked about making their LCD commercially available.

We Covet the Awesome $4600 30" LED LCD from Lacie

Paul Lilly — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:51:29 -0500

The LED revolution has begun, and we're not talking about those flashing lights emitting from your PC's chassis. Display technology is seeing a shift towards LED backlighting, one in which Dell says will account for all of its notebooks by 2010, and the notebook market as a whole is expected to see 30-40 percent penetration by next year. On the desktop front, Lacie is already there and the company's newest display lays out a spec sheet that's hard not to drool over.

Lacie's new 700 series, which has its sights set on professionals rather than gamers, is available in 20, 24, and 30-inch form (models 720, 724, and 730 respectively). Each model sports an RGB-LED backlight the company claims will "mimic real life by embedding some of today's most advanced display technologies."

On paper, Lacie appears to be right. The 700 series sports ultra-wide gamuts of up to 123 percent of Adobe RGB, a backlight stabilizer technology capable of adjusting settings in real time, and 14-bit Gamma Correction lookup tables which, according to Lacie, allows the displays to produce improved gradient rendering without banding and smoother color transitions "that are 64 times more precise than on consumer-quality 8-bit monitors."

As for pricing, brace yourself. The 4:3 720 model will run $1600 sans hood, or $2040 with. Tack on a color meter and the tally comes to $2290. The 16:10 724 version runs $2300 ($2930 with hood, $3180 with color meter), and the flagship 730 smacks you in the wallet for $4600 ($5850 with hood, $6110 with color meter).

15 - 37 = 42

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:00:00 -0500

I purchased a 37-inch Westinghouse LVM-37W3SE LCD 1080p HDTV monitor in June 2007. A few months later, I found out that this particular model has faulty firmware that prevents it from working properly with many devices. For example, the Nvidia driver recognizes it as a different model Westinghouse 1080i monitor and refuses to set it in 1080p mode. I contacted customer support and received permission to return it. The monitor was returned in November, and it was received by Westinghouse two days later. I hadn’t heard anything from them until about a month ago, when I finally made a call to find out about the RMA status. (I’ve been out of the country on a business trip.)

I was promised a follow-up by several people, but no one would commit to when the monitor would be sent. They basically asked me to wait until I received my product. It has now been more than seven months, and I believe I have waited long enough! Thank God my trusty 15-inch LCD is still working fine.

—Jeong Lee

The New Wave of LCDs

David Murphy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Buying a new monitor can be tricky. First, you must decipher the manufacturer doublespeak. Not all specifications are created equal, nor are they measured fairly: You truly can’t tell a book by its cover, nor a monitor by its box copy. And then there are the displays themselves. A monitor by itself might look good to you, but you won’t know what you’re missing unless you compare it against the competition.

We’re going to walk you through the basics of today’s LCD monitor technology and what it means to you, a consumer who wants the best picture for your pennies. But we’re not going to leave you hanging: We’re also going to review 10 monitors across a wide swath of sizes and prices to give you a head start on your purchasing decision.

Hit the jump to find out more!

The World's Slimmest LCD Television is Only 28mm Thin

Paul Lilly — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:39:17 -0500

Sony just announced a new LCD television so thin that it makes even sickly looking Hollywood stars appear chunky by comparison. The 40-inch LCD TV in Bravia's ZX1 series measures just 28mm thick, and that's at its fattest portion. The thinnest portion measures a scant 9.9mm.

In order to build a chassis so thin, the new display utilizes an edge LED backlight. White LEDs come arranged on four sides of a light guide plate, boasting a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. A wireless connection to bridges the separate display and tuner components. To go with the ultra-skinny television, the company developed a dedicated wall-mounting unit 19.5mm thick. When hung on the wall, the distance between the front surface of the TV and wall is less than 50mm.

The KDL-40ZX1 will launch in Japan in October for about ¥490,000 (roughly $4,507 USD).