Toshiba Unveils New Flat-Panel SED TV

[Gregg Lengling]

TOKYO - Toshiba Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a flat-panel TV that uses a new technology developed jointly by the Japanese electronics maker and the Japanese camera company Canon.

The new TV uses SED - surface-conduction electron-emitter display - which uses beam-emitting technology similar to the old-style cathode-ray tube televisions, and delivers similar clear imagery but onto a flat panel.

Unlike liquid-crystal displays and plasma displays popular in today's flat-panel TVs, images on SED panels don't get jagged even when displaying sports and other fast-moving objects.

Toshiba plans to market SED TVs that are compatible with next-generation DVDs called HD DVDs before April 2006. SED panels use one-third the electric power of plasma displays, or PDPs, and two-thirds that of Liquid Crystal Displays, according to Toshiba.


 
Toshiba plans to sell PDP and LCD TVs as well, and hopes to use SED technology for large TVs such as 40-inch and bigger models, officials said at a Tokyo hotel.

Toshiba President Tadashi Okamura said the TV and DVD market was entering a new era with the advent of digital broadcasting and network-linked homes.

By 2010, Toshiba is hoping to triple sales in that sector to $13.5 billion, although it did not give an overall sales or profit target.

Toshiba also hopes to control a 15 percent worldwide market share for televisions by 2010 by aggressively marketing a wide range of flat-panel TVs.