Originally Posted by Smarthouse News

A flat panel HD TV war is set to break out in Australia as vendor’s line up to take advantage of the football season, the Beijing Olympics and the roll out of new HD channels by the TV Networks. Also set to be hot are high end home theatre kits and Blu ray.

A key beneficiary of the battle will be makers of high end home theatre kits with research showing that consumers are investing in a new generation of receivers and home theatre kits that have multiple HDMI output, Ethernet and iPod connectivity and 5.1 and 7.1 channel output.

"As flat panel prices drop we are seeing more consumers investing in brands like Yamaha and Marantz for their home theatre kits. This coupled with a new generation of flat panel display could see boom months midyear in Australia" said a Harvey Norman franchisee.

This week in the US Panasonic, unveiled 12 new Viera series TV models with several of these models set to be launched in Australia. Panasonic a major sponsor of the Olympic Games is also set to roll out a major advertising campaign via their new advertising agency Campaign Palace. Sharp has also revealed three Aquos thin LCD TV models with screen sizes of 37-46 inches. These are expected in Australia pre the Olympics. Sony rolled 25 LCD TVs with screens of 32-46 inches from its Bravia brand.

All three vendors positioned their panel offerings as featuring technology that delivered superior fast-moving images in sports programs. Panasonic who have been a major Olympic Games sponsor in the past said that TV sales have proved robust in every Olympic year.

Also set to be big is Blu ray with supporters including both the old and the new set to crank up global marketing campaign for the HD technology with some retailers already slashing the cost of players and Blu ray DVD's.
In the US last week Sony announced that they will roll out a brand new $200 Blu ray player with the player set to be rolled out in Australia in the second half of the year.

The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) has also announced that it will support the Blu-ray Disc format, and launch a major campaign to educate consumers and spread awareness about it.
DEG, a consortium of technology and entertainment companies, plans to carry out the campaign through public relations, dealer training and consumer education globally.

In recent days both Samsung and LG have announced that they are dropping their dual format HD DVD/Blu ray players in favour of a pure Blu ray offering. In addition Microsoft has confirmed that they will roll out a Blu ray player for the Xbox later this year. It is also expected that several PC vendors will launch PC's and notebooks with a built in Blu ray player.

"Given our success in promoting new entertainment formats, the DEG is the logical association to underscore the benefits of Blu-ray Disc to consumers, retail and the media," DEG's president, Bob Chapek, said as part of the announcement. Chapek is also president of Walt Disney Studios Worldwide Home Entertainment, which backed Blu-ray from the start. DEG carried out a similar effort for DVD a decade ago.

Discussions with several mass market retailers many are going to continue to cut Blu-ray prices as much as they can over the coming months. The idea is going to be to try and get consumers to buy into the fact that Blu-ray is around the same price of the regular standard DVD format. Once they are able to do this they will likely be able to sell more Blu-ray players as well.