How Did TVs Get So Cheap? (construction-physics.com)
- Reference: 0180548187
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/01/08/1524256/how-did-tvs-get-so-cheap
- Source link: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-did-tvs-get-so-cheap
LCDs represented just 5% of the TV market in 2004; by 2018, they commanded more than 95%. The largest driver of cost reduction has been the scaling up of "mother glass" sheets -- the large panels of extremely clear glass onto which semiconductor materials are deposited before being cut into individual displays. The first generation sheets measured roughly 12 by 16 inches. Today's Generation 10.5 sheets span 116 by 133 inches, nearly 100 times the original area. This scaling delivers substantial savings because equipment costs rise more slowly than glass area increases.
Moving from Gen 4 to Gen 5 mother glass cut the cost per diagonal inch by 50%. Equipment costs per unit of panel area fell 80% between Gen 4 and Gen 8. Process improvements have compounded these gains: masking steps required for thin-film transistors dropped from eight to four, yields climbed from 50% to above 90%, and a "one drop fill" technique reduced liquid crystal filling time from days to minutes.
[1] https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-did-tvs-get-so-cheap
hardware level spyware, that is how (Score:5, Insightful)
Every smart TV on the market is a 'telescreen' right out of 1984, that always on, always records everything you watch. It is privacy nightmare and sometimes you can't even turn it off even if you know it is there. This is why TV are so cheap - you are the product.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, exactly. The hardware itself is a loss-leader; the real money comes from spying on you and feeding you ads. The manufacturer can either make $200 profit on the hardware, once, or make a continuous revenue stream from ads and spying. It's a no-brainer.
Re: hardware level spyware, that is how (Score:3)
Which is why my TV was completely disconnected from the Internet. No Ethernet no WiFi.
I hope they arenâ(TM)t sneaking SIMs into them and use cellular to call home.
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"LG phone home" would be a very disappointing, if mildly amusing, sentence to read.
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You know you don't have to connect them to a network, right?
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There are some tvs that demand it now
In 2001? (Score:2)
In my recollection, in 2001, if a 50 inch flat screen existed, it would have been more like $40,000.
Re: (Score:2)
> In my recollection, in 2001, if a 50 inch flat screen existed, it would have been more like $40,000.
2021 or 2011 would be more realistic - maybe a typo?
Plasma (Score:2)
The very first flat-screen TVs were plasmas that came out in that time frame, and they were super-expensive. Miles Finch brags about having one in Elf, that came out in 2003.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember my first year of college in 2002. We were talking about Plasma TV's, and every rich family would have a 42" Plasma TV, it was seen as the ultimate home cinema accessory. I believe they were even SD resolution, they predated the HD standards. There was even a rumour that crooks would drive around at night looking to see plasma TV's through windows so they would know who had money.
I'm sure they were only around $1000 - $2000 back then, I remember a conversation with a friend, he said "Man when we
Re: In 2001? (Score:2)
I think I paid less than that for a 55 inch rear projection 1080i TV back then
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I should have said "flat panel" TV, as in plasma or LCD.
And it certainly wouldn't have been a CRT (Score:2)
The largest ever made was 43 inches:
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
And weighed 200kg!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_PVM-4300
Re: (Score:2)
If anyone is interested about a year ago a team tracked one of the last working models to a noodle factory in Japan and managed to relocate it to the US, its quite a journey:
[1]What Happened to the World's Largest Tube TV? [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZxOuc9Qwk
How much of the decrease is from adverts & spy (Score:2)
I finally gave up fighting my newer Visio and disconnected it from the internet. I just use an AppleTV, but the Vizio still tries to force me to watch itâ(TM)s advertisements shortly after I turn it on. It fails, but itâ(TM)s still an annoyance. No more Vizio for me, this lifetime.
Economies of scale (Score:2)
We have considerably more devices with screens. Production got so cheap
Funded by advertisements. (Score:5, Insightful)
and data collection. Next Question!
Because they now sell your data (Score:3)
The TVs now monitor what you watch, and sell that data. But (by law) you can disable the monitoring. It's hard to find the settings, but the TVs have setting to turn off monitoring.
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Just don't plug in the god damn ethernet cable or connect to wifi
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They have been doing that for at least a decade, the story just finally got some traction recently. I have an old (3D!) LG that I remember having a mouseprint disclaimer about built in Nielsen tech that monitored and reported viewing.
We still aren't there yet (Score:2)
In the 00's we were promised that by 30's we would be able to wallpaper our houses with screens that were as cheap as paint, still not there yet.
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I think its fair to say that generally speaking futurologists are full of shit and don't have any more insight into the future than anyone else.
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Well I saw that coming.
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Yeah makes me laugh when people say "A 65" screen at 4K 120hz is all you would ever need, why ever need anything more?" Get back to me when I can unfurl wallpaper displays that have the DPI of a Retina iphone which I can connect to be meters across.
They have shown prototypes of wallpaper type displays that looked great to me, baffles me as to why we don't see them in use? Is it the effort of sticking them to a wall and connecting them together outweighing just buying a single sized TV?? (I guess there'd b
2001 = $1100.00? (Score:2)
I don't think this is correct? At the tech school where I taught we purchased a 40" (might have even been 32") gas plasma display in ~2003 for $30,000. We purchased it to add to the auditorium behind the podium next to the projector screen. I remember the price very clearly because I thought at the time it was a colossal waste of resources.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember back in 2004, the Sony Store had a "demo" OLED screen that was about 10 inches (could have been slightly smaller or bigger, can't remember) and it was available for purchase for something like $25 000 (Canadian $).
Around this time I bought a Sony 16:9 32" 1080i CRT.... looked incredible... weighted about 150 pounds. Got it for about $1000. At the time I was the only one I knew who had a HD TV... all sporting events were watched at my place! I only got rid of the grey beast because I didn't w
Propoganda/brain washing device (Score:2)
You want everyone to have one so you can control them all.
Hold Up There Sparky (Score:2, Insightful)
TV's are that cheap *now*. But they still need RAM...which we all know is in short supply and soon likely won't be available at all.
So there goes the cost savings.
Don't forget tariffs.
I think we're about to see end of the cheap electronics. The days of sub $600 laptops and $200 TV's are gone.
Re:Hold Up There Sparky (Score:5, Interesting)
TV's typically have 2gb, maybe 4gb, of the cheapest, worst, probably old-stock ram available. They don't need much to display a netflix stream etc. They are the one product that will largely absorb RAM prices.
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My CRT TV I think has 32K of RAM for the OSD character generator.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of old teletext enabled CRT TVs had simple 8 bit computers inside them. Wonder if anyone ever hacked them to do something else?
Re: (Score:3)
They COULD drop all the smart shit and make a TV that is just you know a display, without advertising or requiring you to connect it to the internet.
But..