Sony Profits Low, Halts CRT Production 270
mtndue1 writes "Forbes is reporting that with lower than expected profits, Sony is halting the production of CRT's for televisions at many of its plants. The restructuring move is meant to catch the company up with other manufacturers who moved to LCD displays more quickly." From the article: " In the second quarter to September, net profit dropped 46.5 pct to 28.5 bln yen, pressured by 32.3 bln yen in restructuring expenses to write down the impaired value of its cathode-ray tube (CRT) plants. Under the plant closure program, Sony will shut down some of its CRT television assembly factories by March 2008 in order to shift its focus to the flat-screen TV business ... In a bid to revive its game division, Sony plans to release its next-generation stand-alone PlayStation 3 game console in the spring. To speed up development of PlayStation 3, Sony plans to devote 410 bln yen to capital investment in the year to March, up from 356.8 bln yen a year earlier."
Improve quality? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Welcome to 1990, Sony. (Score:4, Interesting)
Not good news? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think this is a pity, actually (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course, myself, I got a second hand 21" Sony Trinitron VGA monitor for about $80, so I'm fine :)
Mmmm, obscenely high resolution...
"Revive its games division"? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's about time... (Score:3, Interesting)
While I agree with your point I think it is nice that companies are discontinuing production of CRT at once. I think this will increase the competitivity for better flat display TV. And I am sure it will also make its prices drop (and this is something I would really want because the prices are still not affordable for people like me).
Also, as there is more companies concentrating on competing in this technologies I am sure the issues you state are going to be lessen. I would really love to see the flat[or other than CRT] technologies catching as standard alternatives NOW!! (even for developing countries like mine [.MX]) becuase, as a slashdoter said before, when you watch a web page with a CRT tube is like "staring at a 60watt lightbulb", and that is why after 8 hours of continuous work you end with a just-shoot-me-eye strain*.
*Just as a side note try making ALL your background color BLACK and your fonts color white just for 1 day and yo will see how nice is that setup for your eyes [of course, you will also see how ALL the internet pages AND Operating System applications are soooo badly designed specifically for white/bright backgrounds].
CRT (Score:2, Interesting)
WOuldn't it be funny (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I don't know about anyone else (Score:1, Interesting)
The End of an Era? (Score:2, Interesting)
Many people today don't realize how far CRT TVs have come in quality and usability. I got my first TV set, a 19" Admiral B&W set, for my 8th birthday back in the 1960s. Admiral was one of the big brands back then, along with such former household names as Philco, Zenith, and Packard Bell. Japanese TVs were as rare as Japanese cars.
My TV was a tube set, of course. Not just the CRT itself, but all of the active circuit elements were tubes. If you think today's CRTs generate heat, then you've never seen a tube set--they're in a totally different league. I don't miss the heat, but back then TVs had a warm, satisfying orange glow eminating from the rear of the set, and a peculiar smell as well.
Tuners were not digital PLL back then either. They were analog with click stops for the VHF channels and a fine tuning ring around the main tuning dial to make fine adjustments. UHF tuners didn't even have click stops--you tuned until you found the station you wanted--and the channel numbers on the dial sometimes weren't even close.
Then there were the controls I haven't seen on a TV in 30 years--horizontal and vertical hold. These were used to prevent the picture from "jumping" vertically and smearing out horizontally. The settings would drift, requiring frequent readjustment, and a trip across the room, as remotes were nonexistant.
When a TV broke down back then, fixing it was an adventure. You took the back off the TV and removed all the tubes and took them down to the supermarket or drugstore and plugged them into a tube tester. You'd look up the settings for the particular tube in a book, set a bunch of dial settings, and then push the "test" button. If the meter needle moved into the green, the tube was OK. After buying replacements for the bad tubes, you went home and plugged them all back in and hoped everything was fixed. In my experience, replacing tubes fixed 90% of all TV problems.
Ah, the good old days!
trick for getting good picture at non-native res. (Score:2, Interesting)
Stash away those Sony CRTs Now !!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Quit using them now (to stop wear & tear on the tube) and stash them away. When CRT monitors and TVs disappear from the market after a few more years and there will be no more spare replacement tubes available, you'll be able to sell a good working unit to the CRT addicts for much more money than they are worth on the used equipment market right now.
I'm unsure if I'm being serious or sarcastically humorous on this comment
Re:I don't know about anyone else (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony 20.1" flat panel - had it for a year, works great. Almost 2 million pixels and no dead or hot ones.
Sony 19" monitor - Worked great until I got the flat panel. Still works great for the person I gave it to.
Sony 15" monitor - Got it way back in the mid 90's. Worked great until I bought the 19". Then I gave it away, then the person I gave it to gave it back to me cause they no longer needed it. Still works great on a second computer.
Sony 13" TV - no complaints, never did use it much though (gave up on TV shortly after buying it)
Sony Stereo reciever - Works great. Sony doesn't make any high end audio, but for $250 this one is quite adequate. I think I got it back in late 1999. The only complaint I have is minor - the remote has about 50 identical buttons (this seems to be a Sony tradition) which makes it hard to find the button you are looking for without looking at the remote to read the labels. Atleast the volume buttons are easy to find since they are on the bottom right.
Sony 5 disk CD changer - Works great. Got it with the reciever, and have played a lot of CDs with no problems.
Sony CD-RW drives - They just don't quit (same with Lite-on). Even my old 12x burner still keeps going in one of my old computers, even after burning many hundreds of disks.
Sony Cybershot digital camera - Only minor complaint I have has to do with the slightly more expensive memory sticks. Otherwise camera is durable, fast, and easy to use. It has a standard smaller USB connector on it, and shows up as a USB mass storage device on the computer as well as using AAA batteries, which is better than most cameras I know.
Sony studio headphones - Once again, Sony does not make high end audio equipment, but they do (or did) make a nice pair of headphones for $100.
Sony Alarm clock - no complaints.
So maybe I have good luck, or maybe a few others have just had bad luck. Of course, a lot of this gear is more than 2-3 years old, so perhaps it does date back to Sony's better times.