Westinghouse Expands 1080p LCD TV Offerings

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 4/25/2007

New York — Westinghouse Digital put the world on notice that it will be as aggressive in 1080p LCD TV this year as it has historically been in 720p offerings.

The company arranged a “Westinghouse Is In The House” press demonstration of its latest LCD TVs, LCD monitors and LCD photo frames, to show how each can be placed in strategic rooms and corners around the home, or in this case — loft-style apartment.

The highlights of the showcase were three new TX series 1080p LCD TVs in the 42-inch, 47-inch and 52-inch screen sizes. Suggested retails will run $1,499, $1,799 and $2,499, respectively. The 52-inch will ship in August, and the others will ship in May.

“These models are all highly featured,” said Rey Roque, Westinghouse Digital marketing VP. “They offer four HDMI inputs, user adjustable color and a very high-end Trident [video processing] chipset.”

All offer four HDMI v1.2 inputs (no x.v.YCC color capability at this time), Trident video processing, and Thomson ATSC tuner chips

Response times are listed at 8ms for the 42-inch and 47-inch models, while the 52-inch is listed at 6ms.

Noting the dearth of 1080p source material, Roque said, “for gaming and computing applications we think that 1080p keeps you obsolescence proof, and we will be pushing our connectivity for that.”

Roque said that despite the growing popularity of 1080p, Westinghouse “is not abandoning 720p” in large screen sizes. The company will continue to offer 42-inch and 47-inch models with 720p in 2007.

Already popular at Best Buy, Sam’s Club, and NATM accounts, the brand is poised to expand its presence into Target’s brick-and-mortar stores with a pair of LCD/DVD combo models (26 inches and 32 inches), said Roque.

The company, whose brand has been listed as high as No. 4 in LCD TV by The NPD Group, is also doing drop-in specials on monitors with Wal-Mart, Roque said.

Westinghouse’s Rey Roque (left) and Sherry Chapman (right) reveal the 52-inch 1080p LCD TV that will be offered in the company’s TX line this August.