Believe It Or Not: TV Manufacturing Returning To The US
from the never-saw-that-coming dept
If you remember the history of the TV manufacturing industry, you'll recall what a big scare it was when TV manufacturing completely abandoned the US for Japan (and, later, other parts of Asia). It generated a lot of fear in the US over the Japanese economy. Of course, later, plenty of people realized the nature of comparative advantage and why it actually made sense for TV manufacturing jobs to move overseas, especially as the US focused on other areas, such as the high tech industry. These things tend to have a way of working themselves out, as industries and markets evolve and change -- and, in the end, people often realize what seemed so reasonable in moving things overseas didn't really make sense. That's exactly what's happened in many cases of "offshoring" service jobs -- but it can be true in manufacturing as well. Take, for example, the news that Syntax-Billian, makers of the low-cost Olevia brand of HDTVs is now opening a new manufacturing plant in the US. Prior to this, the sets were all made in Taiwan, but the company has realized that shipping and inventory costs were quite high, and the overall impact would be much better moving to North America. Of course, they first looked at Mexico, but eventually realized that it was actually a better deal to manufacture in the US, saying it's still cheaper on shipping both parts and final products and would allow the company to react faster to market changes. The company also believes they'll save money in training and retaining workers in the US. Who knows if there's more going on behind the scenes here, but considering how big a story it was when all TV manufacturing left the US, it's certainly noteworthy that (at least at one plant) it's come back from Asia.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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More Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCeK0Trz9E0
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Re: More Human Rights
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Re: Re: More Human Rights
Foreign people are not allowed to START/OWN businesses in Japan. Of course we can visit Japan and do business with them. I don't think Sony qualifies as a "foreign owned" business! LOL
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Re: Re: Re: More Human Rights
I don't know where you get this info, but it's completely wrong. Foreigners can and do own Japanese businesses.
In fact, the JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) has a whole page about how to start a business in Japan: http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/invest/setting_up/
It's not very easy to do, but that has nothing to do with the government, and everything to do with cultural differences.
Chris.
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Re: More Human Rights
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globalisation?
a way of preventing channel surfing during ads?
but given if the manufacturer has got any sense it will but marketed with a 'buy american' campaign it could take off.
i know its probably cheaper to build in china, but when the shipping costs exceed the build cost you have got to wonder about that.
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The first step
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The first step
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widescreen... bleh...
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Re: widescreen... bleh...
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Re: widescreen... bleh...
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Re: Re: widescreen... bleh...
Of course since there is apparently no way to specify the desired aspect ratio in an hd broadcast, this old 4:3 content will be broadcast with sidebars encoded along with the video so that you will have tv letterbox bars and blue sidebars also for a net effect of the video floating in the center 1/3 of your screen.
Actually I refuse ever to buy an hdtv. I am rebelling against the dumbass television engineers that brought us this madness and resurrected interlaced display modes for the 21st century. I will never forgive you guys. You have made the market too retarded for me to participate in.
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Re: widescreen... bleh...
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i still stand by my original post, give me more viewing area for my money.
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Whatever the case, I give high praises for Olevia for waking and up bringing more jobs to the US, where they should have been all along.
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simple economics
devualuating the dollar FTW!!
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Say what??
I'm da waterboy, look at me I gotta wooden spoon!
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Re: Say what??
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Japanese companies
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Re: Japanese companies
Oh, and BTW, ALL of those companies I mentioned are publically traded, making their 'ownership' largely irrelevant, controlling stakes are what matter.
Chris.
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Re: Re: Japanese companies
Hint - US law prevents foreign ownership of media, airlines and 'strategic' companies.
Chris.
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It's a fact - a Widescreen vs. a Standard TV with the same diagonal width has 11% less viewing area - but here's the bottom line: A 4:3 showing a 16:9 image letterboxed uses only 75% of its available screen area. A 16:9 showing a 4:3 image with sidebars uses the same 75% of its available screen area. So, if you want to get 100% of your money's worth out of either aspect ratio, watch programming made in the same aspect as your TV. Tune up Discovery HD, ladies.
Widescreen?!?! Brilliant!!!
A 62" Widescreen has approximately the same vertical height as a 50" Standard TV, but has about 33% more viewing area. Same thing for a 33" Widescreen vs. 27" Standard. A 1080p HD monitor has over 2 million pixels. Compare that to standard TV's 268,800 pixels. There's no contest! You pay less per pixel for HD, and each pixel is worth every penny you pay for it.
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http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108580-4.html?tag=txt#calculator
This demonstrates that when viewing widescreen formatted content, your 50 inch 4:3 TV actually becomes 46 viewing inches. The nice thing about a widescreen TV is that I can stretch 4:3 SD content to fill my 16:9 screen and I get the full effect of what the director was trying to portray in HD shows/movies. I don't know of a 4:3 TV that stretches a widescreen shot. Hopefully this makes more sense now. I agree with you on screen size, but you've mistaken screen area with viewing area. What you call viewing area is only potential viewing area. When you view SD on your 4:3 TV, the potential viewing area is fully realized and when compared to a widescreen TV of the same diagonal size, your 4:3 IS bigger. Nearly all DVD movies and HD shows are filmed in some sort of widescreen format and being that widescreen is here for many shows and is the future for all shows, your 4:3 TV's potential viewing area is not fully realized, but it is on a 16:9 (I know some DVD's produce letterboxing even on a widescreen TV because they were filmed with a wider aspect ratio). HD is the future so why make a buying decision that doesn't optimize that. Who cares anyway, I don't know why any manufacturer would make a 4:3 TV anymore.
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More Jobs
Debate about the economy impact and if more companies would return to the U.S. because of shipping cost vs. labor cost.
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Re: Subject has changed keep up or shut up
Get a life Nazi boy. NO ONE stated what the conversation had to be about, it is a place to discuss things. You want a strict protocol on what can be written? Start your own website.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Say what??
since wide screen televisions have come out there has been plenty of "propoganda" as to why widescreens are better... i know the 4:3 has more "potential" viewing area than the 16:9 because i worked it out myself, i cannot however blindly accept cnets values... especially when they're taking a seemingly random percentage of your initial diagonal value... their st_2 variable is obviously the new diagonal... but their value for one of the triangle's sides is, as i said before, ((initial diagonal * .8)/16)*9 ... and the other is just initial diagonal * .80 ...
in fact, right now i can tell you that one side of that triangle HAS to be the same as the Horizontal aspect of the original tv... the original tv's horizontal aspect is defined by H=sqrt((L^2)*16/25) where L is the diagonal. so cnet is bullshiting you, purposly or by stupidity on their part. knowing the pythagorean theorem is one thing, being able to put it to use (unlike cnet) is another.
again, after physics class i'll work out the viewing area of widescreen format on a standard 4:3...
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Good luck man
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Re: ICanDoMath
i don't know where you got the info for standard tv resolutions... there are a lot of different ones depending on what the source of the signal is... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution has a table... i do agree that standard tvs have less pixels... but HD tvs have less pixels than my computer monitor (granted this is really only applicable for games) AND pixels on standard television are not the same as pixels on an hdtv or a computer monitor. so in the end, if i'm paying for pixels, give me my computer monitor ;P
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American Made
I would like to know where and when I can purchase your American made products???
Best Regards,
Richard Mitchell
U.S.A._Patriot@att.net
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MADE IN THE U. S. A.
Thank you and the best to your company.
Fred Mitchell
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us investers and manufacturers
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