Audio Video News

Big-box rear-projection analog TV sets have long been a part of American domestic life. They are probably headed for extinction thanks to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate requiring digital tuners in coming generations of TV products.

That's the view of industry analysts quoted by TV Technology in a March 20 report. The new generation of RP sets will almost certainly come equipped with ATSC tuners, with the last legacy tuner to roll off the assembly line within 18 months. An annual report from 3M Precision Optics, which makes lenses for projection TVs, predicts that soon it will be impossible to find a big box set without a digital tuner.

Should the FCC mandate pass legal review—and there's little doubt it will—3M expects "nearly all models of PTVs (projection TVs) introduced in the spring of 2004 to be equipped with an ATSC tuner," according to Projection Television Past & Future: 2003 Global Consumer Market. "If the decline in analog PTV sales does not bring its demise sooner, this mandate will almost certainly drive the last nail in the coffin by July 1, 2004." Estimated cost of including the tuners in each new set ranges from $200 to $400.

Curiously, the FCC tuner inclusion mandate applies only to RP sets and CRT televisions. Plasma displays and LCD monitors without NTSC tuners are exempt. Last year, sales of analog projection TVs dropped 27% while sales of digital replacements grew 71%. Those trends are expected to accelerate.