Proton shows off 1080p TVs, cheap

GOING BY THE Proton booth at Computex was a bit of a disappointment. The one product we were anticipating most is no more, a victim of crashing LCD prices. That is not to say there were not good products there, just nothing we would call the best in show, like last year.

The LED backlit LCD TV we drooled over back then was clearly better than everything else on the floor. Since then, LCD TV prices have crashed hard and the product no longer makes economic sense to manufacture. Sometimes falling prices cut both ways.

That is not to say that Proton didn't have a lot of good things at this year's show. It did. The Proton lineup consists of three different lines, the CS, RA and PS models. The CS is the lowest spec and the PS the yet unreleased high end.

RS is Proton's mainstream line with 37- and 42-inch TVs, 1080p of course. They all have a pair of 60W speakers plus a center mounted internal subwoofer. The RS line looks good and sounds good. The 37 inch model will cost about $800.

Going down the ladder you have the CS line, from 32 to 42 inches, with 37 and below being 1080i and 42 running 1080p. The big difference between the RS and CS is the CS only have two 20W/channel speakers and no sub. This line tops out at $850 for the 42 inch.

That brings us to the PS line, due out later this year. Proton is waiting for the panels to hit volume manufacture before they introduce this line, TVs are hard to make without glass. The P stands for premiere, and it is of course their highest end part.

The PSes run from 42 to 52 inches, all at 1080p rez. None of them have speakers though, if you are buying a high end TV like this, you probably have a high end stereo to go with it.

That brings us to the technology. All of the Proton units are fluorescent backlit, according to Proton it doesn't make economic sense to use LED now. With any luck, by next year the prices on LED backlights will have fallen enough for it to make worthwhile again.

Another interesting note, last year many of the Proton TVs used ATI Xilleon chips to power their displays, this year they are all Genesis. The reason for the shift is twofold, first Genesis is half the cost, and if you remember what happened to LED backlighting, this matters a lot.

The other reason is that Genesis opens up their chips more. Since Genesis is more open, Proton can work with the parts more closely and develop their own solutions more quickly and cost effectively. ATI has announced they are open sourcing their GPUs, we will have to see if it goes down to Xilleon code.

Overall, Proton has a good lineup of parts. The one we wanted is gone, a victim of crashing prices. On one hand, the really special models are gone, on the other, you can get a top end 42-inch 1080p TV for under $1000. µ