Norcent LCD TVs deliver on 2005 promises

YOU PROBABLY HAVE NEVER heard of Norcent before, but you will soon. It makes plasma and LCD TVs along with a host of other accessories, and is known as an "inexpensive" brand. When I met with folk from the firm in January 2005, it said it was about to redo its entire line, shed its image, and move upmarket. This January, I went back to measure the progress, and I think it is about to succeed.

Last year, it had a bunch of EDTVs and lower res HDTVs in rather clunky boxes. Nothing objectionable, but nothing to make it stand out. From someone who regularly checks out the quality of TVs at the local Best Buy, the older Norcent units were solidly average, but came with a below average price tag. Perfect for someone who wants a decent panel but doesn't have a six figure salary.

A chat with the Norcent execs had a couple of rather open ended promises, and the lofty goal of playing with the big boys. It hired several executives that lead other companies to the heights of consumer branding, and displayed several concepts of what was to come.

You can see the then state of the art Norcent unit on the left, with the two prototypes on the right. The difference was night and day, style by T-Square vs style by stylist. The problem is that most stands at CES have a ton of things that will happen in the future, all are great, all blow the competition out of the water, and all have no flaws. Everyone who hears that refrain puts up the mental shields in no time flat.

Flash forward a year, this CES, I toured the Norcent booth again, and talked to several of the execs. I was actually really curious, would it pull it off? Would I be confronted with square or style? Would the slight rendering issues I saw in the plasma monitors still be there?

Well, a year later, the almost production Norcent TVs thankfully lost the blue LEDs on the sides, but otherwise are an almost dead ringer for the 2005 prototypes. Looks like they pulled off the packaging, but how is the quality? After all, you really don't look at the case very much, you look at the picture.

Again, I can say that the Norcent line is 2006 is vastly improved. While it may not be perfect, from any distance where you are not in danger of leaving nose prints on the screen, the LCDs have a very solid picture. There were some very small artefacts here and there, but for the most part, the images were very good, certainly better than many of the big name brands I saw at the show.

The plasma screens it had were not up to the quality of the LCDs. Nothing hugely objectionable, but the LCD were potentially top tier, the plasmas were not. They were not nearly as expensive as several Best Buy models, but if I had to spend my own money, I would lay out for the LCD, not for the plasma.

Norcent has three lines, the Vion (pronounced vee-yon, not veye-on), the -51 series, and a low end line. The Vion is the high end boutique model, higher rez, pretty case, faster response panels, and all the bells and whistles. It has SRS sound, 1080p (1920*1080) panels and an ATSC tuner. The -51 series is a lower rez panel, lacks full blown SRS, and has an average case. The value line is more or less the same as the -51, but in a much clunkier box.

The good part is the price. Norcent has 26, 32, 37 inch LCDs and 42 inch plasma in each lineup. The -51s should retail for about $899, $1199 and $1699 when they are available in May, and the Vion line should command about a $120 premium. The Vion 42" plasma will run about $2299.

While these models may seem about the same price as other panels at the show, the Viewsonic 37 inch comes to mind, those do not include a tuner, something that Proton wanted about $600 for. If you compare apples to apples, or at least PPC Apples to Intc Apples, you will see that the Norcent TVs are a good value.

Enough gushing though, I was asked to be picky about the units, and I will be. There were two problems I saw, one is being anal, the other is actually slightly problematic. The lesser of the two is the buttons on the Vion line, the power is small and a little hard to reach. The feel of it is not that of a high end luxury device, but then again, the Vion isn't a large high end plasma either. The power, volume and control buttons on the right side are also similarly tiny and not conducive to use by feel. This is heightened by the fact that they are at a 90 degree angle to the screen and inset a little, so you have to look at it from the side to use the controls.. Since 99% of the world will use a remote and ignore the console controls, this is not the end of the world, and there is a chance this may be corrected before launch. If so, it would go a long way to fix the 'quality feel' of the product.

The other is more of a real problem, inputs. The Vion line has two sets of component ins, a S-Video in normal video, VGA, coax and HDMI on the larger sets. My first question, where is the DVI? It turns out that last years models had DVI, but HDMI replaced it on the current lineup. Since it is just about impossible to find a video card with HDMI, that makes these TVs not all that great an idea for using in conjunction with a computer. HDMI will end up as the standard, and video cards will support it, but I think it should become the standard for next years models, or in a perfect world, support both.

Neither of these problems are fatal flaws, you can get converters, or just invest in a better vid card. The buttons will be rarely used, and if the remote is good, users won't care. Both detract a bit from the goodness of an solid and inexpensive LCD TV, but it is not a showstopper.

None of these panels are on the market yet, but they should be in Q2. While I am usually reluctant to say any company will do what they said, so far, Norcent has a 1/1 track record, and I will give them the benefit of the doubt. When spring is in full bloom, go give them a look, CES taught me that you can do a lot worse, and spend a lot more while doing it. µ