I wonder if those even count.  I noticed the Hospitals by me got a bunch of HDTVs like that on every corner. 

My college had a bunch of screens like that in it's buisness building too.  I wonder if those even get coutned though, since most likely aren't bought through traditional methods. 

I don't know, but I wouldn't bet on manufacturers NOT mentioning numbers that would make their sales look better unless there was an industry rule.

Just gonna disagree with Ookaaze on one point.

I own a 42 inch LCD 1080p HDTV ( A Bravia) and the quality is as good as any other HDTV.
These days you can find high end LCD TV with offer quality as great as any non LCD.

It takes less space globally than my old 30 inch CRT TV too.

Other advantage of LCD is it is far less affected by light reflection ( I have a window with shutter in front of the TV and it's really not bothering me much whereas it used to be a pain to watch my CRT TV during the day...

bdbdbd: @bengabenga: We do have HD-channels, just in cable and satellite, and none is free as far as i know.

That'swhat I meant. Next summer we'll see an incredible increase in HDTV sales in Europe.

Why....because of the European Championship football. After that the Olympic Games will worldwide cause enormous amounts of new HDTV´s.

But in Europe these events aren´t even shown in HD!!!!! At least not on national television.

In Europe it´s not very common to have `pay per view`so most people will use their new HDTV´s to watch the football in normal resolution. The main reason they want one is widescreen, most people don´t have a clue about resolutions.

 Hah, fair point.

Honestly though.  It seems Japan is a lot more console loyal then other countries.

They seem to always go with one and stick with it.

That's why the PS3's having such a rough time of it.  It's going to take big japanese focused games to open the door instead of to propelling it to super popularity.  Kinda like the PSP and monster hunter.

Backwords compat is probably more important because they're still getting PS2 games made.  Me i'm curious to see what happens their.  Whether those developers abandon the PS2 in favor of the Wii... or if they pull a Sega Saturn and keep making PS2 games.

A lot of the popular japanese only games seem to be done on wire thin budgets so moving to PS3 may be troublesome. (though it's worked well enough for disgaea.)

Dang, I wish I had something interesting to add to this thread.

Besides HD graphics are not a "must have" in Japan. New controls beats higher resolution I guess.

 Don't get me wrong, LCD TV have lots of advantages. Quality is just not one of them, except with perfect sources, and even then, you still have the defects inherent to the technology, like screen door or smearing or lag.

As long as SD content don't look like crap on yours, you can consider you have a very good one.

I think this is a very important point.

The original Xbox wasn't popular in Japan for a variety of reasons, including being physically massive, having a huge amount of shootan games/other primarily Western genres, and a heavy emphasis on online play, something Japan simply doesn't care about.

The 360 is an original Xbox on steroids. More graphics, better online, more shooters etc. A serious attempt was made at getting some of the primarily Japanese genres aboard, and sales have been a lot better than those of the original box, but still pretty weak.

The problem with the PS3 is that it's trying very hard to be another 360, and even though it exceeds the competition in some areas, in doing so has strayed far from the winning formula that made the first two Playstations so succesful.

@Final-Fan: Not going to argue about "picture culture". Basically it just means that Asian cultures think more practical than Anglo-Saxian cultures (did i type it anywhere near correct?).
Btw. You made the quote all wrong in the first place...

@Bengabenga: You're propably right about the increased sales. But i'd still say, that the championships will be available in HD via satellite. Although, most people don't have satellite receivers.

Buying HDTV:s for widescreens would make sense if people wouldn't be replacing their widescreen TV:s with HD ones.

Excellent thread, and excellent posts everyone.

I don't see any reason why Europe/US will follow Japan... for now.

I also think its telling that the PS2 is *still* doing pretty well - getting a lot of good games, solid sales and more.

The PS3 is still early (as is the 360) - the situation in Japan can change in the long term. But the PS3 has still yet to show/prove new gaming experiences. Without this, it is surely doomed... to a similar "death" that the PS3 is encountering.

As price drops, sales will increase - but only as its a pretty cool "piece of hardware" - media player, TV recorder, BluRay, web browser... and so on.