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http://www.smh.com.au/news/home-theatre/au...3722711373.html

Sales of LCD TVs are massively outstripping those of plasma sets as Australians rush to embrace high-definition gadgets, new figures from market watcher GfK have revealed.

In the fourth quarter of last year, 188,933 LCDs were sold compared to just 85,565 plasmas, GfK analyst Angus Macaskill said in a phone interview.

It is a massive turnaround for LCD, whose second quarter 2005 sales of 35,657 trailed plasma's 42,074 figure.

GfK's numbers were based on sales data provided by about 95 per cent of electronics retailers in Australia, including all of the major department stores, Mr Macaskill said.

"Obviously, people that have a sole interest in pushing plasma might disagree, but if you look at growth rates in this technology, since the start of the year the story's been all LCD," he said.

"Have LCD TVs won? Well it seems to me that they certainly are winning significantly."

He said the larger variety of LCD screen sizes was one of the factors attracting consumers to the technology.

"Price is obviously a factor [too], although the prices of plasma have come down even faster than the prices of LCDs, but [are] obviously starting from a higher point."

Separate figures compiled for GfK's Sony High Definition Benchmark report, released yesterday, found HD products now represent more than half of the market for consumer electronics in Australia.

This is despite the fact that Australian TV broadcasters have yet to fully embrace HD programming.

Total sales of HD hardware - including LCD TVs, plasma TVs, set-top boxes, games consoles, DVD hardware and camcorders - jumped 130 per cent to almost $500 million between the fourth quarter of last year and the same period in 2005, the report found. Non-HD sales declined by 17 per cent.

"High definition products are keeping consumer spending on electronic digital products on the boil," the report's author, Mr Macaskill, wrote.

Of the HD hardware sales, 89 per cent were either plasma or LCD TV sets.

But while HDTV penetration is strong, most free-to-air television programs and all Foxtel broadcasts are still shown in standard definition. This is partly because free-to-air broadcasters in Sydney and Melbourne are only required by law to air 20 hours of HD programming a week.

A full list of the HD programs shown each day on channels Seven, Nine, Ten, SBS and ABC can be found here.

Regardless of the broadcasters' reluctance to provide more HD programming, the new high-definition disc technologies, Blu-ray and HD DVD, are sure to push HD further into the mainstream.

Sony's Playstation 3, which goes on sale in Australia next Friday, is widely expected to spark a HD-buying frenzy as it has a built-in Blu-ray player.

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