I remember our huge 40 inch CRT TV we had in the front room, I thought that was as good as TVs could be, even though the back stuck out a few feet! Then the plasma TV came onto the market and suddenly you had a TV you could hang on the wall, that caused quite a stir. Finally LCD TVs came out and started to compete with the plasma ones, and HDTV came onto the scene recently too, so where are we going now?
Well a recent change is with the LCD TVs, normally they have a CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) at the back to provide lighting for the screen, but that is usually quite bulky, the latest TVs that have just started to come out use LEDs instead as the light source for the screen. There are two versions of this technology, one where the LEDs go all the way across the back of the screen, which is the best way, or one where the LEDs are at the side and the light is directed to where it is needed, either way you get a TV much slimmer than the CCFL versions.
Then we have 3D TVs coming onto the market, although the reception for them has been guarded. The concept of having 3DTV is fantastic, but the execution still needs work because having to wear those silly glasses ruins it for most people. The glasses currently on the market have to flicker constantly to give each of your eyes a different image, which can be annoying and disorienting, and I have seen a report which says the 3D effect does not work if you sit more than a few feet away from the screen.
Remember these are early versions of 3DTVs, so people who always have to have the latest gadgets will buy these ones, then the rest of us will wait a bit for them to work out the problems and then buy later versions instead. There are one or two companies working on commercial applications of 3D viewing without having to wear glasses, so hopefully that will filter down into our TVs soon.
OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) are something to watch out for, but at the moment they are stuck with screens no bigger than about 13 inches in size. They are still trying to get round the problems of creating larger screens with this technology, but if they do crack it then you can expect to have a TV hanging on the wall which is mere millimeters thick! So you can see the future of TV is going to be interesting, I can’t wait to see what it will be like in 5 years time…
If you want a huge 55 inch LCD TV while you wait for 3D TV to take off, then consider the UN55B6000 which is really popular at the moment.
