Tip UsOur current line-up includes the LCD, Plasma and LED TV. They all come packed with loads of different features depending on your budget; HD Ready, Full HD, 3D, Internet TV, USB connectivity and many more. Our options are increasing everyday in this fast moving industry.
So what does the future hold for the high definition TV?
The recent release of the 3DTV is the latest addition to our choice of high definition TVs, although some people would consider it more of a novelty than an advance in the industry. There are just too many drawbacks for it to even challenge the conventional 2DTV. One example; for a family of 5 people the price of the 3D glasses for each person would cost just as much as a decent size 3DTV.
Plus if 3D were ever to replace 2D it’s rather inconvienent having to put on a pair of glasses everytime you want to watch something. Could you imagine everytime you turn on the TV having to put on pair of glasses? It just wouldn’t work which is why 3D will never take over from the traditional 2D, certainly not until they find a way to watch it without having to wear over-priced glasses… and I know the technology is there which we first seen with the Nintendo 3DS and is now available on some smaller sized TVs but because of the viewing angle it won’t work with bigger TVs just yet.
So i’m not quite sure the future of the high definition TV is 3D, atleast not in the coming years. I imagine it will be many many years before 3D becomes more prominent in our living room, so lets set it aside for now.
That brings us back to 2D. As mentioned before we now have a few different choices when it comes to purchasing a new TV in form of LCD, Plasma and the more recent LED.
Plasma has been around for years and is more commonly used is large TV displays over 40″. Up until the early 2000s Plasma was the most popular choice of HDTV due to it’s advantages over the LCD, the most notable difference being it’s deeper blacks. Plus it was believed LCD was suited only for smaller TVs. In recent years however due to new technology LCD closed the gap and overtook Plasma in 2006. One of the main reasons I put this down to, is the fact that LCD TVs tend to have a better refresh rate than the Plasma, therefore it handles games better.
So what about the LED? Well, LED is pretty much a LCD TV that uses LED backlighting instead of the CCFLs used in traditional LCD televisions. It means it has a much thinner panel, brighter display and consumes much less power. However one of the biggest complaints about the LED TV is that in a dark room the LED backlighting can be seen in the corners.
It’s great to have different choices but what’s next for the HDTV. Manufacturers are constantly trying to improve the market but the most recent LED TV has failed to have a huge impact and will probably never take over from LCD or Plasma due to some of it’s drawbacks.
So I can very much see LCD and Plasma fighting it out for years to come. So what new features are we going to see in these coming years?
Recently we told you about the new Thunderbolt technology used in the new range of MacBooks. I expect this technology will slowly take over from USB much like Blu Ray is slowly taking over from the DVD. I would expect to see this technology used in HDTVs too in the coming years as it becomes more popular.
The current HDTVs support USB which allows you to play video files, but they only support a limited number of video formats so not all types of video and audio all will be playable. It would be nice to see a HDTV with essentially a built-in media player that plays everything you throw at.
We recently seen the release of the Kinect for the Xbox 360, a brand new technology that detects the motion of your body and reacts within the game. Prehaps this could be used within a HDTV and we can finally get rid of the remote once and for all?
Internet TV is another feature that has recently been implemented into HDTVs but it only supports services such as Youtube. When will we see the first TV with a fully functioning internet browser built-in? I’m sure some of these features are being worked on in one way or another by different manufacturers.
I really can’t wait to see what the future holds next for the HDTV but one things for sure, in such a competitive industry where you always have to be one step ahead of the competition to survive it won’t be long before we need to upgrade our current HDTV.
Have you any thoughts on what the future might hold? Let us know via Twitter, Facebook or leave us a comment below.
