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The future of television

Widescreen has been followed by high definition and more

Power saving was also big at the show, highlighting how far technology has come.

For a lot of the world, television has been changing already from the more square 4:3 screen to the more rectangular 16:9 widescreen.

But once we got used to that, everyone started talking about high definition, this is where they upped the number of pixels to show pictures in more detail.

What is known as ultra high definition, a phenomenal 7680 pixels by 4320, is currently only available on enormous screens but is eventually aimed at our televisions.

Bruce Walker: New developments in TV mean "breathtaking clarity"

Refresh rates

The refresh rates of televisions - the number of times per second the picture updates on the screen - is increasing.

In Europe it is mostly 50 hertz and in America 60 hertz. The higher the number, the less judder we are supposed to see on the television.

Bruce Walker from Toshiba explained: "Standard TVs are 60 frames a second ... our next level up in technology is called our clear frame 120 hertz.

"We have taken the 60 frames of video and doubled it. We take frame a and frame b and create a frame in between it making it 120 frames a second on screen.

"Because the human brain and eye has a thing called persistence of vision, even at 120 frames a second you can sometimes perceive a little bit of lack of clarity in the image.

"So we put the images up on the screen at 120 frames per second, and basically, in between each frame, we blink the back light to black, interrupting the persistence of vision, giving an even more breathtaking clarity of image."

LED television

And while we are on the idea of picture clarity, one of the new products on show was the bizarrely named LCD screen with a LED back light.

Mr Walker explained: "The traditional LCD panel has a very bright back light and in front of it is the LCD display and individual LCDs open and close to allow light to go through to see your picture.

A new generation of LED televisions will deliver a high contrast picture

"Now Current LCDs by Toshiba have a dynamic backlight so on a dark scene where you don't need a lot of light, the back light dims.

"On a very bright scene the back light brightens up so you get very bright whites and very rich blacks.

But to take that one step further, instead of florescent lights behind the screen there is a full grid of LEDs and now if one corner of the screen is bright the LEDs burn bright.

If the bottom of the screen is dark, the LEDs can turn off so individual zones can be controlled based on the incoming signal.

One more innovation which looks to revolutionise back projection screens, and perhaps all screens, is Laser TV.

Nick Norton, of Mitsubishi explained: "Laser TV is a brand new technology for television and differs profoundly from LCD and plasma."

"Laser is the purest light source on the planet and because of its precision and clarity, we can produce twice the colour gamut of traditional TVs.

"We are demonstrating LaserVue in between a top-end 65 inch LCD and a top-end 60 inch plasma.

"To showcase the expanded colour gamut, we have added power consumption meters to show the energy-efficient nature of laser."

There can be little doubt that there is a lot going on in the television market. The only problem is that we can't really tell what is the leap forward and what is the good looking waste of time.

Is it churlish to wish that the television manufacturers would get together to produce one great, low-power, good-looking television technology rather than so many best endeavours?

Ultra-thin TV to hit the market

The TV uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) to produce the image, resulting in a screen only 3mm thick.

OLED screens are more energy efficient than LCD panels as they do not need a backlight to boost brightness.

But it is difficult and expensive to make large screens using the technology. Sony's first OLED TV costs £850 and has an 11in display.

OLED screens are brighter than LCD panels and also have better contrast ratio - resulting in sharper pictures.

The diodes emit a brilliant white light when attached to an electricity supply and are also being developed for use as replacements to traditional light bulbs.

I do believe this is a type of technology with very high potential Katsumi Ihara, Sony

Different organic materials produce different colours and are combined to produce a colour display.

Sony has hailed the new television as a signal of its returning strength as a technology innovator.

"Some people have said attractive products are slow to come at Sony despite its technological strength," said Sony president Ryoji Chubachi at a news conference at its Tokyo headquarters.

He added: "I want this world's first OLED TV to be the symbol of the revival of Sony's technological prowess.

"I want this to be the flag under which we charge forward to turn the fortunes around."

Other firms are also working on OLED screens - Samsung has shown off a 40-inch TV using the technology - but Sony is the first to market.

"I don't think OLED TVs will replace LCD TVs overnight. But I do believe this is a type of technology with very high potential, something that will come after LCD TVs," said Sony executive deputy president Katsumi Ihara.

The new TV goes on sale in Japan on 1 December. There are no plans for a global launch as yet.

The OLED TV has a lifespan of about 30,000 hours of viewing - half that of Sony's LCD televisions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7022639.stm

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