TV Innovations Rule CES 2008
Mon Jan 7, 2008 6:53PM EST
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It's the elephant in the living room: Panasonic's 150-inch plasma has all but stolen the show here at CES 2008. When people ask you "What's the coolest thing you've seen at the show so far?" they invariably follow that up with "Except for the 150-inch TV."

And sure enough, the thing is a marvel to behold. It's so big, it's hard to take it in, really. With a viewing area that measures 11 feet by 6 1/4 feet and 8.84 million pixels of resolution, the TV (which has no model number and no date for being commercialized) is regularly thronged by crowds of slack-jawed onlookers, unable to comprehend the thing.

It's so big that all the other flat-panel companies have simply removed signage that might indicate how big (er, small) their sets are in comparison. There are obviously some big sets here from Pioneer, LG, and Sharp, but exactly how big their biggest sets are remains a mystery. Next year I will have to bring a tape measure.

Still don't think it's big? After all, maybe that woman is incredibly short, right? Wrong. Here's a picture of it next to last-year's largest, the 103-inch plasma:


With the war on screen size all but lost for 2008, a more interesting one is shaping up on thickness, with vendors battling to see just how thin they can make their displays. Virtually every vendor is offering a screen (LCD or plasma) less than 2 inches thick. LG's is 1.7 inches thick. Hitachi's plasma is 1.5 inches and its LCD is just 0.75 inch. Sharp also has a 0.8-inch-thick LCD (52 inches diagonally, too). But it's Pioneer's 0.35-inch plasma that takes the weight loss crown, even if it is a prototype.

Other TV trends continue apace: A big one is OLED, which both Sony and Samsung are moving forward impressively. Side by side, Samsung's technology demo of OLED vs. LCD is striking; the difference in color and brightness is astonishing. Meanwhile, Sony was demonstrating a 27-inch OLED set, too. (In related news, you'll finally be able to buy the 11-inch OLED here in the United States, for just $2,500.)

Also emerging: Wireless HD. While I'm not sold on the need for this technology, more and more products keep showing up with it. Will we replace HDMI cables with wireless connections? Your sense of tidiness is probably salivating over the prospect already.

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I was just reading that. Good Lord lol that's about the size of a wall in my living room :lol:

That would be SWEETNESS to have in my room. However, it may be too big for my room and it's totally out of my price range anyway. :lol:

Maybe if I had a room the size of a movie theater.

Now I know what to ask for Christmas next year.

Wow.

I'd hate to see the size of the remote control.

;)

Wow.

I'd hate to see the size of the remote control.

;)
LOL

I have simple tastes. My tube 20 incher is fine by me thx.

But I can see why others are awed by the 150 incher, it is impressive.

When imy present TV breaks down, I'll think about a 17 inch plasma one maybe.

Im perfectly happy with a 20 inch tube TV, HD hurts my eyes, A CURSE UPON IT!!! (Or in this case, 150 curses upon it!)

When imy present TV breaks down, I'll think about a 17 inch plasma one maybe.

You do realize that, with the wider shape of the newer TVs, 17 inches is about the size of a square-model 13 inch TV, right?

I bought a 27" at Circuit City last September for $400. I LOVE the thing. (And the cable company just added both National Geographic and Discovery Channel in HD - TBS too, though most of their content is stretched non-HD. That's in addition to ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, etc.

It's a wonder I ever leave the room.

/Wants Game Show Network HD
//Count the wrinkles on Gene Rayburn's forehead in 1977.

I :heart: Panasonic!

link (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/01/08/thin.tvs.ap/index.html?eref=ib_technology)

TVs race to be thin; one is 1/8" thick

TV makers are trying to do something distinctive, other than being thin

One TV prototype measures 1/8 inch

Some manufacturers are making TV panels colors other than black

Las Vegas, Nevada (AP) -- -- HDTV manufacturers are trying to make the task of buying an HDTV set much more difficult than just choosing between LCD and plasma, 42 inches or 46 inches.

A wall at the Consumer Electronics Show holds Toshiba's Regza LCD television display.

To stand out amid fierce competition, they're adding exotic features, and even a little bit of color to the plain black bezels that have been de rigueur. They're also chasing each other to zero -- zero thickness, that is. Apparently, you can't be too thin if you're a TV.

All the major Asian brands revealed new sets at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which started Monday. Most of the innovation comes from the prestigious names, like Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic and Toshiba, which are trying to keep HDTVs from becoming a commodity product. If one 42-inch LCD is the same as another, the buyer is going to be looking mostly at price, and that kills the manufacturer's margins.

This happened to DVD players years ago: when unknown Asian manufacturers were able to slap together players and sell them for $50, Sony couldn't make money in the category.

"The goal is to break away from the commoditized market," said Ken Shioda, general manager of display products for Pioneer.

Pioneer Corp. is one of the companies working to put its sets on a diet: it demonstrated a plasma TV with a thickness of just 9 millimeters, or three-eighths of an inch, claiming it is the thinnest 50-inch set ever. It's just a prototype, however. Pioneer said sets that thin would not be on the market this year, but possibly next. Watch what other thin, hot gadgets are at the show »

Hitachi Ltd. is showing off an LCD display that is twice as thick: three-fourths of an inch. That's also a prototype, but the company is bringing LCDs that are 1.5 inches thick to the U.S. market in the second quarter after launching them in Japan in December. U.S. prices were not announced.

The ultimate in thinness is achievable with a completely different screen technology: organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Sony Corp. announced it will soon start selling the first OLED screen in the U.S. It's just 3 millimeters, or one-eighth of an inch thick. The catch -- actually, the first of two catches -- is that the screen area is also minimal, at 11 inches diagonally. The second catch is the price tag: about $2,500.

A set's thinness may not be readily apparent in an electronics store, so some manufacturers are adding color to the bezels of the TVs. But their move away from the all-black scheme is timid. You won't find a leaf green or sky blue HDTV set to match your wallpaper anytime soon. A slight touch of red is as far as they'll go: both Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. are adding accents of that color to their otherwise black LCD bezels.

The purchase process for flat-panel TVs is no longer dominated by men saying "give me the biggest TV I can get," said Tim Baxter, executive vice president of sales and marketing for the consumer electronics division of Samsung Electronics America. TVs now need to pass muster with women, who look at whether the design fits in a room, he added.

On the technical side, sets with the so-called "Full HD" or "1080p" resolution became the standard for middle- to high-end LCD and rear-projection sets last year, and plasma sets with that resolution have also appeared. There is no real space for improvement in that direction: 1080p, or 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, is the maximum resolution of today's high-definition discs, and higher than broadcast HD signals.

Instead, another feature looks set to become a standard in 2008: sets that show 120 frames per second. HDTV signals are usually broadcast in 30 frames per second, and movies are shot at 24 frames per second, so the usefulness of a set showing more frames isn't immediately obvious. But 120 hertz sets compute frames to insert between the signal's frames, yielding visibly smoother motion and sharper pictures in action scenes.

"120 hertz is the new 1080p," said Scott Ramirez, vice president of TV marketing at Toshiba.

High image refresh rates are also useful for three-dimensional imaging. Viewers wearing glasses with liquid-crystal shutters that alternately black out and reveal the TV set, in sync with the image refresh rate, can be shown different images for the right and left eyes if the refresh rate is high enough. That produces a stereoscopic, or 3-D effect.

Samsung brought out 3-D-capable rear-projection sets last year. At CES, it announced plasma sets with the same capability.

There aren't many movies available in 3-D, but many video games can be played in 3-D. Texas Instruments Inc., which makes the core components of many rear-projection sets, introduced another technology at the show that uses the same elements to help gamers out: DualView.

In essence, two gamers wearing shutter-equipped glasses will be able look at the same screen but see different images. That means the screen doesn't have to be divided down the middle for two-player gaming. That should prevent the cheating that occurs when one player peeks at the other's half of the screen, TI said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

You do realize that, with the wider shape of the newer TVs, 17 inches is about the size of a square-model 13 inch TV, right?

I bought a 27" at Circuit City last September for $400. I LOVE the thing. (And the cable company just added both National Geographic and Discovery Channel in HD - TBS too, though most of their content is stretched non-HD. That's in addition to ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, etc.

It's a wonder I ever leave the room.

/Wants Game Show Network HD
//Count the wrinkles on Gene Rayburn's forehead in 1977.
LOL

I want an HDTV, cause my cable company suddenly has a ton of HD channels and they even look awesome on my regular TV. Seeing them on the Plasma makes me just want it even more.

I :heart: HDTV.

You can keep your old black and white tv. Don't hold up progress.

I :heart: HDTV.

You can keep your old black and white tv. Don't hold up progress.
:rofl:

LOL

I want an HDTV, cause my cable company suddenly has a ton of HD channels and they even look awesome on my regular TV. Seeing them on the Plasma makes me just want it even more.


It's absolutely incredible~! I watched Ants again last week on an HD station (we have a 50" Pioneer Plasma) and it blew me away.

No wonder stars hate it - you can see flaws on them even through the makeup most times.