New TV Technologies

Television technology has increased greatly over the past few years with the advent of high definition television. While this is already a big leap, to quote Al Jolson, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Over the next few years, the market will introduce 3D TV, 4k TV, and internet ready TVs.

In a sense, internet ready TVs exist today. They are computers with a TV-tuner video card. Here, on one screen, a user can watch television as well as surf the internet. Soon, HD televisions will be introduced with the ability to do both with their own hardware. An owner can connect to the internet, surf websites, and switch to a TV show all from a single unit.

Internet TVs do not change the television experience, but 3D televisions do. 3D movies have experienced resurgence in Hollywood after the success of Avatar. Not surprisingly, many users would like to replicate that experience in their home theaters. Like in the theaters, glasses are required for 3D use, and the picture is blurry without the glasses. Normal 2D display is also supported.

4k TV does not change the viewing experience like 3D, but it does make the picture clearer. The best HDTV broadcasts today have 1080 horizontal lines. While this may be crystal clear on a small television, a 72 inch set offers the number of lines. So, 4k HDTV, with 4096 vertical and 2160 horizontal lines offers a much clearer picture. This standard is already being used on cinematic cameras, and will soon transition to home sets.

In the near future, televisions will be clearer, 3-dimensional, and offer web surfing capabilities. HDTV was nice, but the future is much better.