What is the 'Future of Television'?
Phil Lelyveld
Entertainment Technology Center
[Life Goes Strong]
… But at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I caught a glimpse of multiple TV futures, many of which I blurbed last week in “Best of New CES Gadgets: HDTV Edition.”
Here’s a bit more on each of these possible TV futures.
‘Smart’ TV
All we heard at CES was this TV is smart, …
3D TV
Let’s clear up a popular misconception once and for all – a 3D HDTV is not ONLY a 3D HDTV. Yes, a 3D HDTV let’s you view something that is in 3D (i.e. a 3D Blu-ray – and by the end of 2013, ALL Blu-ray players will be 3D capable – or a 3D TV channel such as ESPN 3D). But a 3D TV is otherwise a really good 2D HDTV for normal, everyday, 2D, non-3D TV and movie watching. The technology that makes an HDTV 3D also makes it a great normal HDTV.
Like “smart” TVs, 3D HDTVs are already out there. According to GfK, a global market research firm, just 8.9 million 3D HDTVs were sold worldwide last year (Apple has sold nearly 40 million iPads during roughly the same period). According to industry projections, by 2014, half of all HDTVs will be 3D capable.
None of which means that anyone is actually WATCHING 3D HDTV. I have yet to encounter anyone watching 3D TV in the wild (i.e. outside industry events).
But the industry will be keep pushing 3D, and the only reason I’d recommend one is because they are the best regular HDTVs available.
Glasses-free 3D
Perhaps the primary reason we are blasé about 3D is those stupid glasses we have to wear at home.
To correct this problem, lots of folks are experimenting with glasses-free 3D, especially Toshiba. At CES, Toshiba once again demonstrated an experimental super high-resolution glasses-free 3D HDTV (see “Toshiba 55-inch 4k2k 3D“), following up on the more consumer-friendly glasses-free 3D the company showed at IFA last September (see “Toshiba No-Glasses 3D No Good“).
I am cynical that any glasses-free 3D HDTV will be commercially viable until much higher-resolution 4k2k HDTVs are available in the coming years, if then. A full recap of my glasses-free 3D cynicism can be found in my “Forget Glasses-Free 3D.”
OLED
There’s no denying it – OLED HDTVs give stunningly beautiful images. …
Ultra HD 4k2k
I’ll be honest – I’m not sure if the “k” is supposed to be capitalized or not. I’ve seen it both ways.
In all events, 4k2k HDTVs offer four times the resolution of current 1920 x 1080p HDTVs. …
Read the full story here: http://tech.lifegoesstrong.com/article/what-future-television
