Flat Panel Displays - Beyond Plasma

The term set-top box is something of a misnomer in the near future, as most displays will become too thin to put a box, so to them. As the price of plasma and LCD displays has plummeted and their image quality has improved, they are popping up in homes everywhere.

Although they are the darlings of the media and the generic for flat panel in the minds of many, plasmas are about to engage in a serious fight with other technologies for the> Flat-panel crown.

LCD display on the desktop for years seen as computer monitors, and commonplace in smaller flat panel TVs are finally growing to the point they are a rival to plasmas in the 42 "- 50" size range. Image quality is similar to plasmas, but LCDs are immune to the burn-in affect, the plasma displays. You burn-in occurs when plasma units are used for static images such as video game screens and share or displaySports ticker.

Plasmas are generally produced in an edge in the ability, deeper blacks and more saturated colors than LCDs. Plasmas are also better at producing full-motion video than LCDs because of the response time of LCD panels, although this difference disappears.

LCD TVs are a bit more expensive than plasmas at 42 "and larger sizes, but they should be quite a while. Plasma displays should last 20.000 - 25.000 hours and LCDs should give 30,000 + hours of usefulLife. However, the latest generation of plasma displays from NEC, LG & other is claimed to have a 60,000 hour lifetime. If this could be a trend in the industry, the traditional lifespan advantage of LCDs to disappear soon. This comes at a time when Sony and other major consumer electronics manufacturers are either leaving or reducing their plasma plasma supply. Others, such as Panasonic, Fujitsu and Pioneer are firmly committed to committed to Plasma technology.

Sony is currently a 42 "NEC a 40" Sharp hasa 45 "and Samsung 40" LCD TV or display. Samsung also has the great, a 46 "that started shipping early September 2004. The Samsung 46" was the first consumer LCD screen has a native resolution of 1080 lines have. This allows you to display 1080p native when that format is for HDTV. The Samsung was developed by Sony, Toshiba and others added to give the mid 40s to "size with some pretty solid LCD offerings. The largest consumer LCD TVs or monitors are the Sharp 65 "and Sony showed a prototype 82 "LCD of its Bravia line at CES 2006 in Las Vegas.

Other technologies are on the horizon too. One that has shown considerable promise, is an OLED, for Organic Light Emitting Diode. Developed by Kodak and Pioneer, this technology has been used for a few years in radio and mobile phone displays. So it is time for prime time. Philips has a 13 "unit, a Samsung 17", and Seiko-Epson has shown demonstrated a 40 "prototype.

OLEDs benefits are many. Itactually receives and also sends its own light, so it requires no backlight and has better contrast than a conventional LCD. OLED displays have a wide viewing angle, like a plasma display. Power consumption is very low, less than 1 / 2, that of a conventional LCD display. With about 2 mm deep, OLEDs are much thinner than either a plasma or LCD.

They have a refresh rate about 1000 times faster than a conventional LCD, they are far superior for video applications. They have fewer parts than LCD or plasma andbe produced using a novel inkjet printing method. This promises to keep prices low because the technology is implemented. It is expected that more specific sub-view 20 "displays in stores by 2006 with larger units within one to two years.

Other promising display technologies on the horizon are (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) and carbon nanotube SED. SED was developed by Canon, developed at the beginning of research into the technology in 1986. SED is basically the same principle as CRT, butThere are important differences. The most important from a consumer standpoint is thickness. An SED display is only an inch or two thick, depending on screen size.

The basic design consists of two glass plates separated by a vacuum. One of the plates is coated with phosphors the other is mounted with electron emitters. Electrons are ejected when a voltage is applied from about 16 to 18 V to the issuer. These electrons are then similar to a higher voltage into a beam as in the accelerateda CRT monitor.

The optical advantages of SEDS for CRT displays, great color, deep blacks and fast motion response. These advantages, combined with the slim form factor, low cost and energy requirements should provide a real winner.

A unit of Toshiba demonstrated at a Japanese exhibition in April 2005, even if the contrast ratio up to an incredible 100,000 to 1 by significantly reducing black luminance. Even if the details were a bit inflated this would still ona fantastic contrast ratio, in the order of 5 times higher than for a traditional CRT. At a time specified, Toshiba, they would use this technology step for all displays over 40 "in 2006. But after a spectacular demonstration at CES 2006 where they provided a debut in late 2006, including Canon and Toshiba, Toshiba resheduled their Release Deadline for SED to mid-2007, ostensibly to allow them to SEDS produce lower cost.

There is another fly in the SED ointment too. On 21 April 2005 U.S. firmNano-Proprietary has filed a lawsuit against Canon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, according to the surface (SED) televisions that Canon plans to release violates a licensing agreement signed 5 years ago between the Japanese giant and Nano-Proprietary.

The pace of change in the home theater and entertainment display market has simply accelerated. There are some promising technologies around the corner, will allow, as usual, higher performance, lower costsand compact form factor. As prices plunge for advanced technologies and technology improves, it will make it even easier for the average citizen have a fantastic media system almost anywhere in their house.