Are laser HDTVs on the horizon? This article thinks so. (1 Viewer)

[Phil Carter]

Came across this article via Digg today and found it highly interesting. First I've ever heard of laser HDTVs, but the article says the technology could be available by Christmas 2007.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...129TX1K0000532

The lasers apparently produce much brighter and deeper colors while requiring much less power than the lamps in current RPTVs. Sounds interesting.

Thoughts, anybody?

cheers,
Phil

 

[Grant H]

Here's another article:
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8010.cfm

Sounds good. Neither article mentions whether or not burn-in is a factor. The price sure sounds right.

This article states they could debut under $1000!!

Hmm, wikipedia has a little write-up on the SED TV's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface...mitter_Display

100,000: 1 contrast ratio?

No claims of this being cheap though. Nothing like bringing phosphors back into the equation!

My 40" (okay, 38" viewable) 300 lb. widescreen tube HDTV OWNS all those crappy flatscreens. 1080i till it dies!!

 

[Seth=L]

Lasers and your eyes, hum? I hope these things don't hurt your eyes anymore than CRT's. I have always understood that many laser brandwidth segments are bad for your eyes.

 

[Arthur S]

There is not much of a chance that they can make this work anytime soon. And, a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 is probably not even possible. And they have been talking about SED now for about 3 years, and that won't materialize until 2008.

But, if they can actually do this at that price, it would replace plasma and everything else out there.

 

[Grant H]

Regarding the SED, supposedly there is already a 50,000:1 model and the one coming up is 100,000:1.

As CRT can "theoretically" reach an infinite contrast ratio and SED (and FED, which supposedly Sony is looking in to) more closely resemble CRT (it's exciting phosphors) than other flatscreen technologies the high contrast ratio numbers make sense. It's just a new method to produce old-fashioned CRT TV results. And face it, it's still hard to beat the quality of a good tube TV. I'm glad there are companies looking into the SED and FED technologies, but it would be said if they could offer superior pictures, but it never happens due to cost factors.

Laser TV may be easier and cheaper, and it could be used for front projection too. Anxious to see how it stacks up, quality-wise. All we've really heard about is the color and low power consumption.

 

[Phil Carter]

That's another good article, Grant; thanks for sharing.

I'm watching with interest the development of all the new technologies both in display devices and playback devices. This is one time that being a slightly behind-the-curve adopter will serve me well, I think.

cheers,
Phil

 

[Grant H]

Yeah, I've stuck by my CRT, which is plenty big enough until I have a truly massive living or theater room (and who knows if that will ever happen). I got a good price on that because everyone was discontinuing their large tubes TVs at the time, and that one was the biggest. RCA tubes seem to run forever...as long as you don't drop them. Years go by, and you just adjust the settings to account for the aging guns.

Which reminds me, I should take my AVIA disc to my parents' house next weekend. Their 35" tube is over 10 years old and doing fine.

The funny thing is the last few apartments I've lived in, the first thing I did was determine where the movers would set the TV. Rest of the room revolves around it, because that sucker ain't moving.

None of the projection TV's or plasma or LCD ever moved me, though I was interested in DLP for a time, but reading up it sounds like LCoS might be superior, but pricier. I've always preferred pure picture quality over size or manageability (really, do I NEED to hang it on the wall or carry it around?), so it'll be nice to sit back and see what comes of these "new" technologies. Notice how when you look them up everyone's been working on them for decades? And we wonder why we're not Star Trekking yet. We're still working on Kirk's viewscreen!

 

[Arthur S]

By the time SED arrives in 2008, (if it ever does), the prices on plasma and LCD will be so low that SED won't stand a chance.

But, if they can pull off this Laser thing for $1,000 that will crush everything else.

 

[Grant H]

I don't know; plasma and LCD have been around for a while, and they still ain't cheap.

DLP sets have come down too, but are still rather expensive for the common man.

Still anxious to get more info on the laser TV.

 

[Daniel P]

How are Standard Definition DVDs going to look on these SED TV's tho?
I wonder if I should just get the 50" panasonic plasma and be done...

 

[Grant H]

I think Toshiba was one of the manufacturers that was supposed to be dong a whole line of SEDs if I recall when I was article-hopping.

Don't know if it's really going to be 2008 or what, but to try to answer your question I don't see why SD DVD would look any different than it would on a direct-view CRT (tube TV). And that's stellar. It's just a new way of doing the same thing tube TVs have always done. The only limit to the quality should be in the deinterlacing or upconversion by the electronics and the scan-rates provided.

My TV is going on 4 years old or more, and is RCA so it's upconversion to 1080i (though acceptable and superior to some TVs that were on the market at the time)isn't what it would be in a new TV likely, and certainly not what an upconverting DVD player could offer, so I've always run 480P for DVD since it doesn't really need any additional artificial upconversion at my screen size with the fine dot pitch it has. And I let my iScan do the de-interlacing, but any good Progressive player would be good, most are fine with film sources anyway.

My TV has native 480p and 1080i. I'd imagine the upcoming SEDs would offer more. In today's market they pretty much have to go for 1080P, though I don't know if any direct-view TV has ever done it before. I've certainly not heard of a consumer model.

Guess it depends how much of a hurry you're in and what your budget is. If you're thinking plasma it's not much of a wait until we're supposed to see the Laser TVs which should be cheap and could potentially blow away plasma. If they come to fruition you could probably get one for every room instead of one plasma! They're advertising laser TV's superior color over the current flatpanels, but aren't saying too much else. I'd imagine, if they can produce that much color depth, they could do deep blacks too, meaning high contrast ratios should be possible. But that's all just conjecture on my part. I'll have to start Googling for more information about them.