The Ultimate Television Technology
With the Christmas markets approaching, this is the time of year when the producers of electronic gadgets set their final line-up of the year. That also makes it a good time to settle back and take stock of where technology has taken us to. Less than two years ago, people were saying that it is pointless to think about FullHD (1920x1080) resolution video because neither the display panels nor the media existed at that specification. In just a few months that changed and the technology journalists were taken by surprise. Both LCD and Plasma panels achieved the 1080p standard with gliding ease and it turned out that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray had been set to work at that level all along. It is safe to assume that Sony, Samsung, Toshiba and the other leading TV manufacturers knew what was around the corner, but with the pace of development so fast they must keep the next innovation under wraps. If the consumers knew that such improvements were just around the corner they would hold off their purchase indefinitely waiting for the next big thing. The same story was repeated with the introduction of 100Hz and 24p support, the rise of ever higher contrast ratios, wider colour gamuts and 10bit panels.
What can we expect next?