The Future of TV

One of the highlights of the show this year was TVs.  The TV market as a whole saw explosive growth from 2005-2009.  That growth has since slowed and the TV companies now are in the uncomfortable position of find new value add or cut profit margins in order to move inventory.  So its little surprise when TV maker shareholders push for value add!  And that brings us to CES where consumers are pitched the new features and TV companies pray that one of them is viewed worth paying more for.

New Sizes.

The old CRTs had a 4:3 aspect ratio.  Most wide screen TVs are in 16:9 aspect ratios.  There is a new form factor on the market this year: the cinema wide, or Ultra Wide 21:9 ratio.  None of these widths were arbitrary, but originally followed the shape of the camera sensor.  I say that to inform you that if you purchase a Cinema wide TV, don’t be surprised when wheel of fortune has black lines on the side.  Standard TV camera’s are not slated to change anytime soon.

OLED.

The Korean’s came in strong with OLED.  Both LG and Samsung are showing off 55” OLED TVs.  They are bright, responsive, thin, and have great colors.  But still just flat screens.  People don’t care about the underlying technology when the fuction is the same as their $400 Visio.

 

New Backlights.

Truthfully, there is a lot of technology that can go into making a great backlight.  Thinner backlights, brighter backlights, more efficient backlights, all are in manufactures list for improvements this year.  All of the perspective marketing teams are hoping that consumers are willing to call this a value add and pay more for it.

Smart TVs

TV companies are pushing smart TVs, which are generally considered the future, however, the need for a whole new TV just for smart TV functionality is not needed, thanks to the numerous set-top boxes (think Roku, Boxee, Tivo, etc).  The problem with smart TVs is that the apps are not redily transferable from one TV to another.  So if your smart Samsung TV doesn’t have a Hulu app, and you want it, you are at the mercy of Samsung (or in this case Yahoo) to create an app for your specific environment.  As we all know in early technology wars, there are winners and there are losers.  And few people will risk purchasing an expensive TV that may end up on the losing end to a cheap set top box.

3D TVs.

This is where the developments look a little cooler.  Whether you chose to believe it or not, people only want glasses free 3D.  The active shutter TVs, versus passive TVs, will all go by the wayside once glasses-free is available.  Right now the industry is waiting for one thing: OLED.  OLED finally provides the needed frame-rate to present 3D seamlessly.  The announcements from LG and Samsung about their OLED TVs are precursors to autosteroscopic 3D.  According to Samsung and LG the technology will be commercially available in 2015, and 2014 respectively.  So, no, these TVs were not presented at this years CES, just talked about.