Every once in a while it's a good idea to take a look at what kinds of TV display technologies are out there and run through how they're doing compared to each other. The most basic technology used in TV screens of course is the cathode ray tube. This is the big vacuum tube like monstrosity that's been around since the TV was first conceived of well over half a century ago. The cathode ray tube produces pictures by firing electrons at the screen of the TV where they're converted into photon of various colors, which in turn produce the pixels that the pictures that we see are composed of.
This type of technology is still available, but has largely fallen out of favor in recent years because it's difficult to manufacture in the 16:9 aspect ratio that's now preferred for devices like HDTV sets (though there are HDTV sets that take advantage of cathode ray tube technology), because cathode ray tubes take up a lot of space, and because they consume significantly more power than newer technologies. While it would be nice to think that we're above such things, it's worth pointing out that cathode ray tube TV's have also fallen out of favor because flat panel TV displays are much more stylish. The flat panel displays that are so much in favor these days actually come in two varieties with the possibility of a third variety on the horizon.
For a long time the leading type of flat panel TV display on the market was the Plasma screen. Plasma screens are composed of tiny pockets of gas that glow when excited by an electrical current. Each pocket of gas represents one pixel and the result of having them combine to form a picture is a screen capable of rich colors, deep blacks, and an ability to display quick movement. Another advantage of the Plasma screen display is that there's now physical limit on the size of a Plasma screen TV (although there are economic limits). Plasma screens do have a decent number of disadvantages though. Plasma screens consume a lot of energy, they fade in brightness over time, they don't look that good at higher light levels, and if you try to use one at an altitude in excess of six thousand feet it will make an annoying buzzing sound.
The most popular type of flat panel TV these days is the LCD display. LCD displays have longer theoretical life spans than Plasma screens. They also consume less energy, function well at any elevation, and look better in a wider variety of light levels. LCD screens work well with computers and are becoming increasingly affordable. They do have some problems with displaying deep blacks and have some trouble with blurring while displaying fast moving objects. Both of these issues are less of a problem on newer models.
The flat panel TV technology that's in the pipeline is called Laser TV. This type of technology uses actual lasers to produce images on the screen. It promises to get around some of the problems of the LCD technology while consuming less energy than the Plasm screen. It should also be lighter and more durable than earlier types of screens because of greater use of plastic in the design. Clearly, no matter what kind of TV you end up with, there are some interesting options out there.
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