GearBits

My Next TV

My next television is going to be either LCD or OLED, it's going to be HD (of course), 16:9 format, and it's going to be at least 40 inches diagonal. Today, you can actually consider buying that, as the largest consumer LCD TV is now a newly announced 40 inch model from Samsung. As the major LCD makers (Samsung, LG Philips, Sharp, et al.) keep upping the maximum size of working prototypes (currently at a massive 54"), my hopes are buoyed that I may not have to wait all that long for my dream display to become both a technical and a fiscal reality.

So, why don't I just go grab a plasma TV? I mean, heck, you can pick them up at Sam's Club now for not much more than a crummy RPTV. Well, it has to do with two issues. First, there's burn-in. Plasmas have a tendency to burn in if you watch a lot of 4:3 format programming (like most network and cable television), which we do. I'd consider just stretching the 4:3 content to fit the 16:9 format, thus alleviating the black bands, but I don't want to have to explain to my wife why the kids on Felicity look much wider and bloated than usual.

Second, there's the issue of copy protection. Right now, in the US Congress, there is still debate over what kind of digital protection scheme is going to be used to make sure that Joe Consumer can't record his digital perfect HD broadcasts onto DVD and sell bootleg copies. Is it going to be DHCP? Could be. Is it going to be something else? Hmm...maybe. Don't know yet, and until that's decided, anything you purchase today could have an effective usage life of about 5 years or less.

So, I think I'll hold off. Of course, if plasma gets down around $1000, that might change the whole value proposition. But, for the time being, I'm waiting on my bright, vivid, no-risk-of-burn-in, sub-15 millisecond response time LCD/OLED television with a full bore of standards-compliant inputs. I don't think it will be that long before we have these replacing tube sets, but then, CRTs have shown to be an amazingly stubborn technology to get rid of.