New 4K TV Coming

Television manufacturers are always eager to shore up their business with new technology and are gearing up to roll out sets with what's known as 4K screen resolution. These TVs, which should start to hit store shelves in the United States later this year, have about four times the resolution of 1080p screens, the current standard for high-definition sets.

Regardless of the size of its screen, a 1080p TV has about 2 million pixels arrayed across 1,920 vertical columns and 1,080 horizontal rows. Although electronics manufacturers haven't yet settled on a standard, 4K resolutions generally have at least 7 million pixels - and sometimes many more - arranged across about 4,000 columns and 2,000 rows. All those extra pixels allow 4K televisions to display images in much finer detail than HDTVs.

On bigger screen sizes at close distances, the difference between 1080p and 4K is stunning. At a close viewing range, HD video on a big screen can look pixilated, and colors and images can blur into the background. By contrast, 4K video looks super sharp and almost lifelike. At a further distance the difference tends to be less noticeable.

You might want to wait for 4K. The first 4K TVs will likely be outrageously expensive. Toshiba's 55-inch 4K television is already available in Japan for $10,000 or so. Another reason to wait is that no shows are being produced in 4K yet. In fact very few are produced in 3D so far, but ESPN is betting that many will love the 3D sports events it will be producing.

The 4K video processor should only add about $10 to the cost of a TV, but the big cost issue is the display technology. The ability to cram that many pixels into a relatively small space is on the cutting edge of display manufacturers' capabilities.

Manufacturers will only sell about 5,000 4K TVs this year worldwide and won't sell more than a million per year until 2015. 3D TV should be selling more units by then, also.

See Through TV Screens

Samsung's new transparent LCD screen, is a breakthrough that could one day make any window into a display or touchscreen. The transparent screen is available to showrooms for display cases, but Samsung has been testing its invention on vending machines.

The clear glass on the machines' windows can advertise a particular product or display nutrition information. It has been a success, with sales in vending machines equipped with the transparent LCDs up 600% over others.

Normal TV screens require back or side lighting to display an image, but Samsung's transparent screen uses ambient light like sunlight or room lighting. That makes the product relatively cheap. New ideas for use might be bathroom mirrors, department store windows, and more.

TV Types

LG just announced a new TV that has a 55 inch screen, is a bit less than one quarter inch thick (less than the width of a pencil) and weighs about 16 pounds. OLED means Organic Light Emitting Diode. It is the newest technology for TVs. It produces a picture far brighter than anything on the market. OLED emits light as opposed to LCD TVs which reflect light. This means that they are not good for outdoor viewing, but the picture is truly eye-popping good. Watch for much bigger screens with OLED displays in malls and other places.

At the Consumer electronics show (CES), beginning this week, Samsung introduced an LED TV, which is .3 inch thick. LED is newer than many of the current flat screen TVs and is brighter. Think of it as better than LCD, but not as good as OLED.

Am sure there will be many more goodies at the show and I will let you know if there is any wizbang technology ready to hit the street. In the meantime, do not buy a new tablet, like the iPad until the new models come out, because it always drives the price of the old ones down. That is not always true for TVs, because dealers are already marking down last year's models to make room for the new ones. TVs are not susceptible to new features every few months like other technology and we usually keep them longer than a few years.

Last year I got rid of a 30-year-old TV and it cost me ten dollars to have it recycled. None of the new TVs will last a third of that time, but each new one will be more exciting to watch. Already in the labs is the next generation AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) which claims to be viewable in direct sunlight.

3D TV is still a technology in search of an audience. It will not be ready for prime time until the producers make 3D content, we do not need to wear dorky glasses, and the quality gets better. Watch for sports to be among the first to adopt the technology. I am still waiting for glasses to replace the screen. They are almost ready for prime time and I hope to be first on my block to own a pair.

PC TV

Had to add this last one about the PC TV from this weeks Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Google's Android operating system version 4.0, better known by as "Ice Cream Sandwich" (an alternative to Microsoft Windows), is used in a smart television, a 55-inch 3-D (240Hz refresh rate) LED.

The TV lets you switch among video on demand, Internet apps, and regular TV. You can share music, videos, pictures, etc., from tablets and phones and computers. It has a dual core processor, 1 gig of RAM, a hard drive and 2GB SD card. There is also a built-in 5 megapixel camera for video chats. The remote control features a touchpad, 5-way keys and a motion sensor. It can also respond to voice commands.

Second Hand TV

Speaking of fluffernutter, some researchers are warning about the dangers of watching TV when very young children are nearby. Recent findings suggest that even casual exposure to TV can harm child development and undermine parent-child interactions.

One study said parents are distracted by TV the same way preschoolers are. Another recent study found that children who watched a short cartoon showed a reduced ability to delay gratification and poorer working memory.  I have some language for them, secondhand science is harmful to real science.

The Eyes Have It

Do you remember in the early days of TV that many studies predicted that children would ruin their eyesight by sitting too close to the TV. Those studies have long since been debunked as they proved to be false.

Now, a new study shows that habitual smartphone usage dulls vision as users generally hold their devices too close to their eyes. The study says people hold papers and magazines 16 inches away from their eyes, but smartphones at 14 inches. One ophthalmologist suggested that people get reading glasses. Hmmm. . .

Zenith Space Command

In 1956, the first widely used TV remote control had four buttons (power, volume, channel up, channel down) but no batteries. Press a button, and a tiny hammer inside the remote would strike an aluminum rod, transmitting an ultrahigh-frequency tone to control the set. They were affectionately known as clickers, because they actually clicked when you pressed the buttons.

Pictured remote outside and inside. Back then they only had a few channels to scroll through, and all TVs were black and white, so it was not a big deal.

I read that you could sometimes drop a coin on it and it would change channels. The Space Command lasted more than 25 years before being replaced by remotes using infrared technology. Before these slick devices, they actually had a remote that was physically wired directly to the TV. . . and before that they had kids that they would tell to go change the channel, or turn up the volume.

Internet TV

An Android operating system television will be shipping during the third quarter this year. The new TV, named Scandinavia will be 42-inch, with 1080p native resolution and internet connectivity. It includes Android widgets and provides access to YouTube, Google Maps, the weather, an internet browser, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

A USB socket will also be included. Cost will likely be between $2,500 and $3,500. Finally we get the best (or worst) of both TV and the Internet.

Color TV Hoax

Another April Fool's Day joke was played in 1962 when there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.

Marriage and TV

Ages of Marriage:
Twenty is when you watch TV after.
Forty is when you watch TV during.
Sixty is when you watch TV instead.

TV History

As we look to the new year, it is interesting to look back on how TV has changed our lives, for better or worse.

Philo Farnsworth, Idaho, invented television and filed for patent in 1927.

The first commercial TVs were produced in the US in 1938.

RCA 12 inch TV, 1939. Cost $600 (that would be like $9,337.00 in 2009).

The first public broadcast was made in London in 1936 and 1939 (on a 6 inch screen) in New York.

The FCC declares 1941 as the actual first broadcast and declares anything before that as 'experimental'. Also, the first commercial, from Bulova watch was seen in 1941. Maybe that is what made the FCC change its mind.

TVs were not produced from 1942 - 1945, due to the war, and tv stations broadcast only 4 hours per week.

Howdy Doody premiered on TV in 1947, The Lone Ranger in 1949, and the first coast-to-coast TV broadcast was 1951.

Commercial color TV was first seen in 1953, but less than 1 percent of TVs could view color. Most of the country had 4 VHF stations to watch, and none were available 24 hours a day. They ended the day with the national anthem, or the following. Then they showed test patterns until the next day's broadcast.

Do you remember -  "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of . . . " John Gillespie Magee Jr.

LINK to "High Flight" above from KSAT TV signoff. Poem begins at about 1 minute in.

Ronald Reagan was host of "General Electric Theater" from 1953 - 1961.

1955 ushers in the first TV remote control from Zenith. Whoopee!

NBC announced in 1965 that 96% of its programming was in color, but it wasn't until 1977 that 75% of TVs in homes could receive color. Color TV sales first outsell black and white in 1972.

First pay TV was 1972 and it caused an uproar.

Cable TV broadcasting came in during the 1940s and 1950s for stations owners, first home cable, 1948, and was deregulated in 1984. Cable reaches 50 percent of households in 1987. CNN is first cable 24 hour programming. UK produces first 24 hour broadcasts in 1987.

1991 begins the first real-time commercial broadcast of war (the Persian War) and most major advertisers pull their spots as they were not willing to sponsor war coverage. NBC lost millions in advertising. Viet Nam coverage was all from film, not live broadcast.

18 inch satellite dishes are introduced in 1996. First web TV is introduced in 1996.

98% of households have at least one TV in 1998 and 67% have cable.

In 2005 A 42" Plasma HDTV usually retails for $4,500.00 - $7,000.00, with regular plasma flat screen of 42' at about $1,400.

LCDs surpassed sales of old CRT type televisions in 2008.

All digital TV is the only type of TV available as of 2009. As of 2009 you can also watch TV on your cell phone.

Noisy Ads on TV

Every year, television networks receive thousands of complaints from viewers bothered by commercials that seem to be getting louder and louder.

A technical organization that sets standards for digital TV broadcasters came out on Sept. 16 with new recommendations that may finally lower the volume.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee, which developed the standards for digital video formats now used by all broadcasters in North America will soon send new standards to broadcasters for approval and provide a way to measure the loudness of television content, based on current scientific understandings of how human hearing works. Shows and commercials would be tagged with information about their loudness that TVs and audio receivers could use to counteract the audio tricks that make commercials appear so loud.

Under current FCC rules, the peak of a commercial can be no higher than the programming it accompanies. The problem is that the peak level of the sound does not accurately reflect how loud something sounds to the listener. Audio engineers find ways to get around the FCC rules by making commercials seem louder without actually increasing the peak levels of the loudest parts.

The problem is made worse with digital television, which can produce a greater range of sound than analog. This exacerbates the difference between television programs, which use the full range of sound, and the commercials, which squeeze the sound and push it upwards.

The new ATSC recommendations are entirely voluntary, but ATSC President Richer is confident that broadcasters will adopt them. "Broadcasters want to do things in a uniform way," he said. "Because our membership is broad, all of the major networks, many of the other broadcast groups, and also the manufacturers, we get a lot of buy-in to what we do." I think they should pay us to watch commercials, rather than charging us to watch TV.

Jinni

If you like movies, especially free movies, this might be an interesting site to visit. It is in beta and has a free signup. The idea is to allow you to search for movies, compare your taste to others, and rank movies.

You can search according to plots, genre, actors, or even according to your mood. You can type in nearly any search phrase and something will come up. If you are confused about the connections between some of the movies that appear, you can click on a button that will tell why the movies are related. It has old movies and new movies. Interesting concept and moves another step closer to internet TV.

Wallpaper TV

Coming to a wall near you.

Many of us are accustomed to watching TV on high-quality flat screens, but now Toshiba has come up with a new solution. It is a flexible paper that doubles as a TV screen.

The paper uses light that has been redirected using a fine grating created by self-assembling nano-particles. In addition to projecting moving and still pictures, the paper could also be used to emit light, eliminating the need for traditional lighting.

I won't go into details of the cool OLED technology used, but the basic materials have been around since the 90s. Television wallpaper is currently in the early stages of research and won't be on your wall for quite sometime. Wow, I don't even have an HDTV yet and they are already on their way out. The speed of technology change is so exciting, I can hardly stand it.

Speaking of Internet and TV

The BBC has launched a new service that allows viewers to watch live TV programs from suitable Wi-Fi connected mobile phones.

BBC Live TV is available in a beta test form, offering a limited number of the broadcaster’s channels, plus its radio stations.

Internet Passes TV in Europe

(From the UK) Europeans will spend more time on the internet than watching television by June 2010, according to research by Microsoft.

The report, "Europe logs on: Internet trends of today and tomorrow", analyzes online behavior across Europe, and for 2010 predicts web consumption will average 14.2 hours per week, while TV program watching will average 11.5 hours per week.

Driving the rise of online media consumption is always-on broadband, with 48.5 per cent of Europeans now having an internet connection. The report says that for watching television programs, "three screens will dominate" - the traditional TV, desktop and laptop PCs, and mobile devices.

HDTV

I have noticed the price of HDTVs has actually been going up since about January. Went to a number of web sites and verified that it has quietly been happening. Another thing I have noticed is that 50" sets are conspicuously missing and 52" sets are replacing them.

Guess the price wars and slashing has hurt the retail market too much, they are sneaking in higher prices. They probably haven't read 'good business 101, what not to do during a downturn'.

BTW - Visio is now the second largest shipper of HDTVs in the US. Do you think selling through Sam's and Costco might have something to do with it.