With the announcement this week that Mitsubishi are planning to show a laser projection TV at the 2008 consumer electronics show consumers are once again being tantalised with technology that promises superior pictures to Plasma and LCD.

Using a red, blue and green laser rather than white-light mercury lamps to generate images the advantages of laser technology are brighter and deeper images on larger, thinner, more lightweight screens.

At the beginning of the year Sony announced that they would be producing the first commercially available OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) TVs by the end of 2007, and Toshiba has announced that they will be producing their own OLED TVs by 2009.

The exiting potential of OLED includes a huge increase in the number of available colours over traditional LCD and Plasma TVs, with contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 producing a vastly superior picture. Perhaps the most appealing feature of OLED screens however is their thickness, ranging from an incredibly waif-like 5mm upwards, and surely the next must have consumer electrical fashion accessory

Although the technology is experiencing teething troubles, SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) will provide a better picture than LCD or plasma TV, say Toshiba and its partner, Canon. Toshiba also claims they have managed to cut the manufacturing costs so that the TVs won't cost much more than similar-sized LCDs or plasmas.

SED technology works along the same lines as CRT except instead of one large electron gun firing at all the screen phosphors that light up to create the on screen image, SED has thousands of tiny electron guns known as "emitters" for each phosphor sub-pixel which enable a vastly superior picture.

All of the new technologies can be described as being 'just around the corner' but expect Plasma & LCD to be with us for a good few years yet. Prices for these existing technologies are set to continue dropping through 2007, and any new flat panel innovations are likely to come with significant price premiums.

Japanese high-tech giants Canon Inc and Toshiba Corp said that they have decided to postpone indefinitely the launch of a new type of flat television panel which is mired in legal wrangling.
SED television sets were due to be introduced in Japan in the fourth quarter of 2007. No new launch date was given. "Reasons for the postponement include prolonged litigation currently underway in the United States and efforts to establish mass-production technology aimed at realising further cost reductions," a Canon statement said. The delay forced Toshiba to put off the sales launch of the surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) TVs as it had planned to source the screens from Canon. Austin, Texas-based Nano-Proprietary sued Canon for allegedly breaking its 1999 patent license agreement for key technology in the production of SED sets. The US firm argued that the agreement does not allow Toshiba access to its intellectual property so the venture cannot be transferred the license rights. Canon, which began research on SED in 1986, announced in January that it had agreed to buy Toshiba's 50 percent stake in their joint venture making SED TV panels in hopes of resolving the dispute. The technology, which uses electrons with a phosphor-coated screen, offers high efficiency for low power consumption, according to the high-tech giant. Canon is also developing organic electro-luminescence display screens, as is rival Sony Corp which aims to launch televisions using the technology later this year.

source : the times of india