The Skinny on Thin TVs

With more flat-panel TV options come more customer questions. We have the the answers.
By Rebecca Day


Special Report: TV, The Skinny on Thin TVs

- High-definition TV is the most significant TV advancement since the addition of color. Flat-panel TV is the most significant living- room advancement since the subtraction of shag carpeting. Together, these two technologies have altered and advanced the scope of the custom-installation business.

Clients now have a choice. Ten years ago, customers' only choice was between the bulky cathode-ray-tube (CRT) design and the even more imposing rear-projection models. These days digital microdisplay technologies (projection LCD, DLP and LCoS) and flat-panel TVs are fast replacing the CRT. Light, thin and screaming of style, LCD (liquid-crystal display) and plasma are the waves of the future design for new TV's.
The consumer shift to a flat TV has even caught manufacturers off guard. "It's astounding to us how fast it's all happening," says Dave Badger, vice president of product planning at Thomson Americas, parent company of RCA. With choices come tough decisions for consumers and dealers alike. If you favor flat, do you go with plasma or LCD? It used to be that size was the determining factor, with plasma ruling 32 inches and up and LCD reserved for the smaller segment. But that mold has been broken, with new LCD sets as large as 45".
Dealers are left with tough choices about what products to offer their clients. The first step towards making these decisions is having a basic understanding of the different flat-panel TV technologies.

DLP
DLP TVs are based on the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), an optical semiconductor developed by Texas Instruments that reflects light projected by a high-intensity lamp. A DMD chip stores hundreds of thousands of mirrors that reflect light, to create up to 1,024 shades of gray for a highly detailed image. A color wheel placed between the lamp and the DMD chip filters light into red, green and blue, creating more than 16 million colors.

A DLP display is very bright, and gaps between pixels are minimal due to the structure of the pixel array, enabling the end user to sit close to the screen without detecting the scan lines or pixels noticeable in other technologies.
Another benefit of DLP is low maintenance. You don't have to "converge" the image, as you do with a CRT TV when tubes drift over time and cause color ghosting. DLP lamps have a limited lifespan though. Thomson quotes a lifespan of 5,000 to 10,000 viewing hours for its DLP TV lamps, or about three to five years of typical use. Replacement bulbs currently run between $100 and $350.

The depth and weight of DLP TVs are mercifully smaller than those of CRT rear-projection sets. A sample 43-inch model is 15.7 inches deep with a weight of just 67.2 pounds, while the 50-inch model is 17.6 inches thick and weighs 77.6 pounds. The 61-inch model runs 19.4 inches deep and weighs in at 101 pounds. By contrast, a 53-inch CRT TV measures 25 inches front to back and tips the scales at 183 pounds.

RCA and InFocus have pushed the envelope further with the introduction of DLP projection TVs measuring less than 7 inches deep. These sets will be positioned as alternatives to 3-to-4-inch-deep LCD or plasma TVs.

LCD TV
LCD images are created by a fluorescent backlight shining through an LCD panel made up of liquid-crystal cells. When the cells, paired with red, green and blue filters, receive an electrical charge, they either allow or disallow light to pass through, thus creating the image on screen. The fluorescent lights that illuminate the image require less power than CRT tubes. And unlike CRT or plasma TVs, LCD TVs don't suffer the "burn-in" effect of an image left on screen.

Just when it seemed that direct-view LCD TVs had found their niche in the under-40-inch market, Sharp raised the bar for LCD screen sizes. Joining its flagship 37-inch LCD TV this summer will be the 45-inch LC-45G1U, the largest LCD TV yet to hit the market. Also due this summer is BenQ's widescreen DV4680, with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080.

The LC-45G1U is one of Sharp's new G Series LCD TVs, which boast a faster refresh rate and new color filters. One of the criticisms of LCD TVs is that they sometimes can't keep up with motion, and a trail follows the image as it moves across the screen. The refresh rate of less than 16 milliseconds is said to improve performance in action sequences. A price hasn't been disclosed for the 45-inch model.

You'll see LCD TVs in both 4:3 and 16:9 screen ratios, with the smaller models-20 inches and less-reserved for the 4:3 aspect ratio used for analog TV. The Panasonic TC-20LA2, for instance, is the largest 4:3 LCD model in the company's line.

LCD TVs also come in rear-projection versions, which allow manufacturers such as Hitachi, Samsung, Sony, Zenith, and Epson to create sizes larger than the 45-inch direct-view panel. Epson's 47-inch LS47P1 and 57-inch LS57P1 Livingstation TVs incorporate printers and CD-ROM burners, enabling you to share and store digital images.

Hitachi's 50- and 60-inch LCD TVs include 3:2 film correction, VirtualHD and a DVI-HDTV input that accepts an uncompressed digital video signal. Manufacturers have to employ a kind of processing to reduce the imperfections of analog, which are magnified when shown on a high-definition TV. Hitachi's VirtualHD digital video processor and Sony's Digital Reality Creation, for instance, use proprietary signal-processing algorithms and circuit designs to boost the incoming signal while minimizing analog TV glitches.

Plasma TV
Offering exceptional color and detail at less than 4 inches deep, the plasma TV holds rank as the most popular of the flat-TV technologies. It's no surprise that it's the most expensive, too (although LCD is gaining ground in the larger screen sizes).

Each pixel in a plasma TV display is independently illuminated, allowing for a bright, uniform image from corner to corner. When gases in a plasma display are excited by a digitally controlled electrical charge, they turn to a plasma state and cause the phosphors to glow.

Unsubstantiated reports have suggested that the gas used in plasma TVs may not stand up to years and years of use. Those claims are categorically denied by manufacturers, who maintain that a plasma display should be able to last as long as a CRT TV. The phosphors used in both display types, however, are prone to image burn-in, which can leave a TV channel logo imprint if the same channel is left on for an extended period of time.

You'll see widely varying prices for plasma TVs. Some are enhanced-definition models, which are not capable of producing true high definition. Gateway's 46-inch plasma TV , for instance, has a native resolution of 852 x 480 pixels, which makes it well suited to standard-definition digital signals and DVDs, but a 720p or 1080i high-definition image can't be displayed in full resolution.

By contrast, the impressive Pioneer 50-inch PDP-5040HD has a native resolution of 1280 x 768, enabling it to reproduce the full high-definition signal. The Pioneer plasma sets include HDMI inputs, the latest-generation video connectors, which deliver full-bandwidth HDTV plus multichannel audio in a single connector about the size of a USB cable. Pioneer uses a technique called black stripe coating in its new plasma panels to improve the reproduction of black levels, one of the criticisms of plasma TV in general. (Better black levels generally indicate higher contrast, particularly in darker scenes.)

Currently, the majority of plasma TVs are 42-inch models, with 50- and 60-inch sizes also available. Samsung's 63-inch ($20,000) leads the pack. Samsung showed an 80-inch model at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, as more of a technology statement than product reality. Runco's CW-43mc ($9,995) integrates the company's Vivix processing inside the monitor. DWIN's PlasmaImage HD-50 ($11,950) packs 10 video inputs covering video and PC applications. The Panasonic 42-inch Viera TH-42PX25U ($5,995) represents the latest in plasma technology, packing an HDMI input, an ATSC tuner for off-air HD broadcast reception, and CableCARD compatibility for HD cable without a cable box. In addition, Fujitsu's plasma models range from 30 to 63 inches, and Mitsubishi's PD-4225S is upgradeable to HDTV.

The Future of TV
Thin is in, as the saying goes, and it appears there's no going back. CRT TV is still by far the leader of TV sales at 20 million in 2003, but all the sales growth is occurring in flat-panel technologies, including DLP, LCD and plasma. And although LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology has stumbled recently because of manufacturing difficulties, manufacturers expect that promising technology to be part of the mix too. In fact, Intel plans to develop an LCoS chip which it says could bring the price of a 50-inch microdisplay projection TV to $1,800 by next year.

"The attractiveness of the microdisplay category has taken everybody by surprise," says Jim Sanduski, vice president for the visual display group at Samsung, which has all its microdisplay pixels in the DLP basket. LCD and plasma flat-panel TVs will continue to shine at the high end of the market, but DLP, LCD and LCoS projection TVs are bidding to replace the CRT as the mainstream big-screen TVs for the digital age. "DLP has captured the fancy of consumers because it delivers an outstanding picture that rivals or betters LCD or plasma, and it does so in a form factor that's thin, and lightweight," concludes Sanduski.

HDTV as a Catalyst

As enamored as consumers are of flat-panel TVs, they often still need an extra nudge. After all, we're talking major purchase here. Fortunately the transition to high-definition broadcasts provides a nudge and then some.
The desire to take advantage of high-definition broadcasts leads many consumers to consider purchasing a new high-definition TV (HDTV). Since they're in the market, many will consider exciting new flat-panel technologies.
According to In-Stat/MDR, a high-tech market-research firm, this purchasing trend will continue for the foreseeable future. A recent study by In-Stat/MDR finds that total worldwide terrestrial, satellite, and cable TV households that are watching HD programming on an HDTV set are projected to rise to almost 6 million by the end of 2004, and ultimately reach 45 million by the end of 2008.

According to Michelle Abraham, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR, "There are two important trends in the TV-set market today. CRTs are being replaced with flat-panels and microdisplays in direct-view and rear-projection TVs (RPTVs)."

Related:
Freelance writer Rebecca Day's video display of choice is a high-value CRT, but she has her eyes on a plasma monitor.