New Technology TV

Something that most television viewers don't think a whole lot about is the fact that television content- the picture and sound- is really just data. And just like old fashioned movies, even the most advanced television format consists of still pictures shown in quick succession to portray the illusion of movement. Each one of these pictures is generally referred to as a frame, and at thirty frames shown on the screen every second, a movie or television program can contain tens if not hundreds of thousands of individual pictures. When you think about how much memory it takes to store a digital photograph, and then multiply that by 100,000 for about an hour of programming you realize that the data requirements of modern television technology are truly staggering.

High Definition Television is widely considered to be the next generation of television technology because it offers a theater-like picture and sound quality that can be experienced right in the living room. While this wide screen, high resolution format shows a lot of promise, it's been relatively slow to catch on in the United States. The sluggishness of Americans to accept HDTV can be attributed to a number of things like high price of equipment, scarcity of programming, and a lack of complimentary technology like a high definition version of DVD's and Digital Video Recorders.

One aspect of television technology that's frequently overlooked is gaming. Some may look down on video games as being activities for adolescents, but a lot of former adolescents who were completely into video games have grown up and brought those games with them.

Despite a history of consumer resistance to combining home computing and television, various electronics manufacturers and software design firms keep trying to come up with products that will make that combination a reality. Actually, it has been a reality for years. There were television capable PC's back in the nineties and adapters that allow television screens to be used by home computers have been around since the eighties. The combination between home computers and home entertainment systems simply hasn't been an attractive one for consumers.

There are some new developments in the war between Toshiba's HD-DVD format and Sony's Blu-ray. Toshiba recently announced the release of a HD-DVD player capable of playing High Definition video in 1080p resolution, and Sony says that it will release a Blu-ray recorder in Japan by the end of the year. Both of these moves are meant to give each company an advantage in the competition to have their High Definition video disc format come out on top.

For well over a decade computer manufacturers have been banking on the marriage of the home computer with the television in the living room. It seems like it should be a natural combination. After all, both are home electronics that have lots of visual elements and even have crossover content. For example, video games are played on computers and on video game platforms hooked up to TV's, and people often play audio in the form of MP3's on their computers and the satellite radio that comes along with their satellite TV subscriptions through their televisions.

The growing demand for High Definition Television sets creates some problems when it comes to finding programming to view on them. Some television providers have taken the initiative to produce new programming in High Definition. This is evident in a number of newly offered High Definition channels like HDNet which provides access to special events, concerts, documentaries, news, and travel programs all in High Def. Equator HD and Discovery HD Theater both produce original content in High Definition as do Gallery HD, Ultra HD, and Rush HD. A number of other channels like Monsters HD and Kung Fu HD feature remastered older movies for their content. Although most of these movies probably weren't deliberately filmed in the High Definition format, the fact that they have the wide screen 16:9 aspect ratio required for High Definition and were filmed in a high resolution so that the images would be maintained on a large screen, makes them ideal for High Definition programming.

Television industry analysts have predicted that High Definition Television Technology is poised to take off over the next year, and there are indications that it already has in Europe. Sony is reporting increased sales of both consumer and commercial High Definition equipment as demonstrated by the fact that HD equipment sales accounted for 53 percent of Sony's total sales in 2005 compared to only 38 percent in 2004.

Amazon.com recently announced the introduction of it's "Unbox" video download service. Amazon Unbox is poised to compete with Apple's iTunes which added episodes from five network television series and music videos to it's selection last fall. Amazon will offer television shows for $1.99 per episode and movies ranging from $4.99 to $14.99 a piece. It will also rent movies for $3.99 a piece. Apple has plans to sell movies through iTunes, but Amazon managed to get to that market faster than Apple by almost a week.

High Definition Television is widely regarded as the television format of the future. It's been popular in Japan for years, but has been relatively slow to take hold in the United States. Some analysts believe that's about to change. Phillip Swann, president of TVpredictions.com, has pointed out some factors in the television industry that could cause HDTV to become much more popular in the next year. He anticipates that prices for Plasma and LCD screens should drop enough next year so that consumers will be able to buy a 42 inch HDTV flat screen monitor for under $1,000. He theorizes that many consumers have been waiting for the technology they want to drop below the $1,000 mark before they buy, and that when it does, it will serve as a catalyst for increased demand of HDTV screens.

Although HDTV has been somewhat slower to catch on in the United States than in Japan, it's actually been around for years, and over the years people have been trying to improve upon it. While most consumers in the United States are just now thinking about moving up to High Definition Television in it's current form, they may find themselves confused by some of the other HDTV related technologies on the horizon. Fortunately this confusion is easy to clear up with a few facts.

If you're interested in large screen televisions and High Definition Television, chances are you're familiar at least somewhat familiar with the different types of screens. Plasma screens and LCD screens are the most common choices, but DLP, also known as Digital Light Processing, screens are in the running too.

Part of the huge attraction of flat screen TV's is that since they weigh so little and take up so little space, they can be mounted anywhere. This has made them attractive not only to normal consumers who want a large TV in a limited space or the stylish look of a television hanging on a wall like a picture, but also to companies who want to advertise in public places. The falling cost of LCD and Plasma screens has brought about even more of them in public areas.