New Technology TV

Back in the olden days, the only type of television set you could get was a simple cathode ray tube. Now there are a huge variety of television technologies out there, all with their own individual benefits and pitfalls. While the cathode ray tube will probably be phased out over the next few years, LCD, Plasma, and Digital Light Processing televisions are all becoming increasingly popular.

New Laser Television Technology Shows Potential

Back in the olden days, the only type of television set you could get was a simple cathode ray tube. Now there are a huge variety of television technologies out there, all with their own individual benefits and pitfalls. While the cathode ray tube will probably be phased out over the next few years, LCD, Plasma, and Digital Light Processing televisions are all becoming increasingly popular.

The latest television technology to attract attention is laser television. Laser television is supposed to function much like Digital Light Processing only with several advantages. A Digital Light Processing television set essentially consists of a bright lamp, a special chip, and a screen. Light from the lamp hits the chip which in turn selectively reflects the light onto the screen to form a picture. The chip contains tiny mirrors, one for each pixel that will be projected onto the screen and each mirror reflects a certain color of light, or no light at all in some cases, depending on what color the pixel is supposed to be on the screen. The individual pixels reflected by individual mirrors form the picture on the screen.

Digital Light Processing is essentially a projection screen type of television technology, but has several advantages over other projection screen television technologies. One advantage is that Digital Light Processing televisions are thinner than normal projection televisions- because of the precisely focused way the light is delivered to the screen this type of television set doesn't require as much distance between the source of the projection- in this case the chip- and the screen. The other advantage is that since each pixel is so precisely focused, Digital Light Processing can create extremely clear pictures at large sizes which makes it a great technology for displaying high definition television programming.

Digital Light Processing televisions possess several disadvantages. For one thing, DLP televisions tend to be thicker than other types of large screen televisions on the market today like LCD and Plasma televisions. The other disadvantages have to do with the light source which is typically a mercury lamp. One is that it consumes more power than other systems. It also burns out before the rest of the set wears out.

Laser Television solves these problems. Because lasers are even more tightly focused, laser televisions can be thinner than conventional Digital Light Processing televisions to the extent that they rival LCD screens and Plasma TV's. The lasers are also more efficient from a power consumption standpoint than the mercury lamps and they will last for the lifetime of the set.

Laser Television has advantages over Plasma TV technology. For one thing, Laser Television sets consume less energy than equivalently sized Plasma screens. They're also brighter than Plasma TV's which makes them more versatile for use in different lighting conditions. The lasers could theoretically last longer than Plasma screens, and the Laser television sets use plastic for the screen instead of glass which makes them lighter and more durable than Plasma screens.

To cap it all off, when Laser Television sets hit the market they're supposed to be comparable in cost to Plasma televisions. If Laser Televisions live up to all of these expectations, they're likely to be the death toll for Plasma TV technology.