Today's Television: It's Thin, It's Big

Written by Finn

Thursday, 04 September 2008 09:00

A tongue-in-cheek look at the state and trends of today's televisions. --------------------------- Televisions have come a long way since Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird, created the world's first working television system. Little did Baird know that he unwittingly also invented a whole new human culture called: watching TV. In the past, people used to perform the activity of watching TV by sitting in front of bulky television boxes. Fast forward to today and people of the 21st century are STILL sitting in front of their televisions watching TV. You would think that mankind had not moved forward but there is progress! Instead of bulky boxes, televisions of today are sleek and thin. Thin televisions are all the rage these days. Nobody wants a fat television. If there was a contest where the prize was a fat television, no one would take part. Due to strong public demand for thin televisions, manufacturers are working hard towards making televisions, get this, even thinner. During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008 in Las Vegas, Hitachi, Panasonic and Pioneer showed the world their breakthroughs in television thinness. Hitachi unveiled a range of HDTVs that are only 1.5-inches deep. Hitachi's range of thin HDTVs. Source: Yahoo! Tech Panasonic touted its Super-Thin One Inch Plasma prototype display that is 24.7mm in profile at the thickest point. Panasonic's Super-Thin One Inch Plasma. Source: Yahoo! Tech Not to be outdone, Pioneer had a concept 50-inch plasma TV dubbed "Project Kuro" which can be described as the Kate Moss of televisions. The concept TV is a mere 9mm thick. Pioneer's Project Kuro. Only 9mm thick! Source: Yahoo! Tech Recently, Sony announced that they have the world’s thinnest LCD TV at 9.9mm. The KDL-40ZX1 will show up in stores around Japan this November for 490,000 yen (USD$4,474). The world's thinnest LCD TV. Sony KDL-40ZX1. Source: Engadget Based on this trend, it will not be long before televisions become almost invisible to the naked eye when viewed from the side. A television advertisement from the future might read "Latest thin TV model! Only 8 atoms thick!" Thin is not the only thing that is happening to televisions these days. Walk into any electrical outlet and one cannot help noticing that televisions are also getting larger. The popular sizes these days are 32, 37, 40 and 42-inch televisions. These wide range of sizes have caused confusion among many folks. What is the right TV size that one should buy? Well, it depends. If you are a female, it is recommended to follow the experts' advice on picking the optimum TV size based on one's viewing distance. Below is a table showing the recommended size for each viewing distance. Source: CNET I have created another table showing the relationship between viewing distance and television price. Viewing Distance (in feet) Television Price 4 $ 6 $$ 8 $$$ 10 $$$$ 12 $$$$$ Apparently, the more wealthy one is, the further away one can sit from the television. If you are a male, it should be blindingly obvious which size of TV is the best. Thousands of years of evolution have advanced the male mind to arrive at one single conclusion: The bigger the television, the better! Viewing distance? Bah! In a male's mind, those so-called experts only want him to buy a puny size TV which the experts can then make fun of. "Haha, look at him. He just bought a 32" TV. What a sissy." For a man, the best size is one that is larger than what his neighbours have. For good measure, it should be also larger than what his friends are having. If you ask the women, they will think the men are idiots. On the other hand, there are males who are more concerned about how the television actually looks, rather than the size. If you fall into this group, you are what the media calls: a metrosexual. Not that there is anything wrong with that of course. Take David Beckham, a famous metrosexual, for example. Extremely successful, rich, famous and a hit with the ladies. For all we know, he might have a small TV. But getting back to televisions, Panasonic has taken the cue from the Bigger is Better mantra and recently unveiled a mammoth of a TV: a 150-inch plasma! Panasonic's monster 150-inch plasma television compared to the older and smaller (duh!) 103-inch plasma. The lady in the picture is warning her husband, "If you buy the 150-inch plasma, I'll divorce you!". Source: Panasonic For perspective, a 150-inch TV is the size of NINE (!!!) 50" TVs. This TV is so big that Panasonic decided to give it an appropriate name... the Life Screen. Basically, if there is a video of an elephant, it can display the elephant in actual size. I am not kidding. See the image below for proof. The Panasonic 150-inch plasma, the Life Screen, showing a life-sized elephant. Source: Panasonic Then again, for all we know (one cannot trust everything one reads on the Internet), the Panasonic plasma could turn out to be a 50" TV and the person... 2 feet tall. In order to conclusively prove that such a 150-inch plasma television exists, I humbly request Panasonic to send one unit to my home so that an independent third party (me) can make precise measurements. Of course if the television actually exists, I am not sure it can fit through the front door...