Clearly AV

It’s no secret that the trend in HDTV design for 2008 and beyond involves creating larger, wider screens while at the same time making them slimmer than ever before. Here’s the next generation in HDTV’s and from the looks of it, the future of the flat screen is definitely looking fit and slim.

Flat-screen HDTV’s use a variety of different technologies to create that ultra-clear picture. Of course, the two biggest technologies right now are plasma and LCD with LCD becoming increasingly more popular because of its lower power consumption properties. These types of flat-screen TVs have become slimmer and slimmer each year, and they’ll continue to do so. Five years ago it was hard to imagine a big-screen TV that was less than a few inches thick, but it has become a reality.

Sharp 52-inch LCD Prototype

Sharp is a leader in LCD technology, and their new 52-inch prototype HDTV is a great example of their innovative design and engineering. This prototype LCD TV is incredibly only 1.14-inches thick at its thickest point! Not only is it ultra-thin, but this Sharp LCD features an amazing 100,000:1 contrast ratio — much better than your TV’s minuscule 400:1! It’s also supposedly very energy efficient, consuming about 140 kWh per year, which makes it extremely eco-friendly. This awesome flat-screen is scheduled for a 2010 release.

Samsung 40-inch LCD

Samsung introduced one of the thinnest TVs in the world at the FPD International Conference in Japan back in 2007. This amazing flat-screen is only 1 centimeter thick! The LED backlight used in this LCD is extremely energy efficient using only about 90 watts to operate. This ultra-slim LCD TV is based on the design of a flat panel computer monitor, just on a much larger scale. This cool TV is currently not available to consumers, but that should change soon as other manufacturers begin releasing comparably slim TVs to the ever-changing HDTV market.

Sharp AQUOS X-Series HDTVs

Sharp recently released their X-series of ultra-slim HDTV’s to the Japanese market. These incredible flat-screens come in 37″, 42″, and 46″ screen sizes, and they are amazingly only about 1.35-inches thick. These high-end HDTV’s feature 1080p resolution with contrast ratios of 15,000:1. They also have 3-way 8 speaker systems integrated into each one of these skinny panels. It’s amazing how they managed to fit a speaker system into the slim stature of these screens. The 37″, 42″, and 46″ X-Series HDTV’s are expected to retail for about $3,319, $4,077, and $4,551 respectively (based on Japanese retail prices).

Panasonic Ultra-Thin Plasma

These super thin Panasonic Plasma’s are less than 1-inch thick, and they consume about 50% less energy than current models. When Panasonic unveiled these slim beauties they were a big hit. These super slim HDTV’s look more like 50-inch pieces of wall art when mounted because of their thin stature and low profile. You can expect to see these ultra-thin Panasonic plasmas in stores sometime in 2010.

Pioneer’s Ultra-Thin ‘Advanced Design’ Plasma

Pioneer unveiled what they believe the future of HDTV has in store with their amazingly slim ‘Advanced Design’ plasma. This plasma is only about 9 millimeters thick, and it weighs only about 40 pounds and about half as much as current plasmas. This HDTV is so skinny that it would almost look like a poster hanging on your wall. This innovative plasma is part of Pioneer’s ‘Project KURO’, which is a commitment of the company to produce the best entertainment experience possible to the consumer. This feathery-light plasma is only a prototype right now, but it’s expected to be in stores sometime within the next 5 years.

Sony XEL-1 OLED TV

This very eco-friendly flat panel OLED TV uses far less energy than any LCD or plasma TV currently on the market. The reason that this TV is so energy-efficient is because OLED technology doesn’t require a backlight, and thus less power. The other side-effect of not needing a backlight is that the screen can be much slimmer, and that’s very much the case here. The XEL-1 is only 3 millimeters thick! The screen of this small TV is only 11-inches diagonally, but Sony already has plans to produce larger OLED TVs in the very near future. This Sony is also rather expensive for its size at about $2,500. The main reason for the rather steep price tag is because this particular OLED TV is the very first of its kind to go into production. Most TV manufacturers believe that OLED will likely replace LCD and Plasma technology in the future, so expect prices for this new technology to slowly drop as more OLED TVs are released. This amazing TV sports a mind-blowing 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio! It also has quicker response times and better color reproduction than LCDs or plasmas, so expect to see a lot more in terms of OLED in the near future.

Samsung OLED TVs

Samsung has also jumped on the OLED bandwagon with 14″ and 31″ models on available, and they say that they have other sizes available as well. These paper-thin TVs can handle fast moving images better than any LCD or plasma, and the color reproduction is unmatched by any current technology. Samsung expects to release these OLED flat-screens to consumers within the next year, and pricing should be somewhat similar to equivalently-sized LCD’s and plasmas.

LG 42LGX Super-Slim LCD

This extremely thin flat-screen from LG should be available for purchase very soon, and this thing should be a hot seller. One of the greatest features of this LCD is its 1.7-inch thick screen. This puts it as one of the thinnest LCD’s in the world. The 42LGX’s skinny body isn’t its only asset, it also features 120 Hz technology which effectively doubles the response time of this TV over most other LCD’s on the market. This feature greatly speeds up the performance of the TV and eliminates the ghosting effect that most slower (60 Hz) LCD’s are famous for.

Hitachi Wooo UT Series LCDs

Hitachi has already released some of these slim LCD’s to consumers in Japan, with more to come. The 42-inch model is set to release in a few months time in December, 2008. The full-HDTV features a body that’s only 35 millimeters thick! The Wooo UT series of LCD TVs also consists of a 37-inch and 32-inch model which are already in stores — both are the same 3.5 centimeter thickness. The 42-inch model is expected to retail for just over $4,000, a small price to pay for such a skimpy (in a good way!) HDTV.

Mitsubishi LaserVue TV

Mitsubishi got people excited earlier this year at CES with the unveiling of the world’s first true laser TV. This TV uses laser technology to produce a picture with better color reproduction and screen clarity than both LCDs and plasmas of today. The LaserVue TV, as Mitsubishi calls it, isn’t the thinnest HDTV in the world, but it’s not clunky by any means. The LaserVue TV pictured here is a gigantic 65-inch prototype model that was under 10-inches thick — not bad for such a large television. Smaller LaserVue TVs will be much thinner. Experts say that laser TV technology has the potential to produce much thinner TVs than today’s plasma and LCD HDTV’s. Laser technology in HDTV design has a bright future, and should be one of the driving forces to replace the plasmas and LCDs of today. The first ever LaserVue TV is expected to be released near the end of 2008, and according to Mitsubishi, its price tag will be very competitive to other similarly-sized flat-screen TVs.

Sony’s Flexible TV Screens

If you’re wondering what the thinnest TV screen in the world is, look no further than Sony’s flexible, paper-thin TV screens. The first prototype TV screen was a 2.5-inch OLED display that was an astounding 0.3millimeters thick!…That’s not a typo…these 0.01-inch flexible flat-screens are by far the thinnest TV screens in the world. Of course a 2.5-inch screen isn’t very practical for TV viewing, but further development will make-way for larger applications. Sony hopes to use these bendable screens for applications such as being able to wrap a TV screen around a pole, or even to use it on clothing.