The first customers of color TV

[nasadowsk]

Even today, most TVs I see in friend's homes are set up way wrong.

Then again, I saw a cheap chinese LCD tv at the soopermarket the other week. The picture was horrid - it looked like a bad avi movie on an old pentium in 256 colors. I'm sure the place is selling tons of them because they're 'flat panel TVs'.

Seriously, the existing generation of flat panel TV sets are so horrid, it's stupid. But then, what do you expect from a country full of people who Aiwa boom boxes as the 'home stereo'?

[andy]

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[Dave S]

Originally Posted by nasadowsk

Then again, I saw a cheap chinese LCD tv at the soopermarket the other week. The picture was horrid - it looked like a bad avi movie on an old pentium in 256 colors. I'm sure the place is selling tons of them because they're 'flat panel TVs'.
Seriously, the existing generation of flat panel TV sets are so horrid, it's stupid.

Hah! Ya got me thinking: in a way, we're again at the 'beginning'... of the next generation of color TV. I recall attending a seminar on producing in HD maybe 10 years ago when it was all still very new. I marvelled at the picture quality on the 'huge' widescreen analog Sony HD CRT monitor (maybe a 27-incher.) For added impact they also had the image displayed on a plasma screen, about 42", the first plasma display I had seen. I didn't even know what "dark area contouring issues" were back then, but the picture on the plasma screen sure jumped out even to my uneducated eyes as looking awfully ratty.

I guess someday, maybe soon, we'll be looking back to the pioneer days of digital flat panel color TV and fondly remember LCD's low contrast ratios and slow pixel refresh rates and plasma contouring as charming artifacts from the dawn of the digital days!

Remember, if it's digital, that means it's "perfect"!