Canon has been beavering away on SED since the mid ‘80s, and teamed up with Toshiba in 1999 to produce a commercial product. As of 2004, the plan was to begin mass production in 2005 for the initial launch. That date has been pushed back several times, and in March Toshiba announced that mass production wouldn’t kick off until July 2007, with a late ‘07 retail launch, in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics - a big catalyst for purchases of large flat screen TVs.
Based on Toshiba and Canon’s track record, it’s uncertain whether the Q4 2007 launch is realistic. And when the first SED screens hit the streets, they’re likely to be rambunctiously expensive. Expect it to take a few years before they drop to the price of plasma displays, let alone LCDs.
Still, SED seems to have a lot going for it. It brings the high contrast, fast response times and excellent colour response of CRT, along with the slim form factor of LCD and plasma screens, at lower levels of power consumption. All we need are real screens to evaluate to determine whether the reality lives up to the hype.
High definition(s)
With all this talk of high definition screens, it’s worth reflecting on the state of high definition content in this country. Just to make sure we’re all thoroughly confused during these transition years from analogue to digital television, the Government has endorsed not one flavour of high definition digital television, but three.
Currently, the most popular high definition standard worldwide is 1080i, which runs at an interlaced resolution of 1920 x 1080. This standard is being used by a majority of broadcasters around Australia, including Nine, Ten, WIN, NBN, Southern Cross Ten and Tas Digital. 720p, which runs at 1280 x 720 pixels is only supported by the ABC, while the poor cousin of ‘true’ high definition, 576p (720 x 576), is broadcast by Seven and SBS.
The final high definition standard, the monster 1080p, will only be available on next-generation discs (such as HD-DVD and the competing Blu-Ray), the supply of which is severely restricted at the moment. Furthermore, only a few commercial high definition DVD players can output 1080p, and it’s viewable on only the most expensive screens available today.
What does that mean for us? If you want to protect your investment in terms of high definition, then invest in a screen that can handle at least 1080i, preferably with a digital HDMI connector to preserve image quality. Most high definition DVD players also output or downscale to 1080i, so you won’t miss any content. 1080p is a nice concept, but is too rare and expensive to be worth considering, at least for a few years.