Thinner, more stylish, and better-connected sets are on the way--eventually. But don't have immense outlay cuts anytime soon. Five years ago, just about any flat-panel goggle-box could get oohs and aahs, and high-definition was a rarity. Today, although flat-panel HDTVs are in only 25 percent of American households, they're collective enough that the gee-whiz proxy is gone.
So where do HDTVs go from here? For more on HD services, be steady to scan. Improvements in portray sharpness and advances in protect enormousness are probable to be gradual. "It's character of take a shine to computers: If you tarry around, there will always be something better around the corner," says DisplaySearch HDTV analyst Paul Gagnon. But the next footstep for HDTV isn't about technology per se.
It's about the sophistication of watching, which brings formerly inessential considerations--such as design, unconcern of use, and integrated audio--to the fore. As a result, you'll not only peer what you brood over on your set, but you'll also have a better period experiencing that serenity in your home. A Nod to Style In this post-iPhone world, where industrial plan is king, TV manufacturers are paying especial distinction to the gaze and intuit of their products and to integrating software with hardware. "Everyone is looking for a sui generis characteristic," notes Gagnon. "You accept it in laptops, you escort it in room phones--and now everybody wants a only utterance of originate in a TV.
" Just as apartment phones, digital cameras, and laptops now come in colored packages, TVs too are pathetic beyond principal black. Manufacturers are also fetching a cue from the sleek details found on smaller products. LG Electronics, for example, recently introduced TV sets with color and colouring tweaks.
The 32-inch LG40 features such accents as a curved support and a red front-drop bezel; the back of the LG60 is red, too, and you can pay the way for a scamper of color peeking through the lesser and front. An even bigger underlining this year is on thinness. Hitachi, JVC, and LG have all revealed watery sets, ranging from 1.5 inches to 1.7 inches thick.
Crafting such a slender TV is a technological challenge. LG, for instance, achieved its products' 1.7-inch sageness by reengineering the circuitry around the LCD module--and reengineering the TV's cabinet--to take out abandoned space. In the future, you'll drive even more slim sets on the market: Sharp's newest manufacturing adroitness begins profusion making next year, and it will be skilled of producing ultrathin 60-inch panels.
Despite the slimmer profiles, tube manufacturers are stuffing immature features into this year's cabinets, improved speakers being most important amidst them. A slew of companies, including Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, and Westinghouse, have added speakers that sparkle down a substitute of forward, which audio experts set forth achieves more full-bodied sound. And in its modern development models, LG has positioned secret speakers--they're located behind the cabinet, so that the be opposite bezel looks smooth. JVC has even introduced multiple models that have an integrated "Made for iPod Dock," which lets you pit oneself against both audio and video from an iPod on your television.
Also attractive escape this year: televisions that fix to your residence network so you can wire-tap into its content. Last year Hewlett-Packard and Sony were at the fore of this trend, and Pioneer offered some sets that concur with the Digital Living Network Alliance certification (an trust that they'll be able to interact with other DLNA devices such as PCs, gaming systems, and storage devices that are on your old folks' network). HP is installing in all of its 2008 models a Windows Media Center Extender, which lets you access multimedia on your PC via a domicile network. Later this year Sony will count up a DMeX (Digital Media Extender) opportunity to its sets, allowing them to interact with DLNA-compliant networks. Internet connectivity comes in for a boost, as well.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Sharp introduced models with its Aquos Net handling (for receiving customized Web-based content); Panasonic unveiled its VieraCast benefit (for watching YouTube videos and accessing photos via Google's Picasa photo-sharing site); and Samsung showed TVs that could acquire an RSS newsfeed powered by USA Today. All are expected to be released any time this year. As with all further bells and whistles, some of these developments are meet to be here today and gone tomorrow. The summons for manufacturers is to gather the equity rest between next-gen features and guerdon in a competitive market. "For now, they're just testing the waters," observes DisplaySearch's Gagnon.
"I deem a lot of manufacturers are unsettled to develop in features that they're not reliable will infer off." The downside of such a wrong is obvious: Increasing the prices of televisions to total a supplemental character that no one uses is a unused of net for both manufacturers and consumers.

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