Where is TV going these days?

[jacatone]

Leo Laporte the tech guy says the TV makers are hemorrhaging money. Why is that? Is it because your two year old HD TV is now obsolete because there's UHD now? Is there ever going to be a final standard? I'm 65 and remember the good old days of analog TV when you bought that Sony CRT and VCR/DVD combo deck and were good for the next 20 years.

[ezcapper]

Leo Laporte the tech guy says the TV makers are hemorrhaging money. Why is that? Is it because your two year old HD TV is now obsolete because there's UHD now? Is there ever going to be a final standard? I'm 65 and remember the good old days of analog TV when you bought that Sony CRT and VCR/DVD combo deck and were good for the next 20 years.

After 8k UHD, there will be no point to go higher, but I share your frustration.

[poisondeathray]

TV makers? If you think about it, planned obsolescence helps the manufacturers, not hurt them. They want to sell you more TV's ; they don't want you to keep the same one for 10 or 20 years.

Part of the problem (from their perspective) is the margins are lower than they used to be. There are higher numbers of defects with flat panels, especially the newer OLCD's

There is a commoditization of prices - everybody has a flat panel, and the prices are low low low compared to to 5-10 years ago. Combined with the low margins, they can barely break even. That's why you get all these stupid features like "smart tv's", etc.. they need to differentiate to justify charging consumers more

Another part of the problem is other markets - there is this thing called the "internet ." Netflix, streaming, youtube etc.. TV used to be important. Kids grew up watching TV. Now they play games and surf (not on water). Fewer hours are spent in front of the TV, that means less advertising $ - the entire industry faces pressure. Many people don't even own TV's or watch TV anymore. That was almost unheard of 10 years ago.

[lingyi]

Too many low priced, low quality (primarily Chinese) sets is the primary reason, though the move towards UHD and (hopefully) HDR (High Dynamic Range) next year has placed the industry in a state of flux.

People buy that $199 50" UHD Black Friday special and sell off their 2 year old 32" HDTV (which is probably far better qualitywise) for $150 on Craigslist (since bigger is surely better ). A year or two later, they then sell off tbeir 50" set, because they've just bought a 65" Black Friday special, and so the cycle continues.

Back in the CRT days, the price range for a 32" TV would range from ~$300 to $1500 (for a top of the line, feature packed Trinitron). A 1:5 price ratio with most sales probably around $500-$600.

Today you can pay anywhere from ~<$500 (HDTV) to >$5000 (UHD, HDR, OLED). A 10:1 price ratio with most mid range sales probably around the $1500 mark.

High quality doesn't sell, evidenced by the large number of posters wanting to shrink their videos since "it's good enough". *SIGH*

[johns0]

If you think about it nearly everybody still uses a video screen be it monitor,tv,tablet and handheld game console.

[jacatone]

Yeah, my main TV is one of the last Sony 35 inch CRTs I bought on sale new for $300.00 in 2000 because they were getting rid of CRTs for the new flat screens. I remember the first flat screens were thick and cost upwards of $10K. I have to use a little digital to analog converter box but the picture quality is pretty darn good. I'm hoping it'll be my last TV.

[netmask56]

Yeah, my main TV is one of the last Sony 35 inch CRTs I bought on sale new for $300.00 in 2000 because they were getting rid of CRTs for the new flat screens. I remember the first flat screens were thick and cost upwards of $10K. I have to use a little digital to analog converter box but the picture quality is pretty darn good. I'm hoping it'll be my last TV.

That's a bit depressing! I'm 77 and look forward to be around to buy an 8K screen. I just wish I was 50 years younger to enjoy all the new stuff coming along... Getting a new set of eyes later this year - Zeiss trifocal implants most likely so I will need super UHD screen....

[johns0]

Try moving your 35" crt a couple feet,technology makes newer equipment much lighter.

[jacatone]

I know, my 35 inch CRT takes at least 2 people to move. I must admit the 4K UHD sets I've seen at Best Buy and elsewhere are impressive. Don't think you need go any further with image quality.

[hech54]

How many people globally (percentage) have the internet/streaming television speed capability to take advantage of all of this data required to use this stuff as normal, everyday television viewing?

[pandy]

Future is 8k + printable OLED (imagine OLED wallpaper)... maybe after 2025?

[bendixG15]

Yeah, my main TV is one of the last Sony 35 inch CRTs I bought on sale new for $300.00 in 2000 because they were getting rid of CRTs for the new flat screens. I remember the first flat screens were thick and cost upwards of $10K. I have to use a little digital to analog converter box but the picture quality is pretty darn good. I'm hoping it'll be my last TV.

Your local electric utility company loves you.

[jimdagys]

your two year old HD TV is now obsolete

I just saw a 60 inch Panasonic flat screen mfg date 2014 thrown out on the curb. I wouldn't touch it. I like my 20 inch Toshiba crt TV. I can lift it by myself, if I need to. I often see nice 20 inch crt TVs thrown out with the remote control taped to the top. Larger TVs aren't better. That is like saying a 60 inch birthday cake is better than a 12 inch cake.

[lingyi]

The current state of video is that the Genie has been let out of the bottle and future video "standards" are now in the hands of the manufacturers, designers and yes, those "stuffy"’ engineers.

IMHO, for those of us over the 1/2 century mark, we won't see the full extent of what's possible for video, unlike the final generation top of the line CRTs that pushed the boundries of SDTV.

Next generation(s) video is a cash cow and it’s being milked one teat a time. UHD? – squirt. OLED? – squirt. UHD Blu-Ray? – squirt. 10 bit HDR? – squirt. Oh BTW, 10 bit isn’t really enough, you need 12 bit and higher! – squirt. And of course you’ll need a larger screen to appreciate it all – squirt, squirt.

And don’t forget that the audio genie is also out of the bottle. Have a Dolby 7.1 surround set-up and no place to add additional speakers? No problem, Dolby Atmos, where you can install additional speakers on the ceiling!

Digital TV and HDTV are “standards” because they were government and market mandated to be backward compatible with existing equipment and will remain the “standard” for a long, long time. Everything mentioned in the second paragraph is an ‘enhancement’ that will become a ‘standard’ only through market demand, which will leave early and mid adopters with outdated equipment.