Televisions have come a long way since the first TV was created back in 1927. In the space of under 100 years, we have gone from extremely small, heavy black and white TVs to super thin, huge OLED TVs with brilliant colours. It can be seen that the rate at which technology is expanding in TVs is almost exponential. For example, I remember back in 2010 the first OLED screen appearing which cost teds of thousands of dollars – nowadays, it is common to see OLED screens in TVs, smartphones, tablets and more.

With 2017 only being a few months old, here is some technology to expect TVs to have in 2017.

 

 

#1 4K the Norm

4K refers to the resolution of a TV as to how many pixels the screen has, with this equating to 3840×2160 pixels. In general, more pixels results in a higher pixel density making the TV appear sharper and more vivid/life-like.

Whereas 2016 was a year for introducing 4k to the market, 2017 will be the year where many TVs will naturally adopt 4k resolution screens as a norm. Yes, you will still be able to get 1080p screens. But, these will be on much cheaper TVs. As for 720p, it is safe to say that rarely will you see a brand new TV sold with a 720p resolution in 2017…

 

 

#2 Introduction of Mainstream HDR

The term ‘HDR’ refers to High Dynamic Range. It is a form of image processing where three different images are taken with different exposure settings of an image. From this, the three differently exposed images are processed together to form one image with contrasting exposures, where the whites are more white and the darker areas are more dark.

Commonly seen on smartphones, HDR has made its way mainstream to TVs in 2017, which will add colour and depth to the pictures on a TV.

 

 

#3 Forget about 3D TVs

Being the ‘next best thing’ for TVs in 2010-2012, there was a lot of hype for 3D TVs. However, after a lack of support for TV channels, games consoles and movies in 3D, as well as having to wear uncomfortable 3D glasses that sometimes can cause headaches for users, it has seemingly lost interest with the new ‘trend’ being curved TVs and OLED TVs.

For this reason, it is safe to say that the hype behind 3D TVs has officially died, which is made clear from some of the high-end TVs not featuring 3D capability anymore.

 

 

#4 OLED the Next Best Thing

As mentioned above, it appears that the next best thing for TVs comes in the form of how the light and colours emit from the TV screen. Organic Light Emitting Diodes produce great contrast levels where they can be individualy turned off to provide the blackest of blacks. For this reason, OLED seems to be the next big thing for TVs. Unforutunately, at the moment, the cost of OLED has meant it is not a mainstream thing on TVs as of yet.