Televisions

Televisions
1900's

Throughout the years, televisions have advanced miraculously in many ways by image quality, internal features and the design of them being improved upon. Back in the 1940's when televisions were first invented, image quality was very poor with there being very few pixels and the image being displayed being in only black and white. These televisions were also very small in size making the image quality even worse and the only feature they was once capable of was displaying a majority of channels. The price of them ranged from £200 to £500 making them available to those of a good standard of living.

The Television was first invented in the 1940's after the radio eventually died out and had a screen which was no more than 12", was only capable of displaying images in black and white and had no other features other than displaying a majority of channels.

By the end of the 1950's, the size of televisions had only slightly increased to about 14" to 16" but nearly 90% of the US population had one making them a common household item. Programs such as 'I Love Lucy', 'The Lone Ranger' and 'Leave it to Beaver' were popular during this period of time.

During the 1960's, most televisions were still in black and white but the feature of coloured televisions were introduced along with a remote to control them. Popular programmes which are still shown today such as 'Batman', 'The Flinstones' and 'Star Trek' were first broadcasted during this period of time which is one of the reasons why they are so popular today.

By the 1970's, nearly all television broadcasts were in colour and the feature of a VCR was introduced which could record broadcasted television. Soap operas such as 'The Cosby Show' and 'Cheers' were then very popular in the 1980's along with the popular television programme, 'The Simpsons' being broadcasted for the time in 1989.

Once the 1990's came, televisions could be purchased worldwide and was common to be found in all houses. The programme 'Seinfield' became very popular during this time but marked an end to an era and a start to a new beginning...

2000's

As the years progressed, image quality, features and the design of televisions have been improved upon in many ways. There are now televisions which can display 62 million pixels a second (1080p) and are capable of displaying three dimensional images. As for features, televisions are now capable of doing what a computer can do. These include browsing the internet, using social applications such as Twitter, YouTube and MySpace, listening to music, viewing pictures and much more. There are even actions such as voice commands and hand gestures which can now control televisions making television remotes obsolete. The size of televisions have also massively increased to an average of 32"-42" and can range from £200 to £2'000.

In the year 2000's, the way televisions were viewed had changed dramatically by the image being displayed being a projection from inside the television. This aloud for the size of television screens to be greatly increased to around 20" to 40". Plasma, LED and LCD televisions were also introduced during the 2000's which all used some sort of light to project high quality images on to a screen. These lights varied from being either fluorescent, crystallized or polarized. Television programmes such as 'Friends', 'CSI' and 'American Idol' were very popular during this period of time. By the mid 2000's, HD televisions became very popular along with the first LED-based TV being commercially released in 2006.

By 2007, the company 'Apple' soon began shipping a product called 'Apple TV' which is assisted by an internet connection to give an amazing high quality image. The ability to also connect to Apple's primary programme, 'iTunes' was also made available within this product which can manage music, films and pictures straight from a television. The capability to use the social application, 'YouTube' was only made available with this product. In response to this, the company 'Microsoft' soon created the software, 'Windows XP Media Centre' which could be used on computers to transfer videos, images and music to a television.

Once 2010 came, the capability to browse the internet was soon implemented into Samsung and Panasonic televisions. These televisions were capable of doing what a standard computer could do such as search for music, watch videos and socialise with others. There was however the exception of flash-based content which required a certain media player that company's such as Panasonic and Samsung did not include within the televisions. Three dimensional televisions were also introduced during this time which were capable of producing life-like images that emerged from out of the screen with the use of three dimensional glasses.

As for the future, concepts are already being considered with some even starting to be produced. These concepts involve the use of Ultra 4K HD which displays an image four times more cleared than standard HD (1080p), the size of televisions being almost triple of what they are today and the image being displayed by televisions being in mid-air. However, these televisions are estimated to be £10,000 - £50'000 making it only available to those with a higher standard of living.