Blogging Live from SID Display Week!

Members of the LCD TV Association met Sunday night before the Society of Information Display (SID) International Symposium in San Antonio to save energy. While some may ask how flying from cities around the world to a room overlooking the Alamo can save energy, the answer is quite simple. People spend a lot of time watching TV and-whether they think about it or not-they spend a lot on electrical power. Reducing the power consumption and carbon footprint for millions of TV sets seems worth some investment in time and travel.

The association made several decisions about how it would evolve the definition of a green TV over time. A guiding principle was coordination with other standard-setting bodies so that consumers could understand the value of the green TV badge and producers could re-use investments in tests and qualifications.

Figure 1: Green TV Logo

TFT LCD has become the primary technology used in TV sets in part because it saves power and space. The technology has improved rapidly as well. Later this week, Sharp will show a 60″ LCD with five primary colors here in San Antonio. Adding cyan and yellow to the normal red, green and blue creates more realistic images than any TV has delivered before.

It is exciting to see that TFT LCD companies are still innovating. Some journalists assume TFT LCD is yesterday’s technology and write about the immanent arrival of new ones. If so, they should come to San Antonio. Not only will tomorrow’s LCD TV be greener it will also be golden.