Television Technology: History, Development, Improvement, Innovation, and Advances of TV technologies

Everyday around the world, there's always an improvement or a new invention of new technology. On a broader scope, in the field of electronics, advances in technology is very fast paced. This article however will focus on television (TV). As I am writing this topic on TVs, the currently latest mass produced model of televisions are the 3D Cinema TV which features 1080p, LED, 3D TV with free 4 glasses much like the glasses on a movie theatre. Plasma HDTVs are also mass produced with higher frequencies which are very good when watching fast motion shows such as those in sports channnel. Generally, LED and LCD models will save you money in your electric bills as compared to plasma TVs. Home Theatre System packages usually come with the sale of TVs to boost the sound system with a surround sound effect to simulate the theater-like sound quality.

I will start the history of television with the invention of the technologies back then which proved to be essential to the cutting edge and state of the art technology that we have as of today.

Conversion and Transmission of Still Images (1862-73)
Still images from a camera was converted into electronic signals and transmitted via wires

Description and Theory of Vacuum Tube and Sound Transmission (1870-80)
Vacuum tubes are described and the theory about the transmission of still images and sound signals over distances by means of telephone devices

Mechanical and Electronic TV models (1884-1900)
Images were sent via wires with the invention of the Rotating Metal Disk technology having 18 lines of resolution. The electronic tv model is also further developed using the cathode ray tube

Early Black and White Mechanical and Electronic TVs (1906-1925)
Invention of the first mechanical TVs and electronic televisions. Vacuum tubes were used to amplify the signal then send the signal over wires. On the receiving side, scanning methods were developed in order to reproduce the signal being sent and display the images back again.

First successful Color Television (1928)
Color television was patented as early as 1897 but the invention of the first successful color tv with color transmission over wires was not until 1928

TV broadcasts and TV commercials start (early 1930s)
Broadcasting of TV commercials, regular TV station broadcasts and television programs

Development and use of Coaxial cables (1936)
Co-axial cables were first used to transmit over distances the television, telephone, and data signals.

Broadcasting in Color (1938)
The first successful color broadcast was seen on 1938

Cable television introduced (1948)
Cable television brought TV broadcasts and programs to remote areas

Satellite TV broadcasting (1962)
TV broadcasting using satellite was first introduced by the AT&T company

Apollo 11 Moon Landing seen on TV (1969)
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first to land on the surface of the Moon through Apollo 11 on 1969. The first human moon landing was broadcast on TV and watched by over half a billion people

Solid state electronics (early 1970s)
Solid-state electronics technology replaced the vacuum tubes that are used in colored TVs

Betamax from Sony (1975)
Sony, a Japanese company and a world-leader in the manufacture of electronics, released the Betamax on 1975

VHS video recorder (1976)
VHS was introduced in Japan by JVC electronic company

TV with electronic remote control (1980s)
TV with a standard remote control introduced to commercial tv sets

First LCD TV sets (1988)
The first generation of LCD TVs with good resolution were developed in 1988 and introduced into the commercial tv market

Development of digital TV (1990s)
Further improvement in the television industry began with the development of digital TVs.

DVD quality video format (1995)
The DVD was invented and developed by leading electronics companies. DVD provides a better quality audio and video media format with better picture and sound quality details

Rise of LCD and Plasma HDTV Flat Panel displays (early 2000s)
Plasma and LCD HDTV flat screen TVs battle for supremacy

LED TV (2008)
LED-backlight LCD television or simply LED TV begins to be popular because it is thinner, cooler in operation, better contrast ratio, brighter display and resolution, more vivid and crisp colors, and best of all is the low power consumption which means lesser electric bills for watching TVs.

Blu-ray better than HD DVD (2008)
Blu-ray disc formats proved to be better in High-definition video (1080p) and High-definition audio than HD DVD formats

Blu-ray 3D (2009)
3D Blu-ray is developed for 3D movies and films as well as 3D Televisions and programming

3D TV (2010-present, as of my writing)
3D TVs begin to be popular and most awaited to be mass produced. The first 3D TVs use glasses with wires connected to a charger. A better technology called Cinema 3D is introduced and allows the viewer to just use glasses without a charger similar to those used in 3D movie theatres. The next technology which also I am eagerly waiting for is a 3D TV without glasses at all. This technology is already available and is in fact used in portable gaming platform consoles such as Nintendo 3DS which is able to display 3D graphics with NO glasses necessary.