Using televisions has become a part of people’s everyday lives. Technology has indeed taken a far leap to deliver a lifelike experience to every home, from the yesteryears of big and bulky boxed screens to today’s high-definition flat screens. Let’s take a little trip down memory lane.

With the availability of black and white televisions in the 20th century, people embraced the idea of having a TV set in every household. During those times, the moving images seen on screen were because of the phosphor-coated screen and the electron beam that projected the picture.

CRT Technology

And few years after people have been accustomed to black and white television sets, it was through the German physicist Ferdinand Braun that CRT or Cathode Ray Tube was invented in 1897. CRT gave birth to colored television through three electron beams referred to as RGB or red, green, and blue. From these primary colors come the different colors that are displayed on TV screens.

LED Displays

Fast forward to 1961, the first Light emitting Diode or LED was invented by Nick Holonyack, earning him the “father of LED.” Though lack in color and efficacy is found in Holonyack’s invention, its discovery later prepared the way for other display advancements. At present, LEDs are flat display panels that use light-emitting diodes as pixels for video display, allowing the lights to become dimmable if needed. How cool is that!

LCD Displays

         Before the one you have at home right now, LCD or Liquid Crystal Display was first invented in the 1960s and was further researched by James Fergason in 1972 that led to the creation of the first modern LCD watch. This then laid the foundation of the flat-screen TVs today. 

Suppose you try to wonder how the vast display of LCD televisions in Cork work; here’s how. LCDs do not emit light directly as opposed to the electron CRT beams. A backlight source is utilized through light-modulating properties of the liquid crystals—that’s how it illuminates.

Plasma Display

Years went by and technology kept on moving forward. 1995 came, and Plasma Displays introduced themselves to the public. Through plasma technology, people enjoyed watching TV in reduced screen versions because of cathode tubes’ absence. Goodbye, heavy and bulky TVs!

OLED Displays

Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) televisions are a popular TV favorite and are usually compared with LCD televisions. OLED displays are thin and flexible, smaller than LEDs and LCDs. People who purchase televisions in Waterford are generally enticed by the OLED display’s ability to display deep black levels of color in the images making the display look elegant and lessens eye strain and headache on the viewer’s part. OLEDs work without the backlight—it suppresses flickers that make TV watching safe and enjoyable.

AMOLED Displays

You got it! AMOLED displays are the improved OLED version with increased resolution, and infinite contrast ratio introduced itself in 2008. Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode or AMOLED made screens thinner and flexible than early TV versions that make a superb viewing experience.

However, since it carries Organic in its materials—devices birthed from AMOLEDs only last for a couple of years. Yep. That’s one worrisome flaw that this advancement has.

Quantum-Dot Displays

In 2013, QLED or Quantum-Dot Light Emitting Diode, also known as Quantum-Dot Technology, paraded itself and speedily made its way until today. Quantum dots are tiny particles (semiconductor nanocrystals) used as light sources that carry high-intensity images when hit with light.

Because of this technology, images displayed on TV screens are MORE vibrant and lifelike—think 3D? Oh, there’s so much that QD displays can do. It only gets better.

Check out this infographic to learn more about television technologies.