What is the future of TV looking like?

We've come a long way in the last 10 years, we now have TVs that are as flat as pancakes and can cover most of my wall! Now I must be getting old to say this… but when I was young then the TV had a 1 - 2ft deep back to it, yet people complain about the thickness of some of these LCD TVs! So where is TV going?

Well first off we're going digital, analogue signals are ready to be turned off now, so in future everything will be digital which opens up new interactive options. Plus I think we're going to move away from having a set TV schedule to watch.

Oh sure we'll still have normal TV to watch for those that can't be bothered, but we'll look back in 5 years time and the thought of missing a program just because we didn't have our butts on the couch at a certain time on a certain date… will be so old fashioned! Which it is if you think about it, I mean you can record a show, but then the hard drive recorder cuts off the last couple of minutes from it to start the next recording so you miss the conclusion, and they can miss episodes too (if you have the brand that I do!).

A much better solution is just to allow us access to watch it when we want to, after it has been broadcast on the 'normal' schedule of course so they can drag out the suspense. We are already seeing that with the internet players where you can catch old episodes of shows, but I don't want to sit down at my computer to watch my favourite show!

Also in the pipeline is 3DTV, which will cause a stir when it is finally launched. The only problem is the glasses, some companies, well most actually, are making sets where you need 3D glasses to watch them. As a person who wears normal glasses then those extra 3D ones are a real pain in the butt! But thankfully there are some companies working on solutions which act more like normal TVs, and there are companies who are working on software that can convert a normal signal into 3D, so you can watch all your favourite shows in 3D.

I think those are the two greatest leaps forward we are going to see, and once we have 3DTV and TV on demand, then I'm not sure what comes next… holographic TV maybe?