2008 looks set to be another strong year for the HDTV sector, with manufacturers feeling very positive about their future plans and R&D projects.

The next 12 months and beyond look to be full of product expansion, with new features and designs set to appeal to consumers across the board.

“2008 will be a big year for Humax, as we further expand our range of small and large screen TVs, and introduce new state of the art digital recorders,” says UK commercial director at Humax, Graham North.

“HD remains a key factor in consumer buying decisions, despite a continuing lack of content, which is why this will remain a focus for Humax. Our new digital recorders, due to launch later this year, will include HDMI slots and while all the Humax TVs are already HD-ready in 2008 we will launch new large-screen versions with as many as three HDMI slots.”

Sharp is also looking to build on its brand values and market share with its Aquos range. The company aims to launch 20 new models over 2008, become more efficient in its production, and also create more environmentally friendly TVs. But it doesn't end there.

“We are also preparing to launch the world’s thinnest LCD television (34mm at its widest point) in Europe for Christmas 2008. The new AQUOS X series HD-ready 1080p LCD TVs come in screen sizes of 37, 42 and 46 inches (94 to 117cm) and will be formally revealed to the European market at this year’s IFA,” reveals Tommaso Monetto, product manager, Aquos LCD range, Sharp Electronics.  “Image quality and viewing experience is the ultimate thanks to a high resolution panel, 100-hertz technology, a dynamic contrast of 15,000:1 and a 3-way audio system. An environmentally friendly design and a low electricity consumption of less than 0.5 watts in standby mode make the new AQUOS X series models the most eco-friendly in their class.”

With 1080p now upon us, manufacturers are noting trends including a rise in peripherals, perhaps where consumers are trying to create their ultimate home cinema experience.

“We are experiencing dramatic growth in our audio/video peripherals whether that be increasing sales of Loewe Individual Sound our discrete 5.1 Audio solution, Loewe Sound Projector wireless 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS surround or BluTech Vision our Blu-Ray player,” highlights Kevin Kelly, managing director, Loewe UK. It’s hardly surprising when Individual Compose and Individual Selection full HD products are doing so well.”

But the main focus for the industry, it has to be said, is further innovation. New designs and features are already the talk of the town, with products displayed at CES spurring the industry on.

One of the biggest areas of interest currently is the super slim set.

“Thin is definitely in! There’s no doubt that super skinny panels were the talk of CES this year,” highlights Heidi Johnson-Cash, general manager for marketing, Pioneer. “Under Project KURO Pioneer wowed the CES crowds with its Advanced Design Concept. At nine millimetres thin it is the world’s thinnest 50-inch screen. With groundbreaking KURO technology the result is a picture that appears to be floating on a wall, creating an experience for consumers where the television becomes simply a canvas for great entertainment. In addition, it is extremely light weight (41lbs) which means it is easy to wall mount.”

Hitachi is also focusing on the future of the super slim screen. It’s UT series is a generation of ultra-thin (UT) LCD panels that are one third the depth of a conventional flatscreen TV, with a tiny 35mm profile and weighing as little as 10.9 kilos.

The 32" will be available in April with the 37" and 42" following in May and June. While the new screens are easy to integrate with existing digiboxes and multimedia devices via HDMI (as they don’t incorporate tuners at this stage, they cannot truly be called HDTVs) Hitachi plans to launch a dedicated digital tuner to compliment the UT series in October.

"Users want bigger and better viewing experiences but they also want unobtrusive devices with greater flexibility to fit their interiors and their lifestyles," says Richard Bass, senior manager display products, Hitachi. "Our new flatscreens are designed to fit this vision - thinner, lighter, simpler and available in colour options, they offer users new levels of freedom with which to innovate their living space.

Hitachi expects the flat-panel TV market to continue to expand and considers flat-panel TVs a core product for the coming age. With this in mind, it plans to expand it’s line up of ultra-thin LCD TVs and is working to bring next-generation ultra-thin eco-friendly plasma TVs, currently under development, to the market as quickly as possible.

For the high-end big screen market, choosing a super slim panel is as much an environmental choice as it is an aesthetic one. Notably in the 42”-and-over market that LCD is more than encroaching on now, slim-line, low energy consumption models with features like 100Hz and full-HD 1080p are becoming more critical for sales. Not only because they have an excellent overall picture quality, but also because LCD TVs is an environmentally friendly choice, consuming less power than plasma.

“Research shows that over half of consumers are planning to buy greener products this year,” notes, Mr Monetto, Sharp. “The energy efficiency factor is already part of the selling process – and we expect this to become more and more important to the consumer in future. Sharp's latest LCD technology is focused on achieving high image quality, super-thin profile and advanced environmental performance. A prototype frame-less LCD panel design of 50” is already in development with a thickness of only 20mm (main display section; 29 mm at the thickest part), contrast ratio of 100,000:1, and power consumption of only 140 kWh/year.”

Considering other technologies, it seems the concept of OLED TVs is still far from manufacturing reality. Much is being talked about OLED TVs but realistically, there are issues yet to overcome. These currently include the fact that OLED TVs are only going to be available in small sizes therefore not likely to appeal to the home cinema connoisseur, and that the current lifetime is five years, which manufacturers believe is currently insufficient. With this in mind, the companies are happy to wait for this technology to evolve before taking the manufacturing leap.

“TV brands would be wise to play a waiting game when it comes to OLEDs,” says Mr North, Humax. “The panel manufacturers will lead the way in driving the adoption of OLEDs and until this becomes a commercially viable standard we won’t see this technology take off on a mass market scale. At present, OLED is too expensive to be a mass deployable product.”

In addition to these features, enhanced contrast levels and enhanced colour gamuts are also becoming ever important selling features to consumers who are clearly becoming more aware of HDTV offerings and manufacturers are using new products with these features as a way to showcase their technical prowess.

Pioneer for example, unveiled their Extreme Contrast Concept at CES this January.

“The Extreme Contrast Concept is the industry’s first plasma that can achieve absolute black with no measurable light emitting from the display when reproducing black. Contrast ratio is defined as the ratio of the luminosity of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black). A high contrast ratio is desirable to recreate ideal picture quality. In televisions, the truer the black, the more accurate the color,” explains Ms Johnson-Cash, Pioneer.

“Exploiting the advantages of self-emitting displays, Pioneer has succeeded in reproducing absolute black by achieving zero-idling luminance in more than six million cells. Ultimately, the KURO extreme contrast concept has a contrast ratio that is literally beyond measurement, rendering the debate of contrast ratio irrelevant.”

Sharp is another company focusing on this area.

“Sharp’s RGB Plus technology enables expression of pure red with the addition of crimson red to the three conventional color wavelengths (blue, green and red),” Says Mr Monetto,” Sharp. “Diversifying the wavelength makes it possible to produce deep colours, such as red wine, on screen and it also enables the reproduction of neutral colors such as translucent, clear, natural skin. Additionally our AQUOS XL2 series use full 10-bit signal processing. This means that images are reproduced with a greater variety of colours and more precise colour gradation of up to 1 billion colour variations.

“To enhance contrast levels, Sharp uses a Pure Black Panel,” he continues. “This achieves dynamic contrast ratios of 10,000:1 which enhances clarity and expressiveness of black colours, providing more realistic pictures with fine gradations for movies and other video content. It also delivers a 2,000:1 native panel contrast, which enables the panel to produce blacker blacks and vivid colors even in brightly-lit living rooms to a degree only possible with LCD technology.”

But there’s something more important that retailers need to consider, and that is how best to display, demonstrate and explain these technologies to consumers in a way that is interesting, and not confusing.

“There is no use confusing the customer any further by bombarding him with features that have little immediate benefit,” says Mr Kelly, Loewe. “The contrast ratio isn’t the interesting thing it’s the benefit that this may deliver if he has the external conditions set up to enjoy the picture quality. Adaptive algorithms have advanced no end and the processing power is unbelievable however they don’t mean a thing if the physical manifestation of all this technology is a poor picture in dealers shops due to poor aerial, installation, interconnect quality etc.”

So there you have it; HDTV has a lot more ‘tricks’ up its sleeve for 2008, and with it, retailers need to keep on their toes with their product knowledge. As you can clearly see, technology continues to move fast, but successful retailers can keep up the pace, and make the most from what looks set to be a very profitable sector for the foreseeable future.