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Televisions- The LCD or Flat Screen TV- Real Portability
LCD Television is not a new technology. In the 1970's companies like AT&T, NEC, RCA and Panasonic experimented with flat screen television. Panasonic and RCA experimented with PLASMA and AT&T worked on Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). The big problem then was the inability to get it bright enough to see in the daytime. By 1982 Casio came out with the first practical LCD TV. It was a portable black and white, and hard on batteries, poor picture quality and dim in bright light. SONY stayed with the picture tube on the Watchman and second tier TV companies stayed with LCD. Epson / Seiko came out with the first Color LCD TV in 1983. Problem with early LCD TV was sharpness, color quality and brightness but much better than the 1970's. Seiko came out with the world's first wrist watch TV (LCD of course), which was featured in a James Bond movie "Octopussy". The LCD finally overcame many of the problems in the late 1990's. Casio and Sharp basically the lone companies producing mass production LCD's until companies started to get into the LCD boom including SONY, which changed all their CRT Watchmans to LCD models. Panasonic perfected PLASMA for use in Big Screen Flat Screen's in the early 2000's
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THE FIRST LCD COLOR TV
THE SECOND LCD COLOR TV
EARLY MONOCHROME LCD TV's
THE SONY COLOR WATCHMAN
Why a special spot for SONY? Although they were not the leading edge of LCD technology, Sony put considerable effort to package and provide a portable TV that fit the trend and wants from consumers. Unlike other manufacturers of LCD tv's, Sony sets continually were upgraded or redesigned to cater to those that want to follow trends. They resisted the "same o same o" generic designs that put lots of "bang and whistles" to the product but technologically was no different than previous designs.First Generation 1989-1991
BELOW: Inside the FDL-310. There are two separate circuit boards. One for Video and another for power and audio.
Second Generation 1992-1993
BELOW: The FDL-380 uses two circuit boards. The smaller one is the radio and audio while the larger one is the power supply and video circuits.
Third Generation 1994-1995
Sony FDL-3105 (1994-95) Color Watchman (Price $325)Sony returned back to the handheld styling. Much improved picture quality and contrast. Color is sharper on a 3 inch diagonal TFT active matrix screen.
Comes with removable sun visor BELOW
Fourth Gerneration 1996-end of product line
Sony FDL-250T (1999) Price $165- Color Watchman Active Matrix LCD. High end Color Watchman. Sony's last Color Watchman as TV. Strap is antenna and the picture is crisp and clear and used LED back light. Folds up and antenna doubles has a necklace strap.
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SHOWCASE:
Casio AV-100 FREEDOM VISION- LCD Portable Desktop AV Center
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