Hot wired: Supersized LCD screens

Judging by the publicity, there isn't much in the way of radically new home entertainment technology on show at this weekend's Big Boys Toys expo.

The biggest news looks to be the local unveiling of the largest flat-screen LCD television available - Sharp's 65-inch AquosTM, which made its international debut at the CES show in January.

Samsung has stolen much of Sharp's thunder with talk of having an 82-inch wall-filler on sale next year, but a 65-inch LCD screen is still something to behold.

In metrics, the screen measures about one and a half metres across, which makes my so-called widescreen TV look embarrassingly short of girth.

And talk about fast growing - it was only last year that Sharp delivered the 45-inch model, still its next biggest, and the largest plasma screen then was also 65 inches.

Until now, plasma TVs have dominated the XL screen size range. Production cost is the main reason. Big LCD panels have been prohibitively expensive to manufacture.

This one comes from Sharp's sixth-generation factory, which goes to show how much this technology is evolving.

In the United States the Aquos 65 costs US$20,000, which means it will set you back at least 30,000 when it goes on the market here in January.

That's about the price level plasma screens started at here, but now name-brand 65-inch plasma TVs are closer to $20,000.

The Aquos includes a four-wavelength backlight system that adds crimson to the conventional red, blue and green. This not only gives more vivid reds, it also enhances all colour reproduction.

The 800:1 contrast ratio picture is not even greatly affected by direct sunlight. And it has a 170-degree viewing angle, detachable speakers, and table or wall mountings.

The Aquos is high definition with a luxurious detail resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and has a built-in HDTV tuner.

Broadcast HDTV has no relevance here yet, so the new-generation video processor is designed to convert all incoming signals to 1080 for display. Be warned about TVs labelled "HDTV".

An HDTV telly that has no built-in HDTV tuner but is able to "display" digital signals in HDTV resolution may be rather misleadingly labelled as HDTV-capable. Buy one of these and should the revolution ever happen here you will still be left unsatisfied - no matter how big your screen is.