Biggest and thinnest displays hit CES

Consumer Electronics Show 2008

This year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has seen the world's biggest and thinnest screens, offering a hint of what will be in our living rooms in the coming year.

Panasonic regained its CES crown by showing the world's biggest TV, a whopping 150in model that weighs around half a ton and stands 6ft tall and 11ft wide. It is expected to go on sale next year for £50,000.

Meanwhile JVC has gone down the other route and is claiming to offer the world's thinnest LCD TV. The 42in LT-42SL89 and 46in LT-46SL89 models are 4cm thick at their widest point.

"The slim design was made possible through a JVC-developed slim panel backlight unit and power supply substrate, or chassis," said the company.

"The new slim LCD panel backlight unit is 40 per cent smaller in depth and bezel width compared to a conventional LCD backlight, measuring just 20mm deep and 13mm wide. The unit weighs only 12kg and consumes a mere 145W."

Sony has at last decided to try organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens, offering the XEL-1 11in TV which is just 3mm thick in places. But the small size is likely to hamper sales.

While Sony is also showing off a prototype 27in OLED, it is no improvement on a similar display last year. The company may be suffering similar problems to other manufacturers in scaling OLED screen sizes.