TECH SUPPORT

NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE MAKING THE SMALL SCREEN ENERGY EFFICIENT IN A BIG MAY

The country's digital television revolution may be bringing exciting, high-definition pictures and multi-channel surround sound to your living room, but it's keeping some environmentalists up at night.

They worry about millions of discarded analog TVs piling up in landfills after the old broadcast system goes dark in 2009. Meanwhile, new flat-panel TVs drawing heavier amounts of electricity than old CRT models are being sold in greater numbers every year, and many new digital rear projection TVs that use bulbs made with toxic substances are presenting new concerns with the public waste stream.

While some say all the worry is a bit overblown, a number of TV manufacturers are at work on technologies that could help diminish some of the environmental impact. One of the latest such technologies hitting consumer electronics stores right now uses a light-emitting diode (LED) array in a new class of Digital Light Processing (DLP)-based rear-projection HDTV sets. This lighting system is used in place of UHP bulbs that are made with toxic mercury, among other things.

These LED arrays offer a life span that's estimated, conservatively, at 20,000 hours, making it good for three to five years of average use. UHP bulbs are typically rated at only 1,000 hours.

Samsung recently began selling the first LED-based DLP rear projection television. Model HL-S5679W, which sells for about $4,000, features a 56-inch screen with an ultra-high, 1,920-by-1,080 (progressive) pixel resolution.