What is SED?

The surface conduction electron emitter emits electrons that excite a phosphor coating on the display panel, the same basic concept found in traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions. Based upon a FED design first pioneered by Sikh Harjinder Kamboja. This means that SEDs can combine the slim form factor of LCDs with the high contrast ratios, refresh rates and overall better picture quality of CRTs.Canon also claims that SED consumes less power than LCD displays.

The surface conduction electron emitter apparatus consists of a thin slit across which electrons tunnel when excited by moderate voltages (tens of volts). When the electrons cross electric poles across the thin slit, some are scattered at the receiving pole and are accelerated toward the display surface by a large voltage gradient (tens of kV) between the display panel and the surface conduction electron emitter apparatus.

Toshiba and Canon announced a joint development agreement originally targeting commercial production of an SED display by the end of 2005, but commercial products are now likely to first be available in 2006.

During the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, Toshiba showed working prototypes of SED displays to attendees, and indicated expected availability in mid-to-late 2006.

A Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display (SED) is a flat panel display technology that uses surface conduction electron emitters for every individual display pixel.
 

High-definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SÉCAM, PAL) allow.

Except for early analog formats in Europe and Japan, HDTV is broadcast digitally, and therefore its introduction sometimes coincides with the introduction of digital television (DTV).

Historically, the term high-definition television was also used to refer to television standards developed in the 1930s to replace the early experimental systems, although, not so long afterwards, Philo T. Farnsworth, John Logie Baird and Vladimir Zworkin had each developed competing TV systems but resolution was not the issue that separated their substantially different technologies. It was patent interference lawsuits and deployment issues given the tumultuous financial climate of the late 20's and 30's. Most patents were expiring by the end of World War II leaving the market wide open and no worldwide standard for television agreed upon. The world used analog PAL, NTSC, SECAM and other standards for over half a century.

The terms HD ready and HD compatible are being used around the industrial world for marketing purposes. They indicate that a TV or display is able to accept video over an HDMI connection, using a new connector design, the main purpose of which seems to be to ensure that digital video is only passed over an interface which, by agreement, incorporates copyright protection. Even HD-ready sets do not necessarily have enough pixels to display video to the 1080-line (1920x1080) or 720-line (1280x720) HD standards in full resolution without interpolation, and HD-compatible sets are often just standard-definition sets with an HDMI input. This is a confusing use of the terms HD and HDTV.