LCD TV Center

There s a wider choice of TV technology than ever available today, so let’s take a tour through the various technologies available for big screen and flat panel TVs to help you understand what you are shopping for.

Traditional Tube TVs:
Goo dold CRT TVs are still a viable option, although only a few of the big name brand manufacturers still make them (Sony recently pulled out).

CRT or Tube TV’s are typically limited to about 36 inch picture sizes, just a couple brands offer 40 inch TVs.

Picture quality can be good, but some of the budget TVs are not great. The high-end sets TVs (which are becoming rarer and rarer as the vendors migrate to LCD TVs) allow the viewing of HDTV.

Watch out for TVs with a built-in VCR and/or DVD player. The built-in units will fail long before the TV, are often not high quality and have limited functionality. Save the money you pay for these units and get an external VCR or DVD player instead.

A Note On HDTV (High Definition TV)
HDTV provides incredible picture quality with a compatible screen that can display it properly. HDTV signals contains much more information than traditional broadcast signals, plus the picture is created in Progressive Scan mode rather than Interlaced mode.

This means that the entire picture is refreshed with every scan instead of just every other line as is done with interlaced.

Wide Screen TVs
We recommend widescreen units with the 16:9 wide aspect ratio. This is the aspect ratio you see when you go to the movie theatre. You can still watch broadcasts on the wide aspect ratio that are designed for the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio.

Plasma TV

Advantages:
- long screen life (30,000 to 40,000 hours half life from brand names, often less with no-name brands),
- high brightness - up to 4-5 times a CRT TV,
- wide viewing angle - you can be 75-80 degrees off center and still see a clear picture,
- instant-on feature - there is virtually no warm-up time required,
- small footprint - the units are slim and can be wall-mounted.

Disadvantages: - possible burn-in or “image retention” if the same image is left displayed on the screen for an extended period of time
- heavier and thicker than LCD TVs
- pixel failure - where a single pixel just remains white all the time (more common on no-name brands - check if its covered under warranty).

LCD TV

Advantages:
- Good brightness levels (and improving)
- natural colors
- thinner and lighter than plasma TVs and good for wall mounting
- long life (60,000+ hours on brand mes, less on noname brands),
- viewing angle is about 65 to 75 degrees (and improving).

Disadvantages:
- Picture smearing during sport or fast-action movie scenes (improving)
- not as bright as plasmas.

DLP Rear Projection

Advantages:
- Lower purchase cost for a given screen size\
- Very large screen sizes

Disadvantages:
- Higher operating costs (the projector bulb can cost upwards of $300 to replace),
- larger footprint - thick and bulkier and not wall-mountable,
- poor viewing angle compared with plasma and LCD
- decreasing brightness over time as bulb ages (picture is not as sharp or bright).

The last word:
TV technology is advancing quickly and prices will continue to fall and more TV choices appear all the time.

Take your time and shop around.