LCD Flat Screens Reviews

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Many home theater enthusiasts prefer a big screen TV to the bulky projection systems. They sacrifice screen size for picture quality and space requirements. There are many types of televisions to choose from but we will cover the Plasma vs. LCD TV debate first.

Plasma TV is by far the coolest and most expensive. They are extra thin, (only a few inches) and very lightweight. They’re great for small rooms or apartments since they can be hung on the wall like a picture. The superior contrast, brightness and wide viewing angle of color plasma TV’s, have made them an excellent choice for viewing HDTV programming. The price of Plasma TV’s has been dropping recently with prices starting at around a thousand dollars all the way up to 20K for a top of line huge plasma TV.

LCD (liquid crystal display) TV’s are very similar to LCD computer monitors and offer video reproduction quality approaching that of plasma displays. LCD models generally cost less than comparable plasma models. They are extremely lightweight and thin and come in sizes from 7 inches to about 32 inches and more.

Of course as the big screen TV debate continues, we must not forget the standard CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV’s. These deliver great picture quality and are the most affordable by screen size. The negative is that they are very heavy and bulky. That is why they are losing ground to the slimmer, lightweight Plasma and LCD TV’s.

High Definition TV is becoming the new standard for TV’s. The current format for television broadcasting in America, as well as much of the world, is the NTSC format. While analog NTSC may have been the format of choice for nearly 50 years, digital broadcasting is revolutionizing the broadcast industry. High definition digital television broadcasting (HDTV) provides a much higher image resolution than NTSC. While NTSC could only provide around 650 lines of information per image, HDTV offers up to 1080 lines. This allows for much more detail and clarity.

Selecting a TV isn’t as easy as it used to be in years gone
by. Rather than going to the local department store and
choosing a console that would take up a large portion of
the living room, we now have other options. Along with
those options comes the chore of locating, comparing and
narrowing down a multitude of models to just the right one
for your viewing needs.

First, of course, you’ll need to consider the size of the
room which will house the unit. Since Big Screen TVs offer
a much larger viewing scenario, the room needs to be able
to accommodate whichever model you choose. For instance,
you might like the idea of a 60″ screen, but you might only
have enough space to accommodate one that measures 42″.
Don’t make the mistake of purchasing one and then
discovering that, as much as you thought you might be able
to squeeze it into the room, it just won’t work.

Display type is another consideration when bringing such a
system into your home. You’ll need to choose a glass tube
or flat tube (the latter being the more expensive). For
higher viewing quality, you’d be better off with the flat
tube variety. Direct-views are smaller with a brighter
picture and wider viewing angle than their larger
rear-projection counterparts. If you prefer the
rear-projection variety, however, they range in size from
40 to 82 inches diagonally. Those who like the idea of
such a large picture – and have the room to house such a
unit – will be happy with the 82″ variety.

Next, you’ll have to decide whether you prefer SDTD
(Standard Definition Television), EDTV (Enhanced Definition
Television) or HDTV (High Definition TV). The STD is
really nothing more than the usual type of television that
has been in homes across America for years. The enhanced
version is an upscale of that, but doesn’t quite offer the
quality of the HDTV variety. HDTV offers high definition
viewing, and is touted as being the best viewing experience
that there is to offer to the general public.

Financial considerations are always on the horizon, and
this will be one of the biggest factors that you’ll need to
consider when determining which type of set to purchase.
Although the EDTV and HDTV models carry weightier price
tags, they also pay for themselves over the long run, if
you consider how much money you’d be spending to go to the
local cinema on a regular basis. If your budgetary
constraints are so tight that you can’t even consider such
an option, then you can still find standard televisions
which utilize the big screen TV presentation.

The bottom line is that you’ll need to consider finances,
available space in the room, type of viewing presentation,
display capabilities and the reputation of the
manufacturer. Manufacturers such as Sony, Pioneer and
Panasonic are among the highest ranked manufacturers of TV
and big screen TV systems in the current market. Others
also have a strong reputation for quality, as well, so it’s
simply going to be a matter of doing a bit of comparison
shopping.

(c) 2005 Simon Canfield – All Rights Reserved

Simon Canfield is a hi-tech enthusiast and freelance author.

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Technology by and large has made life easier for us and more productive in the workplace. However for many who are not technologically inclined it could be annoying to have to deal with the almost daily things that can go wrong with your technologies.

When it comes to flat panel monitors, though it doesn’t reduce all your worries, it does untangle you from many that you probably experience from one time or another from your cathode ray tube monitors.

Here are some things you don’t need to worry about with a flat panel monitor. Keep in mind that this is by no means a comprehensive list and you can probably add your own pros and cons to the list if you wished:

1. Focus

2. Convergence

3. Magnetic Fields

4. Burn-In

5. Excessive Power Usage

6. Heaviness and Being a Space Hog

7. May contain integrated TV tuner or has built-in features to output audio/video without the use of special (and additional expense inducing) accessories.

So think of it this way, by investing in a flat panel monitor you aren’t only getting more bang for your buck vis a vis cathode ray tube monitors, you also get a lower frequency of headache inducing technological issues that plague your life on a daily basis. Isn’t it time for change? That’s a rhetorical question, of course.

Flat panel televisions associated packages and services are available at our website.

http://www.flatpanelmonitorzone.com

If you are a TV lover and have spent any time at all walking past the displays of big screen TV’s in your local stores, I can fully understand what happens — your remote control finger starts to twitch, your rear end starts to long for that comfortable spot in your favorite recliner, and you have a sudden urge to take your shoes off. At least that’s what happens to me. I admit it, I am a TV junkie. Not that I spend a lot of time in front of the TV but when I am there, I require quality, and the more quality in video and audio, the happier I am.

But with the technology available today to the consumer, the choices almost boggle the mind. And Joe Average doesn’t follow the technology closely enough to be able to understand which technology is best for his needs. In fact, Joe’s only gauge of quality is the unit’s price tag, which is probably about the LEAST reliable gauge of them all. So let’s take a quick look at the various technologies available for big screen TV so that you better understand what you are looking AT, as well as understanding what you are shopping FOR.

Regular tube TV: Yes, depending on your budget, this needs to be mentioned as a viable option, although unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past 50 years, there is little new that you need to know about it. It’s a TV, plain and simple. Tube TV’s are typically limited to about 36 inch pictures, with a couple top-end brands even getting to the 40 inch mark. The picture is good, and most of today’s upper-end sets also allow the viewing of HDTV on the same unit. My only word of caution here is that I cannot recommend a set that has a built-in VCR and/or DVD player. The built-in units are typically not high quality with limited functionality, and for the additional money you would pay for such a combo unit, you can get an external VCR or DVD player for far less money.

Now on to the big stuff. But first, since I already mentioned it, a word about HDTV. HDTV is great, providing an incredible picture quality, provided of course that you have the screen that can display that quality. With HDTV, without getting all techie about it, the digital signal contains much more information, and the picture is created in PROGRESSIVE mode rather than INTERLACED mode, meaning that the ENTIRE picture is refreshed with every scan instead of just every other line as is done with interlaced.

I would also recommend a unit with the wide aspect ratio, like 16:9 or sometimes 16:10. This is the ratio of width versus height of the display, and the wide aspect ratio is the one you see when you go to the movie theatre. You can still watch broadcasts on the wide aspect ratio that are designed for the old traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, but it is much harder to watch something designed for 16:9 on a 4:3 display.

Another word of warning: there are big screen units that cannot do HDTV but they can do EDTV. Be aware that these are not the same. In fact, with the next step (SDTV) right around the corner, I don’t see a long lifespan for EDTV. EDTV provides better quality than standard analog TV, but not as sharp and crisp as HDTV.

The different types of big screen TVs are discussed below.

Plasma TV

Advantages: long life (30,000 to 40,000 hours from brand names, significantly less with noname brands), very bright – up to 4-5 times a standard TV, viewing angle is huge – 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 – since these units are very thin and could even 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 (although when used as a TV this is probably not a concern), can be very pricey at the largest sizes possible (currently around a 50 inch display), very few have a tuner/amplifier built in so you will be required to get an external tuner, pixel failure – where a single pixel just remains white all the time although this is much more common on noname brands and may (check!) be covered under your warranty.

LCD TV

Advantages: Great brightness levels, also very thin and could be mounted on the wall, long life (about 40,000 hours on brand names, substantially less on noname brands), viewing angle is about 45 to 50 degrees from straight on.

Disadvantages: Ghosting – where there may be “artifacts” left on the display during a fast-action movie scene because the LCD cannot keep up with it that fast, viewing angle is not as good as plasma, very expensive technology today, not as good at reproducing accurate color as plasma.

DLP Rear Projection

Advantages: Low purchase cost although this is typically offset by higher operating costs. At the sizes above 42 inches, the DLP big screen is approximately the same price as plasma.

Disadvantages: high operational cost (the single bulb in the projector can cost upwards of $300 to replace), large footprint – you will need to allocate about 15-18 inches from the wall to accommodate the unit, not wall-mountable, poor viewing angle – not much more than 20-25 degrees from straight on, gradually decreasing bulb brightness over time which means your picture is not as sharp or bright.

Understanding the various display technologies available should help you, but keep in mind that this is not the whole story. Also know that as technology advances, prices will continue to fall and there may be more options in the future. There are many other factors to be considered which are discussed at my web sites below. But at least now you have a good feel for the type of technology that will work with both your desires and your budget.

Jon Arnold is an author and computer engineer who maintains various web sites to provide tips and information on a variety of topics. More info on this topic can be found at his Home Theatre Web Site site at http://jag-info-resources.com/home-theatre/

Flat panel monitors provide a better viewing area than cathode ray tubes in the same class. Not only that but there are a host of other things that make flat panel monitors not only look sleek, but provide sleek output on the monitor such as having better focus, geometry, convergence, resolution, and dot-pitch density.

Flat panels are generally better on the eyes than cathode ray tubes (though you should still stand up to stretch and exercise a bit every now and then). They take up a lot less space on your desk as well. They are an ideal monitor for your kids as well as for yourself. If you still use cathode ray tube’s it’s almost like using one of those big clunky cell phones of the late nineties while others are using razor thin cell phones.

But lets be honest, when it comes to flat panel monitors it’s not JUST about it’s physical appearance and space-saving capabilities, that’s only the icing on the cake.

Once you try using flat panel monitors it is almost certain you will never purchase a cathode ray tube again at any price. Unless of course your current employment still uses cathode ray tubes. Perhaps you should recommend replacing them for flat panel monitors?

Hurry onto our web site for great stuff on big screen tvs insider info before it’s too late!

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