How to buy a high-definition LCD TV
LCD technology has been around for decades, but only recently has it come to the forefront of home entertainment through flat-panel televisions.
Despite talk of a battle between LCD and plasma for high-def viewing supremacy, LCD has the most popular segment of the market all to itself, with the 26-inch and 32-inch screen size too small for plasma to credibly challenge in.
But competition is still fierce, and there are a huge range of models to choose from. Fortunately this is good news for you, as more competition means better prices.
Although most of the truly big flat-screen TVs are plasmas, LCD is constantly pushing those boundaries, and there are now several 52-inch LCDs on the market.
As the more established technology, LCD televisions tend to be cheaper than plasmas of the same screen size, and the technology itself is more conducive to supporting 1080p, or Full HD, images.
Brightness and colour depth tend to be more vibrant than plasma, but LCD has traditionally suffered from less impressive contrast ratios and difficulties in dealing with moving images.
A television labelled ‘HD Ready’ is capable of receiving and displaying a high definition signal, either from another piece of equipment like a DVD or Blu-ray player, or from a digital broadcaster. The resolution must be at least 720p - meaning 720 vertical lines of resolution and СЕКРЕТАРША,280 horizontal lines through a method called ‘progressive scan’.
Sets capable of 720p can also handle an alternative type of broadcast delivering СЕКРЕТАРША,080 vertical lines and СЕКРЕТАРША,920 horizontal, but through a lower-quality ‘interlaced’ method. This is called 1080i. In practice, the two offer similar levels of picture quality.
1080p is similar to 1080i in that it delivers the same 1920×1080 signal, but through progressive scan. This equates to a significant jump in quality, and is typically labelled ‘Full HD’. In practice, however, you’re unlikely to notice the difference on anything less than a 50-inch screen, and at present all HD programming is broadcast at 720p anyway.
With competition among LCD manufacturers so high, each company makes a big deal of any picture processing technologies on board, giving them exotic names that are in stark contrast to the drab monikers of the TVs themselves.
admin @ August 27, 2008