It has been a long time since I was first attracted to the LCD HDTV or Plasma HDTV. But at that current time, it was not at the level of worth buying at the higher price and it was not so popular as now. Nowadays digital technology is taking over analog technology very fast and for me it is the right time to buy one. Why LCD and not Plasma?

What is the choice when you are comparing LCD TV between Plasma TV? Right now I am much preferring LCD HDTV than Plasma HDTV. Why so? I am not to explain that. Enough to say that LCD HDTV is more suitable for me as I am so keen to play games long hours, surfing internet and watch DVD movies. The main point here is LCD TV produce higher pixels than Plasma TV. The high resolution of LCDs makes text and graphics look sharp when viewed on them, which makes them the best solution for displaying data and web-based content. If you are still thinking further explanation between LCD TV vs Plasma TV, you can read from this article. For the LCD TV terminology, the best is decribed here.

Which Brand To Buy?

For a past few months, I have surveyed which was the most worth buying brand with my tiny budget. To decide which one, I have to know how the LCD TV operates and how they are competing to each other for different brand. There are quite a numbers of reviews on brands and first you must make sure what size of LCD that you preferring to purchase. For me 32inches or more is much entertaining. Maybe the brand like Toshiba, Sony, Samsung or LG to be think of. But more important here is how to distinguish between each brand and how they differ to each other.

Understand the basis.

Some may call LCD as ‘Liquid Crystal Display’ or ‘Liquid Crystal Diode’. It is about how possible to manipulate the intensity of light that passes through crystalline matrix and out of glass panel. LCD consist of tiny segments called pixels which to form images. The active-matrix of LCD (TFTs) helps predetermine amount of light that generate by the light source (usually a florescent bulb) that emits white light through a polarized glass pane behind the liquid crystal.

To create an image, addressing (pixel on/off or twisted liquid crystal) will take into process which will disable/enable the passage of light in order to display an image on the polarized display pane. Each of the pixel is divided into three subpixels (red, green and blue) so called HUE. The subpixels are created by subtracting certain wavelenghts and colors that corresponding thereto, using special filters. A single pixel triad can reproduce approximately 16.8 milion of colors (256 shades of red x 256 shades of green x 256 shades of blue). The distance between subpixels of same color in adjoining pixel triad is called dot pitch. The closer these dots are to one another, the sharper the resolution of LCD TV will be. Dot pitch is measure in milimeters (mm). The smaller the dot pitch, the sharper the images will be! (eg. .28mm)

Other consideration – Hardware and multi functional LCD TV

Most of LCD TV generally come with speakers, tuners, component video input, s-video input, PC input and HDMI input. I like to connect my PC, my XBox and my DVD player to the LCD. For PC, it have either DVI or VGA cable to connect to. Same goes to Microsoft XBox game console, it can connect to display panel output with DVI, VGA or video component connector. For the DVD player output, I shall connect it to the HDMI cable. Many of us thinking to purchase a converter unit and that is why if you plan to utilize your LCD display as what you want to, be sure to check out the specs of the unit you’re thinking of purchasing.

Dead pixel – to think about waranty issue

LCD panel consist of enormous number of transistors and upwards of 2.4 million for displays supporting a typical resolution of, say, 1024×768. This means that, if there is a problem with any one of these transistors, a subpixel will be affected, which causes the pixel associated with it to fail. For that reason, some of the maker put on several numbers of dead pixel to be appear once they will changes to a new panel. For example, Samsung and Sony only replace to new panel if the dead pixels reach up to 7 dead pixels while Toshiba will do that if only reach to 5 numbers of dead pixels. In general, number of dead pixels affecting will be few enough and virtually unnoticed by the average viewer.

Response Time and Ghosting Phenomenon

Recent advances in LCD technology have markedly increased the response time of these displays, resulting in even smoother on-screen presentations. One way to think about response time is in terms of the amount of time it takes a pixel to “refresh” itself-i.e., to go from being active to being inactive, which is to say, ready to be re-activated. Response time is measured in milliseconds (ms), with the best LCD monitors now clocking in with response times under 20ms. Slower response times (>20ms) can cause the image on the panel to lag and appear jerky, an effect known as “streaking” or “trailing.” Another phenomenon associated with slower response times is “ghosting.” This occurs when the display is made to switch quickly from light to dark states (or vice-versa). In these instances, on-screen images may appear to stay on the screen belatedly.

Widescreen Display?

LCD displays come either with a 16:9 aspect ratio (i.e., 16 units wide to 9 units high), the proper one for viewing HDTV and for watching DVDs, or with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the norm for most broadcast television shows. If you opt to go with a widescreen (16:9) display, does this mean that you’ll have to watch some shows where the image is distorted or stretched unnaturally? No. When displaying a “normal” or 4:3 picture image from satellite, VCR, or cable TV, the image can be viewed in a number of ways-in its original format (with black or gray bars on the sides of the screen), or in “full” mode (where the image is converted or “stretched” using specially designed algorithms to reduce the visible stretch marks as much as possible). Again, the quality of the picture produced under such circumstances depends largely on the quality of the television with which you scale-up 4:3 pictures or scale-down 16:9 ones. Nevertheless, this is only a temporary dilemma: Since HDTV is shown in widescreen, this is the format of the future for much of broadcast television.

Warranty and life span.

You can expect to use your LCD monitor in many capacities for many years: The average lifespan of one of these displays is 60,000 hours. If watching TV was your full-time job, and you did it 24 hours a day, it would take you almost 7 years to wear out your LCD display. With more normal viewing habits of, say, 8 hours per day, you can extend the lifespan of your TV by a decade or more (to about 20 years)!

Note: The lifespan of an LCD display is generally longer than that of similar-sized plasma displays. Some manufacturers claim that their LCDs can last upwards of 80,000 hours when used continuously under controlled conditions (e.g., in a room with “standard” lighting conditions and 77° temperatures throughout). Just how realistic such claims are is debatable. After all, whose living room has no windows and remains at a perfectly comfortable 77 degrees year-round?

A more immediate concern is the actual lifespan of the light source in your LCD. This is perhaps THE critical component of your display unit. It is particularly important for maintaining a proper white balance on your TV. As these florescent bulbs age, colors can become unbalanced, which could result in too much red, for example, in your picture. So, it pays to buy name-brand displays. You will definitely pay more for better LCD display brands like Sharp, Toshiba, JVC, or Sony than you will for cheap Chinese or Korean variety knock-offs, but you’ll get a backlighting bulb of higher quality and, in the end, a TV whose colors will stay truer longer.

In some cases, the warranty for this particular feature can be shorter than for the display as a whole. This means you might have to buy a whole new LCD monitor because the coverage on its backlight has expired. Moreover, some bulbs can be replaced, while others are built in to the unit itself. You should definitely do some research on the backlighting system, how it’s configured, and how it’s warranted.

Finally, which is which?

There are lot statements that need to be chewed. From the life span issue bring down to warranty, dead pixels and response time, which brand is most entertaining and stunning depends on your own choice. May be Panasonic is the better choice? With its engine resulting to natural colors, Panasonic may one of the most outstanding brand that definately beat other brand out there which most of them emphasis on the contrast and brightness. Consider your budget and make the right choice before thinking of purchasing!

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