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Pros and Cons of Each
Brightness Brightness in LCD and plasma screens is typically expressed as candelas per square meter (cd/m2). Typically, plasmas are listed at 500-700 cd/m2, but independent reviewers say that that the brightness of plasma is closer to 100 cd/m2. Conversely, LCD TVs typically get a brightness rating of 450 cd/m2, again when measured independently.
Contrast Ratio Contrast ratio is the measurement of the brightest white against the blackest black that the TV can create. The higher the contrast ratio, the easier it is to discern details on the screen. Current plasmas measure contrast ratios of up to 3000:1. However, independent reviewers believe that measured in real world viewing situations, contrast ratios for plasma TVs drop to approximately 200:1. Conversely, LCD TV contrast ratios range from 350-450:1 when measured using the same realistic standards.
Color Saturation Color saturation describes the amount of grey in a color. The more grey, the lower the saturation. Plasma has the advantage over LCD in the area of color saturation because of it's method to light blocking. Plasma is able to completely turn off pixels when not in use, so that no stray light dilutes the colors. The way LCD technology works means that there is some stray light and therefore obtaining true color is difficult.
Screen Size Right now, the plasma market offers TVs as big as 60 inches, and no plasma TV is available smaller than 32 inches. LCD screen sizes range from 13 inches to 46 inches, and because of manufacturing innovations, larger models are becoming available every year. Look for LCDs to catch up in this area soon.
Viewing Angle Historically, plasma TVs have had a larger viewing angle, at about 160º, when measured against older LCD TVs. However, the newer model LCD TVs have viewing angles up to 175º degrees.
Burn In Burn in is what happens when an image stays on a plasma screen for an extended period of time. LCD's are not at all susceptible to burn in. While Plasma TVs are vulnerable, some newer plasma TVs have added features that combat it.
Lifespan Typical plasma TVs have a life span of 20,000 to 30,000 hours, which equates to at about 20 years of usage if you have the set on for 4 hours a day. The lifespan of an LCD TV is typically 50,000 to 60,000 hours, or about 40 years running 4 hours daily.
Response Time Response time is the amount of time, measured in milliseconds (ms), that it takes for a pixel to go from active to inactive and back to active again. Lower numbers mean faster transitions and fewer visible image artifacts. Plasma TVs were made to handle rapid movement on the screen more effectively. They can have response times as low as 15 ms. LCD TVs started as PC displays, and so the need to show fast movement wasn't critical; somewhere around 25 ms. LCD manufacturers have been steadily improving their response times as the demand for fast moving, full motion video has increased. Newer model LCD TVs can have response times as fast as 16 ms.
Power Conservation Because the crystals in LCD TV do not produce light, the technology is labeled as "non-emissive," which means it does not give off radiation like the CRT. Cold cathode light sources, like fluorescent tubes, which use only a little power, are used to illuminate the image. LCDs also use less power than plasma televisions, because plasma requires powering hundreds of electrodes to stimulate the phosphors.
Conclusion Knowing that flat TV is not going away, there is no time like the present to start enjoying all the advantages that these new technologies. Check out Philips line of Plasma and Flat TVs online today.
It seems like everyone is excited about widescreen TV. Really, who wouldn't be-especially if you are someone who loves movies? But things get complicated when you start to hear talk of anamorphic formats and aspect ratios. What if you just want a great big picture?
What is Aspect Ratio? Aspect ratio refers to the relationship between the width and height of the viewing screen. A standard TV is 4:3, which means that it is four units wide by 3 units high. This breaks down into 1.33 inches of width for every inch of height, calculated by dividing 4 by 3. (You may see standard TV referred to as 4:3 or 1.33:1. Widescreen TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9, or 1.76 inches wide for every inch high (referred to as 1.76:1).
How Aspect Ratio Affects the Movies. If you are a film buff and want to watch movies at home that are in the same format that was shown on the big screen, consider this: movies made for cinema screens are filmed with an aspect ratio of between 1.85:1 and 2.4:1, and the director consciously uses the entire screen to tell you the story. So when a movie is re-packaged for television broadcast, various editing methods are used to try and make everything on the large movie screen fit onto a 1.33:1 TV. That means that 40-50% of the movie is affected.
Letterbox Format. Another way to get cinema-sized films onto a TV is using the Letterbox format. Most people have heard of this. Letterbox means that no editing was done to the film, but rather the way that the TV screen is manipulated to match the aspect ratio of the film. By adding a black area along the top and bottom of the screen, often referred to as "black bars," the TV screen is able to mimic the aspect ratio of the movie screen. While you don't necessarily miss out on any action, this is not always an ideal solution because on smaller TV sets, the narrow strip where the movie appears is even smaller, making it hard to see all the details. The bigger the TV screen, the less problematic the letterbox will be.
Widescreen to the Rescue. Perhaps the greatest thing about widescreen TVs is that they mean an end to the need for action-eliminating edits. Since the aspect ratio is of widescreen is closer to that found in movie theaters, there is plenty of room for the whole picture. However, because the aspect ratios do not match exactly, there may still be black bars around the movie (making it either letterboxed or sideboxed or both), but they will be narrower and therefore won't affect the image area as greatly.
And since more and more people are buying widescreen TV's producers are filming specifically for widescreen formats. That means that there is more widescreen content available than ever before. Since more and more TV stations are expected to be broadcasting digitally and the top digital format, HDTV, can supply an aspect ratio of 16:9, widescreen will soon be everywhere. It is likely we will see the ubiquitous 4:3 TV slowly replaced by widescreens. Philips has a large selection of widescreen tvs available online. View them now.
All that new HDTV widescreen content will be nirvana to widescreen owners. But there still be 4:3 content. What does 4:3 content look like on a widescreen TV? Anything you watch can be presented in multiple ways on widescreen because almost all sets feature different viewing modes that you can choose from. People develop their preferences. The modes generally include: · Normal: When watching 4:3, you will see black bars on the sides to match the 4:3 aspect ratio. · Zoom/Enlarge: This mode magnifies a 4:3 image, crops the top and bottom of the image, and removes the sidebox. · Wide or Full: The mode most preferred for native 16:9 content, like DVDs, but when selected while watching 4:3 content, stretches the image horizontally, making people look shorter and fatter. · Panorama (a.k.a. Theater or Natural): A combination of stretching and zooming to fill the screen. Manufacturers use different approaches to present this mode. Some TVs stretch the sides of the image more than the middle, so most people look normal, and some might crop just a little off the sides and not stretch as much.
Again, after experiencing all the modes, most people develop a preference depending on what content they are watching.
No matter what, having some understanding of aspect ratio and widescreen TVs can help you make the most of whatever type of TV you have and allow you have the best at-home movie watching experience possible. Philips has a large selection of widescreen tvs available online. View them now.
The ultimate viewing experience is achieved when all these aspects of HDTV come together; a show or movie that is produced using high definition technology, is transmitted via an HDTV television signal (from an HDTV channel), and enjoyed on an HDTV television (preferably as part of a total home theater package. The Philips Store offers a wide range of DVD players, audio, and televisions to help you put together the perfect high definition experience.
HDTV televisions Televisions that take advantage of high definition broadcast signals can be divided into HD-ready sets and HD-capable sets. An HD-capable TV provides you with a screen that is able to display an HDTV signal, but it requires an additional external HDTV receiver/decoder to fully interpret the high definition broadcasts. Conversely, the HD-ready sets have an HDTV receiver/decoder built right into the television itself. If you purchase an HD-capable set, you should plan on spending from $300 to $600 on an HDTV receiver. Phlips has an extensive line of HDTVs. View their selection online now.
How high definition is different Most people are watching TV with an analog set. And most TV broadcasts are still coming to your TV as an analog signal. Understanding analog is a good way to begin to grasp what's makes HDTV so much better. So what makes HDTV so much better? Comparing the two technologies can give you a glimpse.
Resolution First, TV screens are made up of pixels. The more pixels per inch, the better the picture. Measuring the number of pixels per square inch is a good way to differentiate between TV sets.
Scan Lines Scan lines are the lines of pixels that run horizontally across the screen and contain picture information. They are refreshed to make the picture change. Again more lines mean more sharpness and detail. Analog has 480 visible scan lines and HDTV ranges from 720 to 1080.
Scan Method Next, understanding how the TV "paints" the scan lines onto the TV screen can help you understand how HDTV is different from analog. All analog TVs are interlaced (abbreviated as i). This means that the screen paints and re-paints half of all the lines on the screen every other frame, so that the entire screen is updated 30 times every second. There can be drawbacks to this type of scan, like a perceptible flickering that some people find distracting but others don't even notice.The other way to paint the screen is via progressive scan (abbreviated as p). Progressive scan updates all the lines on the screen at the same time, 60 times every second.Having a choice in between progressive and interlaced is one advantage of HDTV. Many people have their preferences.
Aspect Ratio Aspect ratio refers to the relationship between the width and height of the TV screen. A standard TV is 4:3, which means that it is four units wide by 3 units high. This breaks down into 1.33 inches of width for every inch of height. 16:9 aspect ration means that the screen provides 1.76 inches of width for every inch high. These dimensions are much closer to the way movies are presented.
Sound Dolby Digital is a digital audio coding technique takes advantage of how the human ear processes sound to create high-quality sound. It masks or eliminates extraneous noises in the audio, so that you only hear what is intended. This helps to reduce the audio information to one tenth of the data on a CD. And Dolby Digital can provide five channels for surround sound quality. This multichannel scheme is known as 5.1 channel. Since not everyone has the equipment needed to take advantage of Dolby Digital's 5.1 channel sound, a feature is included so that the audio is compatible with any playback device, like a single speaker television. The U.S. cable television industry has also adopted Dolby Digital for DTV. Most television facilities are not equipped to produce 5.1 channel sound. For this reason, many DTV programs use two-channel sound. The 5.1 channel sound is used primarily for theatrical films on pay-per-view channels and at theaters.
Part of the DTV family Digital television (DTV) is an FCC-defined way that signals are transmitted. Even though HDTV is digital television, not all digital televisions are inherently capable of displaying high definition.
HDTV is just one of many digital formats. Standard Definition TV (SDTV) and Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV) are two other levels of DTV. HDTV is the best you can get--with higher resolution and excellent audio. In fact, HDTV provides resolution that's about 5 times better than analog TV. Philips has an extensive line of HDTVs that you can purchase online.
More than just a TV If you do not want to invest in a high definition TV now-or ever-you don't have to. You will still be able to use your analog TV even after everything goes digital. But chances are that by then, you will have had a chance to see the difference. Many people say that they did not understand the excitement over HDTV until they experienced it. Know whether the TV you buy is HD-capable or ready to go. If it is HD-capable (also referred to as an HD monitor), you will need to purchase an additional set-top box receiver to get the signal. HD-ready sets have the receiver built in. Also, some people are fooled because they buy a widescreen plasma TV and think it will give them HDTV performance. Your TV must have the ability to display the resolution defined as High Definition to be considered an HDTV.
If there are no local stations broadcasting in HD, you still will reap the benefits of your investment. A high definition TV improves upon standard broadcast TV. Almost every HDTV has a processor that takes an analog TV image and converts it to an improved progressive scan. But be forewarned: sometimes HDTV buyers are disappointed by how regular television looks on their new sets because minor details or flaws that they might have missed before are exaggerated.
Seeing is believing; it does provide an amazing picture that will change the way you watch TV. Check out the wide variety of HDTVs available online at the Philips store.
The information tells the TV what the picture is supposed to look like. Once received, the TV paints that picture onto the screen pixel by pixel, forming horizontal rows, called 'scan lines,' across the screen. The TV continues to paint and re-paint these scan lines multiple times every second. This refreshing of the scan lines happens so fast that the human eye perceives the changing picture as fluid movement.
Interlaced Devices that utilize interlaced scanning paint half of the scan lines (referred to as a field) and then paint the second half. Each field is updated 60 times per second. And a frame, made up of the two fields, is completely refreshed 30 times per second. While interlacing works well on smaller sets, on the bigger TV screens that are out today, the refreshing process may be visible to the eye, so that some people notice a perceptible flickering.
Progressive Progressive scanning paints all of the scan lines onto the screen at the exact same time, 60 times per second. Progressive scanning was developed for computer monitors in order to decrease flickering. Progressive scan has fewer jagged edges and can show movement in better detail with fewer trails (called artifacts). Philips offers a variety of tvs and DVD players that use Progressive Scan. Check out the selection now.
The way that these scanning methods are expressed is: a number that represents the number of scan lines, and a letter that indicates interlaced or progressive. For example, 480p means 480 scan lines updated using the progressive scanning method.
Along came DTV Interlaced and progressive probably wouldn't be a topic of discussion if digital television (DTV) hadn't come along. As you may or may not know, many TV broadcasters have become fully digital, and there are channels broadcasting with digital signals in all major markets.
DTV standards allow broadcasters to select from several different transmission formats. Knowing about the format differences is also critical to choosing the right TV. The specific formats are:
Because broadcaster can have either scan method, many HDTVs have features that allow them to scale to the non-native scanning method. For instance, an incoming 720p signal is translated to the 1080i format. The best HDTVs will show 720p as 720p, rather than scaling it to 1080i and vice versa. Neither interlaced or progressive will disappear, or fail to be supported. And you will still be able to watch an interlaced broadcast if you purchase a progressive scan TV. The better the TV, the better the image, even if the scan types are not the same. Check out Philips extensive line of televisions online today.
i and p in DVD DVD players and recorders come in both progressive and interlace scan modes, meaning that they use one or the other to send their signals to your TV. Some let you select the output depending on the scan method you want (to match to your TV). And many have features like 3-2 pulldown processing , which improves the look of film-based sources when being converted to progressive-scan.
Conclusion So now you know a little about the i's and p's of TV. Devices are not better or worse than each other simply because they are progressive or interlaced. Neither will be going away and in the end, you will definitely be bringing home a better TV if you take advantage of DTV features. See Philips line of Progressive scan DVD players and televisions!
