LCD TV's ???

[oveRSteer]

gaz the quality of the cables does make a differance use a HDMi cable might help mate

is pretty much what i was gonna say too try better cables!

[graham John]

Plasma TV
Plasma television technology is based loosely on the fluorescent light bulb. The display itself consists of cells. Within each cell two glass panels are separated by a narrow gap in which neon-xenon gas is injected and sealed in plasma form during the manufacturing process. The gas is electrically charged at specific intervals when the Plasma set is in use. The charged gas then strikes red, green, and blue phosphors, thus creating a television image. Each group of red, green, and blue phosphors is called a pixel.

Although Plasma television technology eliminate the need for the bulky picture tube and electron beam scanning of traditional televisions, because it still employs the burning of phosphors to generate an image, Plasma televisions still suffer from some of the drawbacks of traditional televisions, such as heat generation and screen-burn of static images.

LCD TV
LCD televisions, on the other hand, use a different technology.
Basically, LCD panels are made of two layers of transparent material, which are polarized, and are "glued" together. One of the layers is coated with a special polymer that holds the individual liquid crystals. Current is then passed through individual crystals, which allow the crystals to pass or block light to create images. LCD crystals do not produce their own light, so an external light source, such as florescent bulb is needed for the image created by the LCD to become visible to the viewer.
Unlike standard CRT and Plasma televisions, since there are no phosphors that light up, less power is needed for operation and the light source in an LCD television generates less heat than a Plasma or traditional television. Also, because of the nature of LCD technology, there is no radiation emitted from the screen itself.

Plasma vs LCD
The ADVANTAGES of Plasma over LCD are:
1. Larger screen size availability.
2. Better contrast ratio and ability to render deeper blacks.
3. Better color accuracy and saturation.
4. Better motion tracking.

The DISADVANTAGES of Plasma vs LCD include:
1. Plasma TVs are more susceptible to burn-in of static images.
2. Plasma TVs generate more heat than LCDs, due to the need to light of phosphors to create the images.
3. Does not perform as well at higher altitudes.
4. Potentially shorter display life span - this used to be the case. Early Plasmas had 30,000 hours or 8 hrs of viewing a day for 9 years, which was less than LCD. However, screen life span has now improved and 60,000 hour life span rating are now common, with some sets rated as high as 100,000 hours, due to technology improvements.

LCD television ADVANTAGES over Plasma include:
1. No burn-in of static images.
2. Cooler running temperature.
3. No high altitude use issues.
4. Increased image brightness over Plasma.
5. Lighter weight than Plasma counterparts.
6. Longer display life used to be a factor, but now LCD and Plasma sets both have at least 60,000 hour or higher lifespans.

DISADVANTAGES of LCD vs Plasma televisions include:
1. Lower contrast ratio, not as good rendering deep blacks.
2. Not as good at tracking motion (fast moving objects may exhibit lag artifacts).
3. Not as common in large screen sizes above 42-inches as Plasma.
4. Although LCD televisions do not suffer from burn-in susceptibility, it is possible that individual pixels on an LCD televisions can burn out, causing small, visible, black or white dots to appear on the screen. Individual pixels cannot be repaired, the whole screen would need to be replaced at that point, if the individual pixel burnout becomes annoying to you. 5. LCD televisions are typically more expensive than equivalent-sized Plasma televisions (although this is changing), especially when comparing EDTV Plasmas to HDTV-LCD Televisions.

Hope this helps gents did my back ground work before i spent mega money on tvs

Rallye Sport Escorts
The fun, friendly and informative forum for Media, Technology, and in - home entertainment advice



cheeRS

[Andyc]

Rallye Sport Escorts
The fun, friendly and informative forum for Media, Technology, and in - home entertainment advice



cheeRS

[mk1gaz]

Cheers for the replies . I did my reasearch before buying it (went and read the mag reports in whsmiths ) and my TV is one the best rated 37 inch LCD models available . I've just spoke to the Panasonic shop and they said i can return it and swop it for a 42inch plasma version which is only £50 more . Think i'll do that as it's bigger !!!!

[flyingpilot]

It's all good advise, but with swaping for a larger one don't forget about distance. If your too close and it's too large the picture will still look "edgey" maybe blurd.

As a general rule Tv size and distance are as follows,

1.5-2.4m 14"-21"
2.4-3.0m 23"-32"
3.0-3.6m 36"-42"
3.6m+ 43"-60"

Hope this helps.

[Troll]

I know nout about TV !!

Firstly as Brian said. no one broadcasts in full HD, and Sky have told us they don't plan too - for a start there are no commercial full HD STB (set top boxes) on the market yet...

Try a blue ray player/PS3 this will give a very good indication of the quality of your LCD/Plasma.

Remember a good source is everything, and the tight arse broadcasters are extremely tight with their video bitrate (have a look at Ceebeebies), so they can shove lots more crap channels into the same bandwidth !!

I have been working in broadcasting for over 16 years, and have only just got a 42" LG LCD TV, however I am still using the a SD Virgin box, but the picture is a big improvement even on my old Sony CRT.

What ever TV you choose, remember it won't improve the crap the broadcasters choose to show us.... Eastenders -- need I say more ... lol

Enjoy..

Mark

[graham John]

What ever TV you choose, remember it won't improve the crap the broadcasters choose to show us.... Eastenders -- need I say more ... lol

Enjoy..

Mark

speaking of which,

C'mon then, who biffed Archie on the head

i reckon it was someone from the village of Midsommer, murdering lot there, besides, i reckon he is not really dead as he was on Gavin and Stacey an hour later


cheeRS

[grum]

i got a 37" Panasonic just before xmas and its a lovely picture on Sky box - yet it does "pixelate" everynow and then, but only for a secoind or so

looks good with england getting the s.africans at 51-6 at the moment

[lee bishop]

thing you need to look for is contrast ratio, we got a samsung 40" LCD about 3 months ago with a ratio of 120,000 : 1 bloody brill picture but some old stuff does look pants, get into your menu's and look at some of the settings as these may be on a default not making the best of the picture. forget plasma its getting phased out now. best technology is LED tv's where you can get aspect ratios of 2,000,000 : 1 and above and the tv's are incredibly thin

[mk1gaz]

Ok this is the story the tv geek at the Panasonic store just told me . LCD on normal tv is shite because the signal/picture gets stretched and blurs . The same thing happens with plasma but it's far more forgiving so it won't notice as much (hence getting me to swop over to plasma) . All the new tv's are designed for high definition signals and are wasted on the normal tv signals where they aren't as good as an old style tv . So in otherwords they are only better for watching dvd's etc in high defination etc but Eastenders and Match of the Day etc will look crap !!!!

[mk1gaz]

Update time , Great customer service from the Panasonic shop in sutton so well pleased with that . The new 600 hertz 42 inch plamsa was only £50 more than the 100 hertz 37inch LCD tv we had bought so the swop was made . Just got it working and the normal tv picture via the Virgin media cable box is better than it was with the LCD tv so that's some good news . It's still only a sideways step at best in picture quality from the old style tv we had but at least it's bigger !!!!!!!
Roll on the 42 inch playstation action once wifey goes to bed later .

[mk1gaz]

best technology is LED tv's where you can get aspect ratios of 2,000,000 : 1 and above and the tv's are incredibly thin

Hi Lee , i asked the tv geek at the shop about the LED tv's and he said that the LED tv's in the shops at present aren't the real thing , they are merely LCD tv's with backlit LED's in them . Pucker new generation LED tv are £6,000 !!!!!!! . Foooook that then , i'll get one in 5 years for £500 .

[mk1gaz]

Some important info for modern tv owners . Just had my brother in law over and he's switched the Virgin media box and the DVD player over to RGB picture settings and the picture is much better . The plot thickens

[Banishit]

its all about the settings and cabling to get the best from the signals

PS3 will look awesome on it

the 600 hz will only make things smoother in fast motion its a bit of a con really, if you get a 50-60 hx it will be staggery , most wont even notice, until you see a good set with a good contrast ratio and well set up

I have a sony , and a JVC and a sharp for the sons xbox gaming you really do notice the difference between them all

I would have a Panasonic Veira once one of these dies a death


the £6000 LCD's are OLED's different again http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled.htm

[Mark M]

next make sure the scart connector is a decent quality one as the std ones are ppretty crap to start with with generally bad soldered connectors

100% agree.
my panasonic plasma is a few years old, but i was not impressed when i first fired it up.
searched about on tv forums,(info here-- http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php ) and bought some good quality scart leads.
totally transformed the picture. think they were about 30-40 quid each, but well worth it.

gaz, will get the brand info for you if you like. ?