Large Screen Television Technology

A large screen television is the dream of all entertainment enthusiasts. How about spending an evening watching your favorite movies on television? It will be no less than enjoying ultimate luxury at the comfort of your home as the quality of picture and sound is similar to that of miniature cinema hall. Although there are several flat screen technology, but only the liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display (PDP), digital light processing (DLP) has been introduced to the consumers. Large screen television technology has outshined cathode ray tubes (CRT) in the television space, primarily because of its large size and the recent craze of buying flatter television.

On the other hand, forthcoming technologies such as, Organic light-emitting diode (OLED), Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display (SED) or Field Emission Display (FED) are paving the way to substitute the first flat screen technologies in terms of high quality picture.

The following are significant factors for assessing television displays:

Display size: This stands for the diagonal length of the display.

Display resolution: This stands for the number of pixels in every dimension on a display.

Dot pitch: It enables sharper images as there are more pixels in a given area.

Response Time: It refers to the time taken by the display to respond to a given input. Quick response time can make better transitions in displaying moving objects devoid of useless image artifacts.

Brightness: It refers to the amount of light emitted from the display.

Contrast Ratio: This is characterized as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color to the luminance of the darkest color on the display.

Aspect Ratio: Refers to the ratio of the display width to the display height. The aspect ratio of large screen televisions is 16:9 while that of traditional ones is 4:3.

Viewing Angle: It can be described as the maximum angle at which the display can be viewed with high quality.

Color Reproduction/Gamut: It refers to the range of colors that the display can perfectly represent.

References : -

"How LCDs Work." Howstuffworks.com. HowStuffWorks, Inc. 20 Mar 2007
"How Plasma Displays Work." Howstuffworks.com. HowStuffWorks, Inc. 20 Mar 2007
"Plasma Display." Answers.com. Answers Corporation 20 Mar 2007
"Plasma Display Panels." Plasmacoalition.org. Coalition for Plasma Science. 20 Mar 2007
"How Projection Television Works." Howstuffworks.com. HowStuffWorks, Inc. 20 Mar 2007
"Rear-Projection Television." Answers.com. Answers Corporation 20 Mar 2007
"Front-Projection Television." Answers.com. Answers Corporation 20 Mar 2007
"Rear-Projection Television. What You Need To Know." About.com. About, Inc. 20 Mar 2007

Examples of Volatile Flat Panel Displays : -

DLP (Digital Light Processing)
Plasma displays
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
Organic light-emitting diode displays (OLEDs)
Light-emitting diode display (LED)
Electroluminescent displays (ELDs)
Surface-conduction electron-emitter displays (SEDs)
Field emission displays (FEDs)
Nano-emissive display (NEDs)

Comparison of television display technologies

Although both LCD and Plasma displays are available in the form of slim flat panel displays, but if seen from a technological point of view, these two flat panel displays process the image in an absolutely diverse manner.

There are several considerations one has to take into account when choosing the display technology. To help you in making judicious decision here is a list of merits and limitations of each display technology with respect to your specific needs.

LCD

Advantages

LCD boast of some distinct advantages over other kinds of display technologies that includes, slim profile, light weight, reduced power consumption, un-vulnerable to burn-in, neither spew harmful electromagnetic waves nor suffer from glare in bright rooms and can be easily mounted on a wall.

Disadvantages

There are de-merits of course, restricted viewing angle, limited contrast ratio, slow response time, poor reproduction of black color, chances of defective pixels and last of all but the most significant: high price.

Plasma display

Advantages

Plasma TV offer several advantages over competition such as, they are slimmer and lighter, presents better color reproduction than LCDs with an amazing offering of 16 million color on standard screen, produce deep, true blacks, wide viewing angle, relatively cheaper than LCDs.

Disadvantages

Unfortunately, plasma televisions have a few limitations such as, prone to burn-in and image retention, chances of defective pixels, phosphors lose brightness in the due course of time, sizes smaller than 37 inches are unavailable, vulnerable to reflection glare in bright rooms and need active cooling.

Projection television

Advantages

Projection TV’s are relatively cheaper than their flat panel counterparts. The high quality picture in Front-projection is similar to that of Movie Theater. Front-projection occupies very little space because a projector screen is exceedingly slim, and can even run on a suitably prepared wall. Displays are available in exceptionally large sizes of up-to hundred of inches.

Disadvantages

Smaller viewing angle, susceptible to glare, lamp requires to be substituted after heavy usage, bulkier than flat panel televisions and are difficult to set up as the projector is separate and must be placed in front of the screen, usually on the ceiling.