Flat Screen TV Comparison: Plasma vs LCD

Flat screen TV is one of the most popular and exciting TV technologies today. At only a few inches thick, flat screen TVs offer unparalleled flexibility and convenience. Older conventional TV's, in fairness to them, did offer crisp and vibrant images. However, these TV's, which operate through a cathode ray tube (CRT), suffered from one major drawback, they were bulky. As screen size increased, so did the bulk and weight. However, the TV of old has reached its twilight years. New television technologies have enabled TV manufacturers to create TVs with wider screen size yet still only a few inches thick. Thus, flat screen TVs usher home entertainment into the 21st century.

Flat Screen TV basically refers to two technologies: Plasma and LCD. The advances in these two technologies have enabled TV makers to build thin, lightweight TV screens with a large picture area. Plasma and LCD both offer similarly large, lightweight, flat screen TV's but the similarities are skin deep for their inner workings are different.

Plasma or LCD?

Plasma and LCD TVs generally look similar however they use very different technologies. Plasma utilizes a grid of tiny cells of gas plasma that light up and create a picture when charged by precise electrical voltages. LCD (liquid crystal display) screens on the other hand are made of liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates and create images by varying the amount of electrical charge applied to the crystals. Both Plasma and LCD offer excellent picture quality. The following are their strengths and weaknesses and edge over the other.

1. Plasma screens can display blacks more accurately compared to LCD. Thus, pictures in a Plasma TV have richer contrast and better detail especially in dark TV and movie scenes. LCD TV's are catching up however.
2. Plasma TV has better viewing angles than LCD TV. How far you can sit on either side of the screen before the qualities of the pictures are affected is what the "viewing angle" is. In LCD TVs, brightness and color tend to shift when angled too far while that of Plasma TVs remain solid.
3. Plasma TV can produce brighter color while light leakages in LCD screens affect the color saturation.
4. Plasma TVs are priced relatively less than their LCD counterparts especially in the large screen segment. Plasma TVs offer much larger sizes than LCDs, yet are still priced lower.
5. LCD has a higher native resolution than plasma TVs of the same size. This results to sharper images and makes LCD TV the better choice for HDTV.
6. LCD TVs consume almost 30% less power than Plasma TVs.
7. LCD TVs are generally lighter than similar sized Plasmas.
8. Among the two, LCD screens have a longer life span than plasma screens. LCDs can last up to 60,000 hours compared to Plasma that average from 30,000 to 60,000 hours.
9. Plasma TVs are more prone to screen burn-ins compared to LCDs although newer plasma technology are less susceptible to these.

If you are looking for a large flat screen TV, Plasma TV is recommended. Plasma TVs can give you better value for your money. The price difference between Plasma TVs and LCD TVs is big. However, if you have money to burn, then LCD TV is the better choice especially if you want the sharpest images. For smaller flat screen TVs at the range of 15" to 36", LCD is the way to go. Ultimately, both technologies are still evolving and new innovations and improvements are definitely in the works.

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Mitchell Medford is an author and product consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his website for more information on home theater, LCD TVs, and plasma televisions.

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HDTV - Here is what you need to know about HDTV.

When considering the purchase of an HDTV set one of the first decisions will be whether you want a widescreen or a 4:3 TV.

If your interests lean mainly towards movies, DVDs and HDTV, a widescreen set would be a better choice. If you are a "commercial" television type of person or family, you may be better off with a 4:3 set now but you should probably get ready to buy a widescreen set to replace this one in a few years.

Manufacturers are producing fewer 4:3 sets and more 16:9 sets. There are no 4:3 TVs available in sizes larger than 40" (not just HDTVs any TVs). This indicates that the future is widescreen.

You will also have to decide how large a TV you want, or can fit into your house. Buy the largest that will fit, or that you think will be watchable from a particular distance.

Do you want, or have, surround sound? A large portion of the large screen experience can be the surround sound experience, so you need to budget for that. Buy the best you can afford

Will you want a direct view, rear projection, plasma, LCoS, LCD, DLP, front projection, etc, type of TV. All of these are various ways of saying size and money...

As for brands, they all have strengths and weaknesses. Some are better and more expensive. Some are less expensive and not as good. But most HDTVs have a good pictures when properly set up, so you may wish to investigate reliability. The cheaper sets often are less reliable and more prone to problems.

You may wish to be aware of the following reliability numbers - sorry, some of the brands were not listed... Consumers Reports reliability numbers indicating % of sets with significant problems or repairs required, lower numbers are better.

Mitsubishi - 9%
Hitachi - 10%
Panasonic - 11%
Sony - 11%
Toshiba - 12%
Pioneer - 12%
Phillips - 13%
RCA - 16%

Another reason to purchase a certain brand over another is that some brands are simply more popular and therefore it's more likely that you will be able to find information if you are having a problem or trying to activate a special feature, whereas a less popular brand may not have that sort of information available. For example, if you check out some of the manufacturers forums online, some brands have lots of posts, others have very few.

Do you want a TV set with the internal digital tuner? These types of hdtv cost more. Most people buy HDTV "Ready" sets. This means you will have to purchase/rent an external set-top-box (STB). The STB will enable you to receive Digital HDTV signals over-the-air (OTA), or Satellite signals, or Cable signals depending on the type of STB and your location. As the STBs improve you will be able to upgrade, purchase or rent integrated STB DVRs, HDSTBs, etc.

Where you buy your HDTV can also be very important. If you purchase online or from a "box-store" you're less likely to get good service. A smaller store may charge a little more, but it may be worth because of the service you may receive, the consultation and the highly recommended setup performed by a professional technician.

It's extremely important to have your hdtv properly set up once it's in your home. The manufacturers set up the HDTV to look "bright" in a brightly lit store, these settings are not appropriate for the home. You'll either need a technician to do that for you, or put some work into it yourself with a setup disk like AVIA, Video Essentials or Sound and Vision Home Theater Tune Up. Sometimes you can borrow these DVDs from libraries.

Picture color and quality in the store are typically not good measures of the TV, since it will need to be set up properly once you get it home as mentioned above. Do not purchase your set on the basis of picture quality in the store, unless you know for certain that the HDTV has been properly set up, this is only likely to happen at a smaller "high end" store.

Ergonomics and features can be important when considering the remote control. If you are going to use it a lot, make sure you like it - is it backlit for example.

Check out the various "stretch modes" for widescreen TVs to see if you like one set's approach more than another. Most HDTVs do the four basic stretch modes in a similar manner.

Purchasing an HDTV is no different than a lot of other "expensive" purchases. Do your research. "Test Drive" the units, take your time, and buy the best you can afford because nobody ever regrets buying quality.

Mark Van Neem

Catalogue: Arts & Entertainment
Title: HDTV - Here is what you need to know about HDTV. By: Mark Van Neem

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Digital camera VS Film

Digital photography, as opposed to film photography, uses electronic devices to record the image as binary data. This makes it possible to store and as well as edit the images on personal computers, and also the ability to show and delete unsuccessful images immediately on the camera itself. Digital cameras are now selling more than the film cameras; perhaps the reason is that some features that are included in digital cameras are not found in film cameras, such as the ability to shoot video and record audio. Some other devices, such as mobile phones, now include digital photography features.

Using digital photography has advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages of digital photography over traditional film include:

. Instant review of pictures, with no wait for the film to be developed: if there's a problem with a picture, the photographer can immediately correct the problem and take another picture.
. If one already owns a newer computer, permanent storage on digital media is considerably cheaper than film.
. Images may be copied from one media to another without any degradation.
. Pictures do not need to be scanned before viewing them on a computer.
. Digital cameras can be much smaller than film cameras of equivalent quality.
. Digital photography enables you to experiment with the camera settings, different styles of images can be tried out, learnt from and techniques improved all without the expense of film processing.

The disadvantages of digital cameras, includes:

. At the same price level digital cameras cannot match the quality of film cameras.
. Film cameras are generally more reliable and durable than digital cameras in outdoor environments, especially in wet, cold, and/or humid weather.
. There are special types of film, such as for infrared light, that have no equivalent in digital (CCD's are sensitive to Near Infrared).
. Film remains more admissible as evidence in court, as it is much harder to manipulate than digital.
. Film has a better dynamic range.

The Best Digital Camera\'s -How To Find Them

It seems that every month, if not every week, different manufacturers
are coming up with the latest digital cameras to tempt potential
clients. How can we keep up with them all?

After spending a lot of time reading and researching we finally
make a decision and head off to the mall for that eye-popping,
7 mega pixel, 10x digital zoom, candy colored, 512MB expandable
memory high tech prize.

Credit card in hand and half way into the mall we pass by
a new display - an eight mega pixel, up to 1G expandable memory,
with built it mic and stereo surround, video playback capable,
with 22 scenic modes kind-of-camera . And we sigh because the
producer of this amazing gadget claims that this is the best
digital camera yet out in the market. So now we hesitate we want
the "Best Digital Camera" right?

Of course we do so we spend a little more than we planned and
return home happy and excited.

The trouble is our happiness doesn't last very long, after two
months or so, there's another "best digital camera."

What you have to remember is that there will always be another
"best digital camera"

Just around the corner so in making your decision on which digital
camera to buy

there are certain factors to consider when looking for the "best
digital camera" .

MEGAPIXELS . One of the most important features of digital camera
to make it into the best digital camera category is its mega
pixel property. The higher the mega pixels the better the actual
photograph will come out. A mega pixel is equivalent to one million
pixels. The resolution of your image is based upon the mega pixel
property of your camera. This means that as you enlarge the photograph,
you would get more detail and less blurry colors.

LCD SIZE. The best digital camera will always have a large LCD
to help you frame your subject without having to squint through
the viewfinder. This is also helpful when reviewing your images,
some cameras enable touch up and editing features with its LCD.
A 1.5-inch display is average, a 2-inch LCD display is good,
but the best LCD size would be 2.5 inches or higher.

ZOOM. Most digital cameras have both digital and optical zoom.
A higher optical zoom is always better than a higher digital
zoom. Digital cameras are usually furnished with optical of between
3x to 10x . The better the optical zoom, the higher it climbs
up to the best digital camera category.

MEMORY CARD. Always make sure that your memory card is the right
one for your digital camera. There are different types of memory
card like the xD, SD and Compact Flash . These types of memory
cards go with certain types of digital cameras. of course memory
storage is also up there in choosing the best digital cameras.
Choose the size of memory that you need, if you're a photo junkie,
you might need more than 32MB . The early Memory cards were in
the MB range but these days you can get cards in the Gigabyte
range.

The key point to find the best digital camera is to find one
that will best fit you and your lifestyle. Don't just buy the
latest or the one that claims they are the best digital cameras
out in the market. You wouldn't want to buy a DSLR and use it
with your home activities or family outing and have to lug it
around.

By the same rule you don't want to buy the latest point and
shoot camera when you're serious about being a professional photographer.
(Of course, you can use this for starters, but if you're not
a novice photographer anymore, you wouldn't want to get this
kind of camera.)

Actually, the best digital camera is the one that you will enjoy
and use. Not the one that you will end up leaving in its box
stuck in a draw somewhere.

Just remember the more features a camera has the more complicated
it can become and therefore the more likely it is to stay in
it's box instead of being used. So the best digital camera to
buy is the one you can afford and will feel comfortable using
for all your photography.

If you would like more information on Digital Cameras
or Digital Photography please visit http://www.cameraelite.com

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How To Choose The Right Digital Camera

The quality of the digital camera you choose depends on what you will be using the camera for. If you're just going to be shooting pictures of you kids birthday party or snap shots on your family vacation, then you probably do not have a need for a higher end model. But if you are a keen photographer, or want to take more detailed complex photographs, then you might want to consider higher end models which offers more manual settings and a higher mega pixel.

If you really want to learn photography, you will need a good reliable digital camera. The camera must be able to shoot in both fully manual and fully auto modes. Shutter speed, aperture, focus and white balance are just a few of the manual settings you will need to adjust on higher end digital or SLR cameras. If you buy a cheap camera with only auto features, don't expect to be able to create high quality photos. In terms of digital photography, you pay for what you get.

There are great lower end digital cameras on the market. All major manufactures such as Sony, Canon and Olympus all provide digital cameras for the average photographer. Fuji for example, Fuji released the FinePix 3.2MP Digital Camera this year. At less than $200, this camera provides great quality at a fraction of the cost of a higher end unit.

Of course if you are a more advanced photographer and need something a bit more high end, there are some great digital and SLR cameras available. Perhaps the greatest surprise of 2004, was the Digital Rebel from Canon. Equipped dozens of EF lenses, fully manual settings and boasting a 6 mega pixel resolution, the Rebel is a great starter camera for the photography enthusiast.

So before you go out and buy your new digital camera, ask yourself what you will be using it for. If you're just going to use it for "point and shoot," you likely have no need for a high end unit that has 8 mega pixels and a slew of manual functions. There is a wide range of cameras out there that meet every ones needs. With a bit of research and patience, you will find the perfect digital camera.

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