With decreasing price points and performance improvements, the LCD TV is now the dominant type of television being sold. However, do you know them well? Do you think they are your only choice? Well, this article aims to guide you through their purchase process and also unveil some essential facts about them.

The invention of television itself was the result of many inventors, engineers and scientists. In 1888, an Austrian botanist and chemist, Friedrich Reinitzer first discovered the liquid crystals. He found it in cholesterol extracted from carrots. Further, in 1962, Richard Williams, an RCA researcher, generated a stripe pattern in a thin layer of crystal material. He did that by applying a voltage to it. The striped effect, now known as ‘Williams domain’, was the result of electrohydrodynamic instability. According to IEEE, a team of researchers and engineers at RCA, led by George Heilmeier with Louis Zanoni and Lucian Barton devised a method. This method was for the electronic control of light reflected from liquid crystals. With this, they demonstrated the first liquid crystal display. Their work launched a global industry that now produces millions of LCD TV.

Understanding the inner workings of an LCD TV

Indeed, it is fascinating to know that the simple LDC TV that we have in our living rooms is a result of such massive efforts. But, have you ever been curious about what this LCD is? Well, let us enlighten you a bit. It is typically a flat panel television. Moreover, it utilises the same underlying liquid crystal display technology. The LCD panels come with two layers of glass-like material. They are polarised and glued together. One layer comes with a special polymer coating that holds the individual crystals. An electric current is passed through individuals crystals. This allows the crystals to pass or block light to create images. The LCD’s don’t have the light of their own. Hence, an external source such as fluorescent or led light bulbs is required for you to see the images.

Essential features of LCD TVs

As a buyer, the screen size of any television is of paramount importance. Obviously, you, as users, will generally fancy the largest LCD TV out there. And that’s good. Because the bigger the screen size, the better. However, ideally, you must decide on the screen size depending on the available size and space. Two to five feet is the accepted distance for a 20-27 inch LCD TV. Moreover, the resolution or the picture detail determines how finer and sharper your picture quality is. Better the resolution, the sharper your image will be. That is, an average TV offers a minimum pixel resolution of 1280×720. Furthermore, the contrast ratio is another fundamental factor to consider while buying an LCD TV.

Advantages of LCD TVs

It is much more advanced than its CRT counterparts. They not only are significantly brighter but also feature higher contrasts than the CRT monitors. Also, a 15-inch flat-panel in LCD TV gives the same viewable screen like a 17 inch CRT monitor. That’s why it is easier to watch LCD TV than CRT’s. Moreover, they come with an improved LED backlighting systems. This enables better black levels. Besides this, they offer a brighter and more energy-efficient TV performance. Furthermore, there is a direct view mode, and they are only a few inches deep. Also, since their extremely lightweight, you can place these LCD TV without stand. That is, you can wall mount them and save space.

Disadvantages of LCD TVs

Like any other electronic device, the LCD’s too have their downsides. The LCD TV has problems producing true blacks. That’s because some light always passes through. This happens when the light passes through an LCD cell. Therefore, the best blacks on an LCD TV is always very dark grey. Moreover, because of the way light passes through an LCD cell, the direct-view LCD TV has a narrower viewing angle than a plasma TV typically. Apart from this, the low- resolution LCD TVs different exhibit pixilation. Also, the screen-door effects when blown up to big screen sizes. That’s why we recommend you to use the model with XGA (1,024 x 768) or higher resolution. This ensures reduced screen-door effects.

LCD TV vs computer monitor

You might play computer games on your HDTV or watch TV shows on your computer monitors. It isn’t a big deal. However, remember that it does not make them similar. TVs have features not included in monitors and Vice a Versa. However, they do have a lot of things in common. When it comes to size, the TV screens are much larger than the monitors. The TV size can go up to 50 inches while monitors usually remain below 30. Moreover, the ports on an LCD TV and monitors differ in terms of their functionality. For example, you can power a device that’s connected to the USB port of an LCD TV. But, in case of monitor USB, the power it generates is different though you can use them to load a flash drive.

LCD TV vs plasma

Plasma and LCDs share one thing in common. That is, they are both thin and flat, and you can wall mount them. But, inside those thin and flat cabinets, you’ll see different technologies being used to display images for TV viewing. Plasma TVs use pixels with self-emitting phosphors to produce images. Therefore, their advantage over LCD TV is that you can turn on and off, each of these phosphors. This, in turn, provides deeper blacks. But, on the other hand, plasma TV’s cannot create images as bright as an LCDs. Moreover, plasma TVs are often subjected to burin-ins, especially if a static image is displayed on the screen for a longer period. Furthermore, the screen surface of plasma TV is more reflective than most LCD’s.

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