Which HDTV should I go for LDC, Plasma, LED or 3D?
With so many HDTV options nowadays it is easy to get confused and end up making the wrong choice or one that doesn’t stand up to your expectations.
First of all we need to understand the basics of each HDTV type. Today we have 4 types of HDTVs and they are: LCD, Plasma, LED and 3D, there is a fifth type which is OLED but the technology is in its infancy and you can only find OLED TV sets as big as 19 inches.
LCD High Def TV Sets:
Liquid Crystal Display Televisions (LCD TV) were first introduced by Sharp in 1998, but the liquid crystal display technology has been around since the 80′s when it was mainly used in portable computers.
LCD TVs offer bright crystal clear images, super colour-filled pictures but not so good contrast ratio when compared to Plasma. Over the years LCD TV manufacturers have made great improvements on LCD TV’s contract ratio but Plasma still lead the way in this category.
Colour accuracy of LCD TV sets are influenced by room light. LCD TVs perform better in brighter rooms due to anti glare technology and brightness. Another factor to consider is viewing angles, on average LCD HDTVs has around 120 degree viewing angles but they still have a long way to go before catching plasma.
On average these TV sets have an autonomy of 100,000 working hours which is about 50 years of use if they are turned on for 5 hours a day.
Plasma High Def TV Sets:
Plasma technology consists of hundreds of thousands of individual pixel cells. Each pixel cell is an individual microscopic light bulb that has a mixture of noble gases and a tiny amount of mercury. When these cells receive electric pulses the gases and mercury form plasma that produces light, illuminating the exact balance of red, green and blue phosphors of each cell which in turn will display the proper colour sequence from the light.
Plasma TVs have the best contrast ratio between all HDTVs, on average the latest Plasma HDVT sets have a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. Contrast ratio is a measure of the blackest black compared to the withest white. Plasma TVs can achieve outstanding black levels thanks to internal algorithms that block the power to particular pixels to render a darker pixel. The down side here is that this limits Plasma televisions gray scaling.
Plasma displays can reproduce as much as 16.77 million colours because as afore mentioned each pixel has red, green and blue elements needed to produce every colour in the spectrum. In short, Plasma TVs have the best colour accuracy of all HDTVs.
Another point in favour of Plasma TVs is viewing angles. Plasma manufacturers have nearly achieved perfection with viewing angles nearing the 180 degree mark. Also worth baring in mind that Plasma TVs are more suitable for darker rooms.
LED TVs
LED TVs are the new form of LCD TVs. These TV sets can produce images with greater dynamic contrast with a wider colour gamut and lower power consumption of at least 20-30% when compared to traditional LCD TVs.
LED backlighting allows these TV sets to be extremely thin, most models are approximately one inch think.
Many industry expert don’t agree to label LED TVs as unique HDTV category because as afore mentioned LED TVs are simply LDC TVs with LED lights for back lighting instead of fluorescent CFL lighting.
LED TVs presented a solution to the low contrast levels found on traditional LCD TVs. By dimming the back light in areas where the screen should be dark it increases the black levels, consequently increase the contract ratio.
Colour accuracy is very similar to LCD TVs but LED TV has an advantage in displaying more realistic colours. Just like on LCD, LED TVs have very poor viewing angles.
3D Ready TV Sets
The latest on high definition TV, all major manufacturers are producing it with highlights to Sony and Samsung, which in my opinion are manufacturing the best 3D TV sets at the moment.
3D video technology has been around for ages but only now the technology has finally reached our homes. 3D TV sets are Full HD and have resolution of 1920X1080p, a refresh rate of 600Hz and usually support HDMI 1.4 or higher.
Now that you know everything there is to know about the HDTVs you are ready to out buy one that will suit your viewing needs.
About the Author
HDTVs expert giving free advice on LCD, Plasma, LED TVs and 3D TVs.
Samsung 3D-Ready Plasma TV
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