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    Default LCD, DLP, Plasma - Oh My! Tech Tips\Buying Tips

    Introduction

    Now that the “big” 32” CRT television in your living room is fading fast, it’s time to deep six it and upgrade in style. But if you’ve been out of the television technology loop for the last few years, there are a number of unfamiliar terms and concepts (not to mention acronyms!) to contend with.

    So where do you start, and what exactly is the best choice for you? You want great picture quality, you want a long lifespan, you want a TV that is ready for the upcoming FCC-mandated DTV (Digital Television) transition in 2009 (or until they change the date again) and, most importantly, you want bang for your buck! But before you crack open your wallet, you should do some homework. First you’ll see a bunch of unfamiliar terms, like plasma, LCD, projection, DLP, and then you’ll have to decipher them.



    Fear not - Nevadamedic is here to help!



    Before we go on, let’s take a quick look at the three leading display technologies; a little knowledge will go a long way when it’s time to go shopping. Without delving too deeply into the weird science of television innards, here’s a quick summary of the three technologies.

    Under the Hood:

    DLP (Digital Light Processing) HDTV (High Definition Television) is a proprietary product of Texas Instruments. DLP is descendant of digital film projector technology which uses DMD (Digital Multi-mirror Device) chips, each containing millions of tiny mirrors. A projection light is passed through a rotating color wheelbefore striking the chip – producing up to 16 million different color shades.

    LCD televisions consist of two polarizing transparent panels with a liquid crystal solution in between. This technology uses florescent light, which is scattered by a white diffusion panel. In an LCD Television, each color pixel (picture element) is created by three sub-pixels with red, green, and blue color filters. LCD technology allows each pixel on the screen tobe activated individually.

    Plasma screens are made up of hundreds of thousands RGB (red, green, and blue) pixels, which depend on argon, neon, and xenon gases (sealed between glass panels) to be electrically charged, which generates light and ultimately the picture. Plasma screens are more closely related to traditional television screens.


    Just the Facts, Ma’am – Pros and Cons of Various Display Technologies:

    (Naturally, the specifications/issues listed here are generalizations, some subjective, and will vary from brand to brand and model to model)

    DLP:

    Uber-long life expectancy – the main light source is projection bulb, which is replaceable (not cheap, but certainly less expensive than buying a new television!)
    The ultra-fast DLP chip has a 16 microsecond response time
    High resolution (1920 x 1080) – but others are catching up
    Contrast ratios of up to 12,000:1
    Usually comes with an integrated stand


    Biggest pros of DLP: Provides the best bang for your buck as far as large screens go – probably the price/performance “sweet spot”.

    Biggest cons of DLP: Overall size and limited flexibility on set positioning (In other words, DLP screens are large, but so is the rest of the set.) Best picture is obtained by positioning the set at eye level. Lowest “sexy factor” of the three technologies.

    Bottom line: If the space/size restrictions aren’t an issue for you and you want a very large, inexpensive screen, especially for latest-generation video game play in 1080i/p, DLP may be your best bet.



    LCD:

    Generally long lifespan (manufacturers currently claim >50,000 hours)
    Many new LCD televisions offer full 1080p (1920 x 1080) native pixel resolution
    Generally physically lighter and sleeker than DLP or plasma televisions
    Low power consumption
    Generally poor relative black levels


    Biggest pros of LCD: Small size and placement options give it the most flexibility when it comes to positioning the television.

    Biggest cons of LCD: Pixel response time is lower than DLP and plasma, which can mean ghosting during fast-action sequences. Color saturation and black-levels lacking.

    Bottom line: Tight on space? Watching TV or viewing digital family photos? You’re all set for LCD – just mount your LCD TV on the wall and go!



    Plasma:

    Plasma televisions offer good pricing for large screens
    Contrast ratios exceeding 15,000:1 in some models
    Allows the most flexibility as far as positioning the viewer in front of the set
    Many models top out at 1366x768 native resolution, which equates to 720p – still High Definition, but not 1080x.


    Biggest pros of Plasma: Excellent color saturation, superior black levels, wide viewing angles.

    Biggest cons of Plasma: The image retention (screen burn) issue has been all but eliminated but pixel failure is still a potential problem area. Potentially the shortest lifespan of the three (“the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”) Can be big electricity hogs.

    Bottom line: Movie and/or sports nut? Go plasma. Widescreen helps with movies, while the wide viewing angle is perfect for when the whole gang is watching the game together.

    New DVD Players
    Quick comment on new high end DVD players. You have Blue Ray and up conversion. Depends on how much you want to spend. Blue Ray Starts right around $900.00 and the Upconvert model starts at about $79.00. Blue Ray you get a picture that cant be beat, the drawback is you have to have the Blue Ray version of the DVD which stars t around $29.99, and that add's up. I reccommend the Upconverson models. You can get a great Sony unit for around $110.00 and they play the regular dvd's. The quality is not as great as Blue Ray because it's a near High Def signal where the Blue Ray is High Def. I have the Sony Up Convert on all my TV's and I love the picture quality, the audio quality and it has a feature where you could take a dvd out at anypoint and when you put the movie back in it will resume at the exact same spot you took it out at. Blue Ray is still to new and expensive, I would wait until it is out a little bit longer that way they can fix all the bugs and of course the price will drop big time.

    Unlike the VHS/Beta wars of yesteryear, it’s possible for these different technologies to peacefully co-exist in the marketplace; breakthroughs in one platform forces the others to not only keep pace, but to up the ante, which (hopefully) gives the consumer higher quality products at lower prices.

    Conclusions

    Modern large-screen televisions are no different than many products or technologies that follow the price/performance triangle: in this case, you can have it large, good, or cheap – pick any two. The trick is to pick your two and then find a product that has as much of the third as possible.



    I hope you enjoyed my little piece on TV's. If you have any Ideas for my next article or if you want some tech tips or advice on electronics or even considering purchasing a TV, Dvd Player, High End VCR(Just bought a high end Sony mydeHome Theater System, Satellite Radio, Car Audio System, Appliancs or anything else, please shoot me a private message on here and I will answer it or with your permissionput it up in this forum.

    If you attack the Clintons publically make sure all your friends know your not planning on commiting suicide ~ McCain 2008
    Happiness is Obama's picture on the back of a milk carton.

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    And one not mentioned, the technology inside my JVC HDTV....

    Structure of D-ILA®
    The D-ILA® (Digital Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier) technology that JVC has developed is based on an innovation in microchip design that permits the viewer to enjoy the full range of benefits from any high quality source whether from a video deck or a computer device. For true HDTV performance, the D-ILA® technology packs 2048 x 1536 pixels -a total of 3.2 million pixels- on a single 1.3" chip. This makes possible display of HD images at full-spec resolution of 1920 x 1080 -with room to spare.

    The D-ILA®'s innovative CMOS design is the key to reproducing all the details in a high-definition picture. By placing the matrix addressing switches and electronics right behind (not between) the light-modulating liquid crystal layer, JVC has created a D-ILA® chip with a "3-dimensional" layout. The result is a 93% fill factor and virtual elimination of the annoying "grid" or "screen door effect" so evident in other fixed matrix display technologies.

    What is the end result? Images as smooth and natural as film with impeccable reproduction of all the details and information contained in the original source. What supports this high picture quality is high brightness, high resolution, high contrast and analog gradation. High brightness and high resolution are achieved using a reflective device with a high aperture ratio and high-density pixels, providing real resolution with invisible pixels. High contrast is achieved using vertical alignment liquid crystals of normally black operation and a high-precision optical system. Analog gradation makes it possible to reproduce dark areas with high S/N (signal-to-noise ratio) because the D-ILA® device has an S-shape response. In combination with the high-speed response of the vertical alignment liquid crystal, JVC's D-ILA® technology makes it possible to reproduce smooth, noiseless motion pictures with clear, sharp high definition and film-like picture quality.

    http://www.jvc-victor.co.jp/english/...a/feature.html

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    And another one found in many projector TV's.....


    What's so hot about LCOS technology?
    Evan Powell, July 18, 2003
    ProjectorCentral.com

    We've talked a lot about two projection technologies on ProjectorCentral lately--LCD and DLP. Most folks who've been studying projectors for a while are up to speed on the differences between them (if you aren't, click here for an overview). However, we haven't given a third dynamic video display technology, LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon), the focus it deserves. LCOS can produce truly beautiful video that is capable of surpassing either LCD or DLP. Thus it merits serious attention.

    What is LCOS technology?

    Well, you could think of it as a hybrid between LCD and DLP. LCD uses liquid crystals, one for each pixel, on glass panels. Light passes through these LCD panels on the way to the lens and is modulated by the liquid crystals as it passes. Thus it is a "transmissive" technology. On the other hand, DLP uses tiny mirrors, one for each pixel, to reflect light. DLP modulates the image by tilting the mirrors either into or away from the lens path. It is therefore a "reflective" technology.

    LCOS combines these two ideas. It is a reflective technology that uses liquid crystals instead of individual mirrors. In LCOS, liquid crystals are applied to a reflective mirror substrate. As the liquid crystals open and close, the light is either reflected from the mirror below, or blocked. This modulates the light and creates the image.

    LCOS-based projectors typically use three LCOS chips, one each to modulate light in the red, green, and blue channels. In this it is similar to an LCD projector which uses three LCD panels. Both LCOS and LCD projectors deliver the red, green, and blue components of the light to the screen simultaneously. There is no spinning color wheel used in these projectors as there is in single-chip DLP projectors.

    LCOS technology is usually very high resolution, and typically higher in price than most LCD and DLP products. There is no such thing as an SVGA resolution LCOS projector, and we know of only one very rare XGA resolution machine. Generally LCOS machines begin to appear in the SXGA (1365x1024) resolution class and higher. So by definition they are not cheap.

    Nor are LCOS projectors particularly compact as compared to portable LCD and DLP units. The lightest LCOS machines to date weigh about 12 lbs. But they can get much larger and heavier than that.

    So due to inherent high resolution and larger form factors, LCOS technology has not yet been adapted for cheaper mass-market portable projectors. Todays' LCD and DLP projectors sell in much higher unit volumes and are more appropriate for mobile presentation, classroom, and inexpensive home theater. For this reason LCD and DLP technologies get a lot more attention. Since LCOS does not sell in the volumes that LCD and DLP do, many assume it is not as good as LCD or DLP. Nothing could be more wrong. Many well-informed videophiles seeking the most elegant home theater solutions opt for products using LCOS technology because of its unique blend of performance characteristics that neither LCD nor DLP offer.

    http://www.projectorcentral.com/lcos.htm

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    Default ..............

    Quote Originally Posted by Pale Rider View Post
    And one not mentioned, the technology inside my JVC HDTV....
    That is simular to the DLP. It's a pretty new technology, I dont know a whole lot about it mostly because I dont know to much about JVC, we never really carried many of the lines of JVC when I worked at Best By or Sears, now everyone is starting to carry them. Where did you get your tv from?

    If you attack the Clintons publically make sure all your friends know your not planning on commiting suicide ~ McCain 2008
    Happiness is Obama's picture on the back of a milk carton.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nevadamedic View Post
    That is simular to the DLP. It's a pretty new technology, I dont know a whole lot about it mostly because I dont know to much about JVC, we never really carried many of the lines of JVC when I worked at Best By or Sears, now everyone is starting to carry them. Where did you get your tv from?
    Actually, it's a spin off from LCOS. Liquid Crystal On Silicon, which is different from DLP. It is a projector type TV, but that's about all it has in common with DLP.

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    I thought this was going to be about computer monitors. I just upgraded from a CRT to an LCD. I waited several years for the performance to improve and the prices to drop.

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