LCD TV

Buying the Right LCD TV Flat Screen

Will a brand new LCD TV flat screen by the perfect addition to your home theatre system? Learn about LCD television technology and read about what you should consider when choosing your flat screen.

• Panasonic VIERA (www.panasonic.co.nz/VIERA)

• Audio and Home Theatre
• Electronics Brands
• Major Electronics Retailers

Buying a television is no simple task these days, but choosing the right LCD TV doesn’t have to be as painful as a trip to the dentist.

Thankfully, buying a new flat screen to boost your home theatre experience (and turn your mates green with envy) doesn’t have to be harder than deactivating explosives, if you know what you’re looking for.

What exactly is an LCD TV?
Liquid crystal diode (LCD) technology has become hugely popular, and is utilised in everything from flat screens and computer monitors to digital clocks, car dashboards, stereos and bathroom scales.

The applications for liquid crystal displays are almost limitless, but their most commonly known use has to be the uber sleek and slim, bright flat screen displays popping up in the homes of technophiles and movie buffs all over the world.

LCD TV flat screens appear to be the new black when it comes to the marriage of technology and style – but besides looking cool, what are the advantages of owning an LCD TV?

The benefits of LCD TV viewing
LCD TV flat screens are significantly brighter and feature higher contrasts than traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) sets. This means that an LCD TV will perform well under most lighting conditions, so a brightly lit room won't wash out its picture, and lamplight won’t cause glare on the screen.

Recently, major brands manufacturing LCD TV flat screens have made great technological advancements with the new LED backlighting system. This enables better black levels, and a brighter even more energy efficient TV performance.

Offering a massive 160° viewing angle, LCD TV screens also ensure your picture can be viewed from any point 80° in either direction from the centre of the display, meaning you can watch TV from almost anywhere in a room.

LCD TV picture quality
Of course, when it comes to big screen televisions, it’s all bout the picture quality. An LCD TV screen’s clear picture is thanks the fact that each subpixel in a LCD TV has its own transistor electrode, which creates smooth, evenly lit images across the entire surface of the display. The subpixel technology also enables these displays to reproduce images that are saturated with colour, and an LCD TV is capable of displaying a whopping 16.8 million different colours.

Though older LCD TV models were reported to blur during fast moving or action scenes, recent advances in LCD TV technology have also significantly increased the response time and pixel refresh rate of these displays to practically eradicate issues of motion blur.

The right LCD TV screen size for you
Until recently, LCD flat screens have been more common in smaller sizes, commonly 27-inches and less. One reason for this has been that quality-control issues have limited display size, because increasing the size of an LCD panel means adding pixels, and three transistors for each additional pixel. It also makes distributing the light evenly more difficult, which in turn, can interfere with colour reproduction.

New factories that can mass-produce larger sheets of glass embedded with transistors to achieve large-scale LCD TV screens are making the sizes of quality LCD displays available virtually limitless. This has meant greater options for big flat-screen LCD displays, with increasingly competitive price tags.

To get the most out of your investment, remember that for an optimal viewing experience, you need to maintain the right distance between your viewing area and your television screen.

Some home theatre buffs have suggested that fixed-pixel displays tend to show their pixel structures at closer viewing distances, so its important to be realistic about the viewing distance while considering the size of screen to buy in relation to your living space.

As a guideline, you should expect to watch a 20 to 27-inch LCD TV display from as little as a metre away, while you’ll need around four metres between you and your new 50-inch LCD TV flat screen for the best viewing.

For more information on where you can find LCD TV flat screens in your region visit the NZS.com directory.

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Technology images from Flickr: LCD TV, Microchip and Cable.