8 steps to buying an Panasonic LCD TV:
- Step 1: What exactly is LCD TV?
- Step 2: How do LCD Televisions work?
- Step 3: What are the advantages of LCD Televisions?
- Step 4: What do you need to consider before you buy your LCD TV?
- Step 5: Installation Considerations
- Step 6: View the Top 10 LCD Televisions
- Step 7: How and Where to buy a LCD TV
- Step 8: Find reputable online LCD Televisions Dealers
What exactly is a Liquid Crystal Diode (LCD) TV?
LCDs are all around us. Liquid crystal displays so prevalent, in fact, that most people couldn't get through their day without using one. This technology is utilized in digital clocks, microwave ovens, car dashboards, calculators, stereos, thermometers, and even some bathroom scales! The applications for liquid crystal displays are almost limitless, so it should come as no surprise that this technology has revolutionized the most basic home appliance of all-the television set.
Liquid crystal technology has given birth to those slim, cool-looking, bright displays that are popping up everywhere from bank lobbies to living rooms. But how does it work?
What makes a crystal "liquid"?
The twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal is the most common type of liquid crystal being used in display applications today (e.g., LCD televisions, LCD monitors, and LCD projectors). It has a naturally twisted crystalline structure. A particular feature of this crystal is that it reacts to electric currents in predictable ways-i.e., by untwisting to varying degrees depending on the voltage of the current to which it is exposed. Hence the "liquid" part of the crystal's moniker: Rather than being an oxymoron (How can a solid also be a liquid?), the term refers to the relative pliability of the crystals themselves, which is to say, their twistability.
How does a LCD (Liquid Crystal Diode) TV operate?
The Basics: LCD monitors work by blocking light. By sandwiching a solution of TN liquid crystals between two perpendicularly aligned panes of polarized glass, it becomes possible to manipulate the intensity of light as it passes through this crystalline matrix and out the glass panel at the other end. Depending on the voltage of the electrical charge running through them, liquid crystals will untwist so that the intensity of light able to pass through the second polarized pane is affected. Basically, these displays can switch between light states (where the liquid crystals are fully twisted) and dark states (where the liquid crystals are fully untwisted), or somewhere along the gray scale in between.
Addressing: A liquid crystal display consists of an array of tiny segments-called "pixels"-that are manipulated to form images or to present information. Addressing is the process by which pixels are turned on (which disables the passage of light) and off (which enables the passage of light) so as to create an image on the polarized display pane in front of you. So-called active-matrix LCD TVs employ thin film transistors (TFTs), or tiny switching transistors and capacitors arranged in a matrix on a glass substrate, to direct electric charges down columns to reach a particular pixel. This, in turn, causes the liquid crystals to untwist and "display" a predetermined amount of light generated by the light source-usually a florescent bulb-in back of them.
Color (Re) Production: The light source in an active-matrix LCD monitor is a series of florescent bulbs, or the more newly implemented LED (light emitting diode) backlighting both of which emits white light through a polarized glass pane behind the liquid crystal solution. Theoretically, then, you can start with a white display: This is one where its liquid crystals are completely twisted and therefore able to direct the full spectrum of light out through the polarized display screen in front of you. Since all wavelengths can pass through, the full spectrum of light can be manipulated to create the desired color. To achieve a full color pallet on your LCD display, each pixel is divided into three subpixels-red, green, and blue-that work in conjunction to determine the LCD pixel's overall hue. These subpixels are created by subtracting certain wavelengths, and the color(s) corresponding thereto, using special filters. By exploiting a combination of red, green, and blue subpixels of various intensities (or gray scales), a single pixel triad can reproduce approximately 16.8 million colors.
Besides looking cool and oh-so futuristic in your living room, what are the advantages of owning an LCD TV or monitor?
It's easier to watch. Flat panel TV displays like LCDs and Plasmas are significantly brighter and feature higher contrasts than traditional CRT sets. Which means that an LCD TV will perform exceedingly well under most ambient light conditions. With LCD TV viewing a brightly lit room won't wash out its picture, nor will lamplight cause a glare on your television screen. The beauty of these flat screens is that you don't have to turn out the lights to see the image clearly and easily. Nor do you have to worry about eyestrain, since neither LCDs nor Plasmas flicker the way old-fashioned TVs do.
Recently, LCD TVs have made great technological advancements with the new LED backlighting system. This enables better black levels and a brighter more energy efficient TV performance. To see technology comparisons for LED TVs and current models with LED backlighting click here.
And, you can watch TV from almost anywhere in a room since flat-screen LCD television displays can have up to a 160° viewing angle, which means your TV will look good when viewed from any point 80° in either direction from the center of the display.
One issue affecting the overall quality of the picture reproduced on LCDs has to do with dot pitch. This term refers to the distance between subpixels of the same color in adjoining pixel triads. The closer these "dots" are to one another, the sharper the resolution will be. This is especially true when displaying computer signal images and graphs. And the picture in front of you will be more realistic and detailed. Higher dot pitches also increase the viewing angles of LCD panels. Since dot pitch is measure in millimeters (mm), a good rule of thumb is this: Smaller dot pitches make for sharper images. You generally want a dot pitch of .28mm [" 10,000 pixels/in2 of your display] or finer.
Note: Plasma TV displays have long been touted as having wider viewing angles than comparably sized LCD monitors. But recent improvements in quality have made LCD televisions (especially those with LED backlighting have made them nearly comparable to Plasma TVs with respect to their viewing angles. According to Sharp, a leading manufacturer of LCDs, the newest generation of LCD displays have just as good viewing angles as plasma sets, but this is only true of the better brands. In any event, even the best LCD monitors have yet to achieve the breadth of viewing angles found on typical Plasma monitors.
The picture is smooth, colorful, and (best of all) wide. LCDs have none of those annoying scan lines that conventional sets do. This owes to the fact that each subpixel has its own transistor electrode, which creates smooth, evenly lit images across the entire surface of the display. It also enables these displays to reproduce images that are saturated with color. [256 shades of red x 256 shades of green x 256 shades of blue " 16.8 million different colors!]
Recent advances in LCD technology have markedly increased the response time of these displays, resulting in even smoother on-screen presentations. There have also been recent increases in the refresh rate as one of the latest advancements to 120Hz and 240Hz. These frame rate increases help get rid of motion blur for fast action scenes. For more on this topic see our article titled 120Hz, 240Hz What does it mean? One way to think about response time is in terms of the amount of time it takes a pixel to "refresh" itself-i.e., to go from being active to being inactive, which is to say, ready to be re-activated). Response time is measured in milliseconds (ms), with the best LCD monitors now clocking in with response times under 20ms. Slower response times (>20ms) can cause the image on the panel to lag and appear jerky, an effect known as "streaking" or "trailing." Another phenomenon associated with slower response times is "ghosting." This occurs when the display is made to switch quickly from light to dark states (or vice-versa). In these instances, on-screen images may appear to stay on the screen belatedly.
LCD displays come either with a 16:9 aspect ratio (i.e., 16 units wide to 9 units high), the proper one for viewing HDTV and for watching DVDs, or with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the norm for most broadcast television shows. If you opt to go with a widescreen (16:9) display, does this mean that you'll have to watch some shows where the image is distorted or stretched unnaturally? No. When displaying a "normal" or 4:3 picture image from satellite, VCR, or cable TV, the image can be viewed in a number of ways-in its original format (with black or gray bars on the sides of the screen), or in "full" mode (where the image is converted or "stretched" using specially designed algorithms to reduce the visible stretch marks as much as possible). Again, the quality of the picture produced under such circumstances depends largely on the quality of the television with which you scale-up 4:3 pictures or scale-down 16:9 ones. Nevertheless, this is only a temporary dilemma: Since HDTV is shown in widescreen, this is the format of the future for much of broadcast television.
The display is multi-functional and long-lived. An LCD is a television monitor, capable of displaying HDTV, regular TV, and home video. It's also a computer monitor. In fact, it can accept any video format. LCD TVs typically include inputs for (a) HDMI, (b) S-video and component video, and (c) one or more RGB 15 pin computer input, USB, and other inputs from a computer. Because of the high resolution of LCDs, text and graphics look especially sharp when viewed on them, which makes them the best solution for displaying data and web-based content.
Note: Some LCDs (including many by Sharp) do not come with RGB inputs. If you plan to utilize your LCD display as a computer monitor, be sure to check out the specs of the unit you're thinking of purchasing.
You can expect to use your LCD TV in many capacities for many years: The average lifespan of one of these displays is 60,000 hours. If watching TV was your full-time job, and you did it 24 hours a day, it would take you almost 7 years to wear out your LCD display. With more normal viewing habits of, say, 8 hours per day, you can extend the lifespan of your TV by a decade or more (to about 20 years)!
Note: The lifespan of an LCD display is generally longer than that of similar-sized plasma displays. Some manufacturers claim that their LCDs can last upwards of 80,000 hours when used continuously under controlled conditions (e.g., in a room with "standard" lighting conditions and 77° temperatures throughout). Just how realistic such claims are is debatable. After all, whose living room has no windows and remains at a perfectly comfortable 77 degrees year-round?
A more immediate concern is the actual lifespan of the light source in your LCD. This is perhaps THE critical component of your display unit. It is particularly important for maintaining a proper white balance on your TV. As these florescent bulbs age, colors can become unbalanced, which could result in too much red, for example, in your picture. So, it pays to buy name-brand displays. You will definitely pay more for better LCD display brands like Sharp, Toshiba, JVC, or Sony than you will for cheap Chinese or Korean variety knock-offs, but you'll get a backlighting bulb of higher quality and, in the end, a TV whose colors will stay truer longer.
In some cases, the warranty for this particular feature can be shorter than for the display as a whole. This means you might have to buy a new LCD TV because the coverage on its backlight has expired. Moreover, some bulbs can be replaced, while others are built in to the unit itself. You should definitely do some research on the backlighting system, how it's configured, and how it's warranted.
Determine the right screen size based on your budget and your floor plan.
Until now, LCDs have been more common in smaller sizes (27" and less). One reason is that quality-control issues have long limited display size: 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, interferes with color reproduction. This is why colors may appear slightly off or faded in LCD TVs larger than 37".
New factories are coming online in Japan and Korea that can mass-produce the super sized sheets of glass embedded with transistors that are necessary to achieve large-scale LCDs. All of which means you'll be seeing larger flat-screen LCD displays with increasingly smaller price tags. Samsung and LG recently unveiled 55" prototype LCD TVs at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. The price of these panels has yet to be disclosed, and you probably shouldn't expect to see them for sale (at any price) in the US any time soon. After all, the vast majority of LCD monitors sold in the US are 20" or smaller. So, if you're choosing purely based on flat-panel display size, Plasma is still clearly the better choice.
To get the most out of your investment, remember what your mother always said about sitting too close to the TV-that it's no good for you. Well, she might have been thinking about your health, but we're thinking about your viewing pleasure. For the optimal viewing experience, you need to maintain the right distance between your viewing area and your television screen.
Note: Some audio-visual critics have observed that fixed-pixel displays tend to show their pixel structures at closer viewing distances, so one might notice a sandy texture to the screen when the set is viewed too close. This underscores the importance of maintaining an appropriate viewing distance between you and your LCD monitor when configuring your viewing area.
The right distance depends on the size of your TV:
* For 20 to 27-inch displays, you should be able to watch comfortably from 2.5 to 5 feet away.
* For 32 to 37-inch TVs, you should sit back 6 to 8 feet from the screen itself.
* For 42 to 46-inch TVs, you'll need 10 to 14 feet between you and the screen.
* 50-inch LCD displays look best when viewed from 12 to 16 feet away.
Get the lowdown on HDTV compatibility.
If you're one of the 55+ million households sitting astride cable systems that can carry HDTV signals, your LCD TV will enable you to take advantage of the slightly better (10-15%) picture you can get from a higher resolution unit displaying HDTV broadcasts. Most LCD units come with built-in ATSC tuners, which enable them to pick up over-air HD broadcasts using antennas. In addition, manufacturers have begun packaging ATSC and cable tuners in LCD TV sets, making them optimal for watching HDTV-on local as well as national broadcasts.
Determine how you're going to install your LCD TV.
LCD technology affords consumers new options when it comes to the physical placement of their TV displays. Gone are the days when you had to configure a room around the television set. Now, you can incorporate the TV into almost any décor, if you give a little thought to the matter beforehand. There are half a dozen ways to install your new LCD TV, which virtually ensures that you'll find the right way to fit one in your home.
You can mount your flat-panel display on almost any wall in your home.
* Flat Wall Mounts allow you to maximize the space-saving benefits of plasma technology. This option is generally the least expensive, and it adds just under two inches to the monitor's total depth.
* Tilt Wall Mounts enable you to place your TV above eye level, keeping it out of the way though readily viewable from anywhere in the room. This mounting option is typically used to install LCD monitors above fireplaces and in bedrooms. The tilt wall mount adds from 4 to 6 inches to the depth of the mounted display.
* Table Stands are another popular way to display LCD units. Realize, though, that these units are not one-size-fits-all appliances. Each display has its own custom-fitted table stand. Oftentimes one is included with the monitor itself; occasionally, though, you will have to purchase the stand separately.
* Articulating Wall Mounts make use of swivel arms to render the LCD unit flush with the wall-and out of the way-when not in use. Pulled out, this mounting device allows you to turn the display 120° to either side and as much as 10° up or down.
* Ceiling Mounts enable you to mount your TV where you want it-in the event that a wall isn't handy. This option is generally coupled with a tilt mount, so that the display can be adjusted downward for easier viewing. Lengths of ceiling mount poles vary according to customer needs, though the standard lengths are from 24 to 43 inches.
* Lifts There are a variety of lift options also available such as motorized ceiling lifts, console lifts, motorized furniture lifts and hydrolic furniture lifts. Lift options allow the plasma or LCD TV to be hidden from view when not in use. Hydrolic lifts are manually operated and less expensive while motorized lifts can be operated using remote control.
Choose your LCD unit.
What follows is a list of the current best selling LCD TVs around the country and our Recommended LCDs by size or other designation. For more information on one of these products, click on the recommended designation or model number.
Online Retail
Online dealers such as amazon
, Vanns, and One Call, and Crutchfield often have excellent pricing and free shipping on TVs and are also authorized for all the products they sell. They have great inventory and do not have the luxury of trying to steer you to the product that they want you to buy. Being able to order online offers maximum convenience though not immediate gratification. Their accessory products may be priced somewhat more reasonably than big box retailers. We recommend purchasing from online dealers that are authorized for the products they sell. This often means the larger more esablished online retailers as most small etailers are not authorized. Purchasing from online dealers that are not authorized by the manufacturers can lead to headaches such as poor return policies, excessive restocking charges, and poor post purchase service (not to mention b-stock or gray market goods). The trust factor is important as trying to read through policies can be onerous. The dealers we recommend on this site are the larger authorized online dealers.
Which online vendor should you use? I recommended you to buy Panasonic LCD TVon Amazon.
. Purchasing a cutting-edge digital TV is a big decision, so you probably want to go with one of the principal online retailers. The following list is a good place to start.
Original from Jack Burden -lcdtvbuyingguide.com
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