LCD TV

Liquid Crystal Display TV Technology

LCD, or in other words liquid crystal television is a radical change to the traditional TV design. It was first believed that only small sizes could be manufactured successfully as in the beginning they produced an undesirable effect called ghosting when viewing fast pictures and were only viewable from very specific angles.

What to Look For

Since then LCD technology has come a long way. You can now choose between a wide range of products and depending on your needs you can pick out the one suited best for the job and for your pocket. You have to consider many options and you should have a vague idea of what the screen will be used for because some qualities become more prominent for certain uses.

Response Time

Response time is the time it takes for the crystal inside the screen to turn on or off. Rise time is the time it takes for them to turn on, this is generally very fast. Fall time is the time it takes to turn off again. This is slower and causes blurs on the monitor. Consult technicians and manuals to see which time is indicated, but generally a response time below 10ms is fine. If you're a hardcore gamer channel some extra funds and get the smallest response time possible, but for an office a much higher time is acceptable.

Viewing Angle

Very simply put the viewing angle is the angle that you can still view the TV clearly without the colors washing out. 180 degrees theoretically means you can see it from everywhere. The higher the viewing angle the better, although in some cases it may be a smart decision to deliberately use small viewing angles for increased security.

Contrast Ratio

The contrast ratio essentially determines how good colors look on the LCD TV, the higher the ratio the better. The reason color may deteriorate is that backlighting is given from behind the liquid crystals and this lighting tends to dampen color.

Resolution

LCD TV's have something called a native resolution. This is the actual amount of pixels found on the screen, if you look closely enough you can see them. When you switch resolution you actually don't alter the amount of physical pixels, extrapolation is used to calculate the image. So LCD's work best in their native resolution, fuzzy pictures may result from using a different one, although I find this is rarely the case with quality brands.

Looks

Looks are a very-very important part of choosing any TV. Some contrast and response time differences will only be perceived by very sharp eyed people and only by those who know what to look for. It is important that you choose a model suited in build and style to the room it will be in. If you will wall-mount it make sure it's lightweight, thin and has suitable holes on it to do so. If you would like to use it without a sound system make sure it comes with speakers. In other words looks are important, don't get too caught up in the technicalities if you can.