How to choose the best Flat screen TV

Choosing the right technology

Plasma and LCD TVs look the same, but they are not. Some features or options don't differ a lot, but these are the major differences:

Size

If you arfe looking for an extra large TV, go for a plasma. Plasma TVs are the current size champions, particularly when comparing TVs that consumers can easily purchase. LCDs are catching up in size with their developing technology, however, and may surpass Plasmas in the near future. This may be due to difficulties in producing glass large enough for larger plasmas.

Burn-ins

With the latest plasma technology, this is less of an issue than ever before. The Pixel Orbitor, for example, is a method of reducing burn-in used by plasma manufacturers. It requires no additional programing from the end user as some older burn-in prevention techniques did.
Note: If you plan to use a plasma for gaming, some games with permanent 'dashboards' may still cause some burn-in. If you will be using the television for display use only, go for an LCD. Plasmas are more likely to get burned-in pixels.

Miscellaneous

- LCD TVs are far less fragile than plasmas. This is also an advantage when the tv set has to be shipped or moved to a different location.

- LCD TVs are also much easier to install than plasma TVs.

- LCD TVs have a better performance at high altitudes.

- LCD TVs are often cheaper than plasma TVs. The difference in pricing is getting smaller, however.

Ofcourse, all this information is available all over the web. For a detailed comparison sheet, I recommend using Wikipedia's comparison sheet.

Flat Screen TV comparison, dont get it wrong

If you have made a choice between plasma and LCD (I'll name it Flat screen TV from now on), you can pick a TV of your choice. Flat screen TV comparison will able you to find out exactly what you want and whatll fit the budget.

Brands

The following brands are being considered as the best manufacturers of Flat screen TVs:

- Hitachi

- Panasonic

- Philips

- Pioneer

- Samsung

If you are looking for a product with outstanding quality, we recommend choosing one of these brands.

Features

Different Flat screen TVs have different features. Most of these features look the same, but there are a couple of unique features as well:

- Ambilight

- HD ready or not?

- Picture in Picture

There are lots of comparison website available, but you will have to know how to use them. Filter the models by brand, price and features and the choice will be a lot easier.

About the author:
Kensington Perry currently owns a Philips Plasma TV (because of the Ambilight feature), but has tried out different brands as well. He is always interested in the latest features and the latest technologies, and an absolute Hifi-geek. Occasionaly, Kensington writes for a large reviewing website as well.

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Organic LED (OLED) Soon to Dominate HDTV Market

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology has been the star at the electronics trade shows this year. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, the biggest product introduction was made by Sony, with an OLED display. The new 11" Sony TV is called the "XEL-1". The Sony HDTV is extremely thin (less than 1/10") and light-weight. At the FPD International Show in Asia in November, Samsung introduced a 31" OLED HDTV with 1080P resolution and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Companies like LG, Toshiba, Matsushita (Panasonic) are investing hundreds of millions of dollars, developing this promising technology. Toshiba plans to sell a 30" OLED display in 2009. Samsung says that they will sell large screen OLED sets in 2010.

Eastman-Kodak holds a several patents in OLED technology. Manufacturers will probably be required to pay a licensing fee to Kodak for every OLED TV sold. Eastman-Kodak just introduced the OLED Material EK-GD403, which utilizes green dopant technology. The technology advance is a stampede.

There is a lot of money to be made. According to DisplaySearch, in 2007, the market for LCD TVs was estimated at $27.4 billion, while the market for plasma TVs was estimated at $7.5 billion. An OLED TV that was cost competitive would likely get a significant share of this market. DisplaySearch estimates that the OLED market will grow to more than $17 billion annually by 2015. According to iSuppli, the current market for OLED devices is a little more than a half-billion dollars per year. Samsung currently has a 70% market share. But cost and technology problems have prevented OLED from being used in larger equipment such as HDTVs or computer monitors.

Easy Wall-Mountable HDTV

Most consumers say they want a wall mountable HDTV. However, according to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail market research information firm (NPD.com), only 13 percent of current LCD TV owners and 25 percent of plasma TV owners say their set is mounted on the wall.

"Consumers are drawn to flat-panel technologies for their wall-mounting capabilities, but the difficulty of such an installation often leads them to explore alternatives such as stands or retailer installations." said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis, The NPD Group. But with OLED, the job of mounting the hardware would be much easier, more like hanging a painting on the wall. The hardware weighs a fraction of LCD or plasma.

OLED Performance

OLED displays have already used for some time in digital cameras, cell phones and other devices with relatively small panels, because they are very energy efficient, which is very important in portable devices.

A significant benefit of OLED displays over traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs) is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function. Because of this, they draw much less power. And because there is no backlight, an OLED display is much thinner than an LCD display.

And because there is no backlight, an OLED system has a larger viewing angle than an LED system, and an OLED display can be much thinner than an LCD display.

The response time for OLED is faster than normal LCD screens. An average of 8 to 12 milliseconds in response time is normal for a LCD compared to 0.01 milliseconds in response time for an OLED. This means that OLED will be less subject to "blur". Blur occurs when there is rapid motion in the programming, such as sports. When the picture changes quickly, the pixels can lag in response.

One of the problems that has limited OLED use was that the blue OLED technology had a short lifetime, but a new type of blue LED, the "PHOLED", has a 20,000-hour lifetime (20-25 years of normal TV use). This was a major breakthrough in the effort to commercialize this technology for the HDTV market.

In theory, OLED displays can be more efficiently manufactured than LCD or plasma displays, meaning that they should not be as expensive. The Sony XEL-1 sells for $2500, but you should remember that the first large LCD and Plasma displays were much more expensive when they were first introduced. If production costs can be cut, the OLED HDTV set should eventually be less expensive that comparable LCD sets.

OLED Performance Pluses:

• Power Efficienct
• Very Thin and Light-Weight, 1/4" or less
• Better Brightness than LCD
• Wide Viewing Angle (~ 160 degree viewing angle)
• Excellent Contrast (> 1,000,000:1)
• Once developed the Manufacturing Process should be Inexpensive (the process is similar to ink-jet printing)
• Very Large Displays are Possible (> 100 inch)
• Response is better than LCD (good for fast moving images like Sports)

If the OLED does not live up to its promise, it will not be the first HDTV display to do so. Remember the surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED TV)? Toshiba and Canon were ready to go into production, but patent disputes with a company called Nano-Proprietary killed the technology. That probably won't happen this time. The main obstacle will be the manufacturing process. If units can be manufactured cost-competitively with LCD and Plasma, it should get very interesting.

About the Author: Brian Bradshaw is a Certified Technical Specialist (InfoComm CTS). Areas of expertise include Video, Audio, Computation, HDTV, Satellite Systems, and Communications. He has a communications technology business in Plano, Texas (Dallas). More information can be found at his Website

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Learn Digital Photography - Working With Your Camera

Experiment with exposure Digital cameras usually work best in sunlight, just like film cameras. When you move indoors, or into dim light, things get much trickier -- just like film cameras. So experiment.

One thing you can do is try to shoot your subject from different angles, using a variety of different lighting. If your camera allows you to do so, try turning your flash off. If your camera allows what is called "fill flash," I recommend you try that as well. You will find that every once in a while a flawlessly exposed picture is made even better using fill flash. Also, from time to time turning off the flash and leaving the subject somewhat underexposed can add drama to the shot.

Every once in a while, you'll take the same picture three different ways, with three different exposure options, and get three radically different pictures -- and all of them will look good. But you've got to experiment.

If at all possible, bracket your shots, with one shot slightly underexposed, one slightly overexposed, and one "just right." Some digital cameras will do this automatically, but even then you need to practice. If you are expecting the camera to shoot one frame and it shoots three, there is an excellent chance the last two will look like they were taken by a very surprised photographer.

Special features Most digital cameras have a variety of built-in special features. Some will allow you to record sound, some allow you to take short QuickTime clips, and some allow you to experiment with special effects, such as shooting black and white or sepia-tone images. Until you learn the basics of your camera I recommend that you ignore the special features.

Keep in mind that some of these tricks, such as black and white or sepia-toned images, can be done without the camera. Just load up a normal color image in Photoshop and, in a few minutes, you can have perfect black and white or sepia-toned photos. In other words, if you can do it easily in Photoshop, you might be better off concentrating on taking a good color photo, and worrying about special effects later on at your leisure.

On the other hand, you should try out other special effects. For example, if you pan your camera to track a car moving at high speed, the car will be in sharp focus but the background will be blurred, making an interesting picture. Or you can do the opposite: focus on a particular stationary object -- a child flying a kite, a freshly-painted fire hydrant -- and allow a speeding car to enter the frame. You'll then have a sharply focused center of attention with the added benefit of motion.

Silhouettes are another nice special effect. Try taking a photo with your subject in shadow, eclipsing a brightly-exposed object in the background. The reverse -- a brightly exposed subject against a dark background -- can be just as interesting. Getting a good silhouette with film is expensive: you shoot a lot of frames with little or no reward. With a digital camera, however, the only cost is your time and patience, and your patience will be rewarded.

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