LCD or Liquid crystal display has now become so commonplace that we use it in one way or another. LCD has given the compact and sleek look to many devices that we use in our daily lives, like cell phones, PDAs, calculators, digital clocks, in-dash car GPS units and computer monitors. Actually, the list of devices that use LCD goes endless. However, LCD Television has been the best application of LCD technology so far.

Digital Clock

Blackberry phone

Toshiba Laptop

DVD, Blu-ray and HDTV broadcasting are the biggest developments that revolutionized home entertainment, so is LCD TV for its high-definition output. This guide explains in simple terms, all the facts and advantages of LCD technology and the important features of LCD television.

LCD is a display device that uses thin, flat sheet made up of liquid crystals and this thin sheet is placed in front of a light source. The molecules of liquid crystal (we can also say, pixels) are twisted in their natural state and allow the light to pass through. However, when certain amount electricity passes through liquid crystals, the molecules get stretched and block the light and the darkening of the pixels depends on the electric current. Pixels are completely darkened when there is no electricity.

As for colour LCD display, it will have three sub-pixels (green, blue and red) and depending on the pixels that get light, the LCD will produce the final image on the screen

LCD television uses liquid crystals captivated between two polarized, glass sheets and a matrix of TFT (thin-film transistor) transistors that control the electric flow through the crystals. The glass sheet contains thousands of tiny cells or pixels and each one is coloured with green or blue or red.

There is a florescent bulb which sits right behind the glass pixels and illuminates these cells. Each pixel has a TFT transistor next to it that determines how much it should be electrically charged. Less the pixel is electrically charged, more light beams it allows and greater the intensity of respective colour on the LCD screen. Thus, the light beams are either blocked off or shown in different amounts so the combination of all pixels produce the image on the screen,

Screen resolution

The native or screen resolution determines how much sharp the picture will look on the screen. CRT type TVs work well with standard definition and can show pictures of 330 lines resolution.

The screen resolution of LCD TV starts from 720p and higher (1080i and 1080p). This means its higher native resolution ensures that picture looks sharper, more detailed and clearer.

LCD Screen and profile

Typically, LCD TV screen size varies between 26" and 40" although larger screen sizes are available at expensive price tags. Currently, the largest LCD TV available in commercial market has about 52" screen size and the models will be very few.

LCD TV is a bit thinner (less than 3" thickness) and also weighs much lesser than plasma TV so it can be hung on the wall.

Wide Aspect Ratio

LCD TV looks typically rectangular as its screen supports 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the standard screen format of high definition videos. However, home videos and standard TV broadcast still use 4:3 aspect ratio so all LCD TVs are designed to automatically fit 4:3 aspect ratio images to its screen so you see the picture filling the entire screen.

CRT TV with 4:3 Aspect Ratio

LCD TV with 16:9 Aspect Ratio

Digital Sound Surround

As high-definition TV signals and videos are encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, LCD TV comes with audio connections to connect to home theater speakers so you can recreate theatrical sound effects in your living room.

LCD TVs have following advantages over the historical CRT television sets:

Occupies less space

LCD TV has a thickness of 3" – 5" and weighs so less that it can be mounted on wall. Even when it is installed using table mount, it occupies much less space in your living room.

Elegant design of LCD TV adds beauty to the interior of your room

LCD TV becomes an attractive element of your living room as it looks so modern and sleek. With wall socket, you can mount it on the wall or just place it on the stand. Whichever way, LCD TV is the cynosure of all eyes.

LCD TV causes less eyestrain

LCD TV uses advanced video processing technologies so there is no flicker and scanning lines are almost invisible to eyes. LCD picture looks smoother and its brightness does not put so much strain on your eyes even when viewed from close distances. You can watch it for fairly longer period.

There is no screen glare

LCD TV screen is not glassy like CRT TV or plasma TV so it does not glare off in ambient conditions. So, LCD TV looks bright even in well-lit rooms.

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