What To Look For In Buying a Flat Screen TV, LCD or Plasma?

It seems that everyone either has or wants to get the latest Flat Screen TV for their home. Of the many and varied types of Flat Screen TV available (and there are) which one do you purchase? OK are you going to go with a Plasma TV (older technology, been around since 1964) or do you go with Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) for the Flat Screen TV?

It seems a lot more than a mere 80 years since television moved beyond being a mere �electromechanical information system� to the broadcast medium that we know it to be today from humble black and white now through to the latest in multi colour Liquid Crystal Display /Flat Screen TV sets. The television has now become one of the �must haves� in almost every household, certainly within the developed world.

So how many people now actually understand in some detail exactly how televisions work and what they actually have to achieve to deliver this magic image that we see on the screen? Since its inception as an electromechanical system of receiving and broadcasting information the term television has become broadly synonymous with both the unit required to receive and play the information and also the technique and medium for broadcasting the data in the first place.

Understandably if you were to ask the average man in the street his biggest issue with television today most would reply that the one problem they have is an increasing dependency on technological terms and an increasing ignorance of what these terms actually mean.

Perhaps it would be best now to move on to the latest developments within the industry and concentrate our coverage upon digital television, what it actually means; formats, bandwidth and an explanation of the technical jargon and terminology used.

So what exactly is Digital TV?

Well the short answer is that phraseology is mixed here and quite often people get confused, LCD, TFT and Plasma are all terms that get bandied around yet they don�t all mean the same thing.

The two main types of Flat Screen TV or screens available today are either Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Plasma.One of the major differences between the two technologies probably lies in the fact that with LCD TV�s because the main technology used is TFT (Thin Film Transistor) by and large the screens are able to be much more energy efficient and potentially much smaller and more mobile.

Digital television is a telecommunications system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals in contrast to the more established analogue systems which is effectively the transmission of signals used by analogue (traditional) TV.

So in basic terms, how does a Digital TV differ from a more conventional one? Let us use one of the newer LCD TV�s available to help us as we detail what exactly this all means.

The LCD TV that we shall use for our illustrative purposes here is the B&O Beovision 8.

When considering a new Flat Screen TV it would help if you were familiar with the following items of information.

Firstly we have to understand the phrase Screen Resolution and all of that implies. Here we refer to the exact number of pixels that can be displayed in each dimension.

Next up is whether the TV is Hi-Definition Ready and what does this mean? Hi Definition TV essentially makes a TV picture in a quality format that is at least four times better than conventionally available at present.

The next item that we would need to look at is what types of connectors are used between the peripherals used alongside the main Digital TV?

We are referring here to the exact nature and number of the Scarts Sockets and Plugs in use. SCART stands for �Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d�Appareils Radio et Television (SCART).

The final item we would look at would be what is the nature and number of the High-Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) being used. Here High Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) refers to the audio/video connector interface that transmits the uncompressed digital streams of information between two or more digital components such as a HD DVD Disc player, a Blu-ray Disc player, a Personal Computer or Video Console.

The Beovision 8 is a 26in LCD TV and the prices for these are around 1800 pounds sterling or 2900 US dollars. The screen resolution is 1366 X 768 and with regards to being HD Ready the answer is yes. The Beovision has 2 (2 RGB) scarts and the type and number of Multimedia interfaces the Beovision 8 uses is HDMI and 1. The type of Tuner for this TV is Analogue and the Beovision is available from specialised outlets only.

So how would we rate the B&O Beovision 8?

The most obvious place to start with as far as TV's are concerned would be the picture quality and our score here would be 8, and closely tied in to the picture quality is the sound quality and our score for this would be 8. Another useful aspect to review is the availability and number of relevant connections and our score here would be 6. As far as overall features are concerned we would give it 6 and the final individual verdicts would relate to the ease of use and overall value for money and our scores here would be, 4 and 6 respectively.

Finally our overall opinion would be this is definitely one to consider if you don't mind paying a huge premium for the appearance and looks

With regards to the prices in this article we have tried in all cases to take an average across the industry from a number of well known web sites and so we ask you to bear this in mind and treat these prices as advisory only rather than absolutes.

Scott James writes quite regularly on the Internet about TV and Home Entertainment issues and more on the above can be found at sony flat screen tv and also at http://bestflatscreentv.biz