Flat Panel Television

Why Go with a Flat Panel Television?

Why do we like flat panel TV’s so much? Well I have a laptop that I could fit about 35 times inside my old CRT monitor and if I took the base of my LCD screen I could probably stack up about 15 of them to get to the depth of my TV. All right, this is just one of my arguments, since who knows, some of us might like huge cluttery stuff in our living room. My other argument is that picture quality is way superior, especially nowadays.

The picture of flat-screen TV’s is better than our traditional CRT behemoths for a load of reasons. The way these screens work, be it LCD or Plasma, enables them to produce a much better picture than the traditional cathode method. The earlier models were a bit limited in their viewing angle though, today the clever developers have pretty much solved this, although image quality will deteriorate if you are at an extreme viewing angle. My argument for this though is that try viewing a traditional CRT from an extreme angle. Can’t see that either, can you?

Flat Panel TV’s also tend to have more features as well, and they are much easier to hook up to PC’s, so if you are looking for a media PC solution in your living room you can enjoy all the benefits of your PC and all the benefits of a home theater at once. All I have talked about is technical stuff, and I’ve only touched the aesthetical side a bit. Flat screen TV’s are usually made really sleek and you can find a style to suit your room I’m sure. Weather you like the streamlined metallic grey color, or the total blackness of some screens, there will be a great choice for you. There are flat panel screens designed specifically for living-room use, and there are ones designed for PC use. You can usually tell which is which, living room ones tend to be wide-screen and have more “furniture” quality to them.

When talking about flat screen let’s clear up some of the terms we use. What is flat-screen, Plasma, LCD, why we measure them the way we do and what are the differences? Well, what we mean by flat screen is (surprise, surprise), a flat screen. Anything that is not like a traditional CRT (ie.: is half a mile deep) is a flat screen TV, or monitor.

The main difference in LCD and Plasma really is in the materials used. LCD, as the name implies (liquid crystal display) uses liquid. This is quite obvious if you gently tab the screen, you can see ripples. Plasma uses xenon and neon gas to achieve the picture. Plasma screens are generally larger than LCD, which peaks at about 50 inches. Plasma goes higher than 70, but hey aren’t really made in small sizes though. I’ve heard from sources that the life of Plasma TV’s is shorter, although everything in the media indicates that it is very long.

Finally, why do we measure them diagonally? Whoever knows the answer without reading it somewhere is a marketing whizz. Simply because the number is larger. You could measure only the bottom and say it’s 50 inches, but doesn’t 70 sound so much better? That is the simple and only reason.