Plasma and projection TVs
Plasma displays are screens that are perfectly flat and very thin with zero curvature. Being absolutely flat these provide perfect focus, no distortion, and eliminate glare making them good for the eyes. While the projection TVs give you a theatre-like experience within the ambience of your home. They have large screens and are available in two types: front and rear projection. The size of your room is very crucial to the buying of this set, as it needs a certain distance to be maintained between you and the screen. Rear Projection TVs provide excellent viewing from any angle. Front Projection TVs are not available in the Indian market at present. These come with a separate screen and a projector. Models are priced between Rs 39,500 and Rs 31,99,990. For the movie buffs, this might well be worth the investment though.
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display):
LCD is a new technology that works on the principle of blocking light rather than emitting it. An LCD consists primarily of two glass plates with some liquid crystal material between them, which gets rid of the bulky picture tube. Main advantages of LCD technology lies in the reduction of weight and power consumption, making LCD TVs a practical, though slightly expensive option. The price range starts from Rs 16,500 and can go upto Rs 21,99,995.
Screen flatness
Type
Screen sizes available (inches)
Regular
Conventional
14 to 29
Semi Flat
FST and FFST
14 to 29
Truly Flat
Flat, Super flat, True flat
14 to 34
Plasma and Projection
Plasma and LCD/DLP Projection
32 to 103
LCD/LED TV
Liquid Crystal Display
19 to 70
Now, if you are going for a high-end television like an LCD, Plasma or Projection then factors like resolution, contrast ratio, aspect ratio and viewing angle also need to be considered.
RESOLUTION
Perceived picture detail is primarily dependent on display resolution. Technically, a display is considered high definition if it is wide screen and has a total pixel count approaching 1 million. So 1280x720, 1366x768, 1024x1024 and highest of true HD 1920x1080 are all examples of high-definition display resolutions. Naturally, higher the resolution higher the price.
CONTRAST RATIO
Contrast is the ratio between white and black objects displayed on the screen. The higher the contrast ratio the greater the ability to show subtle color details and tolerate extraneous room light as well as bright objects displayed on screen. There isn’t a specified ratio but generally it is advisable to choose a Television with higher contrast ratio. There are two ways of measuring contrast ratio. The first is True or On-screen Contrast Ratio and the second is Dynamic Contrast Ratio. True or On-screen contrast ratio measures the difference between the brightest and darkest images a TV can produce simultaneously or at the same time. The ratio of the brightest and darkest images a TV can produce over time is called Dynamic Contrast Ratio. Dynamic contrast measures the display twice, once with a dark screen and once with a bright screen. Dynamic contrast ratio is often four or five times higher than the static specification; so while comparing televisions, make sure you consider them at equal terms. But in the end, it is always advisable you inspect competing models yourself for their contrast performance before purchasing.
BRIGHTNESS
Brightness is measured in candela per square meter (cd/m²). Higher the brightness better the output. Look out for Plasma/RPTV/LCD TVs with brightness of 400Cd/m² and above.
ASPECT RATIO
The aspect ratio is screen width to screen height. Conventional sets have a 4:3 aspect ratio, wherein the picture displayed is squarish in nature. Now you also have wide-screen models with an aspect ratio of 16:9. This can be called the immediate future of television as almost all movies or DVD titles have 16:9 as their aspect ratio. This means your television screen will look like a mini version of a movie theatre screen. Currently all HDTV ready sets have 16:9 as aspect ratio.
VIEWING ANGLE
This factor is important for LCD and Plasma television. No hard and fast rule here, but a viewing angle of 160 degrees and above is good enough.
RESPONSE TIME
Response time refers to ability of LCD TV-pixels to switch totally from black to white and again black. This response time measured in thousandths of a second (milliseconds or ms). This factor is important for the movie buffs and gaming freaks. If you have a high response time then you might have a white ghosting effect on your screen that might take away from the effects of a game, or even spoil the stomach clenching climax of a race car or rapid shoot out scene in a movie. Clearly here it is a case of lower the better. Conventional CRT TVs and plasma TVs don’t have this problem. Current generation of LCD TVs sport response time of 8 ms and below which makes the picture smooth flowing without too much of ghosting effect. Manufacturers are striving to make it more faster and their efforts are bearing fruit. Just to quote an example - Sharp’s new A lineup of televisions feature models with response time of 4 ms. The recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas saw LCD TVs from leading manufacturers with 100 and 120 Hz frame rate doubling. A proprietary algorithm doubles the frame rate of 50/60 fps (frames per second) and aims for a smoother moving image. So rest assured about future LCD TVs.
