What are Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs?
How Do They Work?
| Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs are a newer technology.They are made up of two glass panels filled with liquid crystal. The front glass panel has a grid pattern (template) etched into it so that the liquid crystal can be filtered by light. The crystals act like smart shutters allowing light to pass or to be blocked. The patterns of light and dark crystals determine the image on the TV. The twisted nematic (TN) is the most common type of liquid crystal used in display applications such as LCD televisions, monitors and projectors. This crystal reacts to electric currents in predictable ways, |  |
such as untwisting to varying degrees depending on the voltage of the current to which it is exposed. The main difference between Plasma and LCD technology is that LCD pixels don’t give off light. As with Plasma technology, an LCD pixel is comprised of three sub-pixels in the elementary colors. Because they don’t give off light, LCD displays need white backlighting. The light given off by the backlighting passes through the liquid crystal and is then colored by a filter. Each sub-pixel has the same characteristics; only the color of the filter changes depending on the pixel. The liquid crystal of each sub-pixel can be controlled electrically like a valve; the amount of light allowed to pass through the crystal governs how much red, green and blue is given off for each pixel. Active matrix LCDs employ thin film transistors (TFTs) or tiny switching transistors and capacitors arranged in a matrix on a glass substrate, to direct electric charges down columns to reach a particular pixel. In essence, this causes the liquid crystals to untwist and display a prearranged amount of light generated by the light source – usually a fluorescent bulb located in back of them. By exploiting a combination of red, green, and blue sub-pixels of various intensities (or gray scales), a single pixel triad can reproduce approximately 16.8 million colors.
Advantages and Disadvantages to LCD TVs
Advantages
- LCD TVs include great still image quality as well as being an excellent computer screen with an exceptionally bright picture.
- LCD TVs don’t take up a lot of space, they can be wall mounted and they weigh less than Plasma TVs.
- LCD TVs have a long, practically maintenance-free life.
- LCDs offer higher resolutions than Plasmas of the same size. They also have excellent image stability. In other words, you can sit close without experiencing eye exhaustion.
- LCDs possess a longer lifetime than Plasma televisions, whith a difference of about 50,000 hours versus 30,000 hours.
- LCDs are best over any other flat-panel displays when it comes to computers. LCD monitors are now used for most applications including games, office applications, and photo retouching.
- LCDs operate at much cooler temperatures and cost less per hour than Plasma televisions. The smaller and better transistors found in LCDs give them another advantage over Plasma – higher resolution.
Disadvantages:
- Possible quick delays in pictures with fast movement (size 37 inches and less handle the delay better than the larger sizes),
- Some types of LCDs have trouble with black levels,
- Some lesser quality LCDs have pixel failure.
- The prices dramatically increase with LCD TVs over the size of 35 inches.
- LCD viewing angles cannot match those of Plasma displays. You tend to see some brightness and color shift when you’re sitting at too far an angle from your LCD, while Plasma’s picture remains fairly solid.
- LCDs have lower contrast ratios than Plasmas and are not as good at rendering deep blacks.
- Not as good as Plasmas in tracking motion and fast-moving objects may exhibit what is called, lag artifacts.
Our Top Rated LCD Televisions
Today, there several manufacturers of LCD TVs (Sony, Samsung, Phillips, Haier, LG Electronics, Sharp and many more.)
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We are more than happy to help you when it comes to help in making this choice (Contact Phone Number: 1-888-768-1710).
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