LCD TV
The acronym LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. This technology was created to replace the CRT technology. LCD TV is a significant improvement in the way pictures are displayed due to the mode of display involved.
LCD technology uses two major components to display, namely; Cold Cathode Florescent Lamps or CCFLs and molecules of liquid crystals. The CCFLs are used to illuminate the liquid molecules with white light, and as the light passes through, an image is created.
LCD TV has the following advantages over CRT TV; flat and much lighter, a higher resolution, wider viewing angle of up to 175 degrees, lower power consumption, resistant to ‘burn in’ due to static images, and are ideal for naturally lit environments. However, there are some disadvantages to this technology such as a low contrast ratio and inability to achieve true black picture quality.
Plasma TV
The shortcomings of LCD TV led to the development of Plasma Display Panel, otherwise known as Plasma TV. With this technology, images are created from gases containing neon and xenon atoms.
Plasma TV technology boasts of a rich variation of colors, due to an advanced color generation feature, that is able to generate true black picture quality.
The viewing distance and angles are also wider, ranging from 160 and up to 180 degrees, which is more than what can be achieved with LCD TV. Plasma TV also has a higher lifespan than LCD TV. The downside of this technology is that the viewing capability, especially the brightness is greatly diminished in poor lighting conditions, lower resolution, and an irreparable back light.
LED TV
A more advanced technology in television display is the LED TV. This is basically an advanced model of LCD TV, which uses Light Emitting Diodes instead of the traditional Cold Cathode Florescent Lamps for its back light.
The major advantage of using LEDs is that it eliminated the numerous black spots that were as a result of using fluorescent lights. LED TV has the best color levels and contrast ratio, hence superb picture quality that is viewable from wider angles; its power consumption is significantly lower, is shock resistant and longer lasting than its predecessors.
The only shortcoming to LED TV is that it is more expensive than LCD and Plasma TV.
