TV Alphabet Soup - Learn More About LCD, Plasma, DLP and HDTV

Because of advancements in science and technology, there has been a revolution in the world of television as well. This article is going to focus on the new world of television and get into brief details of LCD, Plasma, DLP and how they relate to the HDTV.

Digital Light Processing (DLP) is the only 100% digital display in the world today. DLP televisions use an optical semiconductor that works with fidelities impossible to achieve with analog systems. DLP projectors make use of microscopic mirrors placed in a matrix formation on a semiconductor chip called the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). Each mirror contributes one pixel to the projected image. The higher the resolution, the greater is the number of mirrors needed. Some common DMD sizes are 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x720. HDTV compatible projectors need a 1920x1080 matrix.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) creates images by streaming light through LCD glass panels. The three panels are typically red, green, and blue filters. These filters will permit or block light to pass through each pixel thereby creating the final image. LCD TVs have brighter colors and can easily substitute for computer monitors. Most LCD TVs are less than 32". LCD TVs come in both HDTV capable and non-capable.

Compared to LCD TVs, Plasma TVs offer more screen real estate. Plasma TVs are cheaper per square inch and have better black levels makes them ideal for people looking for a big-screen home-theater. Plasma TVs are not available below 37" screen size. Plasma TVs are either enhanced definition (EDTV) or high definition (HDTV). EDTV are cheaper and can display HDTV format but at lower quality. EDTV works at 480p resolution, same as DVDs. While EDTV will do justice to your DVD collection, it won?t be very useful with HDTV formats.

While these different formats give good picture quality, that doesn?t mean that every model of each one is compatible with HDTV. You must make sure that the set you are interested in is HDTV ready if you want to take advantage of the high definition TV signals that are now available. It would be a great disappointment to pay a high price for an LCD, DLP or plasma TV only to find out that it isn?t HDTV capable. The better quality picture of these formats does make them better choices over CRT format TVs for HDTV programming.

Check out http://www.hdtvland.com/ for articles on LCD vs Plasma and bluray player.