Plasma TV Wall Mount

For those who want their home theatre to imitate the cinematic experience, a plasma TV wall mount is a good investment to save space and to give a great effect. A plasma TV wall mount is easy to install yourself, but if you prefer, you can hire a professional to do the job for you. The price of a typical plasma TV wall mount can range from $60 to $350, and it is a good idea to invest in the best plasma TV wall mount you can afford, since plasma TVs are quite delicate and you cannot risk having your plasma TV fall to the ground. However, most plasma TV wall mounts do the job sufficiently well.

Your plasma TV wall mount should contain at least the following items:

? Wall plate
? Rails
? Arms

The wall plate attaches to the wall and the rails are for the back of the television. There should be two perpendicular arms with devices to connect to the back of the plate. The rails enable you to move the TV to the right or the left across the wall and enable you to lift the TV off, if necessary.

You need to select a plasma TV wall mount suited to the type of plasma TV that you have. The average size is 26-41? and weighs up to 100 pounds. A typical plasma TV wall mount can handle this type of set. However, if you plasma TV is larger than this and weighs more than 100 pounds, you will need a two stud wall mount.

It is possible to install your plasma TV wall mount on a concrete wall, although you will need a different type of plasma TV mount. Cement anchors are needed to keep you TV in place on a concrete surface, and you can also find long belts and other devices specially designed for concrete. As with any type of Plasma TV mount, ensure that your cement anchors are sturdy enough to hold a heavy unit.

When you install your plasma TV, you might not be certain about what height you want. If you have a typical, flat plasma TV wall mount, you will need to put your plasma TV at the correct height. However, many people like to have their plasma TV?s a little higher. One reason is that, since plasma TV are so vulnerable to damage, those with children prefer to put their plasma TV as high up as possible to avoid stray balls from hitting the screen. If you want to put your plasma TV up high, you will need a special plasma TV wall mount that tilts so your set can face downward at an angle. You will also need a tilt plasma TV wall mount if your set is not completely flat, but has a gentle curve at the back.

You can purchase a plasma TV wall mount with fixed arms or with articulating arms that move along a 90 degree swivel. The articulating wall mounts may cost a bit more, but are worth the investment if you like to view your television from different angles. They are not much more difficult to install than fixed arm wall mounts, and are just as durable.

Ensure that your plasma TV wall mount is sufficiently durable. It is a good idea to install your television along with a friend who can help you take your plasma TV on and off the mount while you are testing it for durability. A partner can also see if there is any ?giving? or wobbling, and this second pair of eyes might just save your set. If you are unsure of your abilities, it is worthwhile to hire a professional to install your plasma TV mount.

Marcus Grant http://www.SigK.com www.lcd-flat-screen-tv.net

Finding the best plasma tv

Plasma televisions are one of the hottest products on the market today. But with so many retailers, how do you know where you can get the best plasma television? Here are some things you should know before you before you commit yourself to the purchase.

Firstly, deciding where to buy your best plasma television is not as easy as it may sound. You will need to think about where you will go- will it be a traditional store, located around the corner, or will you get a better deal at an outlet store for a major nationwide retailer? To complicate the choice further, you now have hundreds- if not thousands- of online shops to choose from.

If you decide to buy your best new television from a 'brick and mortar' shop, you should first shop around the neighbourhood, comparing prices, to get the best price. Don't forget to check whether the retailer is an authorised dealer, as this may become important down the road, if you need to return the item, or have it repaired. There are generally two types of these shops: Those which are warehouse-type stores and smaller specialty shops.

The larger retailers may be the best place for you to purchase your plasma television, as they usually have the best prices. It's important to remember, however, that the staff that are employed may not be that well-versed in the products that they are selling and the quality of service can sometimes be very poor. If you know exactly the brand and model of the plasma television that you are looking for, then a smaller specialty retailer might be best for you.

Searching for that perfect deal online can be somewhat more difficult. While the prices are usually lower, you don't have the luxury of being able to see the product and sample its picture quality. And, more often than not, the great prices are usually offset by the costs of shipping and handling.

Buying the best plasma television should not be a stressful experience if you know where to shop.

Tom Ace is the founder of Plasma tv Resources a website providing information on plasma televisions

Plasma TVs and 1080p Technology

Since the invention of television, improvements and innovations have made the present day product almost unrecognizable from the original T.V. your grandparents had. The flat screen plasm T.V. is the latest technology on the market today. You've seen them, flat screen T.V. that don't take up a big chunk of your living room or den but can be mounted on the wall instead. Once prohibitively expensive but now affordable to just about everyone.The 1080p plasma T.V. is the latest in HDTV technology. Offering full high definition abilities on a fifty inch screen. It is a couch potatoes ultimate dream. At over four feet wide, it is alot of plasma T.V. screen.

One drawback is that few HD DVD players have 1080p output. It's the same story with regards to over the air satellite broadcasts and cable. They all are expected to catch up in the near future.The challenge in creating a fifty inch plasma T.V. screen with 1080p technology was in reducing the size of the pixels by half in order to fit more than two million pixels on the screen. The result, manufacturers claim, is a near three dimensional effect. People who have watched 1080p technology on a fifty inch screen claim the effect is astounding. The word is that the picture seems to literally jump off the screen.The 1080p technology comes at a price though.

The fifty inch plasma T.V with 1080p is going to set you back on average of about ten-thousand dollars. So this is truly only for the serious minded viewer for the time being. Plasma T.V.s have gradually come down in price over the years and it is only to be expected that these new models will do the same. But for those who don't want to wait they are available.So if your in the market to upgrade your entertainment capabilities with a new plasma T.V. and you are interested in the latest the industry has to offer. Then consider test driving the new 1080p plasma T.V technology. If you don't mind a little wait for the satellite broadcasters to catch up and can handle the price. They are on the market and in the show rooms now.

Written by Jane Smith. Are you looking for more information on a 1080p Plasma TV? At 1080p Reviews we can help you find the best 1080p HDTV.

LCD vs Plasma television

Anyone who is currently thinking about buying a flat panel television at the moment will probably be thinking about whether to buy an LCD television or a plasma television. The LCD vs Plasma debate shows no sign of going away any time soon. This article aims to explain the main differences between the two technologies and clear up any confusion.

Visually, LCD and Plasma televisions look very much alike. Both are variants of the flat panel genre, both are slim and both take up very little space compared with their traditional CRT relatives. But that's as far as the similarities go. Under the bonnet the technology driving LCD tvs is very different from that driving Plasma tvs.

Plasma

A plasma display consists of two plates of glass, sandwiched between which are hundreds of thousands of tiny, gas filled cells. These cells are rather like tiny flourescent tubes as they are filled with neon gas and coated with phosphor.

Each plasma cell can be individually energised with an electric current. This causes the gas to release ultraviolet photons. These photons cause the phosphor coating of the cell to radiate visible light. If the cells are switched on and off in the correct sequence, the picture is formed. This switching happens 1000s of times a second.

These gas filled cells form the pixels of the display. In fact, each pixel consists of 3 cells, giving off red, green or blue light. By varying the relative intensities of red, green and blue, different colours are formed.

LCD

The pixels of an LCD TV dislay, unlike those of a Plasma display, do not give off any light themselves. A liquid crystal solution is trapped between two sheets of glass and the whole display is illuninated with a back light. The voltages applied to the various pixels is varied and this controls how much light from the back light reaches the screen. In turn, the pattern of light reaching the screen forms the picture.

Whis is better - LCD vs Plasma?

Traditionally, Plasma tvs have had the edge over LCD tvs, particularly at larger screen sizes. This difference is diminishing all the time, however, as LCD technology moves forwards. Prices are generally coming down and the price difference between the two is getting less. Performance-wise the difference is diminishing too. There is a slight issue regarding LCD tvs not displaying deep blacks as well as Plasma, but in general use this difference is becoming negligible.

Dave Cassidy is a staff writer at www.lcdtvpages.com. For more information on LCD and Plasma tvs, see LCD vs Plasma.

A Plasma Television or an LCD TV Set Which is better

A Plasma HDTV or a LCD Television Is this your dilemma? This is a rather difficult and complicated comparison between two technologies that process the image in a totally different manner.

This article highlights the pros and cons of plasma versus LCD as applicable to a television display. It also presents a set of guidelines to help you determine where either of these two flat panel display technologies fit best.

Plasma or LCD Which type of display is right for you?

Though both LCD and plasma displays come in the form of slim flat panel displays, yet from a technology perspective, these two flat panel displays process the image in a totally different manner.

Plasma uses a matrix of tiny gas plasma cells that are charged by precise electrical voltages to emit light and hence to create the picture image. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) panels - work by trapping a liquid crystal solution between two sheets of polarized glass. When an electric current is passed through the liquid crystals, they change the polarization of the light passing through them in response to the electric voltage as a result of which, more or less light is able to pass through the polarized glass on the face of the display.

It is not the scope of this article to go into the actual details of how these different display technologies process the image after all, what really matters is not what is going behind the screen but rather how these different display technologies perform as a television screen. At the same time, it is worth taking note that it is these same differences that gives each of these display technologies, its strengths and weaknesses, and that therefore renders one more suitable than the other in certain circumstances.

The list below highlights the most important differences between these two flat panel display technologies:

Size: For the time being, collision between plasma television and LCD TV occur in the 40 to 50 inch screen range. In reality, LCD TVs top out at around 45 meaning that for bigger screen sizes, a plasma display is your only real option if what you are after is a direct-view TV system. On the other hand, at the smaller end of spectrum, namely 15 to 36 TVs, LCD is the way to go if what you want is something stylish and slim (at under 4-inches in depth).

Picture Quality, Contrast and Color Saturation: Both plasma and the latest TFT-LCD flat panel displays are capable of producing excellent picture quality with bright, crisp clear images.

However, plasma flat panel displays are more suitable for basic home theater usage than LCD. The gas cell structure within a plasma display is such that there is no light leaking between adjacent cells (or pixels). This renders plasma displays capable of displaying deeper blacks hence better contrast and detail in television and movie scenes where lots of dark and light content is shown simultaneously.

In comparison, the nature of LCD technology where a backlight shines through the LCD layer means that it is hard for it to achieve true blacks (i.e. true absence of light) as there is always some light leakage from adjacent pixels.

This does not mean that LCD panel s are not suitable as TV screens; todays LCD TV sets make use of extreme high contrast panels that are capable of displaying deeper blacks, yet the latest plasma TV sets still have a slight edge over LCD when it comes to contrast levels.

The situation is somewhat similar when it comes to color saturation. Again, it is the different display structure between LCD and plasma that is the reason behind the difference between the two technologies in this respect, and though both are capable of handling color in an exceptional manner, yet plasma displays still lead in this respect - producing more accurate and vibrant colors.

Viewing-angle:Plasma Television sets like their CRT TV counterpart - typically have better viewing angles than LCD. The viewing angle represents how far one can sit on either side of the screen away from the center, without experiencing significant deterioration in picture quality mainly as a result of color shifts and reduced contrast.

Though recent developments in LCD technology means that this is less of an issue with some of the latest LCD TV sets boosting a viewing angle of 160 to 170 degrees vertically and horizontally, yet it is always best to check. The tendency especially with cheaper sets is that the deterioration in picture quality is more accentuated with LCD than with plasma displays.

Burn-In: As with all phosphor-based displays, plasma displays are prone to burn-in, or image retention. Screen burn-in occurs when an image is left for too long on the screen resulting in a ghost of the image burned on the screen. Surely, keeping the brightness and contrast levels down will help reduce the risk of burn-in.

While some brands of plasma displays are more prone than others to burn-in, yet in general, plasma screens are more prone to suffer permanent burn-in during their first 200 hours of use; the reason being that fresh phosphors burn more intensely as they are ignited.

Technically speaking, burn-in is the result of a damaged pixel, whose phosphors has been prematurely aged and therefore glows less intensely than those of surrounding pixels. The presence of a static image for more than half-an-hour is enough to cause temporary burn-in; temporary burn-in or image ghosting, should not be cause for alarm as normally this will wash out after several hours of use.

Worst still is the prolonged presentation of static displays, such as the use of black or gray bars to view a 4:3 picture in its original format on a wide screen display; this will result in a permanent burn-in. Once permanent burn-in occurs, the damaged phosphors cannot produce the same levels of light output as the other phosphors around them do.
In these circumstances, an LCD display may be a better choice.

Viewing distance: It seems that the pixel size and shape of an LCD panel renders a smoother picture than an equivalently sized plasma panel for the same pixel count.

This means that even if your viewing distance falls within the recommended distance of approximately twice the screen width, if this is less than at least nine feet, most probably you will be better off with an LCD TV.

Life-time: The rare gases used in plasma display panels have a life and will fade over use. Earlier plasma TV sets had a quoted half-lifetime of between 20,000hrs, following which the image brightness will fall to half its original value. However, the latest plasma displays can boost anything between 30,000 and 60,000 hours. On the other hand, LCD displays have a guaranteed lifetime of between 50,000hrs and 60,000 hours. This degradation in image brightness takes place gradually over time.

Now, the average household in the US replaces their TV set every 7 years. Taking a conservative figure of 30,000 hours for either technology, this corresponds to well over 6hrs usage a day - every day - for over a period of 14 years! In other words, both plasma and LCD displays are extremely stable and reliable devices. This means that life-time should not be an issue with either display technology.

At the same time, keep in mind that there is no way to re-generate the gases in a plasma display or to repair any dead pixels in an LCD display the only option in such circumstances will be to replace the display.

Response: Some LCD panels especially on older generation models - had a tendency to blur images particularly during fast moving scenes in movies and sports. However, recent advancement in LCD technology means that response times are such that there is no noticeable difference in performance between LCD and plasma TV sets in this regard.

Power requirements: The advantage here goes to LCD panels as these consume less electricity. Estimates show that the use of LCD panels can result in some 30% power savings for the same screen size than plasma display.

Price: Price is always a big issue when it comes to choosing your TV display. Although prices online vary considerably, yet LCD TV sets tend to be more expensive than Plasma Televisions. The main reason behind this price gap is that the production process for plasma technology still supports a better yield and thus carries a pricing advantage especially at the large screen end of the market.

This contrasts heavily with LCD display technology where an estimate 30 to 40 per cent of all manufactured panels will have to be discarded as a result of defects leading to what are known as 'bad-pixels'.

Making the Choice:

There is a market for both plasma and LCD displays - Plasma gives you a bigger screen for your dollar, deeper blacks, but then LCD do not suffer from burn-in and at the smaller end of the market (less than 40-inch screen size), LCD is your only way forward if you want something slim and stylish.

It is all a question of knowing what are the advantages and limitations of each with respect to your specific needs.

Editor & publisher of http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/ - a comprehensive home theater guide to home theater systems, product reviews and home theater design.
This article is an excerpt from a series of guides appearing under the Plasma Television section of the site.