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How To Choose The Right Television For Youby Duane Smith
Watching television has progressed from a luxury that only few had in their
homes in the middle of the last century to the point where most consumers not
only have one television, but often they may have several. And television
programming has expanded greatly from just the three big networks to a whole
host of other channels as well.
And along with this growth of interest in
television programming the technology of televisions has been steadily improving
too. Today we have lots of choices to make when we are deciding to buy another
television. Should it be an analog or digital TV? HDTV enabled or ready? Plasma
or LCD screen? All of these decisions can seem to be confusing, but if you just
understand a few basics about TVs you should be able to make the right choice
for what will suit you best.
Let's start by discussing whether you should
buy an analog or digital capable TV. Analog TV is simply TV you have been used
to in past years. The signals are sent and received in analog format and it has
worked fine for a long time. It has it's drawbacks though because analog TV
signals can only hold so much data for the screen and sound, and an analog
signal can degrade easily. Never fear though, analog TV will be fine for use for
many years to come even after other technologies dominate. The good news is that
analog TV sets are very cheap and you can get a lot for your
dollar.
Digital TV signals allow the data sent by the TV station to be
much more dense and include more information without very much degradation of
signal. So digital TV usually makes for a much better picture and sound,
especially on DVDs. Plus digital TV has made it possible for the newer standards
of high definition programming. For the absolute best picture and sound the TV
station should be broadcasting in high definition (or HDTV), and your TV should
also be able to receive and process that HDTV signal and display it on a high
definition enabled screen. If all of this criteria is met the effects are just
stunning.
But many TV stations are not yet broadcasting in HDTV format
because it requires them to invest lots of money in new equipment to do so. They
have to have enough of a market to make it worth their while. So in the
meantime, we have some stations who do broadcast in HDTV and many who still just
send out analog signals. However, all TV stations will have to comply with
federal guidelines to be HDTV compliant within the next couple of years, so high
definition TV is here to stay and will only grow in importance.
In the
meantime, you have your choice of buying an HDTV "capable" "enabled" TV if you
choose to buy a digital TV. An HDTV capable TV means that it can process digital
signals (like DVDs) but in order to display the high definition signal it will
require you to purchase an additional tuner which you can buy later at any time.
On the other hand, HDTV enabled simply means that the TV is fully capable of
displaying high definition picture and sound right out of the box. The choice is
yours. Either bite the bullet and get the whole HDTV enabled enchilada now, or
defer it a while longer until HDTV programming is more standard.
You also
hear a lot about plasma and LCD screens these days. The screens we have been
used to for years are called CRTs, and they have worked just fine, but the main
advantage of plasma and LCD screens are that they can be very thin to produce,
usually they are only 2-3 inches wide and that makes them able to be mounted in
many places that CRT screens just can't go. If you need that kind of screen,
just bear in mind that plasma and LCD screens are still very expensive. There is
nothing wrong with just getting a good CRT screen or a rear projection screen in
the meantime as they can be had for not a lot of money and can still produce a
great picture depending on the manufacturer.
There is more to all of this
television technology, but what we have covered should give you a good idea of
what the different TV terms mean and arm you with enough information that you
can now confidently choose the television that will work best for you.
About
the Author
Duane Smith - All About
Televisions is a site that provides free information, resources and tips on
HDTV, plasma tvs, high definition television, LCD tvs, projection televisions,
digital video recorders and much more.
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