slim design and a flat viewing surface, but have been designed for
video display. Recent advances in flat panel LCD technology now
allow for wider viewing angles, larger screens, and higher-quality
video images. LCD Televisions are also competition for plasma
technology. They are several times lighter than comparably sized
plasmas, and are far more durable.
Features
All LCD TVs offer progressive scan support and flat screens by
design. They also provide users with numerous input options,
adding to their versatility. Most LCD televisions can double as
computer displays, which is a great option if you need your display
to pull double duty as a PC monitor to save space and money .
Nearly all LCD TVs offer the option to mount on a wall or under a
cabinet.
While many support "HDTV compatibility" and "progressive scan" as
features prominently displayed on the box, don't forget that 99
percent of regular NTSC TV broadcasts and the typical DVD player
won't let you take advantage of these features.
How LCD TVs work
LCD monitors work by blocking light. It becomes possible to
manipulate the intensity of light as it passes through its crystalline
matrix and out the glass panel at the other end. Depending on the
voltage running through them, liquid crystals will untwist so that the
intensity of light able to pass through the second polarized pane is
affected. Basically, these displays can switch between light states
(where the liquid crystals are fully twisted) and dark states (where
the liquid crystals are fully untwisted), or somewhere in between.
A liquid crystal display consists of an array of tiny segments or
"pixels" that are manipulated to form images. Pixels are turned on
(disabling the passage of light) and off (enabling the passage of
light) so as to create an image on the polarized display pane in front
of you. Active-matrix LCD displays employ thin film transistors, 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. This causes the liquid crystals to untwist and
"display" a predetermined amount of light generated by the light
source-usually a florescent bulb-in back of them.
The light source in an active-matrix LCD monitor is a florescent bulb,
which emits white light through a polarized glass pane behind the
liquid crystal solution. To achieve a full color pallet on your LCD
display, each pixel is divided into three subpixels-red, green, and
blue-that work in conjunction to determine the LCD pixel's overall
hue. By exploiting a combination of red, green, and blue subpixels
of various intensities (or gray scales), a single pixel triad can
reproduce approximately 16.8 million colors.
