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All your questions answered

Plasma versus LCD

Ever wondered which is better, Plasma or LCD? Well it's a close call. At Just TV Stands we think it comes down to the type of room you have or the viewing conditions you prefer.

If you don't already know, LCD screens work by shining a backlight through coloured liquid. Plasma screens work by using an electrical current to make the coloured phosphors glow. The advantage of this is that it gives a higher contrast ratio. This means that they tend to be the best choice if you have a home cinema set-up where you always watch your screen with low ambient light.

However, what really matters is your personal preference, what you think looks good. You cannot beat going to the store and looking at the picture. Even the guys in the office here at JTV are divided over which they would buy!

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HD screen resolution explained

For a TV to be allowed to carry the "HD ready" logo, it must support the three types of HD screen resolution. Screen resolution is measured in the number of horizontal lines that make up the picture data followed by a 'p' or 'i' to denote how these lines are broadcasted and decoded onto your TV. The number of lines can be 540, 720 or 1080. And they can be brought to your screen with a progressive scan (p), which puts all the lines on to the screen at the exact same time. If you’re watching an action movie with lots of movement, you’ll notice better detail and fewer trails. Or you could choose interlace (i), which puts on screen half the scan lines at a time and may cause flickering on bigger TVs. The best choice for widescreen is 1080p (1080 screen lines drawn with progressive scan).

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Understanding contrast ratio

Contrast ratio describes the ratio between the white and black colours on your screen. It's measured with a number, such as 3000:1. This tells you that the white is 3,000 times brighter than the black. As a rough guide, the higher the contrast, the better the colours are on your screen.

Something important to consider when buying a new HD ready TV is that the different manufacturers measure contrast ratio in different ways, so don't rely on the numbers alone. Always visually check the quality of the colour across a number of images.

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What's the big deal about HDMI?

Recently we gave away free HDMI cables with our TV stands. While most customers snapped our hands off, a few asked us what the big deal is. So for them, here's a quick explanation of HDMI.

HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface and is thought to be the next generation of cabling. Where it has the edge over analogue cables (like component, composite or S-Video) is that it doesn't require the digital video or sound signal to be converted to analogue and then back to digital again, avoiding the inevitable loss of quality.

Another thing HDMI has going for it is that it can help tidy up the mess of cables behind your TV stand (if you don't have an Origin stand to hide the wires). Because it carries audio and video, it's a neat all-in-one cable.

It's also a smart little cable that can provide two-way communication between devices. This means it can tell other parts of a HDMI linked system to automatically turn on with your DVD player - getting you up and running at the touch of just one button.

So if your television, DVD player, games console, or whatever has a HDMI port you should definitely be making the switch. As with most technology, there are different versions of HDMI so functionality and quality of your audio/video will differ depending on what your device supports. You can find out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI. Safe to say, even version 1.0 will give you a much better experience than your old analogue cables.

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What is the digital switchover and why is it happening?

The digital TV switchover is the process of turning off the UK's analogue TV signal and replacing it with a digital signal. The digital TV switchover is Government policy and will mean that almost everyone will be able to receive digital TV through an aerial (Free view).

Digital TV also uses less broadcast space which means that after switchover, there will be more room for new services such as wireless broadband, local TV and High Definition Television (HDTV).
To keep your TV service, you will need to convert your TVs to digital before your area’s switchover date. Digital TV offers new ways to enjoy your TV service:

•    Greater choice of TV channels
•    New features such as on-screen listings, interactivity, audio description and subtitling for people with visual and audio impairments.
•    Optional additional channels and services including premium channels (e.g. movies, sports), broadband and telephony.

When your home switches to digital will depend on where you live in the UK. The switchover is implemented TV region by TV region, transmitter by transmitter. Switching to digital is as easy as connecting a digital box to your existing TV. Any TV left unconverted will not work after switchover. Video and DVD recorders will still play back and record but most won’t be able to record one channel while you watch another. If you enjoy recording, consider getting a digital TV recorder that will also convert your TV.

To find out when your region will switchover to digital click here.

Last week (October 2010) it was announced that the digital switch over here in West Yorkshire will take place on the 7th September 2011, however other places around the UK have already switched such as Wigan in Lancashire.

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What is OLED?

Currently a must-have for every living room, LCD and plasma TVs now face tough competition with a new generation of super-slim screens that will revolutionise home entertainment. The OLED sets boast the thinnest TV screen avaliable, at its narrowest point it is the width of a pound coin with technological advances making the image far sharper than on LCD and plasma screens. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. While LCDs work by selectively blocking areas of the backlight to make the images that you see, OLEDs generate light themselves. Because OLEDs do not require backlighting, they consume much less power than LCDs (most of the LCD power goes to the backlighting).

The benefits of OLED include blazing fast response times, wide viewing angles, exceptional colour reproduction, outstanding Contrast levels, and high Brightness. The nature of its technology lends itself to extremely thin and lightweight designs along with the ability to use it in a variety of different applications.

Sony recently unveiled a new Walkman music and video player using an OLED screen to take on Apple's iTouch, while large-screen TVs, priced at £5,000, could be in shops by Christmas. Panasonic is expected to launch a 40in OLED television next year and, according to online speculation, Apple will make a 15in OLED notebook on which users will be able to download movies.

While OLED seems to be, on the surface, the perfect display technology, there are some problems as the screens have a limited lifespan. An OLED set will last 30,000 hours, by contrast, a standard LCD TV lasts twice that long. However, with the potential benefits by far outweighing the drawbacks, it appears the future of widescreen TV's is strongly in the favour of OLED's with their improved outstanding performance, cheaper materials, energy efficiency and reduced size.

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3DTV

Whats the big fuss we hear you cry! 3D stands for three-dimensional image, pretty much how we as humans see things. This is transfered to your movies, music videos, video games and even your nightly soap opera!

Samsung seem to be streaking ahead with their range of 3D TV's,however,brands such as LG, Sony and Panasonic are hot on their heels. The TV's produce stunning image effects bringing the action out of your screen into your living room. In order to make all this magic happen you must buy the active LCD shutter glasses which effectively alternate which eye you are viewing with so quickly that you don't even notice. This changes your perspective of the image and thus creates a 3D image.  Some 3D TV's namely the Samsung range up scale a 2D image and turn it into a 3D image, this means that you don't need any special boxs or subscriptions to enjoy 3D TV.

However unfortunately this sort of kit doesn't come cheap, costing around three grand for the TV you then have another £50-£70 per set of glasses along with your HD box and your Blue Ray player. This pretty package will likley set you back the thick end of four thousand pounds. Yet once you have this top of the range A/V set up where better to go than JTV for a slick stand to round off the package!

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