So Your First Flat Screen TV is going to be which, Plasma or LCD?

It seems that everyone either has or wants to get the latest Flat Screen TV for their home. Taking price and money out of the equation which type of Flat Screen TV do you purchase? OK are you going to go with a Plasma TV (older technology, been around since 1964) or do you go with Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) for the Flat Screen TV?

From Black and White and mere halftones to Liquid Crystal Display /Flat Screen TV and Plasma Screens, TV has certainly changed dramatically over the last 80 years. It is perhaps difficult to believe but when questioned about essential personal items worth keeping, quite a few people listed their TV sets as an essential item.

Very few people if asked directly would be able to explain entirely how a television works or the process of television broadcasting works yet most would claim to understand the process, or so they say? The broadest definition of television (often abbreviated to TV) refers to it as a widely used telecommunications system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance.

The one aspect of modern day television that if the truth be known completely confuses most people (yet most would try not to 'let on') is the amazing array of technical jargon that surrounds the everyday television set.

Perhaps it would be best now to move on to the latest developments within the industry and concentrate our coverage upon digital television, what it actually means; formats, bandwidth and an explanation of the technical jargon and terminology used.

So an accurate definition of Digital TV is what?

Well the short answer is that phraseology is mixed here and quite often people get confused, LCD, TFT and Plasma are all terms that get bandied around yet they don't all mean the same thing.

The two main types of Flat Screen TV or screens available today are either Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Plasma.The main difference between the two (apart from base technologies) are that with LCD TV's the main technology used is TFT (Thin Film Transistor) which means that by and large you can make the screens smaller and more energy efficient.

Digital Television very much came to the fore in the late 1990s and is a technology that appealed to the television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries as representing opportunities for increased financial development whilst at the same time providing a much cleaner and faster product and service for the end user.

So what is it exactly that we have to look out for with a Digital TV? Using one of the newer LCD TV's available will help us actually go through what all of this terminology actually means.

The LCD TV that we shall use for our illustrative purposes here is the B&O Beovision 8.

The following items of information have to be understood before you can make a proper valued judgement regarding your new Flat Screen TV?

The Screen resolution of the TV is possibly the most obvious place to start. Here we refer to the exact number of pixels that can be displayed in each dimension.

Whether the TV is Hi-Definition Ready would be the next thing to look at. By Hi Definition Ready we mean that is the TV is ready and suitable to take advantage of the latest Hi Definition TV pictures that more and more programmes are being broadcast in.

We would need to look next at what types of connectors are used to connect the various peripherals that go to make the entire Digital Package work.

We are referring here to the exact nature and number of the Scarts Sockets and Plugs in use. Here the definition of SCART refers to 'Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radio et Television (SCART).

The final item we would look at would be what is the nature and number of the High-Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) being used. Here High Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) refers to the audio/video connector interface that transmits the uncompressed digital streams of information between two or more digital components such as a HD DVD Disc player, a Blu-ray Disc player, a Personal Computer or Video Console.

The Beovision 8 is a 26in LCD TV and the prices for these are around 1800 pounds sterling or 2900 US dollars. The screen resolution is 1366 X 768 and with regards to being HD Ready the answer is yes. The Beovision has 2 (2 RGB) scarts and the type and number of Multimedia interfaces the Beovision 8 uses is HDMI and 1. The type of Tuner for this TV is Analogue and the Beovision is available from specialised outlets only.

So how would we rate the B&O Beovision 8?

The most obvious place to start with as far as TV's are concerned would be the picture quality and our score here would be 8, and closely tied in to the picture quality is the sound quality and our score for this would be 8. Another useful aspect to review is the availability and number of relevant connections and our score here would be 6. As far as overall features are concerned we would give it 6 and the final individual verdicts would relate to the ease of use and overall value for money and our scores here would be, 4 and 6 respectively.

Finally our overall opinion would be this is definitely one to consider if you don't mind paying a huge premium for the appearance and looks

With regards to the prices in this article we have tried in all cases to take an average across the industry from a number of well known web sites and so we ask you to bear this in mind and treat these prices as advisory only rather than absolutes.

Scott James writes quite regularly on the Internet about TV and Home Entertainment issues and more on the above can be found at sony flat screen tv and also at http://bestflatscreentv.biz