Emerging Satellite Technology

Remember the days when you had to physically get up off the couch to turn up the volume or change the channel on your direct TV set? Well, those days are far gone, and our at-home viewing will continue to change because of LCD TV, LED TV, and plasma.

LED’s are an upgraded version of LCD’s. The way the screen is lit makes LED’s cost almost double when compared to LCD’s or plasma’s.
LCD’s are lit with what are called CCFL’s, or cold cathode fluorescent lamps. These are the thin lamps that produce light for LCD screens. The inside of the lights are coated with phosphor, a material that catches energy and turns it into light, the light that we see on the screen.
LED’s (or light emitting diodes) are different than fluorescent tubes. They use considerably less power and don’t illuminate the parts of your screen that are supposed to be dark. For example, when a scene during a movie needs to be black, the LED’s in that area of the screen cut off. No light leaks through, whether the LED lights are across the entire back display of your TV or around the perimeters. An interesting fact is that LED’s were examined by the Department of Energy, and they estimated that by the year 2027, lighting electricity could be reduced by 33% if more people used them.

There is another simpler reason why folks prefer LED lighting to LCD- the occasional headache and eye irritation that occurs as a result of gazing at fluorescent lights too long. Many people (if they are doing late night studying for example) wear dark sunglasses when staring at their computer screen for extended periods of time. The LCD TV screens have this same type of lighting, which is another reason why the upgraded LED TV’s cost so much more.

Plasma TV can show many colors clearer since the technology is made up of thousands of pixels. Many believe that LCD’s are better for displaying digital photos than for watching television or movies. Because of a plasma’s better color saturation capabilities, they display moving images better, creating a much more enjoyable viewing experience. Plasmas also have screens that are typically larger than LCD’s, which is what attracts a large majority of customers from the beginning. These days people want a mini-theater in their homes, something that the rear projection models could never have offered us in the past.

Plasma’s do have disadvantages, one being burn-ins. This is a static image on your screen that develops over time that burns itself into the display. The truth is plasmas aren’t built to hold a fixed image for long periods. Burn-in’s are caused by video games, TV logos, paused movie scenes, or the title menu on your DVD. Even though this and things like it aren’t usually covered in the TV’s warranty, it’s not enough for the sales of our evolving TV technologies to slow down.