Display Types

Choosing the display type for your home theater can appear to be a pleasantly tough project with so much choice available unlike the days of conventional TV. Today you can choose the display type that appeals to your eye the most and you can even opt to have a demonstration in your home. While selecting your display type, you must consider how much distance you need to have from the display to you seating, the lighting you require, as all this can affect your display type.

There are three display types to select from and these are direct view, plasma, LCD and projection TV. Direct view TV is the conventional type. You can get a display size of up to 36”. Next, comes the flat TV, which make for easier viewing and reduces image distortion that happens on the curved screen of standard TVs. After this comes the HDTV ready display with advanced input facilities. High definition television is the latest trend with digital programming and superb quality picture and sound. HDTVs come with DVI-HDTV interface with the facility to see both analog and digital video at the same time, made possible by the picture in picture feature.

As such, the direct view tube display types cost the least considering the HDTV and digital TV range. To receive digital TV signals, it is necessary to have either a HDTV tuner or a set top box that can decode the digital TV signals. These set top boxes are an extra expense and they are also included in your satellite TV boxes and digital cable equipment. If your video source is a DVD player, you will need component video cables for connectivity.

Front and rear projection TVs are also available and these have large screen sizes. Rear projection displays come as CRT, LCD, LCoS or DLP panels. Flat panel display types like Plasma and LCD come as very thin displays. Plasma is said to offer higher contrast ratios compared to LCD panel displays. As far as television display type is concerned, most viewers prefer plasma for the superior color depth and picture quality. Plasma displays can support all high definition video resolutions. Viewing angle offered is 160 degrees and there are virtually no scan lines. On top of all that, it’s a wide screen format giving the viewer as close a cinematic experience as possible. However, where price is concerned, LCD displays have the advantage.

The most recent standard in Plasma displays is the HDMI or high definition multimedia interface that is high bandwidth and can adjust picture quality automatically.