From its infancy and the first shadowy images broadcast in 1925, viewing television has evolved and certainly changed over the years to the amazing LCD TV sets that we now view today. Ask most people to list their most essential item or possession and a large number will list their TV as very high up on the list.
Much like the conventional approach to driving a car and our understanding of how the Internal Combustion Engine works (or not depending on your point of view) very few people understand entirely what happens behind the screen of a TV or do they? The word television is derived from a mixed usage of Greek and Latin roots meaning in literary terms "far sight" and being derived from the Greek term "tele" meaning "far" and the Latin "vision" meaning "sight" or "to view in the first person".
As in most industries, along with technological development and innovation has arisen a large range of technical descriptions and phrases that if the truth be known confuses most people.
Rather than continue with a basic history of the industry, it might be best to stop and take a look at the latest developments within the industry mainly that of digital television, what digital television actually means, its formats, bandwidth and the technical terminology and jargon used today.
How would you define Digital TV? 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 in basic terms, how does a Digital TV differ from a more conventional one? Let us use one of the newer LCD TV's available to help us as we detail what exactly this all means.
The LCD TV that we shall use for our illustrative purposes here is the Hitachi 32LD9700 LCD TV.
The following items of information have to be understood before you can make a proper valued judgement regarding your new Digital TV?
Firstly we have to understand the phrase Screen Resolution and all of that implies. In this case it refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.
Next up is whether the TV is Hi-Definition Ready and what does this mean? Hi Definition TV essentially makes a TV picture in a quality format that is at least four times better than conventionally available at present.
The next item that we would need to look at is what types of connectors are used between the peripherals used alongside the main Digital TV?
We are referring here to the exact nature and number of the Scarts Sockets and Plugs in use. SCART stands for "Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radio et Television (SCART).
Lastly on the technical side we would need to look at what types and what numbers of High-Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) are 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 32LD9700 is a 32in LCD TV and the prices for these are around 1000 pounds sterling or 2000 US dollars. The resolution of the screen is 1366 X 768 and with regards to being HD Ready the answer is yes. The Hitachi has 3 (2 RGB) scarts and the type and number of Multimedia interfaces the 32LD9700 uses is HDMI and 2. The type of Tuner for this TV is Analogue and Digital and the Hitachi is available from a wide variety of outlets.
All these points being taken into consideration, how would we view the Hitachi 32LD9700?
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 10, and closely tied in to the picture quality is the sound quality and our score for this would be 10. Taking a look at the number of relevant connections and their availability, our score would be 8. As far as overall features are concerned we would give it 10 and for ease of use and overall value for money we would give it, 10 and 10 respectively.
The overall verdict would be WOW what can you say but that this is one of those TV's that excel in almost every thing it is supposed to do. Described as a "Superb All-rounder", there is not much that this TV does not achieve. If you can get your hands on one of these then go for it.
Please bear in mind the prices that are quoted in this article and take note that they are there purely for illustration and though valid at the time of the writing of the article may vary from time to time and also depending on the time of year when you make your purchase.
Stephen Morgan writes quite regularly on the Internet about TV and Home Entertainment issues and more on the above can be found at cheap LCD flat screen TVs and also at http://bestflatscreentv.biz
