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TVs - available in the UK today?
Currently TV in the UK is undergoing massive change. Since the second world war there has been one mass market type of television available - the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) television. The signal broadcast to CRT TVs has, until recently, been restricted to an analogue signal.
However, in the future all television broadcasting will be digital although the five main channels broadcast in the UK are still available via traditional analogue televisions until 2008, after then it is being phased out by the government.
To take advantage of digital TV you can buy a set top box
or STB ("digibox") to access the free-to-air digital channels on an ordinary TV. However, if you do want to watch digital TV there are many advances in technology that make the picture on a digital television far superior to that of analogue television. What is more, you will get far more out of your DVD with a digital television particularly if you choose your cables carefully.
The new widescreen digital TV’s have many features to improve the quality of the image and offer additional features such as surround sound, picture-in-picture, onscreen electronic programme guides, personal video recorder options (eg freezing and replaying live TV!), digital text services and many others. However, if you are looking for the latest wow-factor in TV’s, then LCD TVs not only look fabulous the pictures are crisper with brighter colours.
What is Digital Television?
Digital Signal
There are new kinds of pictures being made and broadcast. The main difference is that the television signal is coded differently as a digital not an analogue signal. This means that a traditional television needs a box that translates the
digital signal to analogue in order to show the picture on the TV. For free to air TV channels
(known as FREEVIEW or even simply digital TV) the signal can be received using
your existing aerial so all you need is a set top box,
STB, costing under £75 (for basic functions).
What is Freesat
This service being launched in Mid 2008 provides lots of FREE high definition, HD, content and lots of other digital TV content free to end users. The main difference is that the
digital television signal will be broadcast via satelite, and your television needs a Freeview STB to translate
the signal. To receive the signal you cannot use your existing FREEVIEW STB
or Freeview PVR, and the signal cannot be received using
a standard aerial.
To receive the new FreeSat service you will need to
ensure you have a working Satellite dish, or install a
new one, and also a new Freesat set top box (STB), or
Freesat DTR (PVR). The Humax HDR-9500FS (HDR 9500FS), or Humax FOXSAT-HD (FOXSAT HD) are recommended for this service due to their market leading position on the F2-Fox-T freeview STB and the flagship PVR 9200T and the PVR 9300T.
Widescreen TVs
Some digital television broadcasts are now transmitted in widescreen. This means that the picture has an aspect ratio of 16:9 rather than 4:3. Many DVD recordings now also use the widescreen format. Your television has a screen which is either the standard 4:3 or a widescreen 16:9.
How do televisions with 4:3 Screens handle 16:9 widescreen broadcasts?
If you have a television with a 4:3 aspect ratio, this means that you may lose some of the picture for a TV programme or DVD movie that is broadcast in widescreen. If you are using a set top box to view digital channels on an analogue television, there will be a setup option that allows you to choose 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio. You will need to set it to 4:3 to indicate that your TV has a 4:3 aspect ratio. This means that you will only see the middle section of the picture on your screen. If you set it to 16:9 you will see the whole picture but it will be squeezed up to fit and images on the screen will look elongated. Some newer televisions will give you an option to view the image in letterbox format. This means that the picture is shrunk so that the wide parts of the picture fit within the screen and the picture is not squeezed but it also means that there are black bands at the top and bottom of the picture. Some televisions are also capable of shrinking the edges of the picture but not the middle in order to show the whole image without distorting the picture too much.
How do televisions with 16:9 Widescreens handle traditional 4:3 broadcasts?
If you have a widescreen TV it will show the whole picture of a widescreen broadcast or DVD recording without any black bands. For viewing broadcasts in the standard 4:3 format there are normally several options. One is to stretch the picture so that it fills the whole screen but this means that the picture is distorted. Some televisions stretch the picture more ‘intelligently’ by stretching more at the edges and less in the middle. Another option is to show the picture normally but this means that there will be black bands down either side of the picture. A third option is to zoom the picture until it fills the screen. This means that you use the full TV screen but you lose some of the top and bottom of the picture.
Do TVs exist that allow autoswitching for different types of broadcast or input?
Many new widescreen TV’s have an automatic facility which means that the TV detects different kinds of pictures and shows them correctly. This means that if the broadcast is in normal 4:3 mode the TV will show the picture in the way you selected and if the broadcast is in widescreen it will automatically detect this and show the picture normally using the full screen without you having to make any adjustments.
What is resolution?
Resolution means very simply how crisp or in focus the moving picture looks. Digital televisions are capable of showing much crisper more highly focused pictures. There are two factors that affect the resolution: the number of pixels the picture is made up of; and the flicker rate or frequency (how often the picture is refreshed).
What are pixels?
A television picture is made up of lots of individual dots or pixels and the more pixels the sharper the picture looks. A television with a higher number of pixels is described as having a higher resolution. Digital television is capable of producing television pictures with a much higher resolution and in the near future High Definition Television (HDTV) will be produced. At the moment digital television is broadcast using a similar number of pixels to traditional analogue television.
How does the frequency of the input alter my viewing?
Moving pictures, television and film, are made up from lots of still pictures that are shown very rapidly in succession to give the impression of a continuously moving image. The faster they are shown the more like continuous action the picture looks. This is usually called the frequency. Standard television - analogue and digital - usually broadcasts at a frequency of 50 images/second. However, some new televisions have a system that shows 100 images/second on the screen and subjectively for the viewer this gives the impression of a much smoother picture so it always worth checking whether any new television you buy shows 100 images/second (ie the frequency is 100Hz). Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that. Analogue television uses a system called interlace which means that only 25 different complete images are used in 1 second rather than fifty. The picture is made up from 625 lines but the interlace system splits each picture into two by using only every other line for one picture and the intervening lines for the next picture. i.e. the first picture is made up from the odd numbered lines and the second picture from the even numbered lines. This means that the first picture has 313 lines and the second 312 lines. This is done because it halves the amount of information needed but still gives the impression of 50 images/second. Digital television does not use interlace. Instead it uses a system called progressive scan that means that 50 complete images/second are broadcast. This is where digital televisions have a real advantage over analogue televisions. Although it is possible to view digital television on an analogue television using the set top digital tuner, the signal has to be translated into an analogue interlace signal to show it on the television and this means that half of the signal is lost. Whereas when a digital television receives an analogue signal many digital televisions are capable of changing the signal into a progressive scan signal and although this means showing each whole picture twice, it gives the subjective impression of a much smoother picture.
What types of TV are available?
Traditional analogue televisions use a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) to produce the picture and have been developed to handle the new digital signal. Because of the qualitative improvements in digital over analogue signals the picture shown on a digital television using a CRT is crisper, sharper and smoother. Exciting new ways of producing images on television without using a tube have been developed and resulted in televisions that are slim, flat and produce distortionless pictures. The new technologies have also created televisions capable of much greater contrast ratios and ranges of colour that mean the picture is livelier, brighter and more detailed in many ways. These include Plasma TVs, and LCD TVs.
What is a Flat Screen TV?
Users need to be careful since the term Flat Screen TV, can mean several things. FLAT LCD TV, FLAT Plasma TV, or even the latest generation of CRT TVs are marketed as Flat Screen TVs. The definitions below provide you with details of what these terms mean to allow you to make the right decision.
What is a Plasma TV?
Plasma television is fundamentally different from CRT television which makes the image dramatically improved. Each pixel in the screen is a tiny pocket of inert gas that can be energised to produce light. Unlike traditional CRT screens all the pixels are energised at the same time eliminating edge distortion and scan trail visible some CRT televisions. Since the screen is completely flat the viewing angle is much wider, typically 160 degrees. The other huge advantage is that each pixel can produce the whole range of colours unlike CRT screens which needs three separate pixels of red green and blue and are combined to make different colours. These advantages alone make the picture crisper and undistorted throughout. Because of the way the light in each pixel is produced this also means that a much higher contrast ratio and range of colours can be displayed on a plasma television. They can also produce very bright images on the screen making the image easy to see even on a bright sunny day.
What is an LCD TV?
LCD televisions use a different technology from plasma to produce the image on a television but they have many of the same advantages. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display and the screen is made up from many tiny LCD’s.
Like a plasma TV, the screen is flat, meaning a perfect picture without distortion , as well as a unit that takes up little space and can hang on a wall. Currently, they can not be made up to the same size as plasma’s but since they go as large as 40 inches, this is likely to be more than sufficient for most. LCD TV’s can have higher resolution than plasma’s but slightly lower contrast ratio’s. However, since both types of TV support much higher contrast ratio’s than any TV signal broadcast this is not a handicap. Importantly LCD has a longer life expectancy than Plasma TVs.
Home Cinema
The only way to really replicate the true cinema experience is to use a projector. They don’t always give the best pictures, but they will make watching DVDs feel like movies being screened in the cinema. Currently, there are three types available: CRT, LCD, and DLP (Digital Light Processing). CRT types are the best quality, but are sadly most expensive. Many people use LCD types though, as these are economic, and are still guaranteed to give decent picture quality. Keep in mind that a screen will be needed if you do purchase a projector
What do I need to be careful about when attaching cables between my TV and input devices such as DVD players/recorders?
Cables are an important part of your set up, particularly if you are aiming for a home cinema experience but even just to get the best out of your television viewing and often get overlooked. By choosing your cables carefully you can maximise the quality of the pictures and sound.
From the basic scart lead to connect your DVD player or digibox to your TV to a combination of component video (for the ultimate picture) and digital optical (for the ultimate sound) cables, there are a wide variety of options available.
Combining the right audio with the right video cables can be a little confusing if you have no idea what cable is for what, but read through our cabling charts below and you can optimise the performance of each element of your player with little fuss. Please call with any queries.
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