Digital TV & Television Technologies

A new technology that should be hitting store shelves very soon is SED-TV, which has been developed by Toshiba and Canon.

SED or Surface Electron Emitter Display TVs which combine the excellent picture quality of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV with the compact design of a Flat Panel Display

An SED Display works similar to an CRT in that an electron gun fires electrons at the phosphors of the screen producing an image.

The SED Display uses Surface Conducting Electron Emitters - there are three for each pixel for the corresponding Red, Green and Blue Colors.

This means for a high definition widescreen TV with a 1920x1080 resolution you will have 6,220,800 SCEs.

Now while most displays scan left to right top to bottom the SED Display uses a much more advance Display System.

The SED TV arranges the SCE in a matrix and activates them all almost simultaneously to create a picture.

Analog TVis finally on its way out and the dawn of Digital Television (Digital TV or DTV) will be come the reigning king on February 09, 2009

As a result of this switch from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting of television signals a new set of equipment will be need to watch your favorite programming without interruption.

To watch Digital TVor DTV signals requires the use of a digital tuner or ATSC Tuner (an ATSC Tuner can receive Digital TV Signals that are broadcast over the Air - Click Here For Full Explanation). Now if your old television set is still in good working order and your hooked up via Cable or Satellite Dish you should have no problem in receiving the new digital broadcast.

If on the other hand you still use an analog antenna to receive your broadcasting signal then yo will need an upgrade.

1) You can purchase a set top box that will capture the digital broadcast signal and convert it so that you may watch it on your analog tv or you can purchase a new tv with a digital tuner.

The first options is simple one you just need to go to your logo home electronic outlet and purchase a DTV Converter - The government is also supplying40 vouchers to reduce the expense of the transition to Digital TV. Visit this site https://www.dtv2009.gov

The Second option can be a little bit more complex as there are several different alternatives available to you.

New Digital TVs can come with integrated tuners or without them in which case you would have to purchase a seperate tuner, a set-top box, a cable box or satellite box.

For those Digital Tevelisions with integrated tuners, they come in several flavors - DTV & HDTV:

DTV is your plain old Digital Television.
HDTV is High Definition Television and requires specialized viewing equipment. If you connected to a Cable or Satellite Broadcasting System your broadcasting provider can provide you with the set-top box required to watch these enhanced broadcast signals.

Some Digital TVs may include a CableCard interface which allows you to directly interface your digital television directly with your cable line without the need of a set-top box, which can save you money over the cost of a purchase of a set-top box or a rental of such a device.

If all this is still a bit confusing you have an alternative.

If you have a broadband or dsl you can use a software program like Satellite TV For PC, you can watch over 3000 Stations from over 78 Countries for a small one time fee; it does not require any extra hardware and will work anywhere in the world with all versions of MS Windows.

TV Resolution Standards:

The CRT or Cathode Ray Tube Television Technology that all of us know about, has been commercially available since the 1950's.
It is currently refereed to as SDTV for Standard Definition Television. This technology allows up to 480 interlaced lines, while 240 line are visible to the viewer on each pass.

The much-talked about HDTV or High Definition Television comes in two flavors. Progressive Scan like your computers monitor and interlace like SDTV. HDTV allow for a high number of lines to be drawn on the screen allowing for images that are extraordinarily sharp with greater color fidelity.
HDTV is available in three flavors:
720p & 1080p - Progressive Scan 720 or 1080 lines are drawn across the screen once.
1080i - Interlace Scanning draws 540 lines on each pass for a total of 1080 lines.

Lastly there is EDTV or Enhanced Definition TV, these displays display at least 480 lines using the progressive scan method (480p) of HDTV, which allows for a sharper image over SDTV since interlacing is not used.

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There are currently three major display technologies that are available in the consumer market when it comes to flat panel televisions.
They are:
LCD TFT Displays (Liquid Crystal Displays)
Plasma Displays (Similar a Neon Display)
DLP Displays (Digital Light Processing Displays)

LCD Displays the oldest and most widely used of the technologies (it can be found on desktop monitors, notebooks, handheld displays, digital cameras, watches, portable games consoles...).

Active Matrix LCD Display technology utilizes Thin Film Transistors (TFT) to create an Active Matrix Display Area that controls the images you see on the screen.
An LCD Display is made up of a
Bottom Polarizer
Bottom Piece of Glass
Active Matrix of Thin Film Transistors
Liquid Crystal Compound
An Electrode
A Color Filter
Top Glass
Top Polarizer

Plasma Display Technology is considered an emissive display technology where by light is created by the excitation of phosphors by an inert mixture of noble gases which when electrically ionized create a plasma discharge.
At its most basic a Plasma Display is a sandwich configuration of:
Glass
Phosphors
Noble gases

DLP (Digital Light Processing) Technology is the newest of the television Display to hit the market and was originally developed by Texas Instruments.
DLP is a light projection technology that uses a matrix of microscopic mirrors, a color wheel, and a light source.
The microscopic mirrors allow for the blocking or reflecting of light that passes through a color wheel producing the image one sees.
There are currently two DLP Systems in use, those using a single chip DLP projector and those using a three chip project each for the primary Red, Green and Blue colors.

In single Chip DLP projectors the Digital MicroMirror Device is placed between a light source and a color wheel.
The proper color to image synchronization is handled by a complex image display processor so that color and image intensity (brightness or darkness) is displayed correctly.
In Three Chip DLP projectors a prism is used to split the light from the lamp into its primary RGB components, and then each light component is routed to a Digital MicroMirror Device.
After the light is processed it is then recombined and routed to a lens.

Newer DLP Projectors will soon due away with the lamp and color wheel and prism, an instead use LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for each of the primary colors (RGB - Red, Green, Blue).