Xiaolin Yan is the president of TCL Research. Yan gave the negative comments about LCD TVs during an executive session at the FPD Expo Taiwan 2007. In the Chinese market, there is only one type of TV and that is LCD. But Yan made his opinion known by stating that CRT TVs are the best in terms of color and contrast ratio. I agree. That’s why I have a 20″ CRT TV. Nothing compares, not even PDP. Yan said that LCD TVs might be too bright for viewing in living rooms. There is a threshold of how bright a TV can be before becoming uncomfortable to the eye. The main problem with LCD TVs is that in dark ambient settings, the blacks look washed out. PDP is the better technology for dark rooms. In bright ambient settings, LCD is better and where PDP is not so good. But CRT TVs are good in both situations. The best bang for your buck might to go and get a Slim CRT from LG or Samsung.
LG Electronics 32″ SuperSlim CRT 32FS6DB (Korean)
Yan also touched on the motion blur issue with LCD technology. LCD technology is a hold-type, meaning liquid crystals have to be “held” in a certain state for light to pass or not to pass, generating constant color. There is a response time associated with the twisting and untwisting of liquid crystals that lead to bluring. Yan warned that viewers may feel dizzy after watching a LCD TV for a while. Motion blur is definitely a problem for LCD technology, but the LCD guys are not standing still. Doubling the frequency from 60Hz to 120Hz can reduce motion blur by a significant amount. I don’t know if it will be as good as a CRT, but it is definitely in the right direction. Also, LCD technology lack contrast ratio and lag behind CRT and PDP. There are backlight modulating technologies called “local dimming” that increase the contrast ratio by dimming the backlight brightness where there are blacks.
Source: DigiTimes via Witsview
[tags]LCD TV, Xiaolin Yan, CRT TV, 20″, LG, Samsung, 120Hz, PDP, Plasma Display Panel, Plasma TV[/tags]
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I was having a conversation with someone in the TV industry and there seems to be some interest in developing a 22″ LCD TV. Now this would compete directly against 23″ LCD TVs that are already out there. But, there might be a trend here. For instance, in the monitor world, the 22″ wide size is garnering a lot of interest. With the 1680 x 1050 pixel format, fonts are large enough for comfortable viewing. Of course the 22″ LCD TV will not have that pixel format and instead would be 1366 x 768. The display would certainly use a TN+Film technology to reduce costs. For individual use in a home-office, children’s rooms, or in your own bedroom a 22″ 1366 x 768 LCD TV might be a nice little size. The price would certainly have to be around $299, at most. And with an ATSC tuner.
Oh, just a side note: Vizio’s 42″ 1080p LCD TV is just $1,199 at Costco. In my opinion, along with Syntax (with the Olevia brand), Vizio is a great bargain because the company procures panels from LG.Philips LCD (LPL). LPL’s display technology is IPS, a technology widely known to be one of the best for good color fidelity and wide viewing angle.
[tags]Vizio, 22″, LCD TV, 1680 x 1050, 42″, 1366 x 768, TN, LG Display, LPL[/tags]
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On July 3, 2007 (Japan time), IPS Alpha Technology, Ltd. (IPS Alpha) announced the completion of construction work on its LCD module facility located in the Czech Republic. Construction was completed ahead of schedule and in time to meet the growing demand for TVs in the European market. The second half of each calendar year generates more demand for TVs by a ratio of about 40:60 worldwide. The module plant will commence commercial production later in the month and has the capacity to manufacture five million 32″ IPS LCD panels annually. IPS Alpha plans to increase the monthly production capacity from 0.2 to 0.42 million units in October 2007 and build a system to manufacture approximately five million 32″ LCD modules per year.
[tags]IPS Alpha, In-Plane Switching, IPS, Display Manufacturer, The Czech Republic, LCD Module Factory, LCD TV[/tags]
IPS Alpha began mass producing IPS LCD panels in May 2006. The company’s new LCD fab is located at Hitachi Displays, Ltd. and has the capacity to generate 1.6 million 32″ equivalent LCD modules annually. Capacity will grow to five million 32″ equivalent LCD modules per year beginning October 2007.
IPS stands for In-Plane-Switching, a technology used by LG.Philips LCD (LPL), and known for wide viewing angles (178-degree horizontal and vertical) with minimal color shifts and contrast ratio degradations at off-axis viewing. LPL has improved upon the basic IPS technology and has called it Super IPS or S-IPS. IPS Alpha has also improved its core technology, called IPS-Pro, that increases light transmittance by 50%, and increases the contrast ratio by 3x. This development should bode well for IPS technology as it has been difficult for brands to procure IPS panels from a single vendor (LPL). Now with IPS Alpha, brands can dual-source.
More information can be found here: Hitachi
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LG Flatron M228WA
Size: 22″ Wide
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pixel Format: 1680 x 1050
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 3000:1 (dynamic contrast)
Viewing Angle: 170/170
Response Time: 5ms
Input: VGA, DVI-D, Composite, S-Video, Component, SCART (2)
Tuner: ATSC
Weight: 5.82kg
22″ wide seems to be the popular size these days. One friend commented that 22″ with a pixel format of 1680 x 1050 results in fonts that are vastly more readable than 20″ 1680 x 1050. Although I work on a Dell 20″ 1680 x 1050, I didn’t think the fonts were too small (on Windows XP with default DPI), but I would appreciate fonts slightly larger. And I do think Apple does a fine job of making fonts a bit more readable at the same pixel format: fonts on a 17″ LCD monitor with 1280 x 1024 are bigger on OS X than they are on XP. So I can imagine the slight improvement in readability a 22″ can bring.
The LG Flatron M228WA is a 22″ wide LCD monitor with a 1680 x 1050 pixel format. The design of the M228WA is nothing special, unfortunately. And the stand itself is on the thick side, which can be good: stability. Another unfortunate thing is the use of a TN+Film LCD display. The TN+Film type of LCD is less costly to manufacture, but is not as advanced in terms of color fidelity, contrast ratio at off-angle viewing relative to IPS or PVA technologies. Viewing the display head-on, the M228WA provides a very nice 3000:1 contrast ratio, but that will most likely fall off dramatically as you move from one side to the other. A response time of 5ms should be fast enough for most applications, but not video. I’ll explain in a bit. The video ports (DVI, S-Video, component, composite, and HDMI) suggest that the M228WA can be used like a TV for viewing video. But caveat emptor!
Advanced LCD TVs have a few technologies that minimize motion blur. Motion blur is the single most irritating problem with LCD technology when watching video. There are four technologies that you should look for when going for LCD TVs to get the least amount of motion blur: optically compensated bend (OCB) liquid crystals, over-driving circuitry, black-frame insertion, and 120Hz frequency. (You can Google these terms to find out more than you want to know about them!) The M228WA doesn’t have any of these and my guess is you will be less-than-thrilled watching 720p HD content on it. Also, 1080i content will need to be scaled down to fit the 1680 x 1050 pixel format: scaling almost always reduces picture quality.
Source: PC Launches, LG Electronics
[tags]LG, LGE, LG Electronics, 22″, LCD Monitor, Wide LCD Monitor, 1680 x 1050, Dynamic Contrast[/tags]
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Vizio L32HDTV
Size: 32″
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1366 x 768
Response Time: 8ms
Brightness: 500 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 800:1
Viewing Angle: 170/170
I was introduced to Buy Dakota (Dakota International Trading) last week from a friend. Dakota is a clearing house for returned merchandise that have been refurbished. They also sell some new gear as well. I was looking through what they had to offer and came across the Vizio L32HDTV for just $399.95. Now that’s a bargain!
Source: Buy Dakota, Vizio
[tags]Vizio, 32″, LCD TV, 1366 x 768[/tags]
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