How to install an LCD TV

Once you have chosen an LCD TV there is an inevitable excitement to install your LCD TV once you finally get it home from the store.

One of the main advantages of an LCD TV is it’s slim line profile, which provides you with a much more flexible choice on where to display your new television. LCD TVs are no more than 4-5 inches thick, giving you the option to hang it on your wall just like you would with a picture - an option that was most certainly not available with the old, bulky CRT televisios. Of course, if you don’t want to hang the LCD, you can simply place it on a traditional table stand.

Choosing to mount your LCD TV on the wall is becoming increasing popular as it both saves you space and also becomes a decoration on the wall. However, mounting your TV is not always easy so you need to plan it properly after evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.

Planning to mount your LCD TV on the wall

1. Choose the ideal location to mount your LCD TV, ensuring appropriate distance from the screen and viewing angle.
2. Select the right kind of wall mount, ensuring it is sturdy enough to hold the LCD TV.
3. Consider how you are going to hide the running cables which run from the LCD TV to ensure it’s tidy.

How to mount an LCD TV

Mounting an LCD TV should not pose you with too many problems, as long as you are able to understand the instructions in the installation guide and have access to some basic tools such as a screw driver, screws, measurement tape, etc. For larger screen sizes, such as 42″, you may find it too heavy to install on your own so you should consider whether you require assistance before beginning your attempt at installation.

When you choose a place for your TV in a room, the ideal place will be where no direct sunlight falls or a place which is completely free from any kind of reflections.

A major consideration should be the distance between where you will be sitting and the LCD screen. If your LCD TV is HDTV, the viewing distance should be minimum 3 times the screen width from the LCD screen. This is because there will be a loss of picture quality and clarity when viewed too close to the screen.

If you decide to hang your LCD TV on the wall, make sure the wall mount is fixed at optimum height so that the centre of the screen is at the eye level when you view the TV from your seat. Similarly, when you stand, your eye level should be at the top of the screen. This setting is often considered ideal for comfortable viewing.

Hide the LCD TV Connecting Cables

One of the drawbacks of wall mounting your LCD TV is the connecting cables which now dangle down from the TV and look a little untidy, as they are now much harder to hide than if you had used a table stand.

Camouflaging techniques hide the cables inside wiring channels which are painted with the same colour that match with the colour of your room.

LCD TV Contrast Ratio

One of the most important factors in deciding which LCD TV to buy is to check it’s contrast ratio. This is a measure of the capacity of the LCD TV to produce both the brightest and darkest colours and is usually expressed as a ratio of their light intensities. The method used to measure the contrast ratio is the source of many disagreemenets so the contrast ratio measured using different methods show different figures.

These disagreements stem from the reluctance of manufacturers to account for the effect of room light conditions while measuring the constrast ratio. It is generally accepted that the contrast ratio should be measured in an ideal room where there is no place for the light from TV to get reflected and all the light that a TV emits is completely absorbed.

There is another method, the Ansi contrast which provides the most realistic ratio as it includes the effects of room into measurement. Ansi contrast is often used to measure static contrast ratio while complete on/off method is employed to measure the dynamic ratio.

Importance of constrast ratio in LCD TV

The contrast ratio is established by contrasting the brightest white that the screen can produce with the darkest black. Therefore, the higher the contrast ratio, the clearer and brighter the picture quality will be, so you should always choose a higher contrast ratio over a lower constrast ratio.

Purchasing an LCD TV with a low contrast ratio reduces the potential impact and clarity of the pictures, so it is a very important consideration in your LCD TV purchasing decision.

LCD TV Advantages

There are many advantages of an LCD TV and if you are thinking of upgrading your TV, you should definitely consider an LCD TV. Among their advantages are:

Slimline Size
Like Plasma TVs, LCD TVs are slim, sleek and stylish. Even the biggest 50″ screens have only minimal depth and can be easily fitted around the home. They weigh less when compared with Plasma TVs of similar sizes and as a result of their light weight nature, they can be easily mounted on walls, increasing the flexibility of your viewing options.

High Resolution
LCD TVs have a higher resolution than a Plasma TV, resulting in sharper, smoother and more-detailed picture quality.

No screen burns
LCD TVs do not suffer from screen burns as they use liquid crystals and colour filters supported by a backlight source for displaying images instead of phosphors.

No glare
Images on LCD TVs look brighter and their screens are not as glossy as plasma TV screens. Moreover, the feature of anti-glare technology prevents glare, even in bright rooms.

Longer Lifespan
In general, an LCD TV will last longer than a Plasma TV or CRT. The lifetime of a television is determined by the amount of time before the lighting device loses half of it’s original brightness, known as it’s half life. The half-life of the latest LCD TVs extends past 60,000 hours. In addition, LCD TVs have the option of replacing the backlight resource when it has been worn out, providing a lower cost alternative to upgrading to a brand new TV set.

Economic power consumption
In today’s new green world, LCD TVs are environmentally friendly as they use very little electric power. Even a 65″ LCD TV screen will consume 30% less electricity than an equivalent Plasma TV. This is become plasma technology requires more power to make the phosphors glow, while an LCD simply requires sufficient power to produce it’s backlight. LCD monitors can operate on batteries for a longer time which is why this technology has been favoured for us in laptops.

1080i vs 1080p

One of the most common enquries we get from customers looking to buy a new HD Ready TV is regarding the difference between 1080i and 1080p. It is generally accepted that a 1080 TV is better than a 720 TV due to their ability to display more lines and hence give a more clear and higher quality picture, so in this article we will concentrate on the difference between a 1080i (interlaced) and 1080p (progressive) signal.

1080i

1080 stands for 1080 lines of vertical resolution. The term implies a horizontal definition of 1920 pixels, so we can say that 1080i TVs have a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, or about 2.07 million pixels.

To give you an idea of the difference in quality between HDTV and conventional TVs, traditional broadcasting programmes have a maximum of 480 lines, so you can imagine the difference in quality given that the new 1080i LCD TV’s have more than double the capacity.

The letter at the end of 1080i describes the type of scan the television uses to display the picture. “i” stands for interlaced. That means the picture is scanned in two passes, or “fields,” each lasting 1/60th of a second. The first pass fills in the odd numbered lines, leaving the even numbered lines blank, which are filled in by the second pass. Because each field takes 1/60th of a second, and there are two of them, 1080i actually needs 1/30th of a second to convey a full frame. Because human vision works by retaining images for a brief period of time on the eye’s retina, the interlace scan process makes two separate scans of an image appear as one frame.

1080p

1080p is commonly referred to as True HD and is the highest quality of HD.

1080p also provides a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, but that’s where the similarities with 1080i stop. The letter “p” at the end of 1080p stands for “progressive”. This means that the picture is scanned in a single pass (rather than in two passes with interlaced formats), which makes for a smoother, cleaner image, especially with sports and other motion-intensive content.

Conclusion

If you are still unsure of which to choose, we recommend going for the 1080p as it is the highest quality and will also be the format of the future once the technology becomes standard.

Sky HD Subscription

Once you have made the decision over which new HD Ready Plasma or LCD TV you want to buy, your next move should be to take out a Sky HD Subscription to allow you to immediately start benefiting from HD Quality programming.

Unfortunately, although your new television is HD Ready, the majority of programmes that you will be watching are not. That means that you will not be able to enjoy the HD quality on your standard channels at this moment in time.

However, HDTV providers have dedicated HD channels which provide a limited, but growing choice of programmes in the high definition format. The leading package is Sky HD, which currently offers 12 dedicated HD channels as well as the BBC’s trial channel.

A Sky HD box now costs only £150 (previously £299) and there is an additional £10 a month subscription charge for the 12 dedicated HD channels.

Currently, Sky broadcast Sky Sports 1 & 2, Sky Movies 1 & 2, Sky Box Office 1 & 2, Sky One, Artsworld, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, BBC HD trial Channel and Channel 4 HD in dedicated HD format.

Premiership football is a big attraction for those thinking of a HD subscription, and at the moment Sky has taken a big lead here broadcasting regular premiership games on its HD sports channels.

Many dramas are already shot in HD such as the Sopranos and Desperate Housewives in the US. The BBC, which already has a large catalogue of HD material is committed to recording everything in HD by 2010.

Click here to subscribe to Sky’s new HD package.

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