Technical Jargon Dictionary

Hi again, your top1000 loud mouth techy know-it-all here again. This guide is basically a useful techinical guide for translating common terms, telling you what they stand for and what it all means. Lets start with obvious ones.

TV'S:

Common shorthand abreviations when describing electrical components are:

OKAY BIG ONE - LCD OR PLASMA???

Well, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) has a sharper image and better quality in smaller sizes (32" and smaller) but have their draw backs. For instance, when watching a football match, the panning of the camera when following the ball has a blurring effect as the Liquid Crystals can not process the information quickly enough for a smooth frame rate*. These devices were developed from Computer monitors and manipulated to turn digital inputs* into good quality images. Basically, if you are looking for a TV smaller than 32", buy LCD.

Plasma. These use plasma gasses which change the picture by heating the gasses. These also have draw backs such as, screen burn* and being very hot. They also crack, flash and sometimes bang when not in use to make sure the TV is setup for the next use. These plasma's range in quality but are far better the larger they go. The quality is not uite as good as LCD but the fluidity is far better. However, double panning can cause distortion in the picture. Situations like panning to follow an F1 car can cause falshing as the image is running to quickly for the gas inside to react. These should be considered for anything over 32". BEWARE OF CHEAPLY MADE ITEMS. I always use Samsung and always test the tv's on non HD source's in shops as most HD tv's look the same in HD form. Showing no-HD highlights the flaws in its engineering.

Input / output: these are basically what can go "into" the tv and what can be shown "out of" the tv. Inputs range from devices that can be plugged in like Sky boxes and DVD players. What an output is, is something that passes through the tv can be displayed onto another device. For instance you could "input" a Sky box through your tv and "output" the images through a dvd or vcr player.

Screen Burn: This is were a static image on a Plasma telly, causes the particles which collate into the image to burn an image which is very hard to remove. Any prolonged use can ruin a tv so be aware. Modern Tv's now use a special system that shakes the image ever so slightly that stops screen burn so make sure if you have a Plasma TV, that it is enabled or you could ruin your TV forever.

AV: Literally "audio visual". This is taken in the form of either a "SCART" socket or in the RED, YELLOW