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Home Entertainment Systems
By peace | March 24, 2007
After a hard day of work, home is the best place for rest and comfort. Watching TV programmes, watching movies at home with your love ones is the most enjoyable of all. For children, the TV also serves as important entertainment and amusement for them. It can also be their educational tools.
Caring For Home Entertainment Systems
Unplug your TV, stereo, CD or DVD player, home computer or notebook before cleaning it. Except for the TV screen, avoid using spray cleaners directly on the appliance — you may damage the wiring or clog the ventilation or sound-projecting holes. Instead, spray the cleaner onto your cleaning cloth.
TV, stereo, and speaker cabinets are usually made of plastic or wood veneer. Clean plastic exterior, using a cloth wrung nearly dry to prevent drips. Dust wood-veneer cabinets frequently with a soft, clean, slightly damp cloth.
To clean metal cabinets, chrome, or any other shiny trim on home entertainment equipment, use a soft cloth moistened with a bit of rubbing alcohol, white vinegar, or window cleaner.
Difference Between Plasma TV and LCD TV
Technology is getting better with time. Nowadays we can find so many types of TV. Many times, we can see flat screen TV and some even are able to mount on the wall. Both the LCD and Plasma televisions are flat and thin. Plasma TVs are more readily available as well as more affordable than LCD’s of the same size. Both the Plasma TV and the LCD TV employ different technology in an attempt to deliver similar results. What are the difference between Plasma TV and LCD TV?
Plasma television technology is based loosely on the fluorescent light bulb. A plasma TV is sometimes called an “emissive” display - the panel is actually self-lighting. The display itself 
consists of cells. The display consists of two transparent glass panels with a thin layer of pixels sandwiched in between. Within each cell two glass panels are separated by a narrow gap in which neon-xenon gas is injected and sealed in plasma form during the manufacturing process. The gas is electrically charged at specific intervals when the Plasma set is in use. The charged gas then strikes red, green, and blue phosphors, thus creating a television image. Each group of red, green, and blue phosphors is called a pixel (picture element).
Each pixel is composed of three gas-filled cells or sub-pixels (one each for red, green and blue). A grid of tiny electrodes applies an electric current to the individual cells, causing the gas (a mix of neon and xenon) in the cells to ionize. This ionized gas (plasma) emits high-frequency UV rays, which stimulate the cells’ phosphors, causing them to glow the desired color.
Plasma TV employs the burning of phosphors to generate an image. Plasma televisions suffers from some of the drawbacks of traditional televisions, such as heat generation and screen-burn of static images.
An LCD TV is sometimes referred to as a “transmissive” display - light isn’t created by the liquid crystals themselves; a light source (bulb) behind the panel shines light through the display. A white diffusion panel behind the LCD redirects and scatters the light evenly to ensure a uniform image.
Basically, LCD panels are made of two layers of transparent material, which are polarized, and are “glued” together. One of the layers is coated with a special polymer that holds the individual liquid crystals. Current is then passed through individual crystals, which allow the crystals to pass or block light to create images. LCD crystals do not produce their own light, so an external light source, such as florescent bulb is needed for the image created by the LCD to become visible to the viewer.
Unlike standard CRT and Plasma televisions, since there are no phosphors that light up, less power is need for operation and the light source in an LCD television generates less heat than a Plasma or traditional television. Also, because of the nature of LCD technology, there is no radiation emitted from the screen itself.
Although LCD televisions do not suffer from burn-in susceptibility, it is possible that individual pixels on an LCD televisions can burn out, causing small, visible, black or white dots to appear on the screen. Individual pixels cannot be repaired, the whole screen would need to be replaced at that point, if the individual pixel burnout becomes annoying to you.
Comparing Plasma and LCD TV
What will you see when you compare the same show on a plasma screen TV and a LCD TV? That depends mostly on where you watch it.
If you put the two television sets side by side in a room with light, chances are that you will not see a dramatic difference between the two pictures. However, if the light is turned off, the picture on the plasma TV will appear to be clearer and crisper. This sharper contrast and brightness in the plasma TV is due to more light being blocked from the background. On an LCD TV, some of the background lighting is not effectively blocked, which makes it look like weakened background color.
Another factor in the picture you see when comparing a plasma screen TV with an LCD TV is the angle at which you are viewing it. If you are head on, watching from the center of a room, you will have a more accurate comparison. When you view from an angle, plasma TVs tend to have the edge on the LCD models. The LCD models lose quality in brightness and contrast as you move away from their center. Plasma TVs, then, are great if you plan to put them in a room with a lot of seating options from various angles so more people can see a good picture.
In general, LCD TV monitor power consumption requirements is about 40%-50% of what is needed by a typical Plasma TV. In addition, LCD TV monitors are not only a TV and can be used with DVD, VCD and VCR, they can be also used as a PC monitor. A Plasma TV on the other hand would not be able to double up as a PC monitor. Overall, LCD is great for displays 30-inches and smaller, and plasma is ideal where 32-inches or larger display is needed.
Plasma TVs usually have a lower resolution than a LCD TV monitor whose resolution can go as high as 1280 x 1024. Hence, Plasma TV is more suited for distance viewing, while LCD/TV monitors can be viewed clearly both from a distance or up close.
When it comes down to making a decision between choosing a plasma screen TV or an LCD screen TV, the truth is that it is simply a matter of personal taste. Both kinds of television sets have the same approximate life span, about 25 years if the television is watched six hours a day or less. Both even pull the same amount of electricity on which to operate. At one time, this was not the case. In the beginning days of plasma TVs, those models required more power to run them. Advanced technology has evened out that issue over the past few years.
The big advantage that the plasma screen TVs have over the LCD TVs is size. Most plasma TVs are two to five inches thick. The LCD TVs are much thicker. Because of the flat, thin nature of the plasma television, the owner of a plasma TV can choose to wall mount the television. It becomes more of a piece of art than a mere entertainment accessory!
A good home entertainment systems should give you a good sound effect as well as a good image view. With more consumers purchasing plasma and LCD TV, image quality and caring for the TV is important. Dead Pixels are common problems and they are annoying to TV viewers. Pixelprotectoris a DVD that does these main things: Fixes Screen Burn, Fixes Dead Pixels, Helps you set your TV up to get the best picture and providing you High Quality Screensavers. Any large screen television is an investment. Poor set-up and calibration can degrade the quality of your television’s image and severely threaten the life of the unit.
Whether your screen is new or you had purchased your TV three or more years ago, PixelProtector is an essential tool for removing screen burn, correctly calibrating the screen for optimal performance and gaining the best possible picture your unit has to offer. Find out more about PixelProtector and read what other people had experience!
