Widescreen TV

One of the easily forgotten aspects when purchasing a widescreen television is the lighting conditions that exist in the room where the television is to be installed.  This can be a very important aspect as you have just spent good money on a new widescreen television so you want it to perform at its best and give you a fantastic picture no matter what time of the day or night you are watching.

The lighting requirements differ depending on whether you are watching an LCD or a plasma widescreen television.  The different lighting requirements relate directly to the technology in both of these television that produce the picture.  To understand how room lighting can enhance the picture of your widescreen television it is necessary to understand how the pictures are created in both the LCD and Plasma models of widescreen televisions.

The technology that produces the picture for a LCD television works by using a constant light source behind the panel which consists of tiny LCD cells that have three coloured filters which open and close to produce the colours of the pictures on the screen.  Basically this means that the LCD technology produces a picture by subtracting from the white light source produced behind the panel.

In comparison the technology used for plasma widescreen televisions is the opposite and works by producing a picture by adding an image to a black screen.  The plasma has no back lighting with the picture produced by the individual plasma cells turning on an off to produce the image.  The plasma basically works by adding the image to a black which is opposite to the LCD technology.

To enhance the picture of both of these types of televisions it is necessary to match the room lighting with the way that the picture is produced.  For LCD televisions which work with a constant light source a darkened room may not provide you with the best picture as low ambient light will show some of the backlight which makes black colours look more grey.  For this reason the best room lighting for a LCD widescreen television is in a well lit room.

The plasma screen is again the opposite with the technology used to generate the plasma’s picture more suited to a dark room.  With the picture produced on a black screen too much lighting in a room can significantly reduce the picture quality.  Plasma televisions produce the best picture in a darkened environment that has low ambient lighting.