Nothing Beats A TV Time

Everyday there is a time where all the family members and friends would gather around at the living room and spend the quality time together in front of the magic box. These tradition has been around since the invention of the magic box called television.

So what is television? If you check on the dictionary, it says "a system for transmitting visual images and sound that are reproduced on screens, chiefly used to broadcast programs for entertainment, information, and education." So from the definition, we know that television has became from a luxury into a basic necessities in our daily life. 

Types of Television

There are so many televisions that had been invented to suit the lifestyle of many different races and classes. Buying a TV can be frustrating if you’re not quite sure what you are looking at. So we shall focus on the 5 types of television.

CRT - Cathode Ray Tube is the old style ‘chunky TV’ (and monitor).  The reason it’s so bulky is because the box has to house a screen and a projector gun. An image is created by firing electrons through this ‘gun’ onto a screen, exciting the particles on it. These TV formats have been on the fall since the early 2000’s with the introduction of far smaller LCD screens.

LCD - LCD’s are thin displays, normally used in laptop computers and TV screens. The term ‘LCD’ Stands for ‘Liquid Crystal Display’. A liquid crystal display is a special flat panel that can block light, or allow it to pass. The panel is made up of segments with each block filled with liquid crystals. The colour and transparency of these blocks can be changed by increasing or reducing the electrical current. LCD crystals do not produce their own light, so an external light source like a florescent bulb is needed to create an image.

LED - Contrary to popular belief, LED TV’s are not a completely new format of TV- Instead they are simply an updated version of the previous LCD generation. LED use the same technology as an LCD TV, but instead of being illuminated by a florescent bulb from behind, they are lit by an array of LEDs (light emitting diodes). These are far more efficient and smaller in size, meaning the TV can be narrower. LED can be broken up into two further major categories Direct (Back-lit) LED and Edge-lit LED:

1. Direct LED -These displays are backlit by an array of LEDs directly behind the screen. This enables focused lighting areas – meaning specific cells of brightness and darkness can be displayed more effectively.
2. Edge-lit LED - As the name suggests have lights set around the television frame. Edge-lit models reflect light into the centre of the monitor, and are the thinnest, lightest models available. Since they have fewer lights in the centre of the screen.

LED is the most popular format of TV on the market now due to its cost, size and versatility, although it is not the highest quality image available.

Plasma - Plasma screens are made of 2 sheets of glass with a mixtures of gases stored between the layers. These gases are injected and sealed in plasma form during the manufacturing process, hence why we have the name ‘Plasma TV’. When charged with electricity, the gases react and cause illumination in the pixels across the screen. Plasma, is arguably superior to LCD & LED in terms of contrast and colour accuracy. However the format, due to costs, is restricted to larger screens sizes, usually 40-inch +.  In these larger screen sizes, buying the Plasma option tends to work out cheaper. It is also used in the super-sized 80-inch+ screens as the plasma screens are easier, and more cost effective, to produce over a larger size.

OLED - This is a massive leap forward in screen technology. Unlike its name suggests, OLED is nothing like LED. OLED stands for ‘Organic Light Emitting Diode’ and uses ‘organic’ materials like carbon to create light when supplied directly by an electric current. Unlike LED/LCD screens, an OLED TV doesn’t require a backlight to illuminate the set area. Without this restriction of an external light source, OLED screens can be super thin and crucially, flexible. As the individual areas can be lit up directly and not via an external backlight, the colours and contrasts are much better on OLED TV’s. On the whole, OLED is thinner, more flexible, faster at processing images, creates deeper colours and more crisp in contrast. It is, however, still very expensive and will not be seen on consumer TV’s at an ‘affordable price’ for at least another year.

Energy Efficient Television

ENERGY STAR certified televisions are on average, over 25 percent more energy efficient than conventional models, saving energy in all usage modes: sleep, idle, and on. The label can be found on everything from standard TVs to large screen TVs with the latest features like 3D and internet connectivity. Many models that earn the ENERGY STAR incorporate LEDs, the latest in screen backlighting technology.

Saving energy with ENERGY STAR certified home entertainment products helps protect the climate. A home equipped with TVs, a Blu-Ray player, a compact audio system, a cordless telephone and a home-theatre-in-a-box that have earned the ENERGY STAR, can save nearly RM500 over the life of the products. If each TV, DVD player, and home theatre system purchased this year earned the ENERGY STAR, we would prevent nearly 2 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions every year, equal to the emissions from more than 175,000 cars.

Financial Cost

When buying a new TV, as with any other electrical appliance, find out how much energy it uses, check out sust-it.net, before you buy. Taking long term running costs into your buying equation, makes sense. Look for ‘Energy Efficiency’ labels and, when you get it home, don’t leave it on standby.

Research done by Sust-it, the energy efficiency site for electrical hardwares, shows that TVs are now, on average, sixty per cent more efficient than they were five years ago.

When plasma and LCD TVs first arrived in the shops, we were dazzled by their stunning picture quality and screen size, and overlooked the fact that, compared with most tube televisions, these beasts were energy guzzlers – something the salesman, wowing us with bright colours and a 42-inch screen, would neglect to mention. In 2006 a 42-inch Plasma could have cost you RM474 per year to run (at today’s prices), now thanks to public awareness and advances in technology, a similar model uses nearly six times less energy, produces 264.90 kg less carbon and costs only RM84 to run per year.

Sust-it used its extensive energy usage data to compare the running costs of 1,800 televisions and found that since October 2006 and July 2011, there has been a decrease in the average amount of energy flat screen TV’s are using, and, in addition, the decrease in stand-by consumption is nearly 100 per cent.  This is better news for the environment, as TVs account for around 6-8% of the global domestic electricity usage, and for the consumer by saving them money on electricity bills.

Consumers need to be wary of old energy hungry plasma models, which are still available and will be difficult to spot until new energy labels for TV’s become mandatory in December 2011, go for LED if possible.

Sharp, whose TVs top Sust-it’s efficiency charts, commented on the research saying “Sharp have made increasing energy efficiency a key part of its wider commitment to minimising the environmental impact of product life-cycles. Technological advances are made not only to improve picture quality, but also to reduce energy needed to power the screen.  For example, the added yellow sub-pixel in Sharp’s proprietary four colour Quattron LCD panels allows more light through, using less energy to produce a brighter, sharper picture. Where ten years ago, a 32-inch TV would have consumed nearly 300 kWh (kilowatt-hours) per year, the same size Sharp TV now requires 80% less energy when turned on, and an amazing 98% less in stand-by mode.  This is why so many of our TVs have already received the 5-star energy efficiency rating.”