LCD televisions are incredible, space-saving appliances. LCDs possess extremely thin, flat screens that can be mounted on a stant or even hung on a wall in your family or entertainment room. In the case of the latter, hanging an LCD television on a wall provides consumers with additional space in the room in which the television is placed; allowing much more space for furniture and decorating. Furthermore, many LCD televisions include the option to tilt and pivot their direction, allowing the viewer to easily adjust the screen to their preferences.

LCD (liquid crystal display) projectors usually contain three separate LCD glass panels, one each for red, green, and blue components of the image signal being fed into the projector. As light passes through the LCD panels, individual pixels (”picture elements”) can be opened to allow light to pass or closed to block the light, as if each little pixel were fitted with a Venetian blind. This activity modulates the light and produces the image that is projected onto the screen.

LCDs possess a number of advantages over Plasma televisions and standard television sets. Such advantages pertain to their cost effectiveness, their space saving capabilities, and their image producing capabilities. In fact, in the future, the market is likely to see a rise in the sale of LCDs that surpasses the selling of both Plasma and standard television (SDTV) sets; such a rise in the sale of LCDs will directly parallel the increase in technology.

One benefit of LCD is that it has historically delivered better color saturation than you get from a DLP projector. That’s primarily because in most single-chip DLP projectors, a clear (white) panel is included in the color wheel along with red, green, and blue in order to boost brightest or total lumen output. Though the image is brighter than it would otherwise be, this tends to reduce color saturation, making the DLP picture appear not quite as rich and vibrant.

However, some of the DLP-based home theater products now have six-segment color wheels that eliminate the white component. This contributes to a richer display of color. And even some of the newer high contrast DLP units that have a white segment in the wheel are producing better color saturation than they used to. Overall however, the best LCD projectors still have a noteworthy performance advantage in this area.

LCDs are more energy efficient as well. LCD projectors usually produce significantly higher ANSI lumen outputs than do DLPs with the same wattage lamp. In the past year, DLP machines have gotten brighter and smaller–and there are now DLP projectors rated at 2500 ANSI lumens, which is a comparatively recent development. Still, LCD competes extremely well when high light output is required. All of the portable light cannons under 20 lbs putting out 3500 to 5000 ANSI lumens are LCD projectors.

LCDs are more cost effective; this does not mean that they are less expensive than other television brands, but they are, however, money saving in the long run. Due to the fact that LCDs require less electricity to operate, the long term savings on electricity can really add up. The reason that LCD televisions are cost effective is because they do not require florescent lighting to work, and their flat shape produces less heat. Thus, if consumers are looking for a television that can save them money on their monthly electric bill, then LCD television is definitely the way to go.

LCD televisions are praised for their ability to produce sharp, crystal clear images. In fact, the crystal clear imagery produced by LCDs can be attributed to the fact that their screens are literally comprised of crystals. Every crystal either obstructs or allows light to pass through it and such lighting produces the images seen by the viewer on the screen. Furthermore, because LCD screens are flat, there is very unlikely that glare from other lights in the room will present a problem.

Directly related to the clearer pictures, is the fact that LCDs produce sharper images and consumers will experience far fewer occasions in which eye fatigue occurs. Many consumers enjoy watching television for several hours at a time; thus, the clearer images and less glare that are provided from the screens of LCDs can prove to be quite beneficial in alleviating eye fatigue.

Finally, for those individuals that are environmentally conscious, LCDs offer less radiation emission as well as a lower frequency of electromagnetic field emissions. Electronic magnetic fields have been scientifically associated with a number of health risks, including cancer.

Free DIRECTV Satellite TV Receivers

In an effort to draw customers away from its competitors, DIRECTV will give you a complete satellite TV system – a satellite TV dish and up to four satellite TV receivers – when you subscribe to their service. Here’s a review of the various types of standard, DVR, and HD receivers they offer:

Free Receivers

DIRECTV offers a free standard receiver with the following additional features:

* DIRECTV Active – Your personalized information with updates on local weather, horoscopes, lottery results, and pay-per-view suggestions

* Mini Guide – A small on-screen TV channel guide that shows one channel at a time

* Parental controls – Allows you to restrict the programs your child watches

DIRECTV offers a free DVR receiver that allows you to:

* Digitally record up to 100 hours of programming

* Record two shows at one time

* Pause live TV so you won’t miss anything if you answer a phone call or get a snack

* Record one program while you watch another program

* Find TV shows by title, keyword, actor, or channel

* Bookmark the part of a TV show you’d like to come back to at a later time

DIRECTV offers a free HD receiver that features the following:

* High definition reception for the best TV picture available today

* Dolby Digital audio for superior sound

In order to get a DIRECTV receiver you must sign up for DIRECTV satellite TV service. Programming packages start at $29.99 for 155 channels and go up to $96.99 for 250 channels.

Note: Programming is 29.99 for the first three months then $41.99 thereafter. Local channels are $3. DVR and HD receivers are free after a $99 mail-in rebate.

Pay-for DIRECTV satellite TV receivers

For an additional $399, you can order a combination HD/DVR that has all the features of an HD receiver and a DVR receiver plus:

* Two-hundred hours of recording time

* Dolby Digital optical audio outputs for the best sound available

Bottom line

If you don’t do a lot of TV recording then the standard receiver is all you’ll need for satellite TV viewing. If you like to record shows and don’t want to hassle with video tapes and VCR settings, the DISH Network DVR receiver is just what the doctor ordered.

If you want to watch satellite TV with the sharpest picture and the clearest sound, an HDTV receiver is what you’ll want. And if you want the best of both worlds – best picture, best sound, 200-hour digital recording capability – and you don’t mind paying the extra $400, then DIRECTV’s HD/DVR is what you’re looking for.

Visit http://www.thesatellitetvguide.com/directv-tivo-dvr.htm for more information on DIRECTV receivers. Click on the following link for current ordering information and the latest special offers from DIRECTV. Click on this link to compare DIRECTV vs. DISH Network.

An alternative is that some satellite or (more commonly) cable set-top boxes have a FireWire port that can be connected to a computer. The recorded MPEG stream can be relayed to the computer via this FireWire port; though it can be done live, this is more commonly used for transferring shows from a set-top box with built-in DVR.

Some of the technical details for DVR is given to you below:

1. Designed for rack mounting or desktop configurations.

2. Single or multiple video inputs with connector types consistent with the analogue or digital video provided such as coaxial cable, twisted pair or optical fiber cable. The most common number of inputs are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32. Systems may be configured with a very large number of inputs by networking or bussing individual DVRs together.

3. Looping video outputs for each input which duplicates the corresponding input video signal and connector type. These output signals are used by other video equipment such as matrix switchers, multiplexers, and video monitors.

4. Controlled outputs to external video display monitors.

5. Front panel switches and indicators that allow the various features of the machine to be controlled.

6. Network connections consistent with the network type and utilized to control features of the recorder and to send and/or receive video signals.

7. Connections to external control devices such as keyboards.

8. A connection to external pan-tilt-zoom drives that position cameras.

9. Internal CD, DVD, VCR devices typically for archiving video.

10. Connections to external storage media.

11. Alarm event inputs from external security detection devices, usually one per video input.

12. Alarm event outputs from internal detection features such as motion detection or loss of video.

Many DVD-based DVRs are equipped with two DVD drives or an additional internal hard drive. This arrangement can be used to copy content from a source DVD, which is disallowed in the U.S. under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act if the disc is encrypted. Most such DVRs will hence not allow recording of video streams from encrypted movie discs.

Some DVD-based DVRs incorporate a Firewire connector which can be used to capture digital video from a MiniDV or Digital 8 camcorder, possibly recording a simple DVD as the camcorder is played back. Some editing of the resulting DVD is usually possible, such as adding chapter points.

Digital video recorders configured for physical security applications record video signals from closed circuit television cameras for detection and documentation purposes. Many are designed to record audio as well. DVRs have evolved into devices that are feature rich and provide services that exceed the simple recording of video images that was previously done through VCRs. A DVR CCTV system provides a multitude of advanced functions over VCR technology including video searches by event, time, date and camera. There is also much more control over quality and frame rate allowing disk space usage to be optimized and the DVR can also be set to overwrite the oldest security footage should the disk become full. In some DVR security systems remote access to security footage using a PC can also be achieved by connecting the DVR to a LAN network or the internet.