Television has come a long way since a series of shadowy images of wriggling fingers was first broadcast by John Logie Baird in his laboratory in 1925, through the early Cathode Ray TV�s now to the latest in Liquid Crystal Display /Flat Screen TV sets. It has now become almost impossible for most people to do without TV.



Much like the conventional approach to driving a car and our understanding of how the Internal Combustion Engine works (or not depending on your point of view) very few people understand entirely what happens behind the screen of a TV or do they? From a grammatical derivation originating in a mixture of Greek (�tele� meaning far�) and Latin (�visual� meaning �sight�) the word television roughly translates as meaning �far sight�.

The one aspect of modern day television that if the truth be known completely confuses most people (yet most would try not to �let on�) is the amazing array of technical jargon that surrounds the everyday television set.

Now would be a good idea to concentrate purely on the digital aspect of television, its latest developments formats and bandwidth issues in use and exactly what all this technical jargon and terminology actually mean.

So an accurate definition of Digital TV is what?

This is one of those areas where by and large ignorance rules and the wrong terms get used with amazing regularity such as LCD and Plasma both meaning the same thing when in fact they are similar yet different technologies.

In a nutshell Flat Screen TV�s can either be Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) sets or can be Plasma screen but the two are different.The main difference between the two (apart from base technologies) are that with LCD TV�s the main technology used is TFT (Thin Film Transistor) which means that by and large you can make the screens smaller and more energy efficient.

Digital television is much more flexible and efficient than conventional analogue television and digital signals provide a much clearer picture, much better sound quality and a far greater choice and availability of programming.

So what is it exactly that we have to look out for with a Digital TV? Using one of the newer LCD TV�s available will help us actually go through what all of this terminology actually means.

The LCD TV that we shall use for our illustrative purposes here is the B&O Beovision 7-32?

The following items of information have to be understood before you can make a proper valued judgement regarding your new Flat Screen TV?

The Screen resolution of the TV is possibly the most obvious place to start. In this case it refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.

Whether the TV is Hi-Definition Ready would be the next thing to look at. By Hi Definition Ready we mean that is the TV is ready and suitable to take advantage of the latest Hi Definition TV pictures that more and more programmes are being broadcast in.

We would need to look next at what types of connectors are used to connect the various peripherals that go to make the entire Digital Package work.

In this case we mean SCART Plugs and sockets and their usage. Here the definition of SCART refers to �Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d�Appareils Radio et Television (SCART).

Lastly on the technical side we would need to look at what types and what numbers of High-Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) are being used. Here High Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) refers to the audio/video connector interface that transmits the uncompressed digital streams of information between two or more digital components such as a HD DVD Disc player, a Blu-ray Disc player, a Personal Computer or Video Console.

The Beovision 7-32 is a 32in LCD TV and the prices for these are around 6000 pounds sterling or 12000 US dollars. The screen resolution is 1366 X 768 and with regards to being HD Ready the answer is no. The Beovision has 3 (3 RGB) scarts and the type and number of Multimedia interfaces the Beovision 7-32 uses is DVI and 1. The type of Tuner for this TV is Analogue and the Beovision is available from specialised outlets only.

All these points being taken into consideration, how would we view the B&O Beovision 7-32?

Well to start with our score for the picture quality is 8, next we would look at the sound quality and our view of this would be 10. Taking a look at the number of relevant connections and their availability, our score would be 8. As far as overall features are concerned we would give it 6 and for ease of use and overall value for money we would give it, 8 and 6 respectively.

Finally our overall opinion would be this has all the hallmarks of being possibly the best of B&O's current offerings but this has to be balanced with the fact that the price tag which we feel is way over the mark for the performance of the TV makes this sadly one where we feel that is not ideal value for money.

Remember that all the prices we use in these reviews are very much designed for illustration purposes only and in some cases you may well find the actual price cheaper but also in some cases, more expensive.