From humble beginnings in a small laboratory in London belonging to John Logie Baird television has come a long way from the early Cathode Ray days to now the latest in Liquid Crystal Display /Flat Screen TV sets. The television has now become one of the �must haves� in almost every household, certainly within the developed world.



So how many people now actually understand in some detail exactly how televisions work and what they actually have to achieve to deliver this magic image that we see on the screen? The broadest definition of television (often abbreviated to TV) refers to it as a widely used telecommunications system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance.

Like most forays into a technical arena nowadays it is very easy to get confused by the wide range of technical phrases and terminology in use within the industry today.

Rather than continue with a basic history of the industry, it might be best to stop and take a look at the latest developments within the industry mainly that of digital television, what digital television actually means, its formats, bandwidth and the technical terminology and jargon used today.

So then the question is what is Digital TV?

Quite often confusion reigns here as to what exactly we are talking about and the use of terms can be misleading such as TFT, LCD and Plasma etc, all used and are similar but not the same.

The two main types of Flat Screen TV or screens available today are either Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Plasma.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 a telecommunications system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals in contrast to the more established analogue systems which is effectively the transmission of signals used by analogue (traditional) TV.

So what do all of the terms surrounding Digital TV mean? Let us use one of the newer LCD TV�s available to help us as we detail what exactly this all means.

The LCD TV that we shall use for our illustrative purposes here is the B&O Beovision 8.

It is essential that we are familiar with the following key items of information.

The Screen resolution of the TV is possibly the most obvious place to start. Here we refer to the exact number of pixels that can be displayed in each dimension.

Next up is whether the TV is Hi-Definition Ready and what does this mean? Hi Definition TV essentially makes a TV picture in a quality format that is at least four times better than conventionally available at present.

The next item that we would need to look at is what types of connectors are used between the peripherals used alongside the main Digital TV?

We are referring here to the exact nature and number of the Scarts Sockets and Plugs in use. SCART stands for �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 8 is a 26in LCD TV and the prices for these are around 1800 pounds sterling or 2900 US dollars. The screen resolution is 1366 X 768 and with regards to being HD Ready the answer is yes. The Beovision has 2 (2 RGB) scarts and the type and number of Multimedia interfaces the Beovision 8 uses is HDMI and 1. The type of Tuner for this TV is Analogue and the Beovision is available from specialised outlets only.

So how would we rate the B&O Beovision 8?

The most obvious place to start with as far as TV's are concerned would be the picture quality and our score here would be 8, and closely tied in to the picture quality is the sound quality and our score for this would be 8. Another useful aspect to review is the availability and number of relevant connections and our score here would be 6. As far as overall features are concerned we would give it 6 and the final individual verdicts would relate to the ease of use and overall value for money and our scores here would be, 4 and 6 respectively.

Finally our overall opinion would be this is definitely one to consider if you don't mind paying a huge premium for the appearance and looks

It is essential to remember that the prices we use in these reviews are guides and are taken as an average across the industry and it is entirely conceivable and possible to find an occasion when you could be met with prices that are cheaper but also on occasions more expensive.