The Tube - Television Sets

Television sets or television is an invention of several scientists whose discoveries date back to 1831 when Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetism. Since that time, many scientists went through painstaking work to design a device that can produce both audio and visual images. The "tube" as we call them today, is a telecommunication device used to display electronic images transmitted by a television channel through radio waves. The term television comes from the Greek word "tele" meaning far, and Latin word "visio-n", meaning sight.

Television sets has become part of modern living since its inception around the 1940's. In the United States, around 98% of households have at least one television set while 61% subscribe to cable television. Aside from its entertainment purposes, television sets have become educational tools, as well as advertising media. The average American household watches television seven hours a day.

Television sets images are actually the end result of a three way communication process. From a source (say, television stations), broadcast elements travel through waves and then received by television sets' transmitters. That's how images are produced. Television images are composed of 525 horizontal lines shown on a screen.

Television sets elements
Television sets need to have a display device that converts electrical signals into light to form images. A sound device converts electrical signals into sound that goes along the images reproduced on the display device; built-in speakers make these converted sounds heard. A television receiver picks up broadcast signals from a television source while a transmitter is responsible in modulating image and sound information television signals.

Television sets technology
From black and white screens, to colored television screens, manufacturers recently produced wide screen television sets with theater quality. Although they are almost 10 times more expensive than the old colored screens, manufacturers claim the highest resolution and unprecedented image quality. Wide television screens begin at 27" up to 60". New technology television sets have four types: plasma, LCD, and rear projection CRT.

Plasma television sets cost around $1000-$4000. These TVs are digital with high resolutions. LCD TVs are similar to a screen of a laptop. They are much thinner (about an inch) than plasmas and screen sizes are limited to 40" only.

Rear Projection CRTs have screen sizes 40" or more. Rear projection CRTs are like a combination of a projector and screen into a TV set. They are relatively cheaper compared with other wide screen television sets but consumers would have to contend with the bulkiness of rear projection CRTs.