Display Devices

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

A technology used in older  monitors and televisions.  It has a vacuum tube that uses an electron gun (cathode) to emit a stream of electrons that light up phosphor dots on the back of the screen to create the image displayed.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

Liquid Crystal Display, a type of display used in digital watches and many portable computers. LCD displays utilize two sheets of polarizing material with a liquid crystal solution between them. An electric current passed through the liquid causes the crystals to align so that light cannot pass through them. Each crystal, therefore, is like a shutter, either allowing light to pass through or blocking the light.

Resolution

The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.  E.g. 1024x768 means 768 rows of 1024 pixels.

E-Ink Display

E Ink (electrophoretic ink) is a specific proprietary type of electronic paper.  It is used mostly in e-readers, most notably in the Amazon Kindle.  The technology works by using globes which contain both positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles.  Small plates under the globes can be used to repel or attract the particles depending on their charge.  The advantage of these displays is that it is easy to read in sunlight and easier on the eyes than screens which use a backlight.

High-Definition Television (HDTV)

High-Definition Television (or HDTV) is a digital television broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition TV, or SDTV).  HDTV is digitally broadcast; the earliest implementations used analog broadcasting, but today digital television (DTV) signals are used, requiring less bandwidth due to digital video compression. 

SDTV usually had a resolution of 720x480 with an aspect ratio of 4:3.  The best HD resolution is 1920x1080 with an aspect ratio of 16:9.

HD Ready is a marketing term used to sucker people into buying TVs which do not have a standard HD resolution.