Digital Trends Passive 3D Available on some LCD TVs, passive 3D is very similar to what you would experience in a movie theater: Two images are displayed simultaneously on the screen, while polarized glasses filter the correct image to each eye, producing a 3D effect. This approach produces a brighter overall picture and better odd-angle viewing than active 3D.
Active 3D Active 3D glasses use battery-powered LCD lenses to block each eye in sync with a TV that alternates showing right- and left-eye images, creating a 3D effect. Since each eye sees a fullresolution 1080p frame, active 3D has inherently higher resolution than passive 3D. Plasma vs. LCD LCD TVs can create brighter images than plasmas, which helps to offset any excessive room or ambient lighting in brighter than optimum conditions. Plasma TVs produce greater picture depth, more realistically textured images, and richer colors.
LED TVs? LED TV is a type of LCD TV, not a separate technology: The difference lies in the backlighting method. Typical LCD screens light their images with a fluorescent backlight placed behind the pixels; red, blue and green color filters are then used to create the colors you see on the screen. LED TVs, on the other hand, use LEDs as the light source, allowing for better control over lighting and dimming of the image.
Full array backlit In a full-array LED TV, many clusters of LEDs are arrayed across the back of the screen to light the image; this allows for full-array sets that can also feature local-dimming, whereby individual or small groups of LEDs can be separately dimmed or even completely shut off in dark areas of the picture.
Edge-lit In an edge-lit LED TV, the LEDs are arranged around the edges of display. The light they produce then gets evenly spread across the screen with a light guide. Since the LEDs aren’t directly behind the screen, these TVs can be amazingly thin, making edge-lit LED TVs the thinnest on the market. The smart TV: Streaming apps and connectivity features A smart TV is one that can be connected to the Internet to access content like streaming video, music, and entertainment apps, like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu and Pandora. More and more of today’s flat panels include built-in Ethernet or Wi-Fi connectivity to make this a reality. In the Future: Ultra HD TVs There’s an emerging category of televisions coming soon - Ultra HD TVs, aka 4K TVs. The 4K number stands for the lines of resolution these TVs are capable of (either 4,196 x 2,160 or 3,840 x 2,160), which results in a max resolution that’s about four times greater than the current HD standard at 1,080 x 1,920 lines. This increased resolution should result in noticeably improved picture quality for very large screen sizes, where image pixelization becomes more discernable at current HD resolutions. In the Future: OLED HDTVs In simplified terms, OLEDs operate by putting electricity directly into “organic” materials (hence the “O” in OLED) such as carbon that emit the red, green or blue colors required to form a TV’s colored image. Since these pixel-sized materials are directly lit, they radiate light across their entire surface area, which results in pictures that are much brighter, richer, deeper, and better color-saturated than any existing TV technology available today.
Adapted from Digital Trends: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/tv-buying-guide-how-to-buy-atv/#ixzz3LDcUBBVX