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Understanding the Different Components in a Modern TV

understanding the different components in a modern tv

The technology that makes our TVs work isn’t something that the average person thinks about often. When your favorite show is on TV, you don’t think about all the tiny parts and processes that go into making that visible picture on your screen. TVs don’t usually get the credit they deserve for being marvels of technological advancement, and none of it would be possible without all of the parts inside the TV working in tandem.

Modern TVs have a lot more parts than older TVs did, and those parts are quite a bit smaller than those of the old models. That’s why TVs have become thinner and thinner over the years. To help you with understanding the different components in a modern TV, we’ll go over some of the most important parts that make your modern TV work. TVs come in all different shapes and sizes, so they won’t all look the same inside, but you can generally find all of these parts in every modern TV set.

Supply Board

The supply board, otherwise known as the SMPS board, is how your TV receives the power it needs to run. The power cable that you plug into the outlet in your wall connects directly to this board. Its major function is converting the power from the outlet into a usable form of energy for your TV. The electricity that you receive from the power company that powers your whole house is called AC power. TVs need DC power to function, so the supply board’s job is to take the AC power it receives, convert it into DC power, and distribute it throughout the rest of the parts in the TV.

Main Board

The main board has many other names, such as the motherboard or the logic board. You can think of your TV’s supply board as its heart and the main board as its brain. Pretty much everything in your TV connects to the main board in some way, from your HDMI slots to your audio ports. The main board decodes the signal it receives from whatever source of cable you have. It then amplifies this signal and displays it on the screen itself. In modern TVs, the main board takes an analog signal, whether it be audio or visual, and turns it into a digital signal which then appears on the screen.

T-Con Board

In many LCD TVs specifically, there is another board called the T-Con board. The T-Con board analyzes and decodes the analog signal it receives, in much the same way that the main board does. You find them in LCD TVs because LCD screens need both a serial signal and a parallel signal in order to display correctly. TVs only receive a serial signal, so it’s up to the T-Con board to convert that serial signal into a parallel signal so that the LCD display can decipher it correctly.

Screen

Understanding the different components in a modern TV wouldn’t make sense without looking at the screen itself. Nowadays, many TVs use LEDs to achieve a better picture quality. It’s important to remember that all LED screens are technically LCD displays—they just use LED lights rather than traditional lights. Here are the most important parts of an LED TV display.

The LED Screen

Multiple polarized glass sheets make up the actual screen of an LED TV display. Between these sheets of glass is a layer of a liquid crystal solution that responds to the backlight behind it. There are different kinds of liquid crystal solutions, but their differences are miniscule and largely unnoticeable.

The Backlight

The display’s backlight is a layer behind the glass screens that holds all the LED lights. Depending on the kind of image that is input into the backlight, it will control the LED’s brightness in different areas to improve the picture’s quality. Edge lighting backlights have the LEDs placed all along the edge, while direct lighting backlights have the LEDs directly behind the screen’s surface.

The LEDs

LED lights are common nowadays, so it may seem strange that they are behind some of the best TVs on the market right now. The LEDs in an LED TV are extremely small, and they have a much wider range of colors that they can display. Thanks to their wide variation in color and easiness to control, LEDs have a big leg up on the cathode fluorescent tube systems of the old days.

Other Screens

There are other displays on modern TVs. CRT TVs have almost completely fallen out of favor because of their lower picture quality, general bulkiness, and weight. Plasma display panels utilize tiny cells full of ionized gases to create their display, although these are not very common, given the cheaper alternatives. One of the newer types of screens is the OLED screen. OLED screens are similar to LED screens, but they have a film of organic compounds that respond to electrical currents to create their picture.

Infrared Ray Receiver

This part is perhaps not as integral to your TV’s functioning as the previous components, but you definitely wouldn’t want a TV that didn’t have an infrared ray receiver. This receiver enables your remote control to control your TV. Your remote control emits infrared signals that this receiver picks up, then converts into digital signals that your TV can understand and respond to. It sends these digital signals to the main board for it to decipher.

Wi-Fi Module

In modern times, regular cable programming isn’t the only way to watch TV anymore. More and more streaming services continue to pop up, and people can choose exactly what they want to watch when they want to watch it. None of that would be possible, however, without a way to get internet into the TV itself. That’s where the Wi-Fi module comes in. Many modern TVs have built-in Wi-Fi modules so they can receive an internet connection, thereby letting them receive signals via Wi-Fi instead of just through a cable connection.

Now that you know a little more about the components in your TV, you might want to try doing your own maintenance. When you figure out you need a replacement, TV Parts for Sale has what you need, from TV main board parts to LED strips. We’ll be glad to help you find the parts you need to get your TV back in working order.

understanding the different components in a modern tv
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