buying an HDTV

By Dave Kaplowitz

Even though we have made the transition to digital broadcast TV, many of us still have our old analog sets. After all, over 80% of US households get their TV from cable, satellite or the phone companies and the changeover to digital didn’t affect our trusty set top boxes. But now that all this HD programming is available to us at reasonable prices that old (and I mean OLD) trusty analog TV is starting to look kind of long in the tooth. With prices continuing to fall, a brand new flat screen TV, or maybe a second one, is looking pretty tempting. But with so many different brands, sizes, and features how does one decide? After all, if you read any description by the manufacturer of any model of their TVs, you’d think each one was the greatest thing since sliced bread. In this article, I am giving you my guidelines on how to pick from the many HDTV’s out there.

How much will this beast cost?

Surprisingly enough, you can get a decent 32” HDTV for under $500. For many people, that will suffice and certainly will be an improvement over their existing analog TV. But in this price range you are going to be compromising picture quality. A 32” screen is on the small side for taking advantage of all the pixels that HDTV is capable of, although certainly acceptable for the bedroom. In my opinion, these days the sweet spot is in the $700 to $1500 range. At the low end of that you can get into a decent 37” set and at the high end you can get a very nice 52” set or larger.

And speaking of picture size, this is yet another area where SIZE DOES MATTER. You’ll see a lot of guidance that looks at the appropriate size screen for the room size and viewing distance - I think that is largely baloney. Get the biggest TV that will fit your budget and entertainment center. Better yet, get a new entertainment center or mount this baby on the wall. The downside is that at a given price point, to get a bigger TV the quality goes down. Or to say it another way, if you are looking at a certain size then you have to pay more for better picture quality. Perhaps this is obvious, but sometimes people (OK, I mean guys) get carried away with the bigger is better thing and don’t consider the other factors. True, for some people it is all about size so bring in the forklift and go out and get that 72” behemoth you have been craving!

LED, LCD, Plasma, DLP – what’s all that?

Simply put, for most of us the choice is between LCD and plasma (I’ll get to some of the other options in a bit). LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology has been with us for quite a while and is the same technology used in most flat screen computer displays. Plasma has typically been touted as the best because it has bigger viewing angle and better contrast ratios. The viewing angle refers to how far off-center you can be from the screen and still see it reasonably well and plasma still rules here. It is important if you have a lot of people watching TV at the same time.

The contrast ratio refers to the ratio in brightness between the whitest white and the blackest black that the TV can be display. You’ll notice it if you can make out details in the shadows – just watch a submarine movie like The Hunt for Red October and you’ll know what I mean. But you’ll also notice it on TV shows like True Blood that have a lot of scenes shot at night. And plasma definitely rules here, but LCD is quickly catching up.

Some of the higher end LCD TVs use LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for backlighting rather than fluorescent bulbs. These sets are referred to as LED, but they still use LCDs to display the picture. Instead of a single fluorescent bulb to backlight, they use many LEDs that are set individually depending on the content of the picture (called local dimming). These LED displays are approaching or exceeding Plasmas for contrast ratios, but they are pretty pricey right now and are in the above $1500 price range. But next year they will become much more affordable. The tricky thing about shopping for contrast ratio is that every brand has a different way of measuring it and you can only use published contrast ratios to compare within a brand, not between brands. Higher numbers are better.

Plasma TVs tend to be heavier than LCD. Plasma TVs have tended to use more power than LCDs, but this is changing. The LED TVs tend to be the most green. This is especially important because TVs, like most electronic devices in your home, are always “on” even when “off”. In order to get the device to turn on instantly, the manufacturers keep them on at a lower power when turned off - the only way to get them turned off completely is to unplug them, and who wants to deal with that? So compare power consumption if your electric bill is a factor. Plasma tends to do better in dim light while LCD does better when the room is brighter.
 
DLP (Digital Light Processing) is a technology from TI that was popular in HDTVs a couple of years ago. But it is has been mostly relegated to projectors for laptops because the TVs tend to be much deeper and heavier than LCDs and can’t be mounted on the wall. You still see them on TVs above 60” since LCD can’t be built at those sizes economically yet. And here you see LEDs used in DLP sets just as they are in LCD. And another advantage for using them in DLP sets is that regular DLP sets have a bulb that has to be replaced every few years at a cost of $100 and a few minutes of your time.

The newest technology that you will start seeing for displays is called OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode). This is supposed to offer amazing picture quality. But the coolest thing is that it will allow displays to be only a few millimeters thick (around the thickness of a quarter). I think this will have amazing ramifications in terms of where you will be able to put TVs and how you will see them packaged. OLED TVs have just started to appear in very small picture sizes (around 15”) because the technology is so new. Look for them to reach parity with LCD in about 5 years.

Can I get fries with that?

With prices continuing to fall, manufacturers are struggling to add features on the high end that give consumers a reason to buy the most expensive set and to differentiate them from the competition. One of these features is called Motion Blur and you see it advertised as “120 Hz” or “240 Hz”. It is used to help make motion crisper on things like sporting events. Some people, me included, find it irritating; especially on movies. Fortunately it can be turned off in the setup menu. Most people can’t tell the difference between 120 and 240 Hz, so this is one area where it doesn’t pay to get a bigger number.

You are also seeing internet access capability on higher end HDTV’s. Why would anyone want to check their email on their TV, you say? Well, it’s not really for that. But more for watching things like Netflix's Watch Instantly and even YouTube on your TV. I’ll be talking about HD content on the internet and TVs with internet access in future newsletters so stay tuned.

There is still more?

There are other factors you will want to consider when selecting a new TV. Sound quality is important if you are not planning on using a home theater sound system. For many, this is fine. But if you watch a lot of movies you’ll be much happier with a nice surround sound system for your brand new HDTV – it makes the experience so much more immersive.

Screen resolution (720p, 1080i, or 1080p) was being touted for the past couple of years. All HDTVs on the market can handle all the HD content out there; the resolution refers to the number of lines of video on the actual display itself. More is better and 1080p is better than 1080i, although I challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference. You’ll only see 720p on the smaller sets any more and you’ll be fine with that if you choose to go that route.

You’ll also want to make sure that there are enough inputs. The higher end sets will have plenty, but a lower end set might not have enough of the right type for your set top box, camcorder, Blu-ray player, and game console. Just make sure it does before you get the thing home and that you buy the right type of cables.

As far as brand goes, any of the established consumer electronics giants such as Sony, Toshiba, LG, Samsung, Sharp, JVC, Philips, RCA, and Hitachi are fine. Everyone has their favorite brand so don’t be afraid to look at any of these. Stay away from the off brands if at all possible. An exception to this might be Vizio. These guys are well established in the computer monitor market and are fairly new to HDTVs and have tended toward lower price and picture quality. But their XVT line is supposed to be up there with the big boys in terms of quality. And be careful about Westinghouse – they got out of the TV market a number of years ago and licensed their name to another company. Do your research before you decide to go down that road.

So where do I buy one?

Now that you have done all your research and know exactly what you want, where do you  get  your HDTV? My preference is to buy off the internet – prices tend to be lower, you typically don’t pay sales tax which can add up, and you can find free shipping deals. The disadvantage is that you don’t have someone to complain to if it is not up to snuff and things don’t go well when you get it home. Another advantage to buying off the internet is that you can save even more money (often hundreds of dollars) on a refurbished, blemished, or open box item. They still come with warrantees (usually 90 days) and I never have had a problem. I would stay away from a scratched screen, but usually you can’t tell the difference. Just make sure you check the sites return and exchange policy in case you are disappointed when you get it unwrapped.

And if you go the brick-and-mortar route, watch out when comparing TVs in the store. They are usually under bright fluorescent lights which do not mimic actual conditions in your living room. And the stores tend to crank the adjustments to make them look brighter in the harsh light. Once again, this is not remotely similar to the conditions when you’ll be curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching Saw XVI.

Are we there yet?

So this is certainly a lot to consider when figuring out what HDTV to get, but it does help to understand the tradeoffs and some of the technical details behind them. So good shopping and enjoy your brand new HDTV!

Next issue: HD on the Internet.