TV Buying Tips
May 19th, 2008 by Todd B
It can be daunting to shop for a TV considering all the choices we are faced with these days. Choice is good, but how does one narrow down the selection to feel confident of a satisfactory purchase?
First, decide where you will use the TV. It is important to know how big of a space you will be able to fit the TV into. Do you want to mount the TV on the wall or set it on a piece of furniture? If you wall mount, do you want to be able to pull it away from the wall and turn it or tilt it down?
Next, decide how big of a screen you want. With a high definition signal you can be as close as 14 feet with a 73″ screen or 10 feet with a 52″ screen.
If you are not wall mounting the TV, you may opt for a rear projection DLP. Even if you do not have a lot of space and you want to set the TV on a tabletop, check out these DLP sets because they are so slim that they are close to the same depth as a flat panel TV on its pedestal. DLPs are the best value for the amount of screen you get for the money. They are also preferred for video games and fast moving action (like sports!). Mitsubishi and Samsung have some excellent rear projection sets.
To save space, flat panel TVs are excellent for wall mounting. The OmniMount brand wall mounts offer some extra security by allowing you to padlock the TV to the wall mount as an extra deterrence against theft. They also come with all the mounting hardware.
The choices in flat panel TVs are plasmas and LCDs. If you are placing the TV in an area that has a lot of light, LCDs do a better job of not reflecting that light. Plasmas offer warmer colors and blacker blacks and also handle motion better than LCDs. Plasmas though require more care than LCDs because they have a greater chance of burning an image into the screen. When using a plasma turn the TV off any time you are done using it. Just don’t fall asleep staying up all night playing video games!
HDTVs come in a 1080p resolution or a 720p resolution. It may not seem like much of a difference but the 1080p resolution is more than double the 720p resolution. Generally if you can get the TV with the higher resolution you will get a better picture (this is not so noticeable on TVs that are smaller than 50″).
A new technology that helps LCDs show fast moving action is a higher frame rate. Most TVs use a 60Hz frame rate but the better LCDs will offer a 120hz frame rate.
A quick note about HDMI cables. Not all HDMI cables offer the same bandwidth. For example if you buy a LCD that is 1080p resolution and the 120hz frame rate ideally you want to have an HDMI cable that offers over 10 gigabytes (GB) of bandwidth to support the TV’s capabilities. If the HDMI cable is the bottleneck for the signal to provide the resolution and frame rate that the TV is capable of producing, then you might be defeating the purpose of getting the nicer TV to begin with. MonsterCable’s HDMI 1000 cable is an excellent choice for TVs with the 120hz refresh rate.
Make sure to check out the manufacturer’s warranty. Unless a manufacturer has a nationwide repair network it can be cost-prohibitive to have a TV fixed if it needs to be shipped to the manufacturer. A lot of the lower priced TVs can actually become quite expensive if they develop problems.
Price is always important not only in what TV to purchase but where. Nowadays with online price search engines it can be easy to think that a TV can be obtained from an online dealer for quite a bit less than say your local dealer. When using online dealers make sure to not only check the price out but research customer feedback from reputable websites like BizRate or ResellerRatings. This can help avoid a very negative online shopping experience.
Before you start shopping for a TV though I recommend establishing a budget. Figure in the budget any extras that you might want to get with the TV like a good quality line conditioner (aka surge suppressor), cables to hook the TV up to your source components (like the HDMI cable from your HD source), screen care kits, HDTV calibration DVDs, and if you want to extend the manufacturer’s warranty.
As you can see it can be a little complicated when making a TV purchase. But with preparation and research the TV shopper has never had it better in terms of resources and selection when making a purchasing decision.
