Buying a New HDTV
It began with a small remodel. There was a little nook in our living room where we used to have a window seat. I had removed it because I wanted to make a play area for my then, two toddlers. It was convenient having a place where I could corral their toys and I could supervise their play, yet still do other things in the living room. That was eight years ago. My children’s use of the nook evolved into a place to stash whatever they were using in the living room, without actually putting it away. The nook became a source of constant clutter, so I decided to remove it and push the adjacent wall back. The remodel turned out well and gave us a lot more space. In fact, it gave us our only substantial wall space in that room. And it didn’t take more than a day for all of us to realize that it just begged for a larger television.
We had talked about a new HD-TV ever since our visit to our local electronics store. I am a geek at heart and love new technology, but don’t usually have the means to follow through on my whims. Our major purchases require planning. When we had decided to jump into the HD-TV market a few years ago, we chose a smaller budget set that would work well on our current entertainment unit. But watching the new high definition screens made me long for a new set-up. I was amazed by the clarity of the picture. It drew me in and I got lost in the incredible reality of the images. My daughters begged for a new HD-TV, offering their allowance for a year to help buy it.
I am very careful when I make a large purchase. I want to know everything that I can about what I am getting and to know that what I am buying is going to last. I decided to go ahead and buy a new TV because high definition is the new standard and we were assured that it won't become obsolete anytime soon.
We began our search for the perfect set at our local electronics store. The huge screens of the projection TVs attracted my daughters. The idea of sitting in our living room and feeling like you are in a movie theater thrilled them. We immediately noticed that the image quality was far below the image quality of the flat screens. Talking with a sales associate confirmed that although you get a lot of size for your money, the best quality projection TV doesn’t have the picture quality of the cheapest LCD flat panel TV. For the movie theater experience, they can’t be beat, but for picture quality, there are better choices.
We began looking at the flat panel TVs and noticed that some appeared more vibrant and clear. Our sales person explained that there are different technologies in flat screen TVs: LCD and Plasma. Both technologies have made it possible to build very shallow, relatively lightweight TV screens with large picture areas. There are some differences though.
Plasma HDTV
All plasma displays are wide-screen, meaning they have a 16:9 ratio of screen width to screen height, which is the standard for HDTV. It is also the ratio used for most modern movies. This makes them more rectangular than the traditional 4:3 displays. All plasma displays offer HDTV resolution. Screen sizes start at 42 inches diagonal and range up to more than 100 inches. Lower end models usually have lower contrast and poorer reproduction of black and dark grays. This means a picture with less punch and detail. Those with a true black background do have trouble with burn-in. Burn in is the tendancy for a static image to cause a lasting ghost image on the screen. Reducing brightness and contrast will help prevent burn in, but as I asked our salesman, isn’t brightness and contrast what is attractive about plasma technology?
LCD HDTV
LCDs tend to be slightly thicker than plasmas and they have a narrower viewing angle, so in order to view the screen to its fullest potential you need to be directly in front of the TV. LCDs do tend to have lower contrast ratios than plasmas, primarily because they have a harder time reproducing deep black and dark grays. They also have slower response times, which can sometimes cause blurring of fast-moving action, such as in sports. This is becoming less true in newer LCD TVs. LCDs are completely immune to burn-in and are easier to view in brightly lit rooms. They run cooler than plasmas and don’t need noisy fan cooling.
After weighing all of the options, we chose a SONY 32" flat-panel LCD TV. We chose it for its stunning images and easy to use features and the fact that it will easily hook right into our current cable set up. It also has a second connection so we can use it as a monitor for our computer; this appealed to my current video filming interests. Other features we liked were that it is Energy Star compliant, and highly energy efficient, it is only 4” deep making it very unobtrusive when it is not being watched, it has digital sound and a wide viewing angle, so we can see it clearly from every seat in our living room. We are very happy with our choice and have had many fun times with family and friends in front of our new TV.
