Buying Guide for Flat Screen TVs

Jul.07, 2010 in Technology and Gadgets

So you’re looking to buy a flat screen TV? Well you’ve come to the right place. There’s a few things to keep in mind when buying a new TV. I’ll be going over some of the things you should, and shouldn’t look for when shopping.

HDTV-Ready and High Definition Upgradeable, if this term is used while deciding on buying a new TV it means it has the ability to produce the highest resolutions possible on digital television. If its upgradeable, it means you will need to add a HDTV receiver before you can get the high definition mode. Although, the TV will still look better than the average even if you don’t upgrade, but you won’t get the most out of it.

Look for the reverse 3:2 pulldown feature, shows are normally shot at 24 frames per second, which runs at 30 frames on video. The quality of the picture is distorted because of this, but this feature will be able to correct it. It will then produce a much smoother and cleaner picture.

The 16:9 aspect ratio, its similar to the shape of the screen in the movie theaters. For every 16 inches wide, its 9 inches in height. Watching dvd’s with this ratio will give you the full screen effect, the way it was intended when shot. While watching standard definition TV though you will have to choose either to set the TV to full screen, or have vertical black bars on either side of the picture. In the future though, the majority of everything on television will be using the 16:9 ratio.

Another thing you may, or may not want to look for is picture in picture, or PIP. It will allow you to watch two shows at once. Consider getting a dual tuner plasma, projection or LCD because it will let you watch a second channel without the need of an external tuner. Inputs are also important, so make sure you check out the TV to see what type of features it has as far as inputs go. The best video quality input would be “component video”, followed by S-video.

There’s going to be a few things you want to avoid, depending on what you want. If you want the TV to be viewable from the whole room, make sure you can see the picture clearly from the sides. Sometimes, depending on the TV the picture will fade or look blurry at angles. Also, try to avoid buying anything under 550 cd/m2 brightness, as the picture could look soft or muddy even in a dark room.