Techno Shopping Tips: HDTV - Here is what you need to know about HDTV.

When considering the purchase of an HDTV set one of the first decisions will be whether you want a widescreen or a 4:3 TV.

If your interests lean mainly towards movies, DVDs and HDTV, a widescreen set would be a better choice. If you are a "commercial" television type of person or family, you may be better off with a 4:3 set now but you should probably get ready to buy a widescreen set to replace this one in a few years.

Manufacturers are producing fewer 4:3 sets and more 16:9 sets. There are no 4:3 TVs available in sizes larger than 40" (not just HDTVs any TVs). This indicates that the future is widescreen.

You will also have to decide how large a TV you want, or can fit into your house. Buy the largest that will fit, or that you think will be watchable from a particular distance.

Do you want, or have, surround sound? A large portion of the large screen experience can be the surround sound experience, so you need to budget for that. Buy the best you can afford

Will you want a direct view, rear projection, plasma, LCoS, LCD, DLP, front projection, etc, type of TV. All of these are various ways of saying size and money...

As for brands, they all have strengths and weaknesses. Some are better and more expensive. Some are less expensive and not as good. But most HDTVs have a good pictures when properly set up, so you may wish to investigate reliability. The cheaper sets often are less reliable and more prone to problems.

You may wish to be aware of the following reliability numbers - sorry, some of the brands were not listed... Consumers Reports reliability numbers indicating % of sets with significant problems or repairs required, lower numbers are better.

Mitsubishi - 9%
Hitachi - 10%
Panasonic - 11%
Sony - 11%
Toshiba - 12%
Pioneer - 12%
Phillips - 13%
RCA - 16%

Another reason to purchase a certain brand over another is that some brands are simply more popular and therefore it's more likely that you will be able to find information if you are having a problem or trying to activate a special feature, whereas a less popular brand may not have that sort of information available. For example, if you check out some of the manufacturers forums online, some brands have lots of posts, others have very few.

Do you want a TV set with the internal digital tuner? These types of hdtv cost more. Most people buy HDTV "Ready" sets. This means you will have to purchase/rent an external set-top-box (STB). The STB will enable you to receive Digital HDTV signals over-the-air (OTA), or Satellite signals, or Cable signals depending on the type of STB and your location. As the STBs improve you will be able to upgrade, purchase or rent integrated STB DVRs, HDSTBs, etc.

Where you buy your HDTV can also be very important. If you purchase online or from a "box-store" you're less likely to get good service. A smaller store may charge a little more, but it may be worth because of the service you may receive, the consultation and the highly recommended setup performed by a professional technician.

It's extremely important to have your hdtv properly set up once it's in your home. The manufacturers set up the HDTV to look "bright" in a brightly lit store, these settings are not appropriate for the home. You'll either need a technician to do that for you, or put some work into it yourself with a setup disk like AVIA, Video Essentials or Sound and Vision Home Theater Tune Up. Sometimes you can borrow these DVDs from libraries.

Picture color and quality in the store are typically not good measures of the TV, since it will need to be set up properly once you get it home as mentioned above. Do not purchase your set on the basis of picture quality in the store, unless you know for certain that the HDTV has been properly set up, this is only likely to happen at a smaller "high end" store.

Ergonomics and features can be important when considering the remote control. If you are going to use it a lot, make sure you like it - is it backlit for example.

Check out the various "stretch modes" for widescreen TVs to see if you like one set's approach more than another. Most HDTVs do the four basic stretch modes in a similar manner.

Purchasing an HDTV is no different than a lot of other "expensive" purchases. Do your research. "Test Drive" the units, take your time, and buy the best you can afford because nobody ever regrets buying quality.

Mark Van Neem