Techno Shopping Tips: Television

Flat screen TV is one of the most popular and exciting TV technologies today. At only a few inches thick, flat screen TVs offer unparalleled flexibility and convenience. Older conventional TV's, in fairness to them, did offer crisp and vibrant images. However, these TV's, which operate through a cathode ray tube (CRT), suffered from one major drawback, they were bulky. As screen size increased, so did the bulk and weight. However, the TV of old has reached its twilight years. New television technologies have enabled TV manufacturers to create TVs with wider screen size yet still only a few inches thick. Thus, flat screen TVs usher home entertainment into the 21st century.

Flat Screen TV basically refers to two technologies: Plasma and LCD. The advances in these two technologies have enabled TV makers to build thin, lightweight TV screens with a large picture area. Plasma and LCD both offer similarly large, lightweight, flat screen TV's but the similarities are skin deep for their inner workings are different.

Plasma or LCD?

Plasma and LCD TVs generally look similar however they use very different technologies. Plasma utilizes a grid of tiny cells of gas plasma that light up and create a picture when charged by precise electrical voltages. LCD (liquid crystal display) screens on the other hand are made of liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates and create images by varying the amount of electrical charge applied to the crystals. Both Plasma and LCD offer excellent picture quality. The following are their strengths and weaknesses and edge over the other.

1. Plasma screens can display blacks more accurately compared to LCD. Thus, pictures in a Plasma TV have richer contrast and better detail especially in dark TV and movie scenes. LCD TV's are catching up however.
2. Plasma TV has better viewing angles than LCD TV. How far you can sit on either side of the screen before the qualities of the pictures are affected is what the "viewing angle" is. In LCD TVs, brightness and color tend to shift when angled too far while that of Plasma TVs remain solid.
3. Plasma TV can produce brighter color while light leakages in LCD screens affect the color saturation.
4. Plasma TVs are priced relatively less than their LCD counterparts especially in the large screen segment. Plasma TVs offer much larger sizes than LCDs, yet are still priced lower.
5. LCD has a higher native resolution than plasma TVs of the same size. This results to sharper images and makes LCD TV the better choice for HDTV.
6. LCD TVs consume almost 30% less power than Plasma TVs.
7. LCD TVs are generally lighter than similar sized Plasmas.
8. Among the two, LCD screens have a longer life span than plasma screens. LCDs can last up to 60,000 hours compared to Plasma that average from 30,000 to 60,000 hours.
9. Plasma TVs are more prone to screen burn-ins compared to LCDs although newer plasma technology are less susceptible to these.

If you are looking for a large flat screen TV, Plasma TV is recommended. Plasma TVs can give you better value for your money. The price difference between Plasma TVs and LCD TVs is big. However, if you have money to burn, then LCD TV is the better choice especially if you want the sharpest images. For smaller flat screen TVs at the range of 15" to 36", LCD is the way to go. Ultimately, both technologies are still evolving and new innovations and improvements are definitely in the works.

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Mitchell Medford is an author and product consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his website for more information on home theater, LCD TVs, and plasma televisions.

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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