HDTV Buying Guide

Resolution: Choose the highest resolution you can afford. Available resolutions are 480i (SDTV), 480p (EDTV), 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. The last three are all HDTV. The number represents the number of scan lines. The letter i is for interlaced and means that the picture is drawn in two passes, the letter p is for progressive, and means the picture is drawn in one pass. We recommend progressive scanning, and for most people 720p is the best bet. If you can afford a 1080p TV, go with that.

TV Type: HDTVs are available in flat-panels (LCD or Plasma), and in both front and rear projection units. If you want to save space, go flat panel. If price is a bigger concern, a rear projection TV may get you more screen for your money, and will almost always get you the best picture for your money. Where flat-panel TVs can be only 3-6 inches in depth, a rear projection TV will be 13-16 inches. If you want the ultimate home theater experience, and have a good room for it, a front projection system may be the best bet.

Flat Panel Recomendation For TVs 37-inches and under, we recommend LCD TVs. For screens over 42-inches, we recommend plasmas as they are lieklye to be the only cost effective option you find. Right at 37, 40, and 42 inches in size, both LCD and Plasma models are now available. The Plasmas are likely be less expensive. If you can afford it, we recommend an LCD at this size, as these are lighter, easier to install, and they use less energy to run.

Rear Projection TV Recomendation: If you want as large a screen as you can afford rear projection TVs offer the best performance at the best price. Rear projection TVs are self contained units, not usually as deep as an old CRT TV, but deeper than flat panels. If you want a self-contained TV unit, get a rear projection TV. Projection TVs are available in two competing technologies, DLP or LCD projection (you may also see LCOS projectors they are much less common). We don't have a preference for either technology right now. We suggest you choose a brand you know and trust.

Front Projector Recommendation: Front projection models use a separate projector and shoot the image onto a screen, much like how movie theaters work. They give fantastically good pictures, but along with your projector, you also need a screen. If you want the very biggest image and have a good place to set a projector up and a good wall for your screen, a front projector is the way to go. Again, we have no preference between DLP and LCD projection.

Tuner: Get an HDTV with a built-in ATSC tuner, unless you know you aren't ever going to need broadcast TV. Even then a tuner is a good idea because you never really know what you'll want to do down the line.

Cable card: Check your local cable provider to make sure they work with the cable card standard before paying more for a TV with a cable card.

Contrast Ratio: Higher is better. Get a TV with a contrast ratio of 600 to 1 or better.

Aspect Ratio: You're looking for 16:9 for a wider screen. A ratio of 4:3 is the same as your old TV, and you're looking to improve things with this purchase. Go with a widescreen.

Get the image and sound quality you pay for: The image you're watching travels as a signal on cables from your DVD player to your TV, and to your home theater receiver. Low cost cables and unprotected power from the wall can add distortion and other noise to the signal, and you won't see a picture as good as your TV can produce, or hear the soundtrack like it was meant to be heard. If you're investing in a good TV and home theater system, don't let your cables and your power source be the weak link. We recommend using high quality cables, and a good AV power protection unit like those offers by Monster Cable. If your equipment has HDMI connections use HDMI for youtr cabling. See our specific product recommendations to the right

That's the short answer. If you want to know a whole lot more about this stuff, read on. If you don't like to read stuff like this and just want your TV, we've made a serious effort to do the shopping for you, and think you'll be happy, and get your mopney's worth buying any of the TVs on the right, whether you want a flat panel LCD or plasma, or a rear or front projector unit. Don't forget the cables you'll need, and a good power supply.

The Long Answer: What is HDTV and Why Do I Need It?

HDTV (High Definition Television) is a new standard for picture quality that relies on a digital signal, and produces high resolution images on TV. The TV we've had until now (good old-fashioned CRT TVs) produced a picture using 480 interlaced scan lines. That looked great watching TV on our old 19 inch screens, but when you blow that signal up on a larger screen, the low quality of the image becomes apparent. HDTV solves that problem and gets us higher resolution content we'll enjoy watching on our big new TVs.

If you like watching TV (and if you're an American there's a pretty good chance that you do) you need to switch to HDTV, because by 2009, your old fashioned TV won't work anymore. That's right it won't work. Congress passed a law saying all television broadcasts need to be in HDTV by 2009, so older TVs won't work anymore. If you have analogue cable (and if that's even still available then) you could theoretically keep using your old TV to watch that content; and if your old VCR still works by then you could continue to watch your old recordings of Happy Days reruns, but over the air broadcasts will all be digital by then and old TVs will be excellent devices for displaying the radiation left-over from the big-bang (known to most of us as "snow") and little else.

Your Options: SDTV, EDTV, or HDTV

All broadcasts will be digital, but that doesn't mean you have to get an HDTV, you could instead opt for a less expensive SDTV, or EDTV. What's the difference? The difference boils down to resolution and picture quality. In a nutshell, SDTV offers 480i, EDTV offers 480p, and HDTV can get you 720p, 1080i, or even 1080p resolution. Since the nutshell doesn't make things real clear, let's look a little closer.

Resolution Recommendation: Get the best resolution TV you can afford. Most people should get a TV with 720p. Anything less is less than high definition. Don't be surprised to find a slim current selection of HD content on TV. The day is coming when the content will be there in force, and you'll be happy the TV you buy now is ready then.

SDTV: SDTV (480i resolution) is a standard that gives a 480i image just like your old analogue TV does, the difference being that this picture is produced digitally. The "I" in 480i stands for interlaced, and it means that like your old TV, this draws a picture one scan line at a time, and it does this in two passes. The first pass draws all the odd numbered lines from top to bottom, and the second pass does all the even numbered lines, and the result of this two part drawing approach is you may often get "the jaggies" -- jagged lines and other visual artifacts. This happens because when images are moving on the screen, and object may have changed positions between the time when the first of the scan lines making it up appears, and when the last one is rendered. Interlacing is therefore not the ideal way to generate images on large screens where these artifacts are noticeable. We do not recommend an SDTV as a good solution for people needing to go Digital by 2009. There are better options.

EDTV: EDTV (480p resolution) stands for enhanced definition Television. EDTV is a step up from SDTV not because it offers higher resolution, but because it renders all the 480 scan-lines making up the picture in one pass, eliminating the jaggies. Not only is it rendering all 480 lines in one pass, but doing so allows the EDTV signal to offer 60 frames per second as opposed to the old 30 frames per second, which can produce more realistic motion and sharper images. This approach to rendering the image is called "progressive scanning" and is a better alternative than interlacing. Looking at the same image on an SDTV, and an EDTV of the same size, it's easily apparent to most people that the EDTV has a better image.

The problem remains that the actual resolution of an EDTV image is not any better. EDTV -- while much better than analogue TV, or even SDTV, is still an image made of only 480 scan lines, and on larger screens, this still leaves a lot to be desired because as the scan lines widen to fit larger screens, they become visible - and ugly. For anyone wanting to move to a larger TV (let's say anything 23-inches and above) we recommend taking a good look at whether or not you can afford to step up to HDTV. Doing so gets you at the higher standard faster, gives you a better image, and lets you take advantage of the next wave in home movie watching without needing a new TV again. That said, you can find some significant cost savings in choosing an EDTV over an HDTV, and you still get an image much better than what you find in an SDTV or an analogue TV. For many people who don't need or have room for a larger TV, an EDTV may be perfectly acceptable cost-effective solution.

HDTV: HDTV (720p, 1080i, or 1080p resolution) stands for High Definition Television, and it is the standard that we recommend. HDTV does two things that the other formats don't do. The first is that it increases the number of scan-lines on the screen, so you get enough resolution to make the lines disappear on big screens, and to bring out more detail in images than is possible to show in any other format. The other improvement you get with HDTV is that it changes the aspect ratio for the traditional 4:3 ratio of TV, to a widescreen 16:9 ratio. The wide aspect ratio means that films no longer need to be formatted to fit your TV, and future generations will not understand the old overused joke asking "how do they know how big my TV is?" It also means that when you watch widescreen versions of your favorite movie on DVD, it won't need to place black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to make it fit. Nifty.

720p: HDTV comes in three formats, with 720p being the most common format currently found in TVs (as of November 2005-expect this to change over time). 720p HDTVs have 720 progressive scan lines, and because the lines are progressive and not interlaced, a 720p HDTV is great for showing images with a lot of rapid motion without introducing artifacts. It's easy to find 720p TVs in LCD, plasma, or projection models at competitive prices, and if you go with 720p, you have a good number of models to choose from.

1080i: HDTV also comes in 1080i, and this is more commonly found on the largest screens. 1080i goves the benefit of even more scan lines (1,080 of them) so it can show richer detail in images than 720p HDTVs can, and 1080i may be a better format than 720p for the largest screens-because the larger your screen, the more scan lines you need to get the same apparent picture quality. There is a drawback to 1080i, and that's the little i. This is again an interlaced picture, so like old-fashioned TV, 1080i HDTVs are first rendering all the odd lines, and then making a second pass to render all the even lines, and can produce weird visual artifacts when trying to display a lot of motion. If you're choosing between 720p and 1080i, think of it this way: 720p should be better for watching programming with a lot of motion (think footall games, or action movies), and 1080i should be better at showing slower moving images with really rich detail. 1080i is likely a better choice for screens 60-inches and over. With smaller screens, choose based on the desire for detail vs. your desire for better motion images. If you're buying a new HDTV to watch football this year, go for 720p. You'll be happy.

1080p: The current holy-grail for HDTV standards gets the best of both the other standards, and that's 1080p resolution. If you've read this far (and not just skipped down to the good stuff) you'll be able to look at that and see that this format gets you the maximum number of scan lines in your image, and it does so progressively, so you don't get the jaggies or other motion artifacts. If you are getting a large screen, and you can afford it, we really recommend 1080p as the format to go with. The problem with this (other than cost) is that all HD programming may not be available in this fine format, and that so far, there aren't a whole lot of 1080p TVs to choose from. Then there's the cost. 1080p costs more no doubt about it. On the other hand, you can't do any better.

Types of HDTVs

Besides formats, you also get to think about which TV technology is best for you. If you want a flat-panel TV you get to choose from either LCD or Plasma. If you want a bigger screen for the same price and aren't as concerned about space isues you could choose a projection TV, and then you can choose from front projection or rear projection, and DLP vs LCD Projection. Remember when the tough choice was color vs. Black & White? Never go back.

Our Recommendation for Flat-Panel: For TVs 37-inches and under, we recommend LCD TVs as your best option. For screens 40-inches to 42-inches in size, we still prefer LCDs, but plasmas are likely to be less expensive. If you can afford an LCD at this size go for it. Anything larger than this and a plasma is currently the only flat-panel option that makes sense. LCDs will be coming out in larger sizes as time goes on, but for now, big still means plasma.

The Dream of Flat: LCD Vs. Plasma

The biggest benefit to choosing a flat-panel TV is that it's flat. While these may be really big rectangles, they aren't very thick, so you can mount them on a wall, or just stand them up on a table next to a wall and not have them take up half your living room. The drawback being that these flat TVs tend to be more expensive than many projection models.

Plasma TVs: Rather than laying out the details of how plasma TVs work (for that see "Plasma TVs, how do they work?") instead I'll tell you the basics of what b enefits and drawbacks plasmas have vs. the other option. The main benefit of plasma TVs is that they can be manufactured in very large panels. LCD TVs so far can only be made in sizes up to 42-inches, and LCDs just got that big. Any flat-panel TV larger than 42 inches (as of November 2005) is going to be a Plasma. So, if you want a flat-panel TV, and you want it big, we recommend a plasma, because that's your only choice. That makes it sound like maybe there's something wrong with plasma, and really there isn't at all. Plasmas tend to have better contrast ratios ( a measurement of true a black the TV can reproduce) than LCDs, they're available in both ED and in HD versions, and they do a great job reproducing color.

The proponents of LCD TVs will happily let you know, that Plasmas do have an Achilles heel, and that is that because of the way the technology works, the screens are prone to burn-in; meaning that if you left a static image on the screen for a long time, it could burn in to the screen and look like a ghost behind any other images you watched on the TV. Newer plasmas have technologies designed to reduce the tendency to burn-in so this isn't as big an argument against plasma as it once was. Also, consider that you're using this TV to watch moving pictures, so unless you use it all the time for the same show, and that show has a static element (for example the score box in football games) you aren't likely to experience burn-in. The average lifespan of a Plasma screen is somewhere around 30,000 hours, which is about 3-1/2 years. LCD Displays have a comparable lifespan.

Here's a couple other drawbacks to Plasmas vs. LCD TVs. Plasmas may not perform as well at high altitudes, because Plasmas displays are made up of thousands of tiny cells holding gas, and the stress on the cells changes as the gas expands at higher altitudes. There are some plasmas specifically designed for high altitudes, but these are generally more expensive. If you live at a high elevation, you may want to think pretty seriously about an LCD TV. Plasmas are heavier than LCDs, they use more power, and they run hotter. The weight makes them a little more difficult to install, using more power is more expensive, and the heat is something that needs to be considered when choosing a location in your home for the TV. You don't want one of these next to your cold-water goldfish tank for example.

LCD TVs: LCD (short for Liquid Crystal Display) technology has been in use for years in notebook computer monitors, digital camera displays, and other applications. The main benefits of LCDs over plasmas are that LCDs are lighter weight, run cooler, use less energy, don't have a risk of burn-in (newer plasmas have also solved for this). The biggest benefit Plasma had over LCD was that Plasmas were available in larger screen sizes. LCD manufacturers are working hard to catch up, but for now (November 2005), LCD TVs are really only available in sizes 42-inches and under. Right now, in screen sizes available in both LCD and Plasma (37-inch, 40-inch, and 42-inch), you're likely to find the plasma model at a lower price (although at 37-inches LCD panels are already competitive).

LCD panels were originally designed as computer monitors, and as such they would mainly be displaying static information. As a result, LCD TVs initially had slower refresh rates than Plasma TVs, so viewers would sometimes notice screen flicker effects. With the current crop of LCD TVs from most brands, this is no longer an issue. LCD TVs were also known originally for having low viewing angles, such that if you looked at the screen from off center the picture would appear washed out. This is also a problem that has been solved by all the major brands in the currently available models. Another complaint against LCD you may read or hear is that LCD TVs don't have the high contrast ratios plasmas. Again, this is no longer an issue for most models from the major brands. The real drawback to LCD TVs right now is a large LCD panel is almost always going to be more expensive than a plasma of the same size.

Projection TVs: DLP vs. LCD projection

DLP vs. LCD Recommendation: From what we've seen and read so far, there's no clear easy winner here. Both technologies produce great results with little drawback. Choose a system from a brand you know and trust, and be sure to read all our customer reviews on the less well known brands that may have great prices. There are some great projectors at good prices from brands you may not have heard of yet. Reading the customer reviews can help you weed out the duds.

There are two competing technologies for projection TV, DLP and LCD. Actually there's also a third called LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon), which is far less common. Both sides of the DLP vs. LCD debate have strong arguments in favor of their technology of choice. As it stands now, we do not see any obvious easy winner, and as such we don't have a specific recommendation on which to choose. The only recommendation we can give here (so far) is that when choosing a projector TV, choose a brand you trust. You're likely to be equally as happy with either technology. Here's what we can tell you about the difference.

Digital Light Processing (DLP)

DLP technology comes from Texas Instruments, and is based on that company's Digital Micromirror Device optical semiconductor chip. This is a very fancy chip that has 1.3 million tiny mirrors on hinges-each mirror representing a pixel in your final screen image. The projector shines light on the mirrors, and the computer chip aims each mirror to point the light at specific areas of the screen, or to turn the mirror off and produce a dark spot on the screen. Consumer models shine that projected light through a spinning color wheel which is carefully timed to get the exact right color on the exact right bits of light and out comes a fantastically rich picture. That's the very simple explanation. See our DLP guide for more depth on this complex technology.

Pros: Proponents of this technology point to DLP's ability to create the darkest truest blacks (very high contrast ratios) as a big benefit of their technology. Higher contrast ratios make colors appear more vivid to most viewers. All other things being equal, we prefer TVs with higher contrast ratios. Another benefit of DLP technology is that it can be made smaller and lighter, so front projector units based on DLP technology can be easier to set up and take less space. Another major benefit claimed by DLP is that it is said to have a higher fill factor, meaning that more space within each pixel is filled up with color making up the image. The result is that pictures can look smoother when viewers are closer to the screen. When viewed close up, LCD projection screens are commonly said to have a "screen door effect", meaning you can see the outlines of the individual pixels. This may be true, but since the point of projection TV is to get a larger TV screen, most people arent' likely to sitting so close that they notice the screen door effect.

Cons: The drawback to DLP that you will read and hear from the proponants of LCD is a theoretical issue. We're calling it purely theoretical, because there is no objectively measurable or reproduceable effect that impacts viewing quality. Here's how the story goes. Most affordable DLP units made for home theater use a single chip system. To create shades of grey the tiny mirrors on the chip flip on and off rapidly and the shades of grey are created in your brain (really!) by you averaging the amount of "on" and "off" pixels you're seeing. This happens so fast that you can't ever get a flicker effect (really, really fast), but the DLP system isn't really making grey colors on the screen, it just makes you think it is. A similar approach is applied to producing color. The light from the mirrors passes through a spinning color-wheel, and the mirrors are timed precisely to shine light through the wheel when the desired color is going by. Again this happens extremely rapidly. So rapidly the numbers are hard to make sense of for us non-engineer types. The color-wheel doesn't have every color, so to make in between shades, the light is passed through different colors rapidly and again your eye and brain work together to average out the right hue. It's hard to imagine but this really works, and it really works well. Your brain is mighty powerful, and DLP systems take advantage of that extra computing power to help deliver the best image experience. Some people say this is a drawback, but it's not like you actually have to think harder to make it work. You're so smart this works whether you want it to or not! The main problem we have with this theory being a drawback to the technology, is that there is no objectively measureable or reproducable effect on the viewer experience. More expensive DLP systems use three chips each for either red, blue or green, the colors are mixed and true color is projected on the screen without the use of your brain. These systems are super cool, and as such, they are not very affordable for most home theater buyers. If you've been to a digital Movie theater, chances are it used this system.

LCD Projection

LCD Projectors use three LCD panels-one for each color red, blue and green. Light is projected, spli9t into it's red, green, and blue componants, and directed at these chips (one for each primary color) and individual pixels can be opened or closed to let light of that color through and mix the correct color for that pixel, rendering the full image that way and projecting it on the screen.

Pros: LCD projectors are more light efficient, so the same wattage of projector bulb can produce brighter images in a LCD system than in a DLP system. LCD proponents will also tell you that LCD projectors tend to produce more saturated color than DLP. This is really an offshoot of the LCD producing more brightness. The argument against this is that because a DLP system has higher contrast ratios, colors appear richer, and this makes up for any extra color saturation in LCD TVs. Most people may not be able to tell the difference. LCD projectors tend to produce a sharper image than DLP.

Cons: The biggest drawback to LCD projectors is a direct result one of the systems' benefits. Because LCD Projectors make sharper images, the delineation between pixels is more apparent, and viewing of these screens from a short distance gives what some call the "screen door effect". Essentially, if you lok really close at the screen, you can see the tiny grid pattern the pixels make. Didn't your mom tell you not to sit to close to the screen? This problem can be solved for by backing up. Even a foot or two will do, and even that is too close to sit in front of a big TV. Problem solved. ANother drawback is that rear-projection LCD TVs tend to be bigger than DLP units of the same screen size.

Other Considerations in HDTV buying

HD capable vs. HD-Ready: A TV that is capable of displaying HDTV content, but does not have a built-in TV tuner will often be labeled as HD-capable. These are likely to be less expensive, but you will still need to get an ATSC tuner to receive digital programming. TVs with built-in tuners are often labeled as HD-ready. If you intend to get broadcast content on your HDTV, we recommend getting one that has a built-in ATSC tuner. If you intend to get digital cable or satellite TV, you may get a tuner from your service provider and might be able to save money by skipping the ATSC tuner. If you do this you won't be able to get broadcast TV. We recommend getting a TV with a built-in tuner. We have seen cases where a manufacturer misidentifies they're TV has HD-capable when it's HD-Ready and visa versa. We try to correct that whenever we find it, but in general, these are terms made for marketing anyway. Ignore those terms and look for an actual call out of a built-in tuner in the technical specifications or product description.

Cable Card: Some HDTVs come with a cable card, or with a slot that a cable card could later be installed in. Check with your local cable provider and make sure the cable card will work with your cable system before paying more for a TV with a cable card. In some areas the cable card is not compatible with the cable service, and you still need to pay for the set-top digital cable box. In other areas, getting the cable card in the TV may save you money. A TV that has a slot for a cable card may also be a bit more expensive but not a whole lot. We recommend getting a TV with a cable card slot if the cable company in your area supports the cable card even if you don't plan on getting cable now. It might save you money later if you choose to switch to digital cable (nice to keep all your options open). If your local cable company doesn't support the cable card, and doesn't plan to anytime soon, you don't need to pay more for a slot.

Connections: In general, more connections are better than less, but the type of connections also matter. Get a TV that has HDMI connections. HDMI is a way to connect your Home entertainment systems up with one high bandwidth cable that can bring both high definition audio and video. HDMI is supported by better DVD players, and good A/V receivers and home theater systems. It will also be the optimal way to take advantage of all the high definition content that will be available on the Blu Ray and HD-DVD players expected to come out starting in 2006. These are systems (competing standards) that will provide movies for home viewing in High definition video and audio. This is very cool stuff, and you definitely want a TV that can hook up to the system with HDTV to get the most out of it. HDMI is the way of the future, and it's worth making sure you get it. Beyond HDMI, more audio inputs and outputs gives you more options for hoping up the TV to your home theater surround sound system. If you don't have one those, you may find you soon want one. They're very cool. In any case, in all but the lowest-cost off-brand TVs, you should be able to find models with more inputs and outputs to choose from without making a big price sacrifice.

Surround Sound: Many HDTV's can deliver surround sound via a compatible A/v Receiver. If you have a home theater system with surround sound, or want to get one, this is a great feature to look for. Your DVD player may be able to send surround sound to your receiver as well, but that's only going to ork for movies. Without surround in your TV, any surround sound in Digital HD content from your cable, satellite or local broadcast stations, will only come through in stereo (though your receiver may be able simulate surround). We don't see this as a deal breaker, but do try to get a TV with surround if you can find one in your price range.

Reading the Technical Specifications: When looking at the technical data for HDTVs, there are a few key stats to look at, and a lot of other info that's nice to know but not as big a deciding factor. Here are the factors we think are most important to you:

·Screen size: This is critical for obvious reasons. Tied in to this is the dimensions of the TV. If it's too big to fit your space, you'll end up returning the TV, or living with an elephant in the room. Before shopping, think critically about the best size for you and the size of room you're putting it in.
·Resolution: We recommend a resolution of at least 720p. if choosing between 720p or 1080i, we still think 720p may be a better bet since the 1080i resolution is interlaced, and not progressive (see explanation higher up in this article). If you can afford a model with 1080p, that's hands down your best bet in terms of image quality. The caveat being that you may not find a lot of content produced in 1080p yet. Come next year, you can start getting movies in either Blu Ray or HD DVD formats (yep a new disc player will be required) that will come in 1080p, and you'll love it.
·Contrast Ratio: Contrast ratio tells you haw dark a black the TV can reproduce. This is a critical spec because the darker a black a TV can make, the richer the contrasting colors will appear. High contrast ratios are desirable. If you're comparing several TVs, take the contrast ratio spec seriously, it may have the largest impact (after resolution) on the quality of your picture. Less expensive models will almost invariably have lower contrast ratios. We recommend avoiding TVs with contrast ratios lower than 500 to 1. Even that is pretty darn low by current standards. You really want a TV with a ratio over 800 to 1. LCD TVs were known for lower contrast ratios, but many newer models are solving that problem and offering high ratios. Any LCD with a ratio of 1000 to 1 or better is probably a great TV all around.
·Aspect Ratio: The aspect ratio tells you whether this is a widescreen TV or not. You want a TV with an Aspect ratio of 16:9. An aspect ratios of 4:3 is the same as what analogue CRT TVs use. If you see this, you're likely looking at an ED TV (480p) or an SD TV (480i). Look for 16:9 aspect ratios, and avoid others if you can afford to.

--adapted from Amazon.com