Televisions » Buying Guide

This guide will take you through the basics that you should know when buying television sets. Buying TVs can seem intimidating due to the large amount of data to be parsed through, but the process can be simplified with a little bit of education.

Step 1 » Television Pricing Guide – Find the right TV for your budget

Your first step should probably be to find the right TV for your budget. The basic rule is, of course, the bigger the TV, the more expensive it will be. The hierarchy for television pricing is typically as follows:

• LCD » Plasma » HDTV » Flat tube » Curved tube

The table below gives rough estimates of what size and type you can expect, depending on your budget:

Step 2 » Choose Television Aspect Ratio – 4:3 or Widescreen

When deciding what type of TV screen to purchase—4:3 or widescreen—the first thing to keep in mind is whether the television will fit properly in your room/on your TV stand.

Beyond that, this important choice depends heavily on what you plan to watch most. If you are using your television mainly for movie/DVD watching and desire a home theater experience, then you will probably want to go with a widescreen. However if you watch "regular" television more than DVDs, then a 4:3 might still be better for you, even if a lot of people are moving to widescreen.

The big pros for widescreen TVs are:

• They are better suited for our natural viewing area than 4:3 TVs
• Movies are shown in an aspect ratio similar to widescreen, and thus DVDs are better watched in widescreen format.

The primary con of widescreen TVs is that the great majority of regular TV is still broadcast in 4:3. To compensate for this, a widescreen TV can either have black bars on the sides; or, it can stretch the image. Stretching the televised image results in lower picture quality. However, this is often not detectable to the casual eye. When browsing widescreen televisions at your department store, the images you are viewing are most likely stretched. If you find this perfectly acceptable, then you might want to go with a widescreen television even if you do not use it primarily for DVD watching.

Step 3 » Choosing Television Type

The most obvious factor to consider when choosing a television type is price. Plasmas and LCDs will be more expensive than traditional CRT dispays. There are other factors however—resolution and black-level being among them. Resolution is the number of pixels a television has. Black-level describes a television’s ability to product the color black—and the TVs that are best at producing black are actually CRTs. Most modern televisions, like LCD displays and plasma screens, have difficulty with displaying the color black.

CRT TVs (also called Direct View TVs) are the traditional television sets of old. CRTs have the best black-level, and can be viewed from any angle in any light. CRT televisions are also durable, lasting up to 5 years before experiencing losses in picture quality. However, CRT displays are curved displays, whereas people tend to prefer flat-screen.

Flat-panel TVs come in two flavors: Plasma TVs and LCD TVs.

Plasma Televisions are actually not televisions in the traditional sense; technically, they are more like monitors. Plasma TVs require an external TV tuner to display broadcast signals. Plasma TVs are significantly more expensive than CRT TVs, because they are digital and offer higher resolutions. They are also usually very thin and can be wall mounted, ceiling mounted, or placed on a TV stand. The big cons of Plasma Televisions are price, burn-in, black-level, and durability: Plasma televisions are expensive, prone to image burn-in, have poor black-level, and only last about 1.5-2 years before experiencing losses in picture quality.

LCD Televisions are like larger versions of a laptop computer screen. LCDs require an external TV tuner just like Plasma televisions do. LCD TVs are actually even thinner than plasma TVs. Also, they are more durable than plasmas—an LCD screen should be able to handle 5 years of serious use before experiencing loss in picture quality. The main negatives to LCD televisions are that they are currently limited to about 40” in size, and have a poor black-level.

For a more budget oriented purchase, rear-projection CRT televisions might be an option. These are the TVs that offer the most screen size for the dollar. They also have good black-level. However, they are very large and heavy, cannot be viewed in bright light, and have a narrow viewing angle.

DLP Projectors (front-projection DLP displays) have been gaining in popularity recently. These are projectors that project images onto a screen. They are often used for home theater systems, and offer very large image sizes. The cons of projectors are that they are just that—projectors, not televisions in the traditional sense. Also, they have poor viewing ranges.

Step 4 » Choose Television Size

Before choosing the size for your TV, make sure that the television you have chosen will fit inside your entertainment center or TV stand, while accounting for at least 1 inch of leeway on the sides and top of the set; and a few inches of leeway behind the set. The main things to consider are cost, and viewing distance. Is the size of the TV right for your room? Will you be able to view it from the proper distance—not too far away and not too close? All else equal, you probably want a bigger set; but all decisions are contrained by these parameters.

Finally, if the TV is for use by the whole family, make sure to get their input on your choice.