High Defination Television

 

How to Buy an HDTV

Whether you're looking for a very basic low-cost set or a feature-packed, razor-thin model with 3D, selecting the right HDTV isn't easy. There are plenty of questions to answer: What type of display should you get? Plasma, LCD, or LED? How big should the screen be? How about resolution, refresh rate, and other specs? What sort of extras do you need?
Understanding the basics will help you make your choice (and your video) crystal clear, so here's what you should consider when shopping for your next HDTV.
Plasma or LCD? And What About LED?
Plasma TVs were the only flat-panel models available when they were first introduced more than a decade ago. But given the remarkable rise in the popularity of LCD TVs in the past couple of years, many manufacturers have stopped making plasma sets, while the remaining players—LG, Panasonic, and Samsung—are shifting toward producing larger screen sizes and plasma-based 3D TVs.
The popularity of LCD TVs can be attributed to some of the technology's inherent advantages over plasma, including a wider range of screen sizes, a very bright picture, and better energy efficiency. And LED-backlit LCDs offer even greater energy efficiency and are often thinner than CCFL-based LCDs, especially edge-lit LED models. But LED-based sets can suffer from some picture uniformity issues like 'blooming', where lighter parts of the picture bleed into darker ones, reducing overall black levels.
Plasma's strengths include its very dark blacks, and overall picture consistency, which (unlike CCFL or LED) doesn't exhibit color shifts, loss of saturation, or reduced contrast when viewed at wider angles. With plasma you don't need to be front and center to have the best seat in the house. And a plasma's fast-pulsing pixels are inherently well-suited for minimizing detail loss in fast motion like action films or live sports. Also, plasma can give you good bang for your buck if you want a really big screen.
For a closer look at the difference between HDTV display types, read Plasma vs. LCD vs. LED: Which HDTV Type is Best?
Choose Your Resolution
1080p resolution (1,920 by 1,080 pixels, progressively scanned) remains the pinnacle for consumer home-theater material, and all other things being equal, you want the screen resolution of your HDTV to match this format in order to provide the most detailed picture possible. But many factors affect the perception of picture detail, including distance, the quality of your eyesight, and the quality of the video material. At a viewing distance of 12 feet, it would be difficult to distinguish between a 720p and a 1080p display showing the same 1080p video (like a Blu-ray movie) if you have 20/20 vision. 1080p is most critical with bigger screen sizes, where larger numbers of smaller pixels create a more seamless image. It's less important for screens smaller than 40 inches, since you'd have to sit very close in order to notice the additional details. These days, though, 1080p sets are becoming the norm and no longer command premium prices. If you can afford 1080p, go for it.
Refresh Rate and Contrast Ratio
One of the biggest problems with narrowing your choices to a single HDTV is the sheer number of specs. To make your job a little easier, two of the biggies, refresh rate and contrast ratio, are safe to ignore.
Refresh (or response) rate, the speed at which your TV's panel refreshes its image, is expressed in hertz (60Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz, 480Hz, or 600Hz). The theory is that the a faster refresh rate results in a smoother image. But in reality, there are several reasons this simply isn't true, and it's not worth paying more for a set with a faster response rate. In many cases, 60Hz will do just fine.
Contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest black and the brightest white a panel can display. In theory, the highest contrast ratio possible is desirable since dark blacks and bright whites contribute to a high-quality picture. There isn't a standardized way of measuring this spec, though, so Samsung's numbers aren't comparable with, say, Panasonic's or Sharp's numbers. And, as you might imagine, vendors are vying to come up with the highest ratios, so they can charge more. Always ignore contrast ratios from manufacturers, and read reviews instead. We test contrast ratio uniformly across all the HDTVs we test.

 

 

Plasma vs. LCD vs. LED: Which HDTV Type is Best?

When you're shopping for an HDTV, there are plenty of factors to consider. Chief among them is the type of display. While boxy, bulky CRTs are long dead and mammoth rear-projection HDTVs are all but extinct, the HDTV market currently offers three distinct choices in display technologies: plasma, traditional CCFL-backlit LCD, and LED-backlit LCD. For years, the question of which technology reigned supreme has remained unanswered.
In the early days of HDTVs, plasma, with its inky blacks and top-notch picture quality, was the prevalent flat-panel technology, especially among videophiles. Gradually, thinner, more energy-efficient LCDs with CCFL backlighting became less expensive and more capable and started gaining ground. The difference between plasma and LCD wavered for some time, with each offering different economic and visual benefits depending on the model, price, and time in the life cycle of HDTVs. But in the past couple of years, with the advent of increasingly sophisticated LED backlighting, we finally have a true winner. With its unmatched energy efficiency, LED-based LCD is the best flat-panel HDTV technology. Unfortunately, it's also generally the most expensive, though by less of a margin than there was a few years ago. If it's in your budget, the choice is clear: Pay the premium and get an LED-backlit HDTV.
The Basics: What's the Difference Between LCD, LED, and Plasma?
The three technologies are vastly different, particularly with respect to how each screen is lit. In plasma HDTVs, the phosphors that create the image on the screen light up themselves, and don't require backlighting. For LCD HDTVs, however, the liquid crystal screen does not illuminate, requiring a separate light source. That's where the difference between "regular" LCD screens (also known as CCFL-backlit LCD) and LED-backlit LCD screens (also known as LED-LCD, or just LED screens) come in. Traditional LCD HDTVs use cold cathode fluorescent lights (CCFLs) to illuminate the screen. CCFLs are similar to the fluorescent lights you might see in some lamps and overhead light fixtures. They use a charged gas to produce light. LED screens, like their name implies, use light emitting diodes (LEDs) to illuminate the display. LED backlighting has become much more common in the last few years, and CCFLs are now generally only seen on budget HDTVs.
Several factors can be influenced by the type of HDTV display you choose. Among them, the most prominent are screen thickness, brightness, darkness, energy efficiency, and price. Ideally, you want an HDTV that's affordable, paper-thin, can get face-of-the-sun-bright and black-hole-dark, and consumes less than a watt. That's currently impossible, but LED-backlit LCD HDTVs can come closer than the other two technologies.
For this advantage, LED HDTVs command a premium; for all major HDTV manufacturers, LED-backlit HDTVs typically cost more than CCFL-backlit HDTVs of the same size. However, LED HDTVs have become standard for both midrange and high-end models, as CCFL screens have been relegated to the budget category. Generally, plasmas tend to be less expensive than LEDs but slightly more than CCFL-backlit HDTVs. That savings means the screen will be thicker and more power-hungry, though, even if it does tend to offer as good a picture as an LED-backlit HDTV.
Image Quality
How good the picture looks, especially if you're a videophile or a cinema fanatic, is the most vital aspect of any HDTV. Specifically, peak white and black levels determine how detailed an image will appear. Poor white levels mean fine details can get washed out in bright scenes, while poor black levels mean shadows swallow up parts of the picture in dark scenes. A very wide gamut from dark to light lets the HDTV show the tiniest details, regardless of how bright or dark the movie gets. In our tests, we measure white and black levels by luminance using a Chroma Meter. A mediocre HDTV might produce black levels of 0.05 to 0.07 cd/m², while an excellent HDTV will offer levels of 0.01 to 0.03 cd/m². Historically, plasma HDTVs have produced the best black levels, specifically the discontinued Pioneer Kuro HDTV brand. The Kuro's screen got so satisfyingly dark that it remained a popular HDTV for enthusiasts long after Pioneer stopped making the sets. The domination of plasma in this field, however, is over. Our current Editors' Choice HDTV, the LED-based Sharp Elite Pro-60X5FD $4,599.95 at Amazon Marketplace, puts out 0.01 cd/m², the best level we can measure. That any LED-backlit LCD can get that dark shows how far the technology has come.
White levels don't matter quite as much, because it's more difficult for screens to show fine details in shadows and easier to crank out very bright whites with backlighting, but they can still matter. At this, LED backlighting again triumphs. The Sharp Elite Pro-60X5FD reaches a very impressive 382.62 cd/m² white level, and combined with that 0.01 cd/m² black level, you get a staggering 38,262:1 contrast ratio. It completely (and literally) outshines the Panasonic TC-P55ST50 plasma , which puts out only 85.45 cd/m² peak white while offering a 0.03 cd/m² black level for a comparatively low 2,848:1 contrast ratio. Plasma screens were once the kings of contrast and color, but the Sharp Elite series has successfully taken the crown from the Pioneer Elite Kuro plasma series of years ago, once considered the gold standard for HDTVs. Granted, less expensive LED HDTVs don't reach the Sharp Elite's performance, but they still often produce valiant showings. While plasma HDTVs don't tend to get quite as bright, the colors and black levels usually make up for it (though you probably won't notice that in the store, where all HDTVs are set to be as bright and vivid as they can be to catch your eye, with little thought for color accuracy).
Size and Power
Screen thickness isn't the most important aspect of an HDTV, but initially, it's the most noticeable. A super-thin HDTV is not only visually striking, but it's more easily mounted on a wall, and can be more readily arranged, displayed, or concealed as part of your home theater. On this point, LED screens win hands-down, with plasma close behind. The CCFLs that backlight low-end LCD screens are much thicker than LEDs. LEDs can be very thin yet extremely bright, meaning an array of LEDs along the edge of an LCD can light it up while completely removing the backlight from the equation (this configuration is termed "edge lighting"). At this point, though, array backlighting is thin enough to compete with edge lighting.
Plasma HDTVs also weigh more than LED-backlit LCD HDTVs. The 60-inch LED-based Samsung UN460S8000F LED HDTV $2,589.00 at BUYDIG.com weighs 45 pounds without a stand, while the 55-inch Panasonic TC-P55ST50 plasma HDTV weighs 62 pounds but offers less screen area.
Energy efficiency is an important factor when choosing an HDTV, and between the three technologies LED-backlit HDTVs win again. LED HDTVs measuring 55 inches or less consistently consume around 80 watts or less, while plasma HDTVs can eat up two or three times as much. The 46-inch Sony KDL-46HX850 LED HDTV consumed only 47 watts in our tests, while the 55-inch Panasonic TC-P55ST50 plasma HDTV used a whopping 305 watts. That's six times the power for less than 10 diagonal inches more screen size.
The Verdict
If you can afford them, LED-backlit HDTVs are the way to go. They're thin, energy efficient, and can produce a great picture, but getting all three of those features costs a premium. If you're on a budget, look for a good plasma screen. They're heavy power hogs, but you can get a gorgeous cinematic experience for not nearly as much money. If your budget is limited and you can't find a plasma, CCFL is likely your only other choice, but CCFL-backlit LCDs typically can't match plasmas or LEDs on screen size or features.