TV Buying Guide

part 3

The main things you will be seeing on the tags are the contrast ratio. In simple terms contrast ratio is the differences of black and whites on the screen. The larger the contrast ratio the better the set is. Any television with around 4,000:1 is good enough. The highest contrast ratio on a LCD in most local retail stores was 15,000:1 in the past years. Anything near 10,000:1 is definitely good enough. Before this was the main thing to look but right now it’s over inflated but anything about 5,000:1 is more than enough. The picture LCD’s produce is great for the average consumer. The LCD is a very bright television. If you compare a LCD to a projection you’ll notice how much brighter a LCD looks. Even though you might say that looks great the truth is that LCD don’t produce the best picture possible. The reason why is because its image is produced by a backlight. Yes don’t get me wrong the picture is amazing but yes it can get better. As far as watching an LCD at an angle there is little or no issue. You have near a 70 degree angle of viewing. The is almost no glare issues on LCD’s so if you have large amounts of light entering the room you have nothing to worry about. There is one specific series of Samsung LCD’s that do have a reflective coating. This allows for the highest contrast ratios. These sets glare issue is very close to that of a CRT tube television but nowhere near of plasma. The LCD’s life span is not something that you should really worry about. Most LCD back lights are rated at around 60,000 hours. LCD’s are probably peoples safest bet right now when it comes to buying a TV.

Plasma’s are the last televisions to talk about. Plasma’s have gotten so much negative press over the course of time that most people stay away from them. I’ve considered putting this as the first televisions to talk about but decided I’d keep the best for last as they say. Don’t get me wrong there are some things about the plasma that aren’t so great. First off to see if you should even continue reading this about plasma’s, do you have excessive light entering the room you plan on putting the television in? If the answer is yes just skip everything in this part. The reason for this is because plasma’s have a glass like screen which creates tremendous amount of glare. There are some sets that have anti-glare filters but don’t think that you won’t notice it if you do have large amounts of light. One thing I do highly recommend people are the fact that even if you do have excessive light and want to go with a big set like 50”+ that if you were to go plasma you would be saving tons of money compared to a 50”+ LCD. With that savings go out and buy yourself some nice blinds or curtains. Plasmas produce their image by gas or what people call (plasma gas). The result is an image with a huge color pallet. A good plasma out performs all LCDs. When going out to a retail store to compare different sets notice that if you see a scene where you have water or blue sky compare the plasma’s to the LCD’s. You’ll notice more tones of blue on the plasma compared to the LCD. Most people at first say no way the LCD looks better but if you notice it’s just brighter that’s all. You’ll see a lot less of a color pallet on the LCD. If you were going to be using you set on mainly watching sports and movies your best bet is going with plasma. For fast motions and less pixilation in high speed visuals the plasmas fast response time ranging in the 2 millisecond response time takes out most LCDs rated usually around 6 to 8 milliseconds. The cons of plasma might sound terrible but truth is if you really think about it aren’t so bad. First you know that you have a large amount of glare on the screen. Truth is most people watch TV at night. If you compare the picture of a plasma and LCD in dark conditions you’ll see how great the plasma really is comparatively speaking. Second is that yes they are susceptible to screen burn in (leave it on the same image for awhile and it’ll keep an imprint on the screen). Truth is the new generations of plasmas are almost burn in proof. It’ll take quite a lot of time for that to ever happen on any new model. In the event that it ever does happen many of the sets have features which take off the burn in or you can use an alternative method that I’ve heard of, run Ice Age over and over (anything with lots of white). Third is that it is a very delicate set, meaning that you can’t lay these sets flat. This comes into play when taking a set home in your car. The reason behind this is because if you lay it flat the gas can leak out and stain the screen and damage the set. Fourth since the picture is produced by gas in a chamber it is not recommended to have plasmas in high altitude. It has caused many problems for people so if you live in Colorado I’d advise against plasma. The last is a big misconception that plasma’s lose their picture very fast. Truth is they are rated at around 60,000 hours and have another life of approximately 60,000 hours where the picture starts to diminish its colors. You’re talking almost double the life span of an LCD. One last thing about plasma is that you’ll only usually find them as small as 42 inches and jump up to 50 inches.

If you have any questions or need advice on any particular model let me know in a comment and I’ll help you out for, FREE!

Technorati Tags: Contrast Ratio, LCD, Plasmas, Television Guide, TV buying guide

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