Many people head out to buy a new HDTV, but have no idea what all of the
technical specs mean, and get overwhelmed while shopping. Different
sales people give different opinions, and in the end, a lot just end up
leaving confused. What do all these specs mean? Here's a rundown of some
of the big specs and what you should look for.
First off, before
we get into the details, let's talk about technical specs versus
"marketing speak". Technical specs are those aspects of an HDTV (or
other consumer electronic product) that are easily verifiable with
industry standard tests. Something like contrast ratio can actually be
verified with a standard test, while marketing speak is something
designed to try and help sell the product and can often times not be
easily, if at all, verified. These usually come in the form of something
that sounds impressive, but can't be quantified easily. For example, if
the box for the HDTV proclaims something like "Intellicolor Advanced II
for improved picture clarity", that is just a term marketing came up
with to try and make their product sound impressive. Sure enough, if you
look at another manufacturer's HDTV box, you won't find that same
"feature" listed. That's because their marketing department will have
come up with some other impressive sounding feature that will make their
product sound better.
Now, this isn't to say that these
marketing terms aren't based on something real, like some function in
the HDTV's hardware or software, but often times if you try and find out
exactly what that means by asking a salesperson or checking the
manufacturers website, you won't be able to get a clear answer. And
sometimes a lower priced TV from the same manufacturer will have the
same feature, but they won't list it on the box because they want the
higher priced TV to sound more impressive. My advice, for the most part,
is to just ignore these terms. If it sounds flashy and fancy and vague,
its just marketing speak.
On to the actual technical specs and
what they mean. We'll go over the biggies, let you know what they mean,
and what you should look for when shopping for your HDTV.
Resolution
This
is the first thing you should look for when shopping for an HDTV.
Commonly you'll see terms like 720P, 1080i or 1080P. This comes from how
TVs display their images. Each image on your HDTV is made up of tiny
little dots called pixels, and each pixel shows one tiny dot of the
picture. For example, a TV specified as 720P is actually showing 720
rows of pixels on your TV, and 1280 columns of pixels. If you were to
draw it out, it would look like a table with 720 rows and 1280 columns,
and each little square in the table would be one pixel. That means a
720P HDTV actually contains 720x1280=921,000 pixels.
A 1080P TV
is actually 1080x1920=2,073,600 pixels. That means that a 1080P picture
is actually made up of over 2 million little dots and will give you a
much clearer picture than a 720P HDTV. If you see a TV marketed as an
HDTV with a resolution other than one of these two, stay away from it,
as it won't be able to display the image without scaling it it larger or
smaller, and it won't give you the best picture.
It's also
important to note that a 1080P HDTV and can display a 720P image and
will just scale it up to fit the whole screen, while a 720P TV can
typically display a 1080P image but it will scale it down (and you'll
lose resolution in the process).
My recommendation is to get a
1080P TV, it will give you the best resolution image overall, and as you
watch HD content on your new TV, you'll know you're watching the best
possible resolution. Now, as for the difference between 1080i and 1080p,
this is a difference in how the image is displayed on the TV. Most
people will never be able to notice the difference, but if you want to
know, the best is 1080p, but if the 1080i TV is more affordable to you,
and the picture looks great to you, rest assured, you're still getting a
fine TV.
Contrast Ratio
The contrast ratio of a TV is how
black the blacks get, versus how white the whites get. Early LCD TVs
had really bad contrast ratios, such that blacks in a scene never really
looked black, and the whites never looked very bright. This became a
problem when you would watch a movie, and there'd be a scene where the
character was walking around a dimly lit alley, for example. The TV
would not be able to discern the difference between all those dark
colors, and everything would look like a muddy black mess and you'd lose
a lot of the picture detail simply because the TV was unable to show
the subtle variations in color actually present in the picture.
The
good news is the technology has improved vastly now, and most TVs on
the market do a much better job with this. If you're looking at the
numbers, a higher contrast ratio gives you a better picture. So an HDTV
with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 would be much worse than one with a
contrast ratio of 80,000:1. The bigger the number, the better it is for
you.
Refresh Rate
Lately, this has become a big selling
point for HDTVs. You'll see this specified as 60Hz, 120 Hz, and now,
240Hz. What is it and which is best? In short, it has to do with how
fast each individual pixel can change color, and the higher the Hz, the
better. Older LCD HDTVs were not very good at changing colors quickly,
so in programs with lots of quick motion, you could see a blurring
effect on the image. To some people, it's not that noticeable, but once
you know what to look for, its much easier to see and be distracted by
it. If you're shopping for an HDTV, look for one that has a refresh rate
of at least 120 Hz. You may be tempted to go for one with 240 Hz, and
if you do, just make sure it's "real" 240 Hz, as some companies will try
and fool you into thinking their TV offers 240Hz, but it's only
actually giving you 120 Hz. Look for terms like "performance comparable
to 240 Hz". If you see something like that, it's most likely a 120 Hz
HDTV. There are many more 120 Hz TVs on the market right now than 240
Hz, so you should be able to find a 120 Hz TV easily and affordably.
Connection Type
You'll
see this listed as things like 1 composite video, 1 component video, 1
S-video and 2 HDMI video inputs. What do these mean? Lets look at them
from worst to best.
Composite video - the worst looking of
all the inputs, you'll need this if you have an old VCR or a really old
DVD player you intend to hook up to the TV. Typically you'll find it on
the back of your VCR or DVD player and the connection will be a yellow
color. Only good for Standard Definition video signals (ie, the old
analogue signal we've used for years).
S video - a decent DVD
player will have at least an S-video output. This will typically be
labeled as such and looks like a circular connector with smaller
connections inside it. You can see what one looks like here. Only good
for standard definition pictures, but gives better video quality than
composite video.
Component Video - Often referred to RGB
connection, as it separates the video signal into the three colors Red,
Blue and Green. This is a way to transfer an analogue video signal in
standard def and HiDef. You'll see these three connectors on the back of
most modern DVD players, cable boxes, etc.
HDMI - An all digital
connection to your HDTV that gives the best signal quality. Hi Def
Bluray players, video game machines like XBox 360 and PS3 and some cable
and satellite boxes will have this type of connection. Quickly becoming
the HiDef standard, so the more of these the better.
You'll also
want to look for things like coaxial inputs, which you might need for
old cable TV systems, or inputs like VGA or DVI if you are hoping to
hook your computer up to the TV and use it as your PC's display.
Final Notes
Other
niceties you might want to look for are USB ports for hooking up
cameras to the TV to display pictures, video, etc or even media card
readers so you can load your flash cards right into the TV to look at
your latest family pictures, etc. These aren't necessities, but might
help you make the final decision as to which TV is going to give you the
best bang for your buck.
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