Is your old television getting a bit dated? The latest televisions have made some major strides in picture quality and in features, and older televisions aren't doing much more than getting older. So is it time for you to make an upgrade to your TV? Do you want to upgrade but are not sure how to select the best television for you? This television buying guide will help you figure out how to buy the right television for you and your home.
When you're shopping for a new television, there are two questions you want to ask yourself: What do I expect from my new television, and how much do I want to spend? Once you have the answers to these questions, it's simply a matter of choosing a particular television that meets your criteria. Of course, asking yourself what you expect from your new television may be a tricky question, so use this guide to help you decide what you're looking for in a TV.
For many shoppers, this is the first question they ask themselves when looking for a television -- and the last! Of course, there are countless other things you can look for in a television, but knowing what size of TV you're looking for is a good place to start.
If you're looking for a small television, such as for a bedroom or workshop, you can choose from nearly any kind of television, including standard-definition and high-definition televisions. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a much larger television, then you'll almost certainly want a television that gives a very high-quality picture; after all, what good is a large picture if it's blocky or fuzzy? The high-definition LCD TVs and plasma TVs available today often come in sizes of 60 inches or beyond -- and that might just be big enough to fill an entire wall in your home!
High-definition televisions give you a picture at a much higher resolution than standard-definition televisions, which means that your picture is sharp and clearly defined. This is particularly important on large televisions where detail is what makes the picture look great.
Also, if you're interested in getting a Blu-ray player, you'll definitely want a high-definition television. Blu-ray videos are synonymous with high-definition; without an HDTV (and the right cables connecting the player to the television), your Blu-ray videos won't look any better than your DVDs. Some of the most recent video game consoles can also display video in high-definition, which creates a whole new level of immersive gaming experience.
If you're shopping for a high-definition television, you're going to be looking for an LCD, plasma or organic LED (OLED) television. The old CRT televisions -- cathode-ray tube televisions, if you're wondering, or what most people would just call a "standard" television -- simply don't do high-definition.
Televisions can get TV signals in a variety of ways. Many people rely on an antenna for television stations. Others get cable TV from a local cable provider, or perhaps they get digital cable. Others have satellite dishes that let them get enormous amounts of channels. However you choose to get your TV signals, you'll want to make sure that your new television is ready for it.
Fortunately, most televisions are very flexible in what kinds of signals they can receive. The backs of some televisions may look like a sea of connectors -- but that's a good thing: It means that the television probably supports just about any kind of TV signal you might have.
HDMI connectors for high-definition television
If you have satellite TV or digital cable, then you almost certainly have a receiver box that plugs into your television instead of running the connector from the satellite dish, or from the wall, in the case of digital cable, directly into your television. These receiver boxes often have a few different types of connectors, such as S-Video, component or HDMI. The connectors available on these receiver boxes dictate what kind of connector you'll need on your television. Of course, if you're looking to upgrade to high-definition, then you'll probably be upgrading your television service with your satellite or digital cable provider, and you'll be getting a new receiver anyhow. High-definition televisions and receivers almost always use an HDMI connector; an HDMI cable is necessary to carry the large amount of information required to construct the high-definition image.
Component connectors for progressive-scan video
If you aren't worried about having a high-definition signal, then you can choose between a few different connection types. The highest quality of the standard-definition connections is called component video and is sometimes referred to as "YPbPr," which refers to the way the video signal is split up across three different cables. This connector is most common with DVD players that feature progressive scan, so make sure your new television has at least one set of component inputs if you want to connect a DVD player that supports progressive scan.
Other connector types for standard-definition video
Three types of connectors are used for interlaced video signals. (Unlike interlaced video, progressive scan is a non-interlaced video signal, which is why it looks so nice when compared to interlaced video signals.) The best of the interlaced video signals uses S-video cables, which you may recognize as the roundish connector with four pins in it; below that in quality is composite (not to be confused with component, although the names are similar), which is usually a yellow cable with a single knobby pin at the end. Finally, there's coaxial cable, the longtime staple of cable television, which is usually a black cable with a round metal connector that has a narrow pin sticking out of it.
Digital television (DTV) signals
If you use an antenna to get your television signal, then you're undoubtedly acquainted with the "digital television switch-over" that has required many TV owners to get a digital converter box. This box is what is known as an ATSC receiver; nearly every television built since March of 2007 has one built-in, and any television that calls itself high-definition will definitely have one built-in. If you're still shopping for a digital converter box, consider the connectors available on the converter box that you choose; you can find converter boxes with S-video connectors, which will give you the best possible picture quality from an antenna-based TV signal. Less expensive converter boxes will simply have composite or coaxial connectors.
What's the deal with all these connector types?
When it comes to audio/video connectors, having more wires usually translates to better quality. After all, you can only send so much information over a single wire; if you try to pack more information onto a wire that can't carry it all, then quality will be lost. With a coaxial connection, both audio and video is sent over the same wire. When you use a composite video connection, you have a single wire for the video and two wires for the left and right channels of the audio signal. S-video improved on composite by further breaking up the video signal into individual wires so that more information can be sent at once, although all the wires are bundled into one cable. Composite (or YPbPr) uses three separate cables for the video signal and two more for the audio signal, building on the improvements made by S-video; the extra bandwidth -- in layman's terms, room to carry information -- allows composite cables to carry enough information for a non-interlaced signal. Finally, HDMI, the connector type that's nearly synonymous with high-definition television, uses several different wires to carry the various parts of the high-definition video signal, surround-sound audio signals and other signals, all bundled into one big cable.
What does "interlaced" mean?
Over the years, people who build video equipment have had to come up with various ways to send video signals over limited channels of communication. One of the original approaches was an interlaced video signal; simply put, an interlaced video signal draws about half of the picture at a time to your television screen and then relies on your eyes and your brain to "smooth out" the picture. Specifically, an interlaced picture usually draws all of the odd-numbered lines at once, then all of the even-numbered lines, and it repeats this process about thirty times a second. Historically, it did a convincing job, although moviegoers surely noticed that film-based images, which are not interlaced -- each frame on a filmstrip contains the entire image, look much smoother than interlaced TV.
With the introduction of progressive-scan DVD players and component (or YPbPr) connectors, consumers could get non-interlaced video at home. This made progressive-scan DVD videos look far smoother than the older interlaced video types.
The reason non-interlaced video signals took so long to appear on the consumer market was not because it's difficult to create a non-interlaced video signal; interlaced video signals are simply an effective way to compress the amount of information required to create a convincing video image, and interlaced video was used until the electronics equipment -- the DVD players and televisions and such -- were able to work fast enough that they could readily handle the increased information on a non-interlaced video signal.
How will my new television fit into a complete home-theater setup?
Nearly any television can fit into a home theater setup. Of course, the connections available on your home theater equipment may dictate what kind of connections you need your television to have. Many home theater configurations connect all audio and video signals to a central receiver, which then has a single video connection to the television. In this case, the receiver would drive the speakers, so your television wouldn't have to worry about audio at all. In such a setup, your only concern is that your home theater receiver has a video output that will connect to your new television. If you're going high-definition, this should just be an HDMI connector, which you can expect any high-definition television to have. Of course, make sure that the home theater receiver has HDMI connectors as well.
If you won't be using high-definition, then you'll simply want to make sure that your home theater receiver and your television have a connector type in common that you can use to connect them; you'll then want to use the best possible connection type available. Again, the order of preference for standard-definition connectors is component/YPbPr, then S-Video and then composite; then use coaxial only when you have no other option.
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