When my Mitsubishi rear-projection TV recently broke down I had to go out and buy a new display for our living room. Now that high definition video is practically here, I wanted to make sure to get a display that allows me to make full use of the upcoming technologies. Since I assume many of you are currently going through the same moves, here are some of the thoughts and experiences that went into my decision.
The market is awash with high definition and high definition-ready TV sets these days but there are huge differences between these sets and the technologies behind them. This article will not go into nitpicky details about these technologies, but rather give you a hands-on overview that you can use. I leave the number-crunching and hardcore implementation details to those who take pleasure in it.
In order to choose a TV set that is ready for the high definition future, it needs to have certain features and capabilities. First and foremost, if you buy a TV set today, you should make sure it is natively 1080p capable. 1080p means that the TV set will be able to display 1080 image scan lines progressively. This is the highest-performing high definition TV standard. Anything less is selling yourself short. Most high definition and high-definition-ready TV sets sold in the past, were able to display only 1080i, which is an interlaced format and thus prone to certain viewing artifacts. Since formats like Blu-Ray are native 1080p formats, you want to make sure your video signal is not being degraded or down-converted, so 1080p is the only way to go.
I have to point out however, that 1080p displays are still noticeable more expensive than traditional 1080i TV sets. If your budget won't allow for a 1080p set, 1080i, which displays 1080 scan lines in an interlaced mode, will certainly do and it will not be the end of the world. I expect 1080p prices to come down dramatically however in the next months so shortly this may be a moot point. Since TV sets can be a major investment, however, make sure not to overstretch your budget since in the end that won't help anyone.
Also, your TV set must have an HDMI input because not only do formats like HD DVD and Blu-Ray support only HDMI inputs, it is also the only way to get the signal without conversion from the video source to the display. HDMI is a completely digital connection between your player and the TV set and thus is not subject to signal degradation the way analog signals - such as component and composite connections - were.
One of the key choices you will have to make is whether you want a Plasma TV, an LCD display, a DLP rear-projection TV, a traditional rear-projection TV or maybe even a projector. To narrow down the choices right away I do not think that projectors are good choices for standard living room displays. They belong into high end home theaters, which is not the topic of this discussion. Additionally, 1080p-capable projectors are virtually impossible to find and come with a price tag that some people pay for their entire houses. On the other end of the spectrum, traditional rear-projection TVs will probably become obsolete as DLP sets take over the market and because flat panel technologies will begin to edge them out of the market.
There is a hot new technology called SED, which offers even better picture quality than anything that is in the market today, but SED will not be available at mass market price points for another two to four years, so it is also not part of this discussion. We are trying to upgrade our living room in the right now.
In my case Plasma also was not an option. While Plasma displays look great in stores there are some inherent problems with them that will simply make them very unattractive to most people. Sadly sales people will not point these issues out to you and I often found myself in the middle of a Plasma sales pitch that was rooted more in fantasy than actual fact. Resolution is one of Plasma's shortcomings as there are no 1080p Plasma TV sets in the market at the time of this writing. Additionally, Plasma TVs have a horribly short half-life, they generate quite a bit of heat, many of them emit an audible hum and worst of all they suffer from severe burn-in problems, making them unusable for video games or viewers - like myself - who always have their captions on. So, I put aside any thoughts of getting a Plasma TV very quickly. There are certain reasons for certain people to decide on a Plasma TV, but they typically do not apply to general consumers. Therefore, do not buy a Plasma TV unless you know exactly WHY you buy it.
For me that left DLP rear-projection TVs and LCD displays. I like the DLP technology. It creates rich blacks and great whites with a high contrast ratio and it has a great live expectancy. On top of that, they come in display sizes I was most interested in, which is 55" - 75" inches. However, DLP TVs have one big disadvantage, which is the fact that they are projection TVs. This means the great contrast ratio is lost to a large degree because of the projection. The screens used in these TV sets are not the best, degrading the image quality and unless you want to spend a couple of thousand dollars refitting the projection screen inside the TV set, you're not going to see the great contrast ratio DLP can produce. Additionally, rear-projection TVs are prone to glare. Unless you are using them in a very dark room, you are losing even more of the contrast ratio and color strength. In fact in a fully illuminated room it is possible not see nothing at all on a rear-projection TV screen depending on the lighting conditions. Since our living room has huge windows that allow the sunlight in, we always had to draw the shades in order to even watch the news.
That leaves us with LCD displays. We all know LCD displays from our computers and we all have come to love them. The same is essentially true for TV displays. In fact, LCD displays eradicate practically all of the problems described above. They are generally inexpensive. They are flat and sleek in design and have very low power consumption. They do not have the glare issues of rear-projection TVs and are overall remarkably insensitive to lighting conditions. In fact even in a store environment with artificial lighting falling in from all directions, high quality LCD displays still have a color fidelity and contrast that puts to shame most other TVs on display. The only shortcoming I found with LCDs is their size. Until recently 45" was the biggest display size you could get for an LCD display - too small for what I had originally in mind. However, the image quality and reproduction faithfulness ultimately made me decide on an LCD display in the end, and I went home with a 45" Sharp Aquos that day, which for my needs was without a doubt the best display available despite it being smaller than I had originally planned for. To me the quality is simply more important than the display size.
Sharp has since added a 65" LCD display to their Aquos line-up but with a suggested retail price of currently $21,000 it is pretty expensive. It shows however, that in time, really large LCD displays will become available and probably affordable.
While you make your decision and while you browse and examine TV sets in stores there are a few other things to consider - and I think they are exceedingly important. I was shocked at the level of qualification of the sales staff in stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City, the Good Guys etc. It is practically impossible to find anyone in these stores who knows their métier. I hear salesmen trying to sell customers onto Plasma TVs for all the wrong reasons. I encountered salesmen who were unwilling to allow me to run my own DVD material. I had run-ins with staff who were unable to even operate a DVD player, let away the remote control of the TV sets I was interested in. I heard stories coming from the figment of the salesmen's imaginations - who's ever heard of a DVD with 15 layers? - and overall the level of unprofessionalism was simply embarrassing for these companies and shocking for me. As a result I would never believe what a salesperson is telling you, unless you visit a dedicated home theater store. You are essentially on your own and therefore you should make your decision consciously with both eyes and ears open wide.
Before you enter a store, try to do some research on the Internet. There is a wealth of information out there including reviews by current owners of the TV set you may have your eyes on. Read what other people have to say and decide from there how relevant their comments are for your particular case. The Internet also allows you to do price searches and comparisons so you have a ballpark number once you go to a store. If you intend to purchase your TV set over the Internet double-check to make sure the seller is a factory-authorized seller or you may not be eligible for even the most basic product warranties.
In general, simply do your homework and get informed before you enter a store and expose yourself to the tactics of a minimum-wage salesman.
That however can be a problem, too, because what you see in stores is not what you're going to get. I have yet to see a decent presentation in any of the above-mentioned stores. One store is running standard cable signal on their TVs, after running it through a video splitter to create 100 feeds. The signal degradation of this process is unbelievable and what you see on the screen does not even remote represent the TVs capabilities but simply some sort of random pixel trash, in essence. Other stores run high def splitters coming from high definition cable. Again the result is a signal and image that is so poor that it wouldn't convince anyone to switch to high definition TV. Far too many times I have overheard conversations of costumers looking at a truly high end high definition TV set, staring at the video noise and compression artifacts and then muttering something to the extend that the TV is no good. The TV would have been well able to knock their socks off if it would have been displayed properly, but as it currently stands most consumer electronic stores don't even know how to properly connect a DVD player to a TV, let away all the intricacies of proper lighting, video source limitations, signal degradation, etc.
My recommendation is to bring a reference DVD to the store and request that you can view this disc on each TV set you are interested in. Make sure the same DVD player is used for all displays, switching it from one screen to the other, preferably using a HDMI connection without any signal splitters. It may also be a good idea to run the TV through the THX Optimizer routines real quick to have some basic calibration in place which will then allow you to actually compare the TV sets to each other.
Once it is all said and done, make sure to pick the one you feel suits your needs and requirements best and I hope with some of the suggestions and thoughts I brought up here, you will be able to bring home a TV set that is ready for the future and will give you many years of enjoyment.
