This guide is the second part of the HDTV Buying Guide. In the first part, I tried to give you a bird’s eye view on the things you need to know before buying a HDTV. In this second part, I am going to focus more on some important aspects, like mistakes that you could make because of misconceptions. Initially, this was supposed to be a standalone guide titled “Marketing Bullshit and the Facts”. I hope that the original title will give you an idea about what you will find in this guide.

Marketing Bullshit and The Facts

This is my favorite chapter of the buying guide. Its purpose is to give you a heads-up, so you don’t fall for those sweet marketing headlines or salesman talk. The thing is, companies do their best to sell you their products, at times altering the truth, so you must do your best to separate useful specifications and statements from marketing bullshit. Many people see an advertisement on TV or read some specs written with big bold letters, and what you know, they believe every word of it. You don’t want to be that kind of person. If you are, you will not buy the best thing for your needs. Probably you wont be disappointed by your acquisition either, but that’s just because you didn’t knew you could do better. So lets get started!

720p is Not a Limitation

First of all, a salesman might tell you that an 1080p HDTV is the best. It doesn’t necessarily mean he is trying to lie you, but he could try to determine you to buy a 1080p HDTV just because that one is more expensive. 1080p is better, but only if you actually place the HDTV at a distance where you can grasp the extra detail it offers over 720p. If that is not the case, you pay for 1080p and get the same amount of detail as 720p would give you. What you need to do, is determine what the optimal HDTV size is, considering your viewing distance. You will notice that in the case of larger screens (50 HDTVs and larger) most of them, if not all, are 1080p. However in the case of smaller ones, you will find 720p versions as well. So go and read HDTV Size & Viewing Distance to find out what size of display is best for you.

120Hz LCD TVs Are Not Necessarily Better

120Hz LCD TV models came to address the motion blur inherent with LCD TVs. As opposed to plasma TVs, most LCDs don’t handle fast moving scenes as well, usually introducing blur around the edges of the moving objects in the picture (e.g. a ball flying through the air). Basically, 120Hz LCD TVs are supposed to make the picture crisp and clear even in the case of fast movement scenes like sports. While it does offer a slight improvement over non-120Hz models, it does not necessarily perform as well as a plasma TV in this area. Even worse, some of the 120Hz LCD TVs, when having this mode enabled (it can be disabled), can alter the original picture so much that it looks bad. Also, most 120Hz models are more expensive, and while some people are more sensible to that motion blur, others will not be able to make a difference between 120Hz and non-120Hz models. People get tricked by this 120Hz hype because it is labeled as refresh rate and they confuse it with native response time of the screen. Also, manufacturers have serious reasons to make you think 120Hz is better – those models are more expensive and they also kill any customer suspicions that plasma TVs may be better in this area. If you want to find out more on this topic, you can read the complete 120Hz LCD TV guide and Plasma vs LCD guide.

Another aspect with 120Hz is that you need to enable dejudder video processing, which can introduce image artifacts. On the upside – yes there is an upside – 120Hz LCD TVs can handle 1080p/24 video sources better. The conclusion is that you must decide yourself if 120Hz is worth the extra money. If you’re on a budget and you don’t seem to have a problem with the blur you see on an LCD TV, or you don’t notice any blur, you will probably not miss 120Hz in your LCD. If you prefer to see movies in 1080p/24 and you want to buy an LCD TV (as opposed to a Plasma TV), 120Hz refresh rate may be a good idea. It is however not enough to just have 120Hz refresh rate, and you will have to read reviews and see how each particular HDTV handles 1080p/24 content. No matter what HDTV type you buy, plasma or LCD, you must find out (from reviews) how good that TV is at handling 1080p/24.

1080p/24 Content Can Produce Flicker

An athlete and a regular person are both asked to answer the question “can you run?”. Naturally, they both answer yes. The same thing happens when manufacturers write the specs for their HDTVs. However, as the athlete can run fester than the average person, some HDTVs do a better job at handling 1080p/24 content. Though an HDTV could handle 1080p/24 content, it could perform poorly. In most cases, when an HDTV does a bad job at displaying a 1080p/24 video source, it introduces flicker. In some cases, a TV could be so bad at this that it would make the content unwatchable. The flicker can be so bad in some cases, that you would prefer to leave the 1080p/24 option turned off.

Store Lighting vs. Home Lighting

This is my favorite one. It is one of the reasons why people buy more LCD TVs than plasma TVs. The lighting in a store can be ten times as intense as the one in the average home. In a store, HDTVs are being used in what is commonly called torch mode. The contrast and brightness are at maximum, in order to compensate for the powerful ambient light. LCDs in most cases are brighter than plasma TVs, the latter having a better quality when watched in dark or low light. The downside of this brightness is that you may be tricked to think an LCD would look better than a plasma in your home as well. You may even watch two LCD TV models side by side, and pick one because it looked better (brighter, more vivid) in the store, not knowing that in your home the other one may have performed just as well or better. Even worse, the reason why an LCD would look great in the store, is the same with the reason why it could look not too great in your home – the black levels. Black levels affect picture quality. The darker the blacks are, the better the picture. An LCD that is very bright in a store, when installed in your home could feature not so dark blacks, and a somewhat washed picture. This is an aspect that you should take care with, especially if you don’t have a lot of light or you plan to watch with the lights turned off. The bullshit part in this case, makes itself visible in some ads and guides that tell you that plasma TVs don’t perform as well in bright rooms. That is not necessarily true. Ideally, when shopping for a HDTV, you should try to find a store where you can see TVs side by side and have the possibility to control the amount of ambient light. When you buy online, you should find reviews that discuss about the quality of black levels and anti-glare. The amount of ambient light in your room, can and should be a weighting factor when choosing between a plasma and an LCD TV. More on this subject in Plasma vs LCD TV guide.

Contrast Ratio – Who Can Come Up With a Bigger Number?

Contrast ratio has to do with the quality of the picture. The higher it is, the better the picture will look. It is not the only thing that affects the picture quality, but it has its saying in this matter. Since a bigger number means better quality, HDTV manufacturers started this contest called “who can come up with a bigger number”. I’m being sarcastic here, but to me that’s how it looks. It is common these days to see contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 but they are bogus. The thing is, each manufacturer has its own way to measure contrast, and because of that, they can come up with any number they want. There is a standardized way to measure contrast, but none of them use it, because it produces less impressing numbers like 500:1. Compared to 1,000,000:1, the tiny 500:1 would just not impress the buyer enough. What you need to keep in mind is that since they don’t measure contrast the same way, you cant really use the numbers in their specs to compare HDTVs of different manufacturers. The only way for you to actually compare the contrast of two HDTVs, is to find reviews of both models, reviews in which the same measuring method has been used. Another mention is about “Dynamic Contrast”, which is a term that allows manufacturers to display even higher numbers on their specs sheets. That’s because “dynamic contrast” measurement method generates higher numbers compared to the “static” one.

Viewing Angle

This applies almost exclusively to LCD TVs, as plasma TVs maintain picture quality and color uniformity unaffected at wide angles. This is in a way similar to 1080p/24 situation. All manufacturers will state that the picture is visible from a wide angle. They will specify exactly the angle and you will find it to be enough for your needs. However, what the manufacturer doesn’t specify, is how good the picture looks when viewed from that angle. Most LCD TVs manufactured these days can be viewed from a wide angle, some manufacturers stating angles as wide as those of plasma TVs. The catch is that in some cases, the quality when viewed from that maximum angle is awful. As a matter of fact, some LCD TV models suffer a drop in picture quality even if you watch it slightly off-axis, and the quality gets worse as you widen the angle. Not all models have problems like these, some of the top quality ones performing admirably in this area. It is however something you have to keep in mind, so make sure that when you’re in the store, you are taking a look at the LCD TV from an angle as well (both horizontally and vertically), not just perpendicular to the screen.

LCD TVs do Get Glare and Reflections

LCD TVS don’t suffer from glare as plasma TVs do if you have a lot of light in your room, or sunshine falls on its screen, right? WRONG! Any TV gets glare. Some handle light reflections better than others. While generally plasma TVs perform worse in this area, there are both plasma TVs that have exceptional anti-glare properties as well as LCDs with low performances. As in any other areas, the quality (and the price) is strictly related to the performance. Both LCD TVs as well as plasmas generally perform well in light if they are from the top manufacturers.

Conclusions

First of all, you should know that quality has its price. You really cant get high quality without paying a lot. If you’re on a tight budget, at least do the research to find out which is the best HDTV for YOUR NEEDS.

Another thing you should keep in mind, is that when it comes to comparing HDTVs by type/technology (plasma vs LCD) you should never put all models of a certain type in the same pile. You should always compare HDTVs based on their performances and how important specific aspects are for your specific needs, regardless of the TV type/technology. Don’t compare “plasma vs LCD” but “model X vs model Y”.

Read in-depth reviews! This is the only way to find out how a specific model is performing. Try to find top quality reviews from trusted sources as the internet is full of low quality and misleading reviews.

Good luck!