Looking to buy an HDTV?  Here is a quick breakdown of what to look for in a HDTV and what you can possibly avoid to help bring down your price.

First off, Plasma or LCD.

Plasma:  Plasma TV’s are going to give you superior color compared to a LCD.  The blacks will be BLACK and the colors will be vibrant as can be.  Plasmas do not gain color quality by pushing light like a LCD, so there is a draw back to this.  The screen is dark, the .picture is dark.  On top of that, the surface of the screen is a bit glossy, and reflects light VERY well.  So you will get lots of glare from light sources.  If your going to put your TV in a room with no windows and little light, this may be the choice for you.   But, in a bright room you will constantly struggle with the glare covering the picture.

LCD:  LCD’s have 2 things going for them.   The screen is a no reflective material that reduces glare to almost nothing, and the screen brightness is very Strong.  So, in a bright, or well lit room this would be the way to go.  The bright screen has its draw backs though.  The blacks can tend to be a bit grainy, white specs in them possibly, or brighter colors next to the blacks tend to “bleed” into the black.  Some more expensive TV’s do have a color correction to fix this problem.  It is referred to as Gamma Correction.

Now that you have an idea of what type of TV you are looking for, lets go over a few of the more important specs that TV’s have.  Some you need, some you will want, and with some forward thought, some you can live without.

Resolution:  Most everyone has heard of 720i, or 1080i, or 1080p.  There is a little trick in advertising here so be careful and do some research.  A TV may say 1080i, but may actually have a Native Resolution lower than what is advertised.  The Native Resolution is the TRUE resolution of the TV.  Now, they can broadcast the 1080, but you will not get a true 1080, as it is still pushing the picture through a screen with a lower resolution.  So, what is the i and p after the number?  The i is for interlaced.  This means that on a refresh cycle you only refresh the odd number lines on the first refresh, and then the even on the second.  This is how the old TV’s worked.  Still a good picture, but p, progressive scan, is better quality.  Progressive scan refreshes the entire screen all at the same time.  So here, “P” is better, and make sure our native resolution is the full 1080.

Contrast Ratio:  Unknown to most, HDTV’s have 2 contrast ratios.  A static, and a dynamic.  Most of the time when in stores the displayed contrast ratio of a TV is the Dynamic.  The reason for this is that the Dynamic contrast ratio of a TV is MUCH higher than that of the Static.  So it looks better on a display card.  If it does not specify, its more than likely the Dynamic.  The Dynamic Contrast ratio of a TV measures the maximum color contrast when the TV is in its bright mode.  This is the more heavily advertised spec, and actually the less important one.  But, a good TV should have a Dynamic ratio of 30,000:1 or more.  The Static ratio measures the dark contrast.  This is the measure of how bright a pixel can be, and how dark the one next to it can be.  If you go in a store and really pay attention to the TV’s, you might notice a “Shadow” around a darker object in front of a bright background.  This is caused by the static contrast ratio being to low to hand the “in between” pixels. So its like they almost get shut off.   You would want a Static contrast ratio of around 5,000:1 or more.

Color Controller:  Again, most people don’t know this, but a HDTV has a Color Depth Controller.  If it is unadvertised on the TV you are looking at chances are it is a 6-Bit color controller or maybe even a 4-Bit.  Usually at 8-bit, they will start openly advertising.  You really want 8-bit or more.  10 or 12 is really nice.  Again, do some research, and find out what it has.  Just search the Internet for your make and model and add specs behind it.  Usually not hard to find a spec sheet on the TV.

Refresh Rate:  You will see 120 stamps on lots of tv’s now.  And on new models are coming with 240.  This is very nice, exspecially when viewing Blue Ray Discs in true 1080/24p.  I would suggest making sure your TV will be at least 60, the norm is actually 30.  Blue Ray movies broadcast a 24p signal.  Which means there are 24 frames per second.  If you are running 60Hz, you will refresh each frame twice, which will sharpen the picture up a great deal, and in 120 each frame is refreshed 4 times, giving a very nice flow of motion and very crisp picture.

Component Jacks:  You need to make sure that you have several HDMI jacks in the back of the TV.  3 is probably a minimum.  HDMI cables give you the best picture.  Game Councils, Blue Ray Players, Cable/Sat Boxes, DVD Up Converters all use HDMI cables.  If you have a Home Theatre system that everything will plug into than it may not be that important.  The other one to look for, if needed is the Computer Jack.  I’ve had a few people ask me if they can hook there computer to there TV, and come to find out they can’t do to incompatibilities.

A smaller TV will look better, and if you stay in the 32 inch range you can sacrifice some of the contrast ratio and still have a very nice picture, and reduce your price.  If you have a home theatre system you don’t need to worry about how many hook ups are in the back and this can also lower your  price.

Before, buying make sure you check out a few reviews on the TV.  Some TV’s broadcast non-HD channels VERY poorly, and you will be disappointed if yours ends up being like this.  Some are almost unwatchable.  reviews.cnet.com/televisions  has tons of reviews on virtually every tv.  Check them out before you make an impulsive decision that you end up not being happy with in the long run.

I hope this helps everyone find the TV they are looking for.