How to buy a HDTV- the ultimate HDTV buying guide

• Where to Start:
  It all comes down to this question: What do you want?

  if your HDTV is going to be on all the time then, an LCD is probably your best choice. LCDs have excellent longevity with no chance of burn-in, nor do they require lamp replacement. If you’re only going to use it at night to watch some TV and movies, then a plasma—with its better black levels—or a rear-projection TV (RPTV) would be a better choice.

  Do you want to mount the TV on the wall? In this case, LCD and plasma are your only options. Most RPTVs have half the depth of the old clunky models and offer far more picture size for the money (compared with flat panels).Front projection is the best and often the cheapest way to get a really huge image. But, for most people, the added complexity of a separate screen is scary, and you can’t really see the image in daylight. Do you watch TV in your basement? Go projection, and you’ll never go back upstairs.

  ►If You’re Looking For:

  • Flat: Plasma or LCD
  • Bright to watch during the day:” LCD
  • Great black level for movies: Plasma or RPTV
  • Best Picture Quality: CRT (Ha!)
  • Best Value: CRT or most RPTVs
• Digital Does not Mean HDTV: You should always remember that just because a television is digital, does not mean that it is also HDTV. Make sure to check very carefully before buying, as you could end up very disappointed!

• Don’t judge a display solely by its picture quality on the show floor. When browsing the aisles of your favorite retailer, keep in mind that the displays on the retail floor are typically set to “torch modes” to compensate for the bright fluorescent lighting. This means that the retail units will appear brighter than normal when they are in your home. To get a better understanding of how a display will perform in a darker environment, check it out in a dedicated demo area with controlled lighting. It’s also a good idea to read several product reviews from credible sources such as the Perfect Vision, Home Theater magazine, Sound and Vision, PC Magazine, PC World, CNET and others.
• Fullscreen Video on Your Widescreen:Most television broadcasts are meant to be shown in the standard fullscreen 4:3 aspect ratio of your old 27-inch television. Couple this with an archive of old fullscreen VHS and DVD movies and you may be watching a great deal of video that was never properly formatted for the current assortment of widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio HDTV screens. Consumer electronics manufacturers deal with this in different ways. My preferred method of viewing 4:3 video is in its original shape, which results in black bars appearing on either side of the image making use of approximately two-thirds of the widescreen viewing area. A second option is to stretch the 4:3 image to fit the full 16:9 screen. If stretching the picture to fill the entire screen is your preferred method of viewing, make sure the screen stretches both vertically and horizontally. Some budget HDTV screens only do a horizontal stretch, which results in picture distortion. The downside to stretching the picture is that you generally lose some portion of the top and bottom of the original image in the process of reducing distortion. If you want television broadcasts to fill the 16:9 screen, make sure the picture stretching feature does a stretch of both horizontal and vertical.

• Don’t go too big for your room.

  The idea of having 120-inch display may seem like a good idea, but if you buy one that’s too big, it could compromise your entertainment experience. Choosing the appropriate size display comes down to how far away you are sitting from the screen. If you buy a massive display and sit three feet away, you’re going to be staring at pixels and lines.
  To determine the best seat-to-screen distance in your living room for a 1080p display, GTS recommends dividing the diagonal screen by .84. For example, an HDTV display with a 65-inch screen divided by .84 equals a 77-inch viewing distance (6.5 feet).

  

• GTS suggests that you go for a 1080p HDTV

• Your Warranty: An extended warranty can be very useful for such an expensive purchase, so that if anything goes wrong you will always be covered with a repair or a replacement. This warranty could be standard one year, or it could last for a number of years so be very careful to check before buying. It could be worth paying a little extra for a longer warranty.
• Subscribe to an HD service to truly experience the power of HDTV.

  Believe it or not, many HDTV buyers don’t subscribe to HD content services. While HD programming is still limited, the number of channels and programs is growing everyday. Subscribing to an HD satellite or cable service provides you with a number of programming choices ranging from network dramas and sports to documentaries and Hollywood movies. You should also consider purchasing a Blu-ray HD player.

• Reaching the end
  After you’ve picked out your dream TV, and if, by some miracle, the store has it in stock (and if your buy fits in your car 😉 ), they’re going to try to sell you all sorts of other stuff. Next up will be the cables. The store is going to want you to spend $1,000 on cables for your $300 TV. Decent—not outrageous—analog cables are probably a good idea. If this is your first HDTV, you’ll need at least component cables to get HD from your cable or satellite box (which you’ll also probably have to upgrade to output HD). HDMI cables are crazy expensive, but they either work or they don’t. In other words, if there is a picture-quality difference between a $20 HDMI cable and a $100 HDMI cable, I doubt you’d be able to see it on any normal TV.

Keep in mind that a perfect TV doesn’t exist, but the one that’s right for your needs and wants does. There will always be something better right around the corner. If you keep waiting for the next great thing, you’ll still have the 27-inch console TV with the wood trim while the little old lady next door kicks back and enjoys her stories on a 90-inch OLED.

Well that’s it from GTS .Now go grab your car keys n drive to the store to get your new flashy HDTV n drive the neighbours green with jealousy 😉 .After all you now own a coveted HDTV .

cheers!!!

~pyrotechnicpixie~