When it comes to HDTVs, the big question to ask yourself (and your wallet) is if you want LCD or plasma.

Plasma

The tech — arguably on its way out — is basically light being emitted by excitable gases inside hundreds of thousands of itty-bitty pixels. If you get close you can see each cell, which explains why these flatscreens generally get the edge over LCDs in picture quality.

Pros
Pixels individually beam on and off, so you get higher color saturation for more vibrant pictures and blacks are dark, not grayish-blue. You’ll have a tough time beating its contrast ratio, with deeper blacks and brighter whites than an LCD can produce. Viewing angles are fantastic, so it won’t matter if you’re sitting smack dab center on your couch or off to the side on your tasteful beanbag chair.

Cons
Plasmas are most cost-effective only at larger sizes so expect bigger prices, generally north of $1,500. However, discount pricing on plasmas has gotten much more common in the last year, so look for deals — sometimes they are a steal.

All that light-generation means plasmas can suck up more power, about three times the wattage of a LCD in some cases. Recent laws have limited the amount of power TVs can draw, but if not destroying the planet with greenhouse gases is important to you, check the watts before you buy. Also, plasmas can be heavier than comparable LCDs.

LCDs

Competitively priced and comparatively eco-friendly, LCDs consist of liquid crystal-filled pixels, backed by a single light source. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for it to control the colors and light emitted, making blacks not as dark and images dimmer at extreme viewing angles. However, with the arrival of LED lighting, many of these problems are a thing of the past.

Pros
LCDs boast efficient power consumption, running at around 150 watts. LCD screens reflect less light, making them a better choice for daytime viewing. Lighter in weight than a plasma allows wall-mount installations hernia-free. LED lighting gives consumers options to bridge the gap in picture quality.

Cons
LCD tech was initially designed for cool Casio watches and pocket calculators not video. Many of the kinks have since been worked out, but LCD screens are still more prone to motion blurring than plasmas. Images are noticeably dimmer when viewed from the side and pitch black scenes in horror movies could be darker. If plasmas are rich in color, LCDs are the upper-middle-class on the brilliance spectrum.

1080p and 720p — What’s the Difference?

The higher the resolution, the more detail you’ll get. The highest is 1080p, which holds lots more pixels, about twice as much than 720p if you do the math; 1920 x 1080 pixels versus 1280 x 720 pixels. Unless your screen is truly enormous, you’ll have a difficult time telling the difference.

However, the bigger the screen, the more you’ll notice. Think of it this way: 1080p is like being able to clearly see the last line of an eye chart. With 720p, that line shows blurrier edges. Also, the difference between 1080p and 1080i is that the progressive scan (p) displays video in a smoother, all at once motion, rather than encoded in bits.

Sizing Up the Situation

The size of your TV depends on the room you’re putting it in. The bigger the room, the bigger the TV can be. Typically the optimal viewing distance on a 1080p is its diagonal screen size multiplied by 1.56 (2.3 for 720p). That means if you have 1080p on a 42-inch set, you’ll still need about 5 1/2 feet of additional breathing room.

Refresh Rates and You

Refresh rates are basically the number of times the image is, uh, refreshed. The higher the rate, the less blurriness you’ll see during those fast-action scenes. A 120-Hz refresh rate means the screen reconstructs a picture 120 times in a second. The advent of 240 Hz makes watching Monday Night Football into a live event and sports-watching look fantastic. However, because most films are shot at 24 frames per second, eyeballing a movie at this speed will make your flick look unnatural, like it was shot with a home camcorder.

Authors: James Lee

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