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A buyers guide to LCD TV
October 5, 2008
CRT TVs are going to be history soon…the only thing that is stopping LCD/Plams TV in taking over the market is the huge price tag that come associated with it. But, sooner or later, with the competition in this sector increasing and more and more people going the LCD way, manufacturers will start earning on volumes rather than margins.
I came across an article on indiatimes infotech on things to consider while buying an LCD TV. I agree with all of it. Apart from all that the article mentions, I would also like to stress the importance of research on the warranty the TV comes with and the cost of repairing it if something goes bad.
Here is the article:-
Planning to buy a flat TV? Not sure how to go about. The number of these sleek TV models and features flooding the market only making task more difficult?
While there are many flat-panel technologies present in the market-such as LCD, plasma and rear projection — the first is of most interest to the average consumer, and rightly so. As though plasma screens offer arguably better colour reproduction than LCDs and are cheaper to purchase, LCD screens have the upper hand when it comes to PC compatibility, screen resolution, longevity and power consumption.
Here’s help, find out what to go for and what not to while buying your big flat TV.
Screen size
To start with, the first thing you need to decide upon is the screen size of the flat panel. LCDs, when compared to conventional CRT (cathode ray tube) screens, offer significantly less eyestrain. This means that viewers can sit a lot closer to an LCD display and not have their eyes water after a while.
However, the accepted distance for such displays is two to five feet for up to 27-inch displays, six to eight feet for up to 37-inch displays, and 10-14 feet for 46-inch displays and above.
HD compliance
HD (high definition) is the next generation video standard. The main thing that separates high definition from the standard definition video content-which one sees on the DVD — is its resolution. A higher resolution directly translates into better quality. Conventional DVDs offer video footage at a resolution of 720 x 480 pixels (for the NTSC format). HD on the other hand, offers two modes, both of which are higher than the DVD.
The lower mode, called 720p (‘p’ denotes progressive scan, as opposed to an interlaced scan denoted by an ‘i’ ) is 1280 x 720 pixels which is roughly 2.6 times the quality on the DVD — for there are 2.6 times as many pixels! The higher mode is called 1080p, that is, 1920 x 1080 pixels, and is exactly six times higher than the DVD!
LCD manufacturers flag their products as either HD-Ready, which implies 720p compatibility or Full HD that is, 1080p compatibility. So if you’re looking to have a visually enthralling and cinematic experience right in your living room, a Full HD screen will be your weapon of choice. Unfortunately, don’t expect Full HD screens to come cheap or smaller than 50 inches in size.
The price tag
When it comes to pricing, you can safely expect 32- and 37-inch screens to cost anything between Rs 45,000 and Rs 75,000. Forty-inch screens from Sony, Samsung and LG generally veer a little above the Rs 1 lakh mark. Fifty-inch and larger displays, however, will easily go over Rs 2 lakh.
Picture quality
Even if one doesn’t like getting into technical issues or looking through the specifications, there are a couple of features that one needs to look out for. For, these, features help in evaluating the screen better. Contrast ratio is one of the firsts things you need to look at. The contrast ratio of a screen is the difference in terms of light between the brightest and darkest spots on the screen. A low contrast ratio translates into images that look less vivid and more washed out on screen.
Sony’s Bravia series of LCDs currently offer one of the best contrast ratio (1300:1). Then, a wide viewing angle is important as well, so that the image on a screen doesn’t appear distorted or warped when viewed at an angle. Look for a viewing angle of at least 160 degrees or higher. Try this on a laptop: if you look at an image on the screen from extreme angles, the image will turn negative with inverted colours in extreme cases.
Finally, also have a look at the display’s response time, which is denoted in milliseconds. A response time of 8 ms or lower is the accepted norm. This will prevent images from having a trailing effect, which is particularly apparent while watching a fast-paced action movie on a screen with a slower response time.
Other considerations
Finally, a look at the screen’s ergonomics is also a must to make things convenient. For example, check whether the menus on the screen are intuitive and whether one is able to get about without having to refer to the manual constantly.
Also, check for the connectors offered. The more the standards supported, such as HDMI, DVI and component, the more convenient it’ll be to connect the screen to various devices such as an Xbox 360 gaming console, an HDDVD or Blu-ray player, a desktop or laptop computer and a home theatre system
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