Introducing new Storeminator department - Television.

Tuesday 16th December, 2008

StoreMinator now features a new Televisions department which compares prices and finds bargains on the top brands of television. This will almost certainly mean buying a flat-panel television, which have practically eliminated the old cathode-ray tube type. But what about all those terms like "high definition", "LCD", "plasma"? If you are still a little confused about it all (don't worry, most of us are!) then read on for our short guide. If you are perfectly happy with all this jargon, then you can go right on and start comparing the prices of televisions!

A short guide to the new generation of flat-screen televisions

First ask yourself what you actually watch on television. This will have a great bearing on the kind of choice you will make when you buy a new flat-screen, high-definition television. For the foreseeable future, will you be watching:

1) Mostly terrestrial or cable/satellite TV?

2) DVD films?

3) Films played on a Blu-Ray player?

Why does this matter? If you answered 1) or 2) to this question, then you are most probably watching a source of video that is not yet fully able to take advantage of full high-definition video capabilities. What it boils down to is "resolution". Your old television displayed a picture by drawing a series of lines on the screen, some 50 times a second. If you are in the US, then your TV used the NTSC system which drew some 480 vertical lines. In Europe it would have been slightly more.

Put simply, the new generation of flat-screen television are drawing a lot more lines than that, making the picture far clearer. And this is where a major bit of jargon comes in:

Full HD or HD Ready?

There are two standards in the new generation of high-definition TV. One is referred to as HD Ready and offers a vertical resolution of 720 lines (a lot more than your old TV!) The second format is called Full HD and displays 1080 lines! Now, let's have a very careful look at some flat-screen TVs that are on sale:

The Panasonic TC-32LX85 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV is currently priced at approximately $515, which seems incredibly cheap when you consider another 32-inch LCD television, the Samsung LN32A550 32-Inch 1080p, which is currently around $800! A good number of people would just buy the cheaper one, but that could be a big mistake! So why would you pay nearly $300 more for your LCD TV?

Well, you probably noticed the numbers in the names of the TVs - 720p and 1080p. The first TV is actually only a "HD Ready" unit - that's why it's cheaper - while the second is a "Full HD" television. So the second offers superior picture quality to the first.

What are you watching?

It boils down to the question we asked at the beginning. If you are only watching terrestrial TV (especially non-digital, though this will to a large extent stop being broadcast in the US in February 2009), or possibly DVD, with no plans to introduce digital TV in the near future, say, 3-4 years, NOR do you plan to purchase a Blu-Ray player, or something similar, which can actually produce Full High-Definition video, then probably you don't need to be looking at a Full HD model, you will be happy with a HD Ready set. The types of video material we have mentioned above are all less than full high-definition.

However, if you want to make the most of high-definition video, if your local cable provider is offering 1080i high definition broadcasting, or you are buying a Blu-Ray player which can play movies recorded in Full HD, then you will want to purchase a Full HD model od flat-screen TV.

Streeeeetching things

One thing we often see is people buying flat-screen TVs and mostly playing regular video or TV material on them, but in widescreen format. This is a little pointless, since a great deal of television broadcast in the US is still in a 4:3 ratio picture format (like our old TVs) which mean the picture is almost square. Whereas the new flat-screen TVs are mostly in 16:9 format, the so-called "widescreen" format in which films are produced, and increasingly, digital TV programs. However, when watching a regular 4:3 broadcast on their 16:9 TV, many people allow the TV to stretch the picture to fit, which looks terrible, as everything on-screen is distorted and everybody looks chubby, round objects look oval, etc! So you need to make sure the TV you are buying can display a 4:3 image in normal proportions, even if it means adding some black either side.

Samsung LN46A650 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, current best-seller.

Plasma or LCD?

Oh no, the question we've been putting off and putting off. If you want a short answer, it's: get an LCD and don't lose too much sleep over it!

If you want the long answer, plasma screens work on a completely different principle to LCD, even though the end result is pretty much the same. Videophiles will probably tell you that plasma screens have a slightly better display quality because they display black better. The viewing angle is also better with plasma and for a while plasma screens were actually cheaper than LCD, though this is fast becoming a moot point.

However, plasma also has a potential problem with burn-in, like old monitors used to get, where a static picture left too long can leave a semi-permanent trace on the screen. Also, people looking for Full 1080 HD have, until recently, usually gone with LCD, though plasma is making inroads here too.

Once again, no-one can really decide for you, but you can't go too far wrong either way. Flat-screen, high-definition TV is here to stay!