Budget

Isn’t this true for any purchase? The more you have in hand to spend, the bigger and better are the things you can get. Also, in most cases the average price range at which you would get an optimal product – a device that gives you the best bang for your buck – is usually in the middle of the price range of a particular category. Go too low and you would miss out on some important features or quality. If you are spending more than the average then you may be paying a high premium for features that most people can do without. Following is the approximate price range in which you would need to spend to get a new flat panel TV.

Size, Viewing Angle and Environment

Bigger is not always the better. A huge television is no doubt an object of envy. It may look good for the first fifteen minutes in a small room but after that you would start wishing that it should have been a bit smaller. The eye strain of a big TV in a small room is simply unbearable. It is like having a king sized bed and a dining table cramped in the kitchen; and it doesn’t matter if the king size bed is made of best mahogany possible.

So how do you choose the right sized television for your room? Though there is no straight answer to this question and there are no prescribed rules by a standards authority, we can approximate the viewing distance taking into account the way the human eye functions, i.e., the ability of the eye to recognize the size of objects from a particular distance and the capability of current televisions.
These two parameters when used together give us the viewing distance of 1.5 to three times the size of the screen. Following this distance will ensure that you do not see jagged edges on screen when watching it from the minimum prescribed distance and you do not miss any details when watching from far off.

Following is the recommended viewing distance for some common TV sizes

But the distance is not the only thing to consider here. It is important that you have the right environment and the correct viewing angle to the screen while watching.

Ensure that the TV is installed at your eye level while sitting on the main sitting area. It could be the bed in the bedroom or couch in the living room.

Also, ensure that there is enough ambient light in the room but no glare behind the TV. A window behind the TV or exactly opposite to it is highly avoidable.

Usage

TVs from yesteryears were used to watch the standard definition transmission by local TV stations. As the TVs have evolved so have the sources that can be used to attach to a television. You need to decide the basic need for this particular television that you are going to buy.

It could be used as a device for watching TV, movies, listening to music, playing games, browsing pictures and connecting your laptop computer. The needs of all these devices are a screen but they require different capabilities from the screen itself.

If your main usage is watching television and you will not use this TV for movie watching at all, then a HD Ready TV and not a Full HD TV can work for you as all signals in the country are standard definition and the situation is not going to change drastically for at least the next couple of years.

For movies, it is desirable to have a TV that is full HD. Full HD content is already available with Blu-Ray discs and the availability is going to increase with time. Another important aspect is the response time as it affects scenes with fast movement and is also a crucial factor in gaming. Anything lower than 4 millisecond response time is considered good.  

Also, you must look at the contrast ratio of the TV for all the above mentioned uses. This is the ratio between the darkest black and the brightest white in the TV. A high contrast ratio indicates deeper blacks and richer pictures.

If you want to use your TV with all the above mentioned devices then it should also have the requisite ports for them. Composite, component, audio in/ out and HDMI ports are standard. You would need a DVI or RGB port to connect your computer. Some TVs also sport a USB port to connect your Flash disk for viewing pictures or watching movies.

Sound quality in most flat panels is pretty basic. If you are looking for better sound from your movies it is advisable to use a separate home-theatre system rather than trying to find a TV with great sound.

LCD or Plasma?

This is the first thing that hits you when you go to buy a TV more than 40-inches in size. They look the same and thus make it difficult to choose and decide if they will look as good at home as they are looking in the showroom.

If your room does not have a lot of light and windows then your better bet would be plasma for that size. Plasma screens give you better picture quality and motion while watching movies and sports but they do not do very well with glare. You will also witness a better contrast ratio and richer blacks in the movies. Also, plasma screens are not widely available in sizes less than 40-inches because of the complexities involved in manufacturing smaller pixels for smaller screen sizes.

Plasmas also had a problem with burn-in, which creates a permanent mark on the screen if static images are displayed on it for a long time. This problem, though, has been reduced considerably with the newer models of plasmas.

LCDs on the other hand are a better bet if you have a bright room and are looking for a TV in a smaller size than 40-inches. They are brighter than plasmas because of the underlying technology but do not have a color gamut as large as a plasma TV.

So if you have a bright room and need a smaller TV go for LCDs, but go for Plasma if you are looking at larger television options.
Judging Picture Quality

Now you know what you have to look for in a TV when it comes to features and your usage. You can learn more about other features in our Flat Screen TV glossary.

Once you know the basics. Find the models that fall in your budget and desired feature set on Consumer Mate. Shortlist at least three models that you like. Though picture quality can be defined using parameters like contrast ratio, resolution and response time, the best judge is still your eye.  Take a single DVD that you like the most and have seen at least once. Use the DVD to play the same scene on different TVs with the default mode of the TV. Some televisions have different default modes for in-store sales and homes, please ensure that you get the sales person to switch on the home viewing default mode. Also, ensure that all the TVs on display around the TV you are checking are switched off.

Put the picture quality in perspective with the features and your usage, and you would easily be able to buy a TV that fits your need.