LCD

LCD screens are brighter than plasmas, are lighter, use less power and come in a wider range of sizes. LCDs generally start at about 19” in size and go up from there, with new models in ever-larger sizes coming out all the time.

LCDs are best for well-lit areas, like a living room with big bay windows. If the TV will be competing with direct sunlight or bright lighting, then LCD is probably the right choice. Because they are lighter, LCDs are easier to mount. LCDs come in smaller sizes, making them your only option if you want or need a smaller screen.

LCDs can have problems with ghosting, when an image doesn’t fade quickly enough off the screen. This results in fragments of an image that should no longer be on-screen being superimposed on what should be there, or a ‘ghost image’. It looks like a double-image or smeared image. Better LCDs are able to provide crisper images. The ability of an LCD to quickly release an image is measured in milliseconds and is referred to as the ‘Response Time’. A very good response time is 5 MS or below. Some computer monitors are rated as low as 2 MS, but most TVs have trouble getting below 5. 5-8 MS response time is acceptable, but anything above 8 may cause problems.

Here’s a simple test for how well a TV responds: watch a football game. Wait until the ball is kicked or passed and the camera moves quickly to follow the play. Look at the grass. The slower the response time, the more the grass will blur into a green mass and the longer the image will take to resolve once the camera stops moving.

The best type of television to watch on an LCD is anything shot in a studio. Talk shows, sitcoms and news programs are shot in controlled environments, with careful camera work. LCDs are going to show this type of programming best because the images will be optimized for a bright, clear display without any subtleties or surprises.

Plasma

Plasma screens are able to display dark, subtle scenes with more finesse and detail. They are more responsive, resulting in a clearer image. Plasmas aren’t available in smaller sizes. They are expensive to make, but the price gets more competitive the larger the screen due to economies of scale. Plasmas generally start at 40” and newer larger models come out all the time.

Because of the fact that LCDs and Plasmas are both available starting at 40”, that’s where the sweet spot in the pricing at the time of this writing for both types of screen. Go below 40” and you won’t save much money. Go above 42”, and you’ll see a significant price jump. It’s also the point where the highest available resolution screens begin to appear, so 40” screens are very competitive and where you see the best deals at the start of 2009.

Plasmas are better for watching movies and sports. This is because these images are difficult to display clearly, and the responsiveness and subtlety of a Plasma screen becomes apparent. Movies are often dark, and plasmas are better able to display really dark images. When Frodo is walking through Mordor, or a soldier is sneaking through foliage at night, a good TV will present that dark image as dark, but clear. LCDs aren’t as good at that, and will make the night look grey because everything is too bright, or else you will see forest, but no soldier because the fine details are indistinguishable. If you get frustrated because you can’t see what’s happening on the screen during a night scene, it’s because your television isn’t capable of producing a subtle enough image.

TVs compete with other sources of light. A good TV showing a dark image in a dark room will show up well, but the same TV showing the same image in a brightly lit room will be hard to see. Plasmas aren’t as bright as LCDs, and while Plasmas shine in the darkness, they can be overwhelmed by sunlight.

DLP-Projection

While not as common as LCD or Plasma, Digital Light Projection TVs are Rear-Projecting televisions. They have a projector mounted behind the screen. This means they are much thicker than Flat-Panel displays, but not nearly the depth of old CRT screens. They are very dim compared to both LCD and Plasma, but tend to come in larger sizes. If you can turn out all the lights and you want massive size, DLP may be the way to go. The newest units come with displays powered by LED lighting systems (light emitting diode) instead of regular light bulbs. LEDs will not dim over time or run the risk of burning out the way a bulb does.

Projector

A data projector, like you might use for a PowerPoint presentation, can also display video, although they usually do not include TV tuners. Resolution beyond 720 is still very expensive, but nothing beats filling an entire wall with an image from a projector for a large gathering. If you can turn out the lights and have a good screen or wall available, nothing beats the ‘price to screen size’ ratio of a projector.

The Questions to ask:

1. How much light is there where I want to place this TV?
2. How big do I need the screen to be? Can I afford the size of screen I want?
3. What kind of television will I be watching? News? Talk Shows? Sitcoms? Movies? Sports?

Some Tips:

1. The perfect spot for a Plasma is in a basement, where there are no large windows and the light is easily controlled
2. LCD is better in brighter areas, if it needs to be wall-mounted or if power consumption is an issue
3. If you can turn out the lights entirely and it needs to be huge, consider DLP
4. If you can turn out the lights entirely and it needs to be gigantic, consider a projector

Resolution refers to the number of dots of light on a screen, and says nothing about the size of the screen. Imagine you were bringing a tray of cupcakes to a party. If the only tray you had was a one foot by one foot tray, and you wanted to bring enough cupcakes for 30 people, you’d need to make very small cupcakes to pack them all in. But, if you only had a three foot by two foot tray, and you only wanted to bring 6 cupcakes, the tray would look very sparse. Matching the appropriate size of tray to the number of cupcakes makes for a good presentation. In the same way, you want enough dots of light, or pixels, to be well-spaced on the screen. The larger the screen, the more pixels you need for them to be well spaced. If you pack too many pixels onto too small a screen, the pixels would be too small to be seen from any distance.

Standard Definition

SD, or Standard Definition, is the old type of television, and it has 480 lines of resolution (TV resolution is measured by the number of vertical lines). If we were to measure TV resolution in Megapixels, like we do for digital cameras, standard definition would be 0.3 MP (640×480=307,200 total pixels).  Two new formats have emerged, both of which are considered High Definition, because they are greater than the old Standard Definition. 720 is the equivalent of 0.9 MP and 1080 is the equivalent of 2 MP. High Definition is not a single level of resolution, but simply means anything more than the old standard. That’s why some manufacturers have taken to calling 1080 ‘Full HD’ to try to differentiate it from 720. Of course, they’re going to regret calling it ‘Full HD’ when they decide to make something with higher resolution.

Digital televisions start at 720 lines of resolution, they don’t make them in the old Standard Definition format (at least, not that I’ve ever seen). 1080 screens start at around 40” in size. Why don’t they offer them in smaller sizes? The answer is distance from the screen. TVs are designed to be watched while sitting on a couch 10 feet away.

Getting in Close

When you want to see the detail on a painting in an art gallery, what do you do? You go closer. The closer you are, the better able you are to see the fine detail. From further away, the detail all blends together. You are magnifying the image by getting closer. The same thing happens with TV. The closer you are, the more detail you can see. A 30” television that offered 1080 resolution would be indistinguishable from a 720 television of the same screen size from a distance of ten feet. The dots would have to be so small to be packed into such a small space that you wouldn’t be able to see the fine detail of that image unless you were very close to the screen. You aren’t likely to be watching from that close, so it would be a waste of money to pay for the extra resolution.

The larger a screen is, the easier the detail is to see from further away. The easier it is to see from further away, the better able you are to pick up the fine details on the screen. On a 50” television, 1080 resolution makes a big difference. The screen size is big enough that the pixels are stretched over a large enough area that having the extra resolution really improves the image quality in a noticeable way. Manufacturers still offer 50” screens in 720, and they look OK, but they aren’t ideal and they’re becoming more rare.

Between 40” and 50” its a judgement call whether you want to move to the highest resolution available. 1080 resolution starts at about 40” in screen size and you don’t pay much of a premium for the highest level of resolution at that screen size. The difference at the time of this writing is as little as $100 more for the higher resolution at a 40″ screen size.

Finding the Right Content

To further confuse matters, very little content is available at 1080 resolution. Almost no one broadcasts television at the highest level of resolution. Virtually all cable and satellite television at the time of this writing is 720. So, if you buy a 1080 television, you are essentially future-proofing, getting ready for the day when having the best resolution available will actually matter for main-stream content. Unless you make your own content or you have a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player (more on what that is in a future posting) it doesn’t matter yet what level of HD resolution you have because the companies that deliver content to you have had such a hard time agreeing on how they’re going to deliver high definition video to you.

What’s the Bottom Line?

The bottom line is that if you have a TV below 40” in size, 1080 isn’t really available. For that size 720 is your only option and all you really need. For screens above 40” in size, 1080 will make a difference if you have a video source capable of delivering 1080 resolution to the screen. If your screen is 50” or higher, a 1080 screen is definitely worth spending a little more on.

There are lots of different spots you might like to put a TV. A TV in your office to stay alert to current events. A TV in your family room for the kids to watch Spongebob and Dora. A TV in the bedroom to catch the late shows in comfort.

Some rooms are dedicated to a particular function, and some serve many purposes. Is the room you want to put a TV in a multi-purpose room, where you might sit and read or have a conversation? Is watching TV the only thing that will be happening in the room? A room dedicated to TV will be able to take a larger screen, while a mega-screen might overwhelm a room you are trying to have a quiet conversation in. Be aware of how you will use the room, and factor it into your decision about screen size.

What about a TV in the bedroom? Studies have shown that watching TV right before bed can interfere with your brain’s ability to prepare for sleep. Your long term health can be impacted by excessive television watching. Ultimately, you’re going to decide where you want a TV or TVs placed, but a TV in every room of the house can interfere with living a healthy, balanced life. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

As the guy in my family who gets excited about new technology, I need to recognize that my wife doesn’t always share my enthusiasm for all things bright and shiny. You may be the one always trying to sell the idea of something bigger and better to make your home more entertaining, more welcoming, or more efficient. On the other hand, you may be the one who has to try and talk your spouse down from whatever marketing brochure he or she (OK, OK, probably ‘he’) has just read.

Please remember that technology is fun, but relationships matter. Be responsible and buy what you can afford. Don’t sacrifice marital harmony for things that only matter so much. There’s nothing wrong with buying nice things, but recognize that not everyone involved in making the decision may have the same priorities. Besides, what good is the amazing new TV if you can’t afford Doritos? That said, TV is one of the most cost-effective forms of entertainment available in North America. Just price-compare going out to dinner and a movie.

Important Questions to Ask:

1.       How many TVs do I really need?

2.       Should I buy fewer but better TVs?

3.       Is it a good idea to put a TV in my bedroom? In my kid’s bedroom?

4.       How big should a TV be to put it in the space I want it?

5.       Am I putting undue pressure on my relationships by seeking new toys?

6.       How much TV is too much?

Before you go shopping for a TV, take a moment to measure the size of the room. Measure the distance from where you’d like to place the TV to where you would be sitting. Before you buy your TV, you might want to mark its dimensions on the wall with masking tape. Cut out a piece of cardboard and tape it to the front of your current TV, or hold up a folded bed sheet to see how big you’d want a new TV to look in the same place. Get a sense of how big you want the physical dimensions of the screen to be before you make an investment.

Do the Math

The basic rule of thumb for screen size is one foot of screen width for every six feet of distance from the screen. So, let’s take a typical scenario. Most people sit about ten to twelve feet away from their TV while watching it. If you are sitting on a couch 12 feet from the television, it should be at least two feet wide (12’ distance from screen ÷ 6 = 2’ screen width). TVs are not sold by width, but by diagonal measurement. For a TV that’s 24” wide, you need a 28” TV, which is 28 inches diagonally, 24.4″ wide and 13.7″ tall.

Most people, however, will not want simply the minimum viewable size. For a TV that feels large, change the ratio to one foot width for every 4.5 feet distance (37” screen). For a TV that feels huge, change the ratio to one foot width for every 3 feet distance (55” screen). These are rough estimates, but will give you a decent sense of how large you might want your TV to be.