Buying a New Flat Screen TV

There are two technologies for making flat TVs.

LCDs are the little crystals that flash colors. LCD screens are used for smaller TVs and for computer monitors. They give a nice crisp image, but the black is not as black and the colors can look a little washed out compared to plasma. The smaller screens, under 40 inches, can be cheaper, though, depending on the quality.

For a really big screen you have to go with plasma, at least until the LCD prices come down. Plasma screens are thinner and have a higher contrast. Neither LCD nor Plasma are what you would call cheap, but the larger Plasma screens are a better bargain than LCD. Plasma screens come in a whole range of quality and you pay for quality. Two Plasma screens can be the same size, but one will cost twice as much as the other because of the quality of the display.

Contrast is how dark the darks are and how bright the bright colors are. You should be able to watch TV in a brightly lit room and see all of the details on the screen. The higher the contrast ration, the more the picture "jumps" out at you.

The numbers tend to lie, though. An LCD screen and a Plasma screen with the same contrast ratio will look different because the black is sort of a gray color on LCD screens. Contrast ratios start at about 1000:1 and go on up. Some Plasma screens will even be 10,000:1. It's best to go to the store and see what the color looks like. It should grab you. A pale or faded looked to the screen is a sure sign that you don't have a good contrast ratio.

Here is a picture our friends from Wheel. The image on the right is low contrast.

Aspect ratio is a real gotcha. You can't really compare the size in inches of your old TV set with the new Flat Screen TVs; it is easy to buy a TV that is actually smaller than your old TV. TV screens have always been a 4:3 ratio - So if the TV screen is 20 inches across it is 15 inches high. TVs are measured diagonally so the 20 inch wide TV has a diagonal length of 25 inches.

The new TV sets have a screen ratio of 16:9. They do this because movies have been wide screen since the days of cinemascope. A movie will fit nicely in the 16:9 ratio TV screen. But if you do the math, the diagonal measurement is all out of kilter. It makes comparing old and new TVs a little confusing.
Most TV shows are not wide screen. When I watch old Star Trek reruns, they won't fight nicely on the screen. You wind up wasting room at the sides of the TV show. This is screen that you paid for that you are not using.

Here is what your old TV set will show on the screen.


Now here are Vanna and Pat on a wide screen TV with exactly the same diagonal measurement. The TV manufacturers say that they are the same size, but because of the aspect ratio, the flat screen TV is really smaller.


To replace an old style 20 inch screen you need to buy a 24 inch flat panel TV.
To replace an old style 24 inch screen you need to buy a 29 inch flat panel TV.
To replace an old style 26 inch screen you need to buy a 31 inch flat panel TV.
To replace an old style 32 inch screen you need to buy a 39 inch flat panel TV.
To replace an old style 37 inch screen you need to buy a 45 inch flat panel TV.
To replace an old style 40 inch screen you need to buy a 49 inch flat panel TV.

Resolution is how many dots are on the screen. Old style TV sets have a resolution of 480i which means that the vertical resolution is 480 dots across the screen. Old style TVs can look grainy and all old TV shows have been produced at this lowest level of resolution.

Even if you have a high resolution screen, if all that watch are Star Trek episodes, the dots will just get bigger. Your picture will not be sharper. You can't get blood from a tribble.

Modern DVDs are often produced at 480I in order to fit nice on old fashioned TV sets. They often contain a higher resolution version, usually 720p, but HD DVDs like Blue Ray have a 1080p resolution which has about 4 times the number of dots on the screen as an old fashioned TV and are that much more crisp and clear.

So if you buy a wide screen TV and want to watch High Definition shows and DVDs, you had better have a 1080p resolution TV. If you don't, the TV will just drop it down to what it can produce and fool you into thinking it is the highest resolution. One drawback is that the 1080p resolution is the most expensive.

There are a bunch of features that you can get with a new TV. Some TV sets come will lots of bells and whistles. Some sets are a little cheaper because they don't have these extras.

Most of us hook up the TV through a cable box and we get a good strong picture, but sometimes even an expensive TV can get conniption fits from a weak signal. If you use a satellite disk that has problems in bad weather or you use a digital antenna that is right on the fringe of a station's range, then you might like to see what the screen looks like with a weak signal.

Look for a set with HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). This lets you attach your cable box, DVDs and other video sources easily to the TV.

Buying a new TV is a pricy thing. It is best to wait until after New Years day to buy a new TV. Buy the TV on sale, but make sure that you are still getting all the features and value that you are looking for.

Don't hang your new TV on the wall. Even though you can buy a mount for a TV, if you hang it yourself and it falls off, you have just blown some big bucks. Most stores will not give you a return on a damaged TV if you tried to hang it up yourself. Use the in store tech people to mount it and pay the extra bucks. It will be cheaper than having to buy a second TV after you smash the first one.

READ THE MANUAL! These new TVs are complicated. I have seen situations where people buy them and watch TV without ever setting it so it would show High Definition. Often a couple of settings that you can change through a simple menu will improve you picture dramatically, yet most people take the thing out of the box and never change anything.