TV Buyers’ Guide For Beginners
January 2, 2022There is a plethora of options out there, ranging from humble LCDs with limited display technology to high-end OLED ones with HDR and 4K up-scaling features. How do you make sense of all of this marketing lingo and chose the best TV for you? Well, the important thing is to ignore said noise and pick the one that meets your needs.
in this article we are going to provide basic advice that will help you along and highlight the pit falls of bargain hunting for a cheap television. This is what you need to consider:
LCD, LED, QLED or OLED?
We aren’t going to get into the details here because the explanation would be far too extensive to include in this article. What you need to know is that LCD and LED TVs are essentially the same. An LED TV still has an LCD panel but it uses LED backlighting for better picture quality. QLED or Quantum LEDs use more complex tech to offer output closer to OLED panels. Read our review on the Samsung QN90A for more details on this technology.
OLED displays offer very good video quality because they are able to portray “eye-popping” colors. This is especially true of the deep blacks that it can display. The downside to OLED panels is that they are limited in brightness.
Resolution
LCD or LED TVs are substantially cheaper than what they were 5 years ago. This is why it would be wise to look for ones that offer a minimum resolution of 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels). If you have the means to spring for a 4K TV (3840×2160 pixels), that would be a better choice because picture quality is going to be considerably better than what’s offered with regular 1080P.
Besides this, here’s some marketing jargon you need to know about resolutions. Instead of listing panels as 1080P,2K or 4K, manufacturers prefer to use FHD (1080P), Quad HD (2K) or UHD (4K). It can be a little confusing at first, but you will eventually get the hang of it.
Screen Size
TVs come in various screen sizes but the most prevalent are 32, 43, 46, 55 and 65-inches. These numbers are determined by measuring a display diagonally (lefthand bottom corner to right hand top corner). A common misconception is that said numbers are attained by measuring a display horizontally (left side to right side).
If you’re going for a larger display, it would better to splurge on a 4K unit instead of a 1080P one. A 1080P output may look decent on a 32-inch screen, but the quality will diminish as the screen size increases. Videos will look noticeably worse on 55 and 65-inch panels.
The result is due to the resolution remaining unchanged while your screen gets bigger. A good analogy to describe this issue is trying to zoom in on a standard picture on your smartphone. The detail level remains unchanged but by zooming in, the overall look becomes more pixelated.
Is Your Internet Bandwidth Good Enough?
Most of us stream content on our TVs. In the old days we were limited to cable boxes or satellite decoders. The advent of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime have given us the freedom to ditch those old decoders for cloud streaming content.
As such, it’s important to make sure that your internet connection is sufficiently fast to allow services like Netflix to display content that match your TV’s native resolution. You need a minimum of 25Mbps connection to enjoy 4K content or 5Mbps for 1080P. That said, you also need to consider how many people are sharing your internet connection.
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Your internet speed is also affected by the number of devices that share said connection. And if your TV is connecting to the internet via a Wi-Fi, there’s a possibility that it won’t be able to receive the full download bandwidth. This is why you should have a 40-50Mbps connection to enjoy 4K and a 10Mbps connection to enjoy 1080P.
TV Operating System
Most if not all TVs that are on sale today are Smart TVs and not regular ones. The former has its own operating system and user interface that allows the use of preinstalled apps or download new ones. The latter ones live up to the term idiot boxes. They can’t display anything unless you connect an external output to them i.e. decoder, DVD player, Chromecast.
LG Smart TVs use WebOS while Samsung ones come with a Tizen based interface. These are propriety operating systems that only allow you to download apps from their intended app stores.
What Streaming Services Do You Subscribe To?
Make sure that the streaming services that you subscribe to, are supported by the smart TV you want to buy. Some TV models do not support Disney+ but are compatible with Netflix and Amazon Prime.
However, if your choices are limited due to budget constraints, you can remove Smart TV operating systems from the equation by purchasing a Chromecast or Chromecast with Google TV. These devices plug into your HDMI port on your TV, allowing you to bypass the TV’s native operating system and use Google’s “all compatible” system instead.
Input Ports
If you intend on connecting multiple video input devices such as a home theater PC, Gaming console, cable box or DVD player to your TV, it’s important that you get one with multiple HDMI ports. This is will negate the need to keep unplugging cables or using a cumbersome switching terminal. A minimum of two HDMI outlets should be fine.
