HDTV: A guide for the perplexed

Television has come a long way since the tiny old black-and-white set. Even the console TV big enough to sit on the floor, or the front projection set that many of us grew up with, are long gone for most. Indeed, for some perspective on just how far things have come in just the past decade, consider that the $1,000 Dell Ultrasharp 2000FP 20″ LCD monitor that some of us bought in the early 2000’s now has modern equivalents for about $200.

But the evolution in TV technology itself almost pales in comparison to the changes that have taken place in how we get video into a TV. Previously, the average consumer had an antenna on the roof or a cable coming in from the cable company. This coaxial cable was screwed into the input on the back of the VCR, which then had a second connection to the TV. Maybe you got a little fancy and actually had to deal with a cable with yellow RCA plugs for composite video in, plus two more, in red and black respectively, as a separate connection for stereo sound. Things eventually got a tad more complicated with the four-pin S-video standard, but fast-forward a few years to today and things have taken a turn for the confusing.

But generally speaking, just about everything today connects to your TV via HDMI. Your antenna or cable still comes through coaxial wiring, but that ends in your TV or your cable box, and everything spit out from there travels via a single HDMI cable, carrying both audio and video, content protection and all. The HDMI factor does simplify TV purchases a bit, but it still leaves some key questions for us to ponder. Among these questions are: How big a screen do I need? What are the differences between panel types? Does it matter what’s being watched? What about glare? What’s the difference between 720p and 1080p?

For those of you who are facing these questions during the holiday upgrade season, we’re here to help.

How big should the TV be?

Some perspective

There’s a host of guides out there that deal with the interplay between comfortable field of view and distance and resolution. Some guides attempt to ground their recommendations in science, while others frame the debate as a matter of taste.

Here at Ars, we prefer the simple approach: buy the biggest TV you can justify for your living room and your budget. If your living room is unusually narrow, with less than the typical 6 or 8 feet (somewhere in that range) from your couch to the TV, you can probably err on the smaller size if you prefer. With a more typical 10 feet, well, we’ve sat in front of TVs as large as a 60″ Pioneer Kuro 2 Elite and been happy. Heck, sitting 12 feet back from a 120″ screen run off a 1080p projector looks dandy to us.

But if you want the math and the numbers—if you’re someone who believes the limits of human acuity are pressing items to think about—then check over at the following places: Audioholics and Carltonbale. An important factor to keep in mind is that human perception is rather variable; some people tend towards one end of the range where everything is noticeable, others are much less sensitive. This resolution chart from Carltonbale is particularly infamous.

Again, being the geeks and pundits that we are, those of us in the Orbiting HQ generally agree that that the simplest answer is to go as large as you can afford.

Some ideas

Here’s a common set of rules-of-thumb on how big a TV should “comfortably” be, depending on how far away you will be sitting:

• 6 feet or less: up to 42″
• 8-10 feet: larger than 42″, perhaps 50-60″
• 10-15 feet: 60+”, which means the largest plasmas/LCDs only or projectors
• 15+ feet: projector for truly obscene budgets

Keep in mind that that the above guidelines don’t seem to be a broad consensus—many will agree, and just as many will disagree. We would go into further detail, but the vagaries of such things are the subject of ongoing, intense, and ever-evolving debate. Perhaps more useful is a look at some of the Ars Orbiting HQ setups that Ars staffers and forum members are happy with. A random selection includes:

• 60″ Pioneer Kuro 2 Elite (plasma) about 10 feet from the couch
• 52″ Sony LCD about 10 feet away from the couch
• 52″ RPTV also about 8 feet back (and dead-on, due to poor viewing angles)
• 40″ about six feet from the dining table
• 96″ projector screen about 10 feet away
• 120″ projector screen about 10 feet away

There are plenty more floating around here, but that brings a fairly diverse range. And we won’t mention the embarrassingly small 27″ CRT’s still tucked away in some apartments.

Resolution: 720p or 1080p?

Being concerned with things like HTPC and computer use, in an ideal world, we would recommend only 1080p HDTVs.

The 720p vs. 1080p debate used to be a major divide in HDTVs, with the higher-resolution 1080p sets costing considerably more. Today, except among smaller sets (37″ and below) and the low-end 42″ units which are 720p, almost everything seems to be 1080p. Somewhere around $700 or $800, pretty much everything worth buying is going to be 1080p.

This may not be true everywhere, but the Orbiting HQ is dominated by US-based staff, and that is what we have found. Your country and your experience may vary.

Would we ever recommend a 720p set? On a small set you don’t get a choice. But if you’re going for a large set, and you have a budget that exceeds the low end of the Black Friday sale range, then we would definitely go 1080p. Cable TV generally tops out at 720p rather than 1080p at the moment, but OTA (over the air) can hit higher resolutions, and content on Blu-ray can really make 1080p shine. An important note on cable: some channels/stations/facilities offer better quality than others; this is true for all sources, but for cable, it is often particularly dramatic due to varying levels of compression between sources and cable providers.

HTPC users will also find immediate benefits to 1080p, as 1280×720 is an awfully low resolution for computer use. Gamers will find 720p works for most titles made today, while 1080p is not yet mandatory—but the higher resolution is definitely a nice thing to have.

Let’s break the recommendations down into a list:

• The small stuff: TVs smaller than 40″ are more likely to be 720p, especially in models carried at brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy, Future Shop, or Fry’s. They also tend to be more affordable, and you typically don’t get a choice. If you do plan to use a smaller set for your computer monitor, though, you will want to find a 1080p unit.
• The medium stuff: Sometimes the extra resolution doesn’t matter. If you’re sitting far enough away from a small enough screen, your eye may not be able to resolve the differences between 720p and 1080p. So if you’re going to buy a 42″ screen and then stick it 15 feet from where you’ll be viewing it, you may not want to go out of your way to get 1080p.
• The $499 TV: A sweet spot for many in 2010 was a $499 HDTV, plasma or LCD, around 40″ in size. If that’s all the budget can justify, then a 40″ 720p set is a pretty good deal, especially if you get far enough away from it. Sure, in the Orbiting HQ we only recommend 1080p, but if the deal is that good and the budget is that tight, then who are we to argue?
• Only low-resolution sources: Is the TV in question only going to be playing a collection of VHS tapes, old console games, or a large stack of DVDs? If so, then a 720p set is already more resolution than the source material has, and anything more is overkill. Glorious overkill, but overkill. Most TVs upscale low-resolution content just fine, although some do a better job than others. In the Orbiting HQ we find relatively little difference in the sets we have; a large part of this is that low-resolution content stretched over a 60″ screen is going to look pretty lousy no matter how good your scaler is.
• Frequent upgraders: If you upgrade frequently, then save money by buying only for current needs.

HDTV types

There are four major types of HDTVs sold today. DLP and projectors are less common, while LCD and plasma dominate the market.

DLP (rear-projection DLP): This technology is largely only seen today for the very largest screens, 60″ and up. They are the cheapest to make in such large sizes, but this comes at the cost of the greatest weight and depth. You need over a foot from front to back, often more, and that becomes bulky and heavy. DLP bulbs also have a limited life and need to be replaced every few years (usually several thousand hours) at $100-300 each. Viewing angles also tend to be the most limited.

Projector: An HDTV projector is perhaps the easiest way to get a gigantic screen for those that have the room. Is 65 inches too small? 120 inches is easy to do with a projector. The drawback is that a projector requires extensive light control. Looking at a projected image in bright daylight cast by a poorly shaded window is not going to be a pleasant experience for those used to LCD or plasma TVs. A bright home theater projector is also going to be expensive; the cheap model on sale last week may seem like a deal until the whole ambient light issue raises its head.

Plasma: This is the de facto standard for image quality for many. A good plasma has deep blacks and bright whites along with excellent viewing angles. Panasonic and others have long led the way with ever-deeper blacks and better contrast ratios, improving in every generation. That three-year-old plasma that once looked great? If it’s not a top of the line Kuro 2 from back then, well, a modern plasma or LCD has probably caught up. Even a Kuro 2 Elite is now matched or surpassed by the latest plasma from Panasonic. The classic Achilles heels for plasma are also not nearly as bad as they used to be. Heat output and glare are improved in every generation, and while image retention does still exist, it’s almost a complete non-issue for most users. Panasonic is up to something like their 12th generation of panels now, and top of the line “NeoPDP” panels with “Infinite Black Pro” are capable of 5,000,000:1 static contrast ratios. Plasmas aren’t quite as thin as LCDs either, and while energy consumption improves, an equivalent LCD panel is generally even more thrifty.

LCD: The standard technology for TVs smaller than 42″ due to manufacturing efficiencies, and commonly seen alongside plasmas in large sizes. LCDs tend to be more power efficient than equivalent generation plasmas, thinner (0.31″ is the thinnest we’ve seen!), at the expense of slightly worse picture quality and viewing angles. The differences tend to shrink in every generation, and the past two years have seen LED-backlit LCD panels emerge. In particular, the higher-end LED-backlit full array panels that permit local dimming now offer image quality very close to the best plasmas, although one pays dearly for the privilege. Be aware that the thinnest LCDs use edge-mounted LEDs, which means they sacrifice some image quality vs. their thicker, full-array LED-backlit cousins.

If only it was that simple: LCD TVs actually now have five types, although three are more common than others: traditional CCFL, edge-lit LED, and full-array LED.

LCD TV types

The hot marketing phrase in 2008 and 2009 was “LED TV,” which really means, “an LCD TV with an LED backlight” instead of a conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) backlight.

By the end of 2010, LED-backlit LCD TVs are now much more affordable. Instead of dreaming about a $3,000 Samsung A950 LED-backlit LCD a few years ago, the price is now half and the picture is better, but the technology has only gotten more confusing.

Backlight types for modern LCD TVs include: CCFL, edge-lit LCD, edge-lit LED with local dimming, full-array LED, and full-array LED with local dimming.

• CCFL-backlit LCD: The traditional LCD type, using an array of fluorescent tubes at the edges of the LCD panel as the backlight. Cheap, and works fairly well.
• Edge-lit LED LCD: Replaces the CCFL’s at edges of the LCD panel with LEDs, hence the term, “edge-lit.” This can make for very, very thin TVs (the 0.31″ we’ve seen is with a LED edge-backlit panel). With standard white LEDs, though, color gamut is about the same as regular CCFL-backlit panels. With RGB (red blue green) LEDs instead of just white LEDs, improved color reproduction is possible, but this combination is rare due to higher cost and power consumption. Most “LED TVs” are edge-lit LED LCD TVs.
• Edge-lit LED LCD with local dimming: Same as above, but allows for deeper black levels, a traditional LCD weakness vs. plasma TVs. At least for 2010, a fairly new innovation.
• Full-array LED-backlight LCD: Instead of LEDs or CCFLs on the edge of the scrren, LEDs are actually arrayed behind the entire LCD panel. Again, with just white LEDs, picture quality is generally similar to CCFL-backlit LCDs, although more even backlighting should result. Variations with RGB LEDs instead of white ones are also possible, and hold similar advantages as with edge-lit LED backlights. This type is fairly rare due to cost.
• Full-array LED-backlight LCD with local dimming: The best and most costly LCD option. Local dimming gains a particular advantage with a full-array of LEDs, as very precise dimming control is possible. This fine level of control makes for the deepest black levels seen with LCD TVs today. Again, color reproduction and backlight uniformity are better with RGB LEDs vs. white LEDs. RGB LEDs are more common, as sets with this sort of backlight tend to be high-end and hence more laden with the latest improvements.

For most budgets, the short answer is to buy an LCD TV without worrying about the backlight. If budget isn’t a constraint and you’re going for picture quality, then looking at sites such as CNET‘s “Best LED TV” guide may give a decent start. LG’s LE8500 series with full-array backlights and local dimming is very good, as is LG’s previous LH90 series. Vizio’s more affordable XVT3SV series is also pretty good, although our experience with it is limited. Beyond the very high-end LCDs with full-array backlighting and local dimming, the differences tend to be less dramatic.

Beyond the basics

Hot features

Two common items tossed around by marketing today are refresh rate and 3D. Neither are items we would worry about at this point in time.

Refresh rate: 60hz? 120hz? 240hz? TVs with refresh rates beyond 60Hz supposedly makes for smoother pictures. The issue becomes that most source material, at least in the USA, is only 29.97fps (frames per second), so going to 60hz or 120hz with only 29.97fps worth of data requires that the interventing frames be estimated (interpolated) from the available frames. Different manufacturers use different techniques. Some users find the interpolation to be “too smooth” and turn it off, while others like it, and still others are simply indifferent. As a side note: plasma TV subfield drive is not the same as refresh rate and can safely be ignored when comparing TVs.

3D: This is the most noticable new TV feature popping up on the market today. Manufacturers require proprietary active 3D glasses that run a few hundred bucks each, so we are not keen on today’s 3D implementations. Imagine a family of four, and suddenly that’s almost $1,000 in proprietary 3D glasses. Ouch. Ars’ own experience with current 3D technology suggests that Panasonic plasmas work best for 3D, but 3D is a feature we would skip right now.

Additional features and considerations

Here are some things that most consumers may not think about. Indeed, in particular cases it may not be too necessary to think about these items, with the exception of cables.

Cables: A fabulous profit center for typical brick and mortar retailers. As almost everything today connects via a single HDMI cable for audio/video, we would buy a few in the lengths we need from Monoprice, Amazon, or Newegg. They’re so cheap—10 feet for under $5, 15 feet for $12, and 25 feet for $24—that we would buy a few extra. That way, when that unexpected HTPC or Media Center Extender shows up as a gift, there’s no need to scramble for the cable on Christmas morning.

Audio Return Channel: the HDMI 1.4 specification allows for a TV to return audio back to the receiver or another source over a single HDMI cable. This is useful when the HD feed goes straight into the TV, yet the TV is still relying on a receiver and speakers to produce sound. It makes things very convenient by saving you the hassle of running an extra cable and making it work, which is often more difficult than expected due to HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) and other potential issues.

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) support: A loose standard for networking your HDTV, Blu-ray player, and other home media components together. Different manufacturers have slightly different implementations, but most work quite well. An easy example is a DLNA-compliant home NAS (network-attached storage) for photos and media; a DLNA-complaint HDTV on the same network can then talk straight to the NAS to pull content without any other devices involved. There are limitations, but it is nifty. Experience in the Orbiting HQ with DLNA is somewhat limited, so further comment is difficult. A secondary consideration here with built-in networking is built-in support for streaming content such as Hulu and Netflix. This is less critical, though, as most Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, media center extenders, and HTPCs can all do this, too.

Wireless USB: This is a future technology for high-bandwidth wireless connections. Within 3 meters (10 feet) for the most part, with longer range at reduced performance. Not yet relevant, but something to think about in the future, especially for the times when even one 10′ HDMI cable just isn’t practical.

Memory card support: Most LCD and plasma TVs today have an SD (Secure Digital) memory card slot for reading pictures, music, and movies directly off a digital camera or MP3 player. Almost not worth mentioning as it’s so common on mid-range and up units, but a useful addition nonetheless. Keep in mind that Sony TVs tend to include Sony’s own Memorystick (MS), which is not compatible with SD.

Side notes: black bars and in-store displays

HDTVs today are exclusively “widescreen” with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is a 1.78:1 ratio of width to height. Movies and TV, though, actually have a number of varying “widescreen” aspect ratios. Common ones are 1.85:1 and 2.35:1; the former is fairly close to 16:9 and hence probably not noticeable, but many movies are shot at 2.35:1 so black bars will still be present.

This is normal. Creative decisions on the part of filmmakers and the various industries involved mean that a wide range of aspect ratios for content will always exist. Get used to it, and if black bars really are bothering you, almost all TVs today have various selectable “zoom” or “stretch” modes that will zoom/stretch/distort content to fill the entire screen.

When shopping for a TV, a wise thing to do is to go to a local retail store and look at a few in person. When doing so, it generally helps to remember a few things before being dazzled by the new shiny toys on the floor in front of you:

• Most stores use a demo disc of some sort. The demo disc source may be of varying quality. If possible, ask them to pop something decent into the Blu-ray they have feeding all their TVs, and hope they’re all properly connected via HDMI instead of with lower-quality composite or component video.
• Check the TV settings for brightness, contrast, interpolation (refresh rate), to make sure they are at comparable levels between sets, and set the picture mode, if possible, to something comparable as well.
• Don’t forget ambient lighting in the store, which may have no relation at all to the ambient lighting conditions where the TV will actually end up. Those big “special” demo rooms in most stores, or the glare boxes hanging from the 30 foot ceilings, have almost nothing to do with the real environment inside a typical home.
• What may seem basic to most, but is easy to forget in the heat of the moment, is to ignore high-pressure sales pushes. Think about the TVs and how they look and compare. Stay rational, and don’t sucuumb to last-minute “deals” on useless accessories and “upgrades.”

Plasma vs. LCD: advantages and disadvantages

Having discussed the basics of HDTV types, the real focus for most consumers today is between plasma and LCD TVs.

For image quality and color reproduction, plasma TVs traditionally have had the advantage due to deeper blacks and faster response times. Equivalent LCDs of the same generation generally are not as good, although at the high-end with full-array LED backlights with local dimming, the best LCD TVs are very close.

Plasma TV’s better response time (for less ghosting) is now largely matched by LCD TVs, or at least LCDs are close enough that it is not an issue. Color reproduction between the two is also fairly close; older LCDs had issues with color gradients or banding being visible, but today the issue is rare.

LCDs traditionally get brighter than plasma TVs, and due to their construction, they can omit the glass at the front of the TV, which usually results in less glare from ambient light. Power consumption between equivalent LCD and plasmas also works out in favor of the LCD (at least most of the time); this gap changes as more efficient plasmas come out, although the shift to LED backlights in LCDs has restored the previous status quo. Color reproduction is also improved with RGB LEDs, keeping things competitive.

An important side note: the finish of an LCD TV can still be glossy. (For a common example of a glossy LCD, check out virtually every consumer-marketed laptop sold today.) So LCDs can still have considerable glare issues.

A previous issue with plasma TVs was black level changes, most noted on Panasonic plasmas in 2009. The extent of the issue appears to be fairly minimal in reality. Image retention is still an issue, but again, it is fairly minor in practice for most, and modern plasma TVs will recover.

Viewing angles are another area where plasma TVs traditionally are superior, but in practice, we find that most LCDs and plasmas have sufficiently wide viewing angles that we do not notice the difference. This is in marked contrast to the DLP rear-projection TVs we have around, where off-axis viewing degrades relatively quickly. IPS panels may technically give better viewing angles than PVA panels, but in reality the difference is small.

The vain may find the thinness of edge-lit LCD TVs to be attractive. In the Orbiting HQ we tend to not worry about such things, especially when mounted to a wall or on a TV stand placed against the wall. Now, if we had to have a TV mounted in the middle of the room for all to see, we might worry about it more. We are more concerned about things like the lifespan of our TVs, although even today this is almost a non-issue, with most TVs rated to beyond 100,000 hours before 50% degradation of their backlight. At 12 hours a day of TV watching, that comes out to 22+ years of use—definitely not a concern!

Ultimately, the differences between quality plasma- and LCD-based units are small. Technically speaking, plasma tends to be better for the money, particularly below the $1500 price point in our experience, but the gap is so small for most that we recommend people buy what they like best.

Typical purchases

Most buyers in the past few years pick up 32″ to 55″ sets. It’s still somewhat uncommon to see something larger or smaller for a primary TV, even in the Orbiting HQ. Projectors and DLPs are also fairly uncommon, the former due to the complexity in setup and lighting, the latter due to unappealing size and bulk, as well as the lack of a commercially attractive price difference.

From 32″ to 37″, LCDs tend to be the only choice on the market. As most are not willing to pay exhorbitant amounts for a TV in that price range, you get what you pay for.

From 40″ to ~58″, competition between plasma and LCD is stiff. Informal shopping of budget TVs shows that for the cheapest sets, plasmas are likely to produce better image quality for the same amount of money; the drawback is additional heat output. Spend a little more—$800 to $1000 for a 42″-ish unit—and plasmas tend to get very, very good looking, holding up well against much more expensive LED-backlit LCD TVs. However, start talking $1500 and up and the competition between LED-backlit LCD TVs and their plasma brethren in the 50-58″ size class gets very stiff.

TVs of 60″ and beyond are somewhat less common. We have seen more plasmas than LCDs in this range, but that could simply be because we have seen so few of them. And at $2,500+ for a typical unit in this size, with up to $5,000 being easily done (or more!), a nice, bright, 1080p projector is suddenly viable competition.