1080 or 720? LED or plasma? Your HDTV buying questions answered

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The marketplace for TVs is intensely-competitive and when that many manufacturers are chasing after a limited amount of consumer dollars, creating additional consumer confusion isn’t considered a Mistake . . . it’s considered a Marketing Edge. There are too many models with too many features. Ultimately, a certain decision-making paralysis can set in.

Here are the basic features you’re likely to see in any flat panel HDTV description:

Screen Size. Easy to understand, but worthy of comment: try to break free of the “bigger is always better” mindset. A cheapo 60-inch TV takes a crummy image and just makes it bigger; buy a great 50-inch set for the same money. Also, some larger screens are so heavy that they make wall-mounting very complicated.

720 or 1080 HD. 1080 “true HD” displays have become so cheap to produce that most manufacturers don’t bother building 720p sets, except in kitchen-counter sizes. 1080 is certainly worth the nominal added expense, especially if you’re using it for gaming or if you have a computer plugged into it somewhere. At (say) 35-inc screen sizes and smaller, though, do keep in mind that the added oomph of 1080 will be subtle.

Screen technology. The classic “Plasma versus LCD” battle rages on.

Plasma retains its pluses and minuses (crisp contrast and deep blacks, smooth motion vs. weight and power consumption) but display engineers have been packing more intelligence into LED flat-panels. The display can’t create that crisp contrast on its own, but the onboard systems inside better LEDs can make dynamic adjustments that improve image quality to such a degree that the difference between LCD and Plasma is easier to detect in a lab than in a living room.

Backlighting technology. The LCD array itself emits no light; it’s just transparent color. The screen’s backlight illuminates the image and is greatly responsible for the screen’s ability to show deep blacks and compelling contrast. “Full-array” LED backlighting (as opposed to side-illumination) lights the grid consistently. Better sets also use smart technology to dynamically under-light darker sub-sections of the picture.

Refresh rate. “120 Hz” refers to how frequently the screen updates itself. Higher numbers usually mean that scenes with lots of extreme motion (like when a camera pans across a crowd) will look less jerky. But jerkiness is the bane of LCD displays; by nature, the technology doesn’t exploit our brains’ persistence-of-vision effect as well as plasma or even CRT. All makers have different methods of addressing it. A 120 Hz set is likely to handle the problem better than a 60 Hz one, but 240 Hz sets are new enough that the jury is still out.

Contrast ratio. Imagine a screen showing a picture of a full moon. On a screen with a low contrast ratio, you’d see a black sky and a moon with muddy dark grey areas and bright highlights without any features. On a screen with a higher ratio, the lunar surface would be alive with texture and the sky would have stars in it. But that’s academic; many factors contribute to a lively, realistic image, there’s a maximum to how high a ratio the human eye can even perceive, and the ambient lighting in the room plays a huge role. A screen’s high contrast ratio is one of the biggest boasts on the box but it’s one of the safest features to ignore.

3D. I know that 3D HDTV has its fans but as far as I’m concerned it’s still Smell-O-Vision. Nice gimmick, but you’re better off putting that extra money into an even better conventional HDTV, or going out and seeing more 3D movies in good theaters. If you’re still keen on 3D TV, factor in the cost of glasses. Some sets come with a non-useful number of them and the active kind (battery-operated LCD shutters) can be pricey.

WiFi and Apps. Depending on your lifestyle, the ability to access music and video streaming services from your TV and make snarky comments about the Kardashians on Facebook without reaching for your smartphone is either a killer feature or Of No Use Whatsoever. But access to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Instant Video opens a TV to tens of thousands of movies and TV shows without the need to buy and plug in another box.

Inputs. Examine this part of the product description even more closely than the manufacturer’s vague claims of contrast ratios and frame interpolation. It’s too easy to overlook the importance of the number and variety of connectors on a TV. Take stock of all of your gear and make sure that (for instance) you can still plug in old non-HDMI devices. Make sure you have one or more HDMI ports than you think you’ll ever need.

And know beforehand how you’re going to plug external speakers into it. Built-in speakers universally stink. Check for optical-out, analog plugs, or even a simple headphone jack. I run my big living room set through a cheap-ish iPod sub-sat speaker and it sounds great.

There you go. But honestly, shopping for a new HDTV is just about the most soul-sucking experience a consumer can have without stepping onto a car lot. I myself was overwhelmed by specs and ratings and reviews and technology when I bought my first flat-panel HDTV a couple of years ago.

Since then, I’ve bought two more (as the wave to replace CRTs rolls relentlessly through my house), and it’s been a quick decision each time. I’ve learned and accepted a few helpful facts:

1) The enormous wall of displays at your big-box store are of no help to you in trying to pick a screen with the best picture. The store tunes the screens’ settings to maximize sales, not to help you make an independent decision. Instead, pick up the remote and see how easy it is to use its onscreen menus. Because:

2) A poorly-designed remote, a clunky menu system, and one-too-few HDMI ports are more likely to drive you crazy over the first month of ownership than a marginally-lower contrast ratio. Focus on the human features.

3) A great picture is the result of contributions from hundreds of tiny engineering decisions, not a table of numbers in a spec sheet that are impressively high or low.

4) You need to abandon the goal of picking “the TV with the best image quality I can get for my money.” Such a thing is out there. But unless you’re willing to buy 12 sets and return the 11 that didn’t win your in-home shootout, you won’t identify it.

Because once you get it into your living room and its unique collection of windows, lights, painted walls, and viewing distances and angles, a TV that scores as a clear No. 1 in a controlled lab setting might give you a negligibly better image than one that cost $250 less. Further, your cable company is probably doing much more damage to the quality of your picture than your TV.

Instead, your goal should be to find a set with Excellent image quality and the right features for your budget, and leave it at that.

The last CRT TV in my house is the set in my bedroom. I’ll probably replace it sometime next year. When I do, I’ll decide how much I can spend, compile a shortlist of no more than four candidates culled from the TVs in my price range with the highest number of 4-5 star user-ratings on Amazon, and dive into the details. I’ll make my decision within the week and it’ll all turn out great.

It’s important to be careful with your money and to be an informed, educated consumer. It’s also important not to wave a thick, juicy raw steak in front of your worst obsessive-compulsive habits. It’s important to recognize that and make your purchase before you turn into one of those people who walks back to the curb at 3 AM to make sure that they’ve placed each of the newspapers in their recycling bin in correct chronological order.