Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving is the official start of the holiday HDTV buying season.  Despite the ongoing recession and high unemployment levels, analysts at iSuppli and the Consumer Electronics Association predict that 2009 will end with 8 million LCD HDTVs being sold in Q4 (up 7.3% vs. 2008). Here’s our advice.

Size Matters

You need to pick the right screen size for your needs.  Generally, LCDs go from 19” up to 65” and plasma HDTVs from 42” to 65”.  With 37” screens and smaller you can find LCDs with 720p resolution. At 32” and above 1080p resolution LCD sets are available. With plasma, a 720p class is offered in 42” and 50” screen sizes.

There are a number of considerations when you are deciding on an ideal screen size. First, consider your budget, then the physical limitation of your cabinet or room and seating position. Our exclusive HD Guru viewing distance chart (link) will tell you how close you need to be to see all the resolution with a given 720p or 1080p HDTV. Move further away, you will still get a great picture; however, you will not be able to admire all the resolution within the image due to the limits of human vision.

LCD or Plasma?

If you are considering a screen below 42”, LCD is the only way to go. But if you are seeking out a larger screen size, then you may choose either technology. On a basis of overall image quality, HD Guru and other experts agree that plasma beats LCD (including the LCDs called LED TVs). Why? Simply put, plasma is the only large flat screen technology available today which offers uniform viewing as you move off-axis, meaning everyone in the room sees the same great quality picture. All LCD HDTVs exhibit changes in color, black level and brightness as one moves further away from a straight-on dead center viewing position. There are a number of LCDs that have better off-axis viewing than others and they will be in our upcoming recommended HDTVs list article.

Plasma offers overall better black levels (their blacks always deeper compared to LCD when viewed off-axis) because plasma has the ability to shut off light in the picture at a pixel level. The best LCD black levels are the ones utilizing LED backlights, which include a feature called “local dimming”. This is accomplished by dividing the 2 million pixel images into hundreds of blocks.  Be aware a halo may be seen when the image contains adjacent high contrast such as white letters on a black background.

LED TV or LCD TV?

All LED TVs are LCDs. However, a number of TV makers are choosing to refer to their respective LED (Light Emitting Diode) lit TVs simply as LED TVs. The rest of the LCD TVs use thin fluorescent tubes called CCFLs (they’re miniature versions of the bulbs found in light fixtures). An advantage of LED as a light source is lower power consumption as compared to CCFLs. CCFL LCDs use about the same amount of energy as a plasma TVs for a given screen size.

LED TVs are capable of very bright images, making them the preferred backlight LCD technology for daytime viewing, especially in windowed rooms that lack shades or curtains.

There are two types of LED TVs, edge lit and back lit. The edge lit models have the advantage of the thinnest possible profile depth at just over one-inch. LED backlit units are deeper; however, many add a feature called local dimming, creating extremely dark black levels.

There are some disadvantages to current LED TVs. There are white and black uniformity issues at the picture perimeter with many edge lit designs. Also, off-axis brightness tends to fall off a bit more rapidly than occurs with CCFL backlit designs using the same LCD panel.

60Hz/120Hz/240Hz

Standard LCDs have a 60 Hz refresh rate. The motion resolution comes in around 320 lines (per picture height) out of 1080 lines. 120 Hz refresh ups the motion resolution to around 600; while 240 Hz kicks it up to 900 lines or higher. There are circuits incorporated that create more frames to smooth motion, however they come with increased picture artifacts (see related story here link). If you want a LED or LCD TV with the best panel and most features then you automatically get 120 or 240 Hz refresh.

Plasmas have full 1080 line motion resolution without the artifacts found in 120/240Hz LEDs or LCDs. Panasonics V and Z series plasmas offer a 96Hz refresh, which makes the image free of judder normally found in all 60 Hz (LCD and plasma) panels without the artifacts associated with 120/240Hz LED/LCDs.

Special Features

There are a number of added features for people that are looking for the most accurate image reproduction. THX Certified designs provide near ideal color temperature and HDTV color points right out of the box when using the THX picture setting. Many top of the line HDTVs have user calibration controls to allow (with proper test equipment and signals) the fine tuning of the TVs image to near perfection.

Buying your HDTV

HDTVs are in good supply for the holidays and are about 20% lower than last year. Circuit City’s demise changed the market conditions, making Best Buy’s Black Friday doorbuster prices on mid to high end models around the same as you can find today online at our HD Guru Pricegrabber webpage.  For brick and mortar stores, check out our” How To Get the Best Deal” (link).

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