1 - Making a choice
Home Cinema
For those who love their films. If you’re looking for a real home cinema, with screen sizes of 46 inches and upwards and the sort of high definition you get with digital HD, Blu-ray and some cable, broadband or satellite channels. 100 Hz is the minimum requirement for these film fans, who may even cast their eyes in the direction of 200 Hz technology for maximum sharpness during camera movements. Such TVs also come with an impressive number of settings that let you adjust the TV according to the sort of image you’re looking for. A built-in bass speaker will be a plus for those who don’t want to invest in additional audio equipment. On the positive side, TVs are getting bigger all the time and are currently up to around 60 inches.
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£954 - £1,350
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£1,300 - £1,499
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£850 - £1,199
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Value for money
A model for those who want the best bang for their buck. Happily, large screens are becoming more and more affordable. The best value screens are between 32 and 42 inches. If you go for a 32 to 37 inch screen you’ll probably make do with an HD Ready set whereas those who go up to 40 or 42 inches will want Full HD… unless you sit too far from the screen to notice the difference. Anything further than 4 metres and HD Ready should be fine.
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£570 - £899
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£593 - £593
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£570 - £699
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An extra set
Looking for a TV for your study, kitchen or living room? For those who only watch it every now and then and don’t want the TV to dominate. You should find what you’re looking for at the lower end of the price range. Entry level TVs do give slightly lower image quality. The contrast isn’t as high and blacks take on a grey tinge. This doesn’t mean you’re getting a substandard product, especially if you intend to use it in a well-lit room. However, don’t expect any of the high-tech options that you find on high-end TVs. You should also be aware that anything under 26 inches will generally give display quality that is well below average.
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£375 - £530
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£408 - £549
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£499 - £799
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2 - The Science
The really important aspects of the spec
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- Screen size :
given in inches (26, 32, 37, 40, 42, 46 and so on) the size of the screen is the length of the display diagonal from the top corner to bottom. The larger the diagonal, the more you get a cinema effect. You’ll need a large diagonal to make the most of high definition (HD) digital, Blu-ray, broadband, cable and satellite.
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- HD compatibility :
Digital HD and Blu-ray allow you to view very high-quality films, top end HD with 1080 lines per frame – previously TVs had only 576! However only the best televisions are capable of displaying these 1080 lines. Entry level models have only 720 to 768 lines and are not able to display all the detail of HD.
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- Technology: Plasma or LCD?
Though fewer and fewer plasma screens are being made, they do have several advantages. Very deep blacks, for instance, which sometimes have a grey tinge on entry-level LCDs. Plasma screens also have practically infinite angles of vision while the image on LCDs is compromised when viewed from too much off to one side.
On the other hand LCDs don’t get marked by a fixed image. This means you don’t have to worry about displaying a fixed image for a long time without changing it. With Plasma screens if you’re not careful you get visible ghosting, even when you change channels. This is why you should generally avoid connecting a games console or computer to your plasma. Using it to watch TV or films won’t be a problem however.
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- Image frequency :
a standard, entry-level television functions at 50 Hz. At 100 Hz, you get double the number of images displayed per second and this improves your image quality in two ways:
- rapid movements are sharper and suffer less from the blurring effect known as “ghosting”.
- 100 Hz also fluidifies movement considerably with a technology that creates images not in the original film. Different manufacturers give this technology different names (Motionflow, TruMotion, Movie Plus, HD Natural Motion, 24p Real Cinema).
What you’ll need to go a bit further
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- Sound :
although many TVs have outstanding image quality, very few give comparable sound quality. Modern televisions are too thin to house speakers that give good sound. At best, the quality will be ok if your TV has a built-in bass speaker. However don’t expect to get the sort of quality you’ll get from an external speaker.
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- Connectivity :
the HDMI socket is becoming essential. You need to make sure you have enough to plug in all your accessories (DVD or Blu-ray player, external recording device, games console and so on). You should also make sure you have some analogue sockets (composite, scart, S-video, YUV etc.) used by the devices that link up with your TV (analogue or DV video camera, old DVD player, a Wii type console etc.).
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- Size and weight :
you might not necessarily think about this when you buy your TV but TV sets are getting so big now, you need to make sure you have enough space for them. Best to look into this before falling for the model of your dreams. And along the same lines: if you’re going to fix it to the wall, think about the weight of the set and whether your plaster will hold it.
3 - Accessories
Blu-ray players
Blu-ray players are now the best medium for viewing high quality HD films cheaply. With films available for hire at under 3 euros and for sale at less than 20 euros, and at true HD quality, much better than video on demand, your Blu-ray player is the number one accessory. All Blu-ray players can play DVDs and at much better quality than your old DVD player. It’s a win-win!
Digital HD recorders
Being able to watch digital HD TV is already pretty cool. Being able to record your favourite shows so as to make sure not to miss them is even better. For that you’ll need a digital recorder. You’ll find several HD compatible models on the market currently and more and more are appearing all the time.
Home Cinema audio systems
We covered this above, TV audio quality doesn’t compare with image quality. This is why the home cinema fan who wants a great audio experience will also invest in a dedicated home cinema audio system. From systems with everything built in to 5 speaker systems, bass speakers and so on you’ll find a variety of possibilities up and down the price range.
4 - Going further
