J
%Start What to Consider Before Buying a New TV GA
S
REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Best Products > TVs 231 231 people found this article helpful
visibility
831 views
thumb_up
1 likes
E
lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on September 11, 2020 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email
In This Article
Expand Jump to a Section TV Resolution Best TV Size Smart TVs TV Display Tech TV Refresh Rate Shopping for the best TV shouldn't be a laborious process. Instead of spending your time combing through specifications and parsing what it all means, you could be sitting on the couch rewatching your favorite workplace sitcom in glorious high definition — or playing team shooter on Xbox One, PS4, or Nintendo Switch.
thumb_up
5 likes
M
To help you dissect unfamiliar concepts, like "resolution" and "refresh rate," we've done the heavy lifting for you, breaking down each panel technology by name so that you can make an informed purchasing decision by the time Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around.
TV Resolution What Is It and What Is the Highest
If a pixel is one of the millions of small squares that make up an image on your screen, a TV resolution is the number of pixels arranged vertically multiplied by those displayed horizontally. Like the dimensions of any two-dimensional shape, the resolution is written out as the number of pixels wide by the number of pixels high.
thumb_up
18 likes
K
The more pixels a TV has, the sharper and more realistic the picture. While avid sports fans and gamers will be tempted to opt for the highest resolution possible, keep in mind that the content onscreen has to first be developed to support that resolution. As of this writing Most console games run at 1080p as their default resolution.
thumb_up
26 likes
H
TV shows, on the other hand, typically air in 1080i, the interlaced equivalent of 1080p. Online streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, however, all offer 4K UHD programming, sometimes for an additional cost. With the right equipment, you can also play your favorite PC games in 4K when connected to a supported TV.
thumb_up
13 likes
J
For comparison, the standard resolution for a 1080p screen is 1920x1080 pixels. By comparison, a 4K TV has a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. Clearly, 4K has the potential for a lot clearer picture.
thumb_up
33 likes
A
Since the price of 4K has been steadily falling, the extra investment may be a wise choice for the future. It doesn't stop there. 8K TVs are the next thing rolling over the horizon.
thumb_up
43 likes
A
Like the move from 1080p to 4K, there's a major resolution jump with 8K, to 7680x4320. Now, that might sound like you want to jump on 8K for a future-proof TV, right?
thumb_up
46 likes
R
It's not that simple. 8K TVs come with a hefty premium, and as of now, there is no 8K content available. So, you'd likely be stuck watching 4K content on your 8K TV for the next few years.
thumb_up
18 likes
E
That's not a great investment, just yet.
Best TV Size Which Should You Buy for Your Room
It used to be that how far you sat from the TV determined the size you should buy for a given room. In your living room, for instance, you might sit 10-20 feet away from your TV, far enough not to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.
thumb_up
28 likes
J
Nowadays, as pixel density increases, we don't have to distance ourselves quite as much from the TV to see the clearest picture. As a result, the global average TV size went up by almost five inches, according to Statista, between the years 2015 and 2018.
thumb_up
48 likes
V
No longer are we confined to our distant couches, squinting at captions, and pretending to hear dialogue from the onboard speakers. As of the past few years, more homeowners and renters have begun to move their living room seating closer to their TVs, making it easier to sit back and enjoy the suspense at a normal volume without the need for binoculars.
thumb_up
24 likes
O
And as their bezels get smaller, you can fit a 65- or even 75-inch TV in your home, whether you live in a studio apartment or a four-story house.
Smart TVs What Kind Should You Get
Once you reach a certain size and price point, most TVs don't necessitate external online streaming devices.
thumb_up
24 likes
M
By purchasing a smart TV, you can save the money you would otherwise spend on a Roku or a Chromecast, or a Fire TV because smart TVs have set-top box functionality built-in. You can stream movies, music, games, and more straight from the TV itself. Depending on your smart TV brand, the apps and interface design will differ from one model to the next.
thumb_up
0 likes
K
That's because of the wide variety of operating systems (OSes) or platforms that can come pre-installed on a given smart TV. Different smart TV manufacturers install different operating systems out of the box like computers (Windows vs.
thumb_up
41 likes
J
Mac) and phones (iOS vs. Android). You can expect any smart TV made by TCL, HiSense, RCA, or Element to feature the Roku OS, the same one found on the company's popular external streaming devices like the Roku Streaming Stick and Roku Premiere.
thumb_up
23 likes
L
By comparison, Insignia and Toshiba TVs have Amazon's Fire TV OS built-in, while Samsung and LG make their OSes, dubbed webOS and Tizen, respectively. Finally, Google offers a bespoke version of its mobile OS for Sony Bravia TVs called Android TV. Because their platforms closely resemble smartphones, it should come as no surprise that many smart TVs even work with voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant.
thumb_up
35 likes
A
Using your smart TV remote, you can ask your voice assistant of choice to turn on the TV, change the volume, switch channels, and more. You can even ask it to play specific shows or launch supported apps, completely hands-free.
thumb_up
9 likes
E
Of course, since it has to be connected to the internet to stream your favorite shows and movies, every smart TV requires your internet service provider (ISP) to provide download speeds of at least 5Mbps for streaming HD and full HD content or 25Mbps for 4K UHD content.
TV Display Tech LED vs OLED
An LCD (liquid crystal display) display, according to our own definition, uses "liquid crystals to switch pixels on and off to reveal a specific color." Older examples of this technology were backlit with cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs).
thumb_up
41 likes
C
By the same token, an LED (light-emitting diode) panel is an LCD, albeit with LED backlighting instead of CCFLs. Because LEDs are smaller and more compact than CCFLs, LED TVs are thinner than their predecessors.
thumb_up
24 likes
N
They're also brighter. Do a comprehensive spec-dive and you'll find LED TVs in two different configurations: full-array backlighting and edge lighting. Full-array backlighting, as its name suggests, trades up the CCFLs of the past for a "full array" of LED lights, dispersed throughout the area located behind the screen.
thumb_up
1 likes
A
In contrast, edge lighting puts LED strips on the outer edges behind the screen, neglecting the space in the center to reduce manufacturing costs. Despite this concession, edge-lit LED TVs are still brighter than traditional LCDs. In recent years, Samsung and LG have started to brand some of their leading TVs as "QLED," short for Quantum Dot LED.
thumb_up
46 likes
N
This technology is similar to LCD but with a slight twist: It uses tiny molecules laid out on a film (called quantum dots) that emit their own independently colored light. However, much like LCD and LED TVs, these panels still rely on LED backlighting.
thumb_up
41 likes
A
In short, QLED is a marketing term that can often be misleading since it looks and sounds comparable to OLED, the utmost premium option on the market right now. At the top of the chain, OLED TVs can pick and choose, individually, which pixels to illuminate. In effect, this results in deeper blacks, higher contrast, and unprecedented color accuracy in addition to wider viewing angles.
thumb_up
16 likes
E
Unlike LED TVs, OLED TV backlighting is achieved using a light-emitting film layer that occupies the whole screen. Though darker than their LED counterparts, when paired with HDR, OLED TVs peak at 800 nits while some LEDs can manage 1500-1200 nits.
thumb_up
29 likes
N
TV Refresh Rate 60Hz vs 120Hz vs 240Hz
On a TV, the refresh rate is "the maximum number of times the image on the screen can be drawn, or refreshed, per second." Measured in hertz (Hz). The refresh rate of a TV helps to determine how clear the picture is during motion. You may have noticed that an otherwise crystal clear picture becomes slightly blurry, the more movement is on screen.
thumb_up
20 likes
E
A higher refresh rate allows more frames of video to display, smoothing out the picture. Most TVs have a refresh rate of 60Hz; that's the default, and it has been for a long time.
thumb_up
4 likes
C
Over time, 120Hz TVs have risen in popularity. Assuming you have a 60Hz model, your TV can display a maximum of 60 frames per second (fps), whereas a 120Hz screen is capable of 120fps. Early on, it was more of a marketing gimmick.
thumb_up
3 likes
R
Manufacturers used image processing tech to create the effect of a 120Hz refresh rate without the TV actually being capable of it. That's what's going on with terms like "motion rate" or "effective refresh rate." Different manufacturers have their own names for the tech too.
thumb_up
49 likes
E
When you're looking for a TV with a higher refresh rate, look for a 120Hz rate. Chances are, the box won't have any fancy marketing jargon regarding the rate. It's more common, now, to find true 120Hz TVs, so just avoid the marketing, and you'll be alright.
thumb_up
36 likes
S
Finally, you may see TVs around with a 240Hz refresh rate. Remember how 120Hz was mostly marketing in the beginning, with fancy image processing creating the effect?
thumb_up
46 likes
J
That's exactly what's going on with 240Hz TVs right now. There's nothing wrong with buying a 240Hz TV, but it's mostly unnecessary, and any improvement you see over 120Hz is likely just a trick of the eye.
thumb_up
1 likes
K
Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know!
thumb_up
13 likes
J
Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day
Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire OLED vs. LED: Which TV Display is Better?
thumb_up
6 likes
L
LCD TV vs LED TV: What You Need To Know 7 Things to Consider Before Buying a Smart TV Neo QLED vs. OLED: What's the Difference? How to Buy a TV in 2022 What Is NEO QLED?
thumb_up
36 likes
K
What to Look for When Buying a Projector What's The Difference? LED vs. LCD TVs The 9 Best TVs of 2022 QLED vs.
thumb_up
10 likes
T
OLED The 8 Best 60-inch TVs of 2022 What to Look For in a Gaming Monitor What Is the Screen Door Effect? The 5 Best Sony TVs of 2022 The 8 Best TVs for Gaming in 2022 What Is a Quantum Dot (aka QD QLED) TV? Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
thumb_up
27 likes
O
Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies
thumb_up
23 likes
Similar Discussions
-
Presidents Cup 2022 course map leaderboard coverage link where to watch and more
-
Exercises for belly and thighs
-
Pain Management What to Expect Cleveland Clinic
-
Tractor Farming Offroad Games APK Download for Android
-
Miss You Photo Editor Frames APK Download for Android
-
Dino Instinct Combat Allosaur APK Download for Android
-
Great Bus Driver Mobile APK Download for Android
-
ForteKassa APK Download for Android
-
Age of Origins APK Download for Android
-
TEPPEN APK Download for Android
-
J ai horreur de m apitoyer pourquoi H l ne Segara a failli ne pas pouvoir participer La France un incroyable talent
-
Analyse Que va t il se passer en Iran ? Les trois sc narios possibles
-
Paroles d Ex Philippe Bonhoure Malheureusement je suis de la m me g n ration que Serge Blanco Saison 2022 2023 Payant
-
Marseille l accord sur le droit de gr ve dans les coles retoqu Marseille Soci t
-
C mo la peste negra de hace 700 a os sigue afectando tu salud ahora BBC News Mundo
-
Dallas area hate group members sued over vandalism to Arthur Ashe memorial
-
Los premios del Sorteo del D a de la Hispanidad 2022 cu nto se llevan los ganadores de la rifa extraordinaria de la Loter a Nacional?
-
Una ni a de 3 a os que fue rescatada con s ntomas de ahogamiento en una piscina de Castell n ha muerto este lunes Muere Ni a
-
Louis CK explains why he doesn t let Twitter influence his career on Joe Rogan podcast Dexerto
-
Where to Find Vitalys Crystals in Disney Dreamlight Valley
-
True Detective Season 4 Casts Kali Reis The Nerd Stash
-
Hey Pandas What s Your Favorite Place In Your House? Closed
-
Hey Pandas Post Some Stupid Things You Own Closed
-
Employee Worked For A Company For 4 Decades And Got His Vacation Time Cut So He Took His Sweet Revenge
-
Tory grandee invents especially stupid immigration test
-
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms trailer is creepy and weird Digital Trends
-
How to Watch the Fast and Furious Movies in Order
-
The Differences Between Types of Scanners
-
Google Finally Improves Android Tablet Apps
-
Why I Can t Wait For Ratchet and Clank on PS5