How To
Choose The Right Television For You
by: Duane Smith
Watching television has progressed from a luxury that
only few had in their homes in the middle of the last
century to the point where most consumers not only have
one television, but often they may have several. And
television programming has expanded greatly from just
the three big networks to a whole host of other channels
as well.
And along with this
growth of interest in television programming the
technology of televisions has been steadily improving
too. Today we have lots of choices to make when we are
deciding to buy another television. Should it be an
analog or digital TV? HDTV enabled or ready? Plasma or
LCD screen? All of these decisions can seem to be
confusing, but if you just understand a few basics about
TVs you should be able to make the right choice for what
will suit you best.
Let's start by
discussing whether you should buy an analog or digital
capable TV. Analog TV is simply TV you have been used to
in past years. The signals are sent and received in
analog format and it has worked fine for a long time. It
has it's drawbacks though because analog TV signals can
only hold so much data for the screen and sound, and an
analog signal can degrade easily. Never fear though,
analog TV will be fine for use for many years to come
even after other technologies dominate. The good news is
that analog TV sets are very cheap and you can get a lot
for your dollar.
Digital TV signals allow
the data sent by the TV station to be much more dense
and include more information without very much
degradation of signal. So digital TV usually makes for a
much better picture and sound, especially on DVDs. Plus
digital TV has made it possible for the newer standards
of high definition programming. For the absolute best
picture and sound the TV station should be broadcasting
in high definition (or HDTV), and your TV should also be
able to receive and process that HDTV signal and display
it on on a high definition enabled screen. If all of
this criteria is met the effects are just stunning.
But many TV stations are
not yet broadcasting in HDTV format because it requires
them to invest lots of money in new equipment to do so.
They have to have enough of a market to make it worth
their while. So in the meantime, we have some stations
who do broadcast in HDTV and many who still just send
out analog signals. However, all TV stations will have
to comply with federal guidelines to be HDTV compliant
within the next couple of years, so high definition TV
is here to stay and will only grow in importance.
In the meantime, you
have your choice of buying an HDTV "capable" "enabled"
TV if you choose to buy a digital TV. An HDTV capable TV
means that it can process digital signals (like DVDs)
but in order to display the high definition signal it
will require you to purchase an additional tuner which
you can buy later at any time. On the other hand, HDTV
enabled simply means that the TV is fully capable of
displaying high definition picture and sound right out
of the box. The choice is yours. Either bite the bullet
and get the whole HDTV enabled enchilada now, or defer
it a while longer until HDTV programming is more
standard.
You also hear a lot
about plasma and LCD screens these days. The screens we
have been used to for years are called CRTs, and they
have worked just fine, but the main advantage of plasma
and LCD screens are that they can be very thin to
produce, usually they are only 2-3 inches wide and that
makes them able to be mounted in many places that CRT
screens just can't go. If you need that kind of screen,
just bear in mind that plasma and LCD screens are still
very expensive. There is nothing wrong with just getting
a good CRT screen or a rear projection screen in the
meantime as they can be had for not a lot of money and
can still produce a great picture depending on the
manufacturer.
There is more to all of
this television technology, but what we have covered
should give you a good idea of what the different TV
terms mean and arm you with enough information that you
can now confidently choose the television that will work
best for you.
