LCD TV Buying Guide

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TV’s are everywhere these days and at first glance they all look the same. But if you want to purchase one for your home there are several features that you will need to look at to make sure you get the TV suited to your needs. Here are some things you should be considering:
 

LCD TVs come in a variety of sizes and are always measured in inches diagonally. The most popular ones range from about 32” to 80”. The size of the TV needs to correspond with the size of the area where you will be positioning it. To determine the size of TV you should get, measure the distance from where you will be sitting to where the TV will be placed. A general guideline is that you can sit as close as 1.5 time the diagonal measurement of the screen and not really notice any loss of quality or you can sit as far away as 3 times the diagonal measurement of the screen and still get the full benefit of the big screen.
 

An LCD TV’s resolution is basically the amount of pixels on the screen the higher the resolution the more pixels and the more details in the image on your screen. It’s preferable to go for a TV with 1080p as this is the full HD specification.   HD (High Definition) means that the image has a very high density of pixels which means the image will be exceptionally clear. DVDs (BlueRay) and even TV (DSTV Channel 160) are busy moving toward HD so it’s preferable to buy electronics which are HD compatible.
 

One of the weaknesses LCD screens has been that they struggle to display fast moving objects as it has a tendency to blur the images. This is known as motion lag. Although it was always a big problem in the past manufacturers have improved this significantly over the last few years. Only purchase a LCD TV if it states its response time on the box. A good response time is 8ms for sports lovers especially. Another thing to look at to reduce motion lag is refresh rates. 
 

Refresh Rates refer to the amount of times a screen gets refreshed per second. The faster the refresh rate the less motion lag you will experience because there will be less time between frames which will make the action on screen appear smoother. A good refresh rate is something between 60hz and 120hz.
 

Wide screen TV’s have a screen with a ratio of 16:9 which is the same as most DVDs and HD TV channels. But most conventional TV is still being broadcast as 4:3. This refers to the size of the image being broadcast in terms of width versus height.   16:9 would be 16 units wide for every 9 units high. When watching standard TV channels broadcast in 4:3 a widescreen TV will stretch the image to fill up the whole screen. It is therefore important to look for a 4:3 functions when purchasing a widescreen TV. When a widescreen TV is set to 4:3 it will display the image in 4:3 size with 2 black lines on either side of the image, similarly when a 16:9 image is shown on a box shaped TV 2 black lines will appear at the top and bottom of the screen. 
 

Most LCD TV’s have relatively good stereo built in sound systems but these cannot compete with a separate surround sound system. It’s usually best to test the sound in the shop if possible. Make sure that the TV has sufficient Audio/video inputs and audio outputs. Things to look for are ; S-Video and component video inputs, HDMI inputs and USB ports. It’s also a nice feature if the TV has at least one set of Audio/video inputs in the front or side of the TV to allow for easy access when connecting camcorders, gaming consoles etc.
 

Some LCD Tvs also have a PIP (Picture in Picture)function which is a nice added extras should you wish to follow 2 TV stations at once as it displays a second TV channel in the screen of the channel that you are currently watching.