So you’ve bought yourself a PS3 or XBox 360.  But you have it hooked up to that old 19″ Sony Trinitron television that was handed down from your brother’s girlfriend.  The yellow, white, and red cables are plugged into your tv and you say to yourself, “What’s the big deal?  The graphics look just as good as my PS2.”  Hate to break it to you, but it’s time for a new television.  Here are some general tips and guidelines that you should look into when buying a tv.

Plasma or LCD

Any of these television types would be fine for gaming.  They provide excellent picture quality, and both of which are pretty affordable now.  There are lots of misconceptions that plasmas don’t last as long as LCDs, or that burn-in is a rampant problem with the plasmas.  It’s true that first generation plasmas were plagued with these problems, but the latest plasmas have implemented ways to get around that issue.  Current plasmas and LCD televisions are rated with a lifespan of about 60,000 hours, and a lot of plasmas have built in screen savers that help prevent burn-ins that may occur.  So you’ll be fine going either way.

Resolution

What is 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i?  Let’s first explain the “i” and “p”.  “I” stands for interlaced.  When a tv produces an image, it scans each line from top to bottom or left to right.  With interlaced, every other line is being scanned in one frame.  In other words, if you have ten lines numbered 1 to 10, then lines 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 are scanned in one frame, and in the second frame, lines 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 are scanned.  So technically, you’re only seeing half of the picture at any one time.  These frames are updated every 60th of a second, so you’ll still see the whole picture. “P” stands for “progressive”.  With progressive, the tv scans the entire screen frame by frame.  Using the ten line example, each frame scans lines 1, 2, 3, 4 … 10.

Now for the numbers.  To make it simple the numbers tell you how many horizontal lines that your tv can display.  For instance, 480 tells you that it can display 480 horizontal lines.  So for 480i, one frame displays lines 1, 3, 5,…, 477, 479, and the next frame displays lines 2, 4, 6, 8,…, 478, 480.  For 480p, each frame updates all 480 lines at once.  So the larger the number, the more detail your tv can display.  If you’re playing games, you’ll want to play it using the “progressive” scan mode since all of your movements on the screen will look much more fluid and natural.  Your old 19″ Trinitron most likely only supports 480i (which is the lowest setting), so imagine how much better a 1080p display would look like.

Size

Size is really simple.  Just depends on how large your room is and how much of a budget you can afford for a television.  If this television will be placed in the living room, then consider getting a 42″ or greater.  For a bedroom television, a 32″ to 37″ should suffice.  But is it really worth the extra couple hundred bucks to get a 1080p tv for a 37″?  According this graph (http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/09/1080p-charted-viewing-distance-to-screen-size/), you have to be viewing within 5 feet to fully benefit from 1080p with a 37″ tv.  Unless you like ruining your eyes, you won’t see much difference between 720p and 1080p until you reach 50″ or above.

Contrast Ratio

Contrast ratio refers to the difference between black and white.  A contrast ratio of 1000:1 means the black is 1000 times darker than the lightest white.  But in truth, the contrast ratio number is quite misleading since each manufacturer has their own standard when defining the contrast ratio.  You’ll often times see the term “dynamic contrast ratio” being thrown around, which doesn’t say much because you can’t relate these numbers between different brands.  The bet way to determine a good contrast ratio is to look at the “static contrast ratio” value.  Unfortunately, none of today’s tvs really advertise their static contrast ratios.

120 Hz or not 120 Hz

This is a feature that’s available only in the higher end LCD tvs.  You won’t see this feature in a plasma or DLP television.  120Hz refers to the tv’s refresh rate.  Typically a standard LCD tv has a refresh rate of 60Hz which means that 60 frames are refreshed every second.  With 120Hz, you twice the refresh rate at 120 frames per second.  This feature was primarily developed to combat issues with motion blurring and ghosting that plague LCD tvs.  If you’ve ever watched a 120Hz tv in action, you should notice that movies and games are much more 3-D looking which makes the picture move much more life-like.  It might look strange at first, but your eyes will slowly adjust and should become accustomed to it.


Brand/Cost

Do brand names really matter?  It depends.  All tvs manufacturers have different tiers when it comes to their lineup.  They all have their lower , mid, and high tier models.  You might come across a Sony flat panel at Best Buy that’s only $1,200.  But beware, this is most likely a lower model and about comparable to a high-end Vizio.  If you want to get a real high quality Sony tv, then expect to spend at over $2,000.  As always, it’s best to do your homework before jumping into such an investment.  Just because you have a brand name doesn’t mean that you’ll have the best tv.

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