Common Mistakes for Buyers and Owners of HDTV Sets

Common Mistakes for Buyers and Owners of HDTV Sets

Here is a list of some common mistakes for buyers and owners of HDTV sets.

1. Keep chemicals away from TV, ammonia in Windex can damage the coatings. Sprayed liquids on the screen can seep between the bezel and the panel and cause all kinds of problems. Better to use a damp cloth, preferably not wood-based paper products, such as newspapers or paper towels, which can create small scratches.

2. Do not buy a plasma TV, if you’re going to look in a room lit with lots of windows. Unlike LCD TV plasma TV panels feature glass thickness, which can cause a lot of glare. On the other hand, do not be afraid of Plasma “burn-in”, which was a common problem in old plasma televisions. Most plasma TVs of today have circuits to prevent burn-in or ghosting.

3. Do not pay too much attention to those formulas that use the room size to determine the size of the screen. Buy the largest TV that fits with your decor. Also keep in mind if you do not have an upconverting receiver or upconverting DVD player, a lot of programming that comes from DVD and standard def programming appears on the screen with great blacks around the edges so a TV bigger might be better if you ‘re to see a lot of standard def programming.

4. Do not refuse a big TV on a 1080i. Although we recommend the purchase of a future-proof 1080p TV, Bruce Berkoff LCD TV Association points out that it is difficult to understand the difference between 1080i and 1080p on a set that can display all pixels. He adds: “If the TV is estimated to be 1920 x 1080 resolution should not matter if the program is in 1080i or 1080p.” Currently none of the programs to come in over the air, cable or satellite is 1080p. More so, you can not really tell the difference on anything smaller than a TV 37 inches or if you sit far enough away from a larger body.

5. Do not leave the brightness too high. Many TVs will ship with the brightness setting 21 in the “Showroom” mode. In a bright living under a lower light levels are perfectly adequate and saves energy too. If you want to get the most from your set HDTV, you should consider calibrated by an expert as someone from Geek Squad or by yourself with a DVD as the Digital Video Essentials.

6. Do not be fooled and buy expensive add-ons from the seller at a big box retailer. Most HDMI cables work well for programming more. The only reason to spend the extra money is for a high-speed (Category 2), capable cable used for “Deep Color”, and the lossless audio.

7. Pay attention to audio. You might think the sound of your TV is fine, but if you have not heard 5.1 (or longer), surround sound audio quality on a system you have no experience HDTV. Some things to keep in mind when shopping for a sound system, be careful when buying speakers from a brand is not necessarily known for speakers, as some brands of consumer electronics, be sure to listen to speakers before buying them, not hide the swap, and make sure the receiver has enough ports for future expansion.

Now that you have made a general idea of what to look for and what to avoid, the last step in finding the perfect television set for your home is to read reviews.

Common Mistakes for Buyers and Owners of HDTV Sets

Categories

Display Size

Shop by Price

Resolution