The end is near. Get HDTV, or die.

I realize this is an overly dramatic introduction for a tutorial guide, but there is some truth to the statement. For those few US citizens who have not been keeping tabs on the network television industry, there is a very important date to mark on the calendar: 17 February 2009. D-Day. Thanks to numerous corporate lobbyists and US Congress, all network television stations will stop broadcasting their analog signal on this date and complete the transition to digital broadcast. This will be the first time in US history that television broadcasting has established a change which is not backwards compatible. Analog television will be a relic of the past, and the digital age will complete its global presence.

In anticipation, some of the major networks have already made the switch to digital broadcast. Even today, several over-the-air (OTA), cable, and satellite broadcasts can be received in HDTV with the proper antenna and tuner. Analog television sets receiving over-the-air programming will still work after that date, but will require converter boxes to change new digital broadcasts into the older analog format. Cable and satellite subscribers with analog television sets will most likely add yet another box from their service providers which converts signal for the DTV transition.

Television has become a necessity for several American families, nearly as important as their take-out dinners and SUV's. So how will you save yourself, your family, and loved ones from a cold dark Saturday night with no TV? The solution isn't so difficult, and what you do to prepare for the future will depend solely on what you know about it. This guide will infuse months of research into a very easy to understand how-to article, all for the purpose of preparing you for the impending D-Day which is not far off.

Since HDTV first landed on the consumer scene, I have personally researched the subject to great lengths. I went and read what everyone else on the Web had to say on the subject; but it doesn't take long to realize that technology news gets old fast and often spoils overnight. Many of the guides out there talked about the upcoming digital transition as if it were wishful thinking that might never happen, and others discussed how you would need an additional HDTV tuner to receive programming. Simply put, if the article, guide, or scrap of news pertaining to HDTV shopping was written prior to 1 March 2007, then it probably is outdated. You will learn exactly why later in this article.

At first my reasearch efforts were for the simple purpose of improving my grasp on the technology so that I could make an informed decisions on product purchases, but it soon developed into a full-fledged obsession to get the best product possible for my money. I found myself interjecting HDTV techno-quips at business lunches, if for nothing more than to take everyone else up a level from which I was once a part of. But still, what does all this have to do with a guide? Simply put, it's all relevant to the HDTV industry as a whole. It's the difference between buying obsolete from cutting edge.

This guide will educate you on the most relevant and essential terms used in HDTV today. Using this guide will ultimately save you days of confusing research, and will better prepare you to determine your HDTV and home theater equipment needs. But most importantly it will arm you with the necessary knowledge to make an educated purchase on a budget. A portion of this article will also teach you how to get the best flat screen TV deals and deliver the best value on your HDTV purchase.

If you are even remotely considering an HDTV purchase, please do yourself a huge favor and read through this article... it's going to save you money.

Television Technology Defined

Most of the visitors reading through this article are probably not inclined to know (or understand) the different television technologies that exist. For many, the decision to buy a particular HDTV comes down to display size and purchase price. This is unfortunate, since this concept applies to the new high definition televisions as well as it does to tires. While I wouldn't expect you to memorize the terms below, it's a very good idea to remember a few key terms so that you're preparred when the day comes to go shopping.

Like any good prosumer (professional consumer), I have done a lot of research within my industry. Over time I have been spoiled however, and often neglect those technologies which are considered economy or low-performance. As I explain the different television technologies, please keep in mind that they are listed from generally most affordable to very expensive. This should help you keep up with the sales market, since technology changes so fast.

Your old TV has some new competition, especially since analog broadcast is nearing its end. Innovative new Liquid Crystal Display flat panel televisions and similar Plasma technology are found in retail stores nationwide. Like many of the monitors we've reviewed here at Benchmark Reviews, LCD and Plasma TV's have the same slim profile and a flat viewing surface, but have been fine tuned specifically for video display.

CRT - Cathode Ray Tube

Cathode Ray Tube technology has been around forever, or at least since 1922 when it was made commerically available. Nearly every television set made during the 20th century was designed from CRT technology. It is most easily recognized by the solid glass screen, which went from fishbowl to flat-screen in its 80 years of market dominance.

CRT technology utilizes three cathode tubes, one for each color. As a team, these three colors combine or converge and paint the image onto the screen. Since CRTs are not designed to have a fixed number of pixels, they are very versatile products capable of producing clear images from high or low resolution sources. CRTs also require periodic 'calibration' by a trained professional, which can be expensive and adds to the total cost of ownership. CRT technology is not typically as bright as the others, but the refined picture quality of a properly calibrated CRT is among the very best.

LCD - Liquid Crystal Display

LCD technology is the current leader of the pack, having captured the majority of the market share of all new televisions and monitors sold. Most LCD televisions (and monitors) have five layers which make up the viewable panel. Each layer in the layer in the panel has its own specific role, which combined together produce a sharp image with very rich color.

But for those readers who want to know less about specific LCD technology, and more on how LCD TV's work, we offer this brief explaination: Of the many layers which comprise the LCD display panel, there are two sheets of polarized transparent material, one with a special polymer coating that holds liquid crystals, are adhered together. Electric current is passed through individual crystals, which interpret the information from the broadcast signal to allow or disallow light through them to create the specified image. The crystals themselves do not produce light, so the technology is non-emissive and therefore does not give off radiation like CRT technology does. Florouescent tubes called LCD lamps are housed behind the transparent material are used to illuminate the image, so they require less power to operate than CRT televisions and plasma displays. Recent advances in flat panel LCD technology now allow for larger screens, wider viewing angles, and higher-quality video images. Consequently, they are also several times lighter than comparably sized plasma screen televisions, and far more durable as well.

DLP - Digital Light Processing

Digital Light Processing is the product of the great minds at Texas Instruments. DLP uses a single Digital Mirror Device (DMD) chip that has thousands of tiny mirrors, each representing a single pixel. These mirrors tilt back and forth and deflect light as indicated by the source to create the image. One limitation of DLP technology thus far is brightness, which trails behind LCD technology. Although single-chip DLP is quite affordable, multi-chip DLP is much more expensive. Multi-chip DLP is much brigher than single-chip, but the cost difference may make it an unreasonable purchase for many consumers.

Plasma Display Panel

Plasma display technology is much thinner than older direct view display devices such as CRT televisions, making it easy to mount to a wall without interrupting the flow of a room. From a technical perspective, a plasma screen is basically a direct view of thousands of pixels (made of glass bubbles) filled with Xenon gas in a plasma state. Inside each bubble are three cavities, one blue, one red and one green. Each bubble is hooked up to an electrical current. That current is then triggered by information from your input device. Since you are looking directly at the source of the image (the bubbles) you get a vivid and rich color.

LCoS - Liquid Crystal on Silicon

LCoS is considered a combination of LCD and DLP technologies. LCoS is liquid crystal on a silicone wafer, with a very high pixel density. The number of pixels are less restricted than LCD or DLP because the electronics can be placed under the pixel rather than next to it. The high pixel density also means higher resolution, and a high pixel density also means no 'pixelization.'

OLED - Organic Light Emitting Diode

What is OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology? The implications of the new technology are remarkable, although the impact will not be felt for a few years. Unlike a CRT monitor, plasma display, or LCD monitor, the OLED uses emissive technology. This means that the screen itself emits light, and therefore doesn't require additional hardware for creating light, like tubes or lamps. Less hardware means less bulk. In fact, the screen could be as thin as a piece of paper, as shown here. Today you can find some OLED technology in cell phones, PDAs, and car stereos. In a few years, you may find OLED technology on laptop computers, car instrument panels, and perhaps even a portable presentation device that can be easily rolled up and stowed away.

Determine your HDTV needs

In the last sections you learned of the upcoming transition to a digital-only network broadcast, and you might have even picked up a thing or two about television technology. In this section, we move on to the start of the decision making process: determine what you need. Before we get into the meat of the matter, it's important to note that this guide is not going to help you select the next gaming LCD for your computer or a huge plasma display for your cruise ship. Cruise ship advice will be given only after a complete site survey and world tour. The focus of this guide is on the primary household HDTV television set.

What TV are you using now?

The best way to start deciding on the size of your new HDTV is to look at what you presently use to watch movies and programming. The first step is to measure the display screen diagonally, since this is how television and monitors are measured, and then measure the distance from your seat to the front of the picture display. Since it applies to most people making the switch from analog to digital, I will use myself as the most common example for this guide.

Consider first that your old cathode ray tube television set used the 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning that for every 4 units of width there are 3 units of height. That was then, and this is now. Say goodbye to your full screen VHS cassettes, and get ready for the widescreen world of 16:9 picture ratio. I was perfectly happy with my 36" full screen CRT, but my new Sharp 52" LCD has pleasantly made me a widescreen believer. In terms of older CRT technology, larger screens would cost more; and that cost often determined the size of your set.

LCD and Plasma technology has changed all of this, since purchasing a set which is too large no longer just means that you might be sitting too close to the set, but it could mean staring at pixel dots and a grainy image. More important than picture size is where you sit relative to the picture screen. So if your small apartment forces you to sit close to a small TV, you won't have to spend as much on a big screen. In most cases, it feels more comfortable sitting away from a 4:3 television set at a distance that's between three and six times the width of the screen. The chart below gives a rough estimate for minimum and maximum viewing distances on 4:3 televisions. Use this in conjunction with your current environment to determine if your viewing habits need to be changed.

You may not understand the purpose of all this measuring just yet, so I will explain. Widescreen televisions showing high-resolution DVD and HDTV always look better than content displayed on full screen televisions. This dramatic improvement allows you to sit much closer to the picture screen and experience a more immersive theater like picture. For widescreen 16:9 televisions displaying HDTV or DVD content, you can comfortably sit as close as 1.5 times the screen's diagonal measurement and never notice a loss in quality. However, sitting farther away than three times the screen size means you're likely to miss out on the theater like feeling. Use the chart below to reference minimum and maximum viewing distances to the recommended widescreen screen size.

So lets say you are like me, and have a 36" full screen 4:3 CRT television. The most comfortable viewing distance for my old television set was between 7-15 feet. Essentially, this is really step one in this whole process. I now know that the same viewing distance would require a 60" widescreen HDTV set to get the same experience. Fortunately there are two factors which made the 52" HDTV a perfect replacement:

• By replacing the 36" CRT for a slim 52" HDTV, I gained an extra 1.6 feet in viewing distance without moving any furniture.
• Safe overlapping distances in comfortable viewing distances offer some degree of compromise in set placement.

If you plan on mounting the set on a wall, make sure to take the distance from the front of the viewing screen in your estimated viewing distance planning. Because both LCD and plasma televisions generate a considerable amount of heat. you should plan to leave at least two or three inches on all sides so that the TV has enough ventilation. This is critical if you plan on placing the unit inside an entertainment center. In most cases the HDTV will come with it own add-on stand, which means it could possibly sit in the same spot as your old analog television.

Peripheral Equipment Requirements

My old television set offered many connection interfaces with my home theater equipment. Component video used RCA cables from the DVD player into the A/V receiver, and then to the back of the television set. My DVD player offered digital audio output using another RCA cable, or if I wanted I could utilize a hard to find fiber optic cable if I was concerned about electrical noise reducing sound quality. I would often ask myself how it could get any better. HDMI, that's how. The High Definition Multimedia Interface offers a completely digital, totally uncompressed audio and video solution all in one sigle cable.

But before we jump into the benefits (and pitfalls) of stepping up to HDMI, let's examine what kind of equipment you will connect into your HDTV. This is really a list which is subject to change, especially since the Sony Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 have revealed future releases with HDMI connections, and the HD-DVD vs Blue-ray war is far from over. There are more than a few things to consider here, and they play an important role in the overall selection of your HDTV.

Source material is important, whether VHS, DVD, or HDTV, a display will always convert (scale) to fit its native resolution. If the incoming source has more pixels than the display's native resolution (ie. HD-DVD or blue-ray on a 720p HDTV), you will lose some visible detail and sharpness, though often what you're left with still looks great. If the incoming source has fewer pixels than the native resolution (ie. VHS, DVD, and some high-definition broadcasts on a 1080p HDTV), you will not get any extra sharpness from the television's pixels; in fact, it will look worse.

So what do you do? You want great picture image quality, but you don't want to sacrifice resolution. Here are some simple question to help guide you in selecting the best native resolution for your needs:

• 720p: Progressively scanned 1,280x720 resolution.
  • Is this HDTV going to ever see anything more than high-definition broadcast content, VHS, and DVD? If yes, then move on to the next item. If not, this is going to be the best possible resolution for your needs. Don't be intimidated by the fact that there are higher resolutions, because these sources would actually look worse on them.
• 1080i: Interlaced (every other line is rendered) 1,920x1,080 resolution.
  • 1080i has more lines and pixels, but 720p is a progressive-scan format which delivers smoother images that stay sharper during motion. This is suitable for upscaled/upconverting DVD players, X-Box 360 (HD-DVD), and certain programming such as CBS, NBC, PBS, DiscoveryHD. Do you plan on purchasing (or already own) a Playstation 3, Blue-ray, or HD-DVD player? If you answered yes, only a native 1080p HDTV offers the resolution you will need so please continue to the next item.
• 1080p: Progressively scanned 1,920x1,080 resolution.
  • Rendering a 1,920x1,080 pixel progressively scanned picture is going to come at a slightly higher premium, but it is presently the full embodiment of High-Definition. Generally found in larger LCD and Plasma televisions, the full high-definition resolution looks great when using native 1080p content. 1080p Content presently includes the Playstation 3, Blue-ray, and HD-DVD, but because technology develops so fast these sources could be standard in just a year or more.

For most people who are buying for their present day needs, and plan to upgrade in the 2-3 year future, then a 720p HDTV is perfect. Offering the most affordable HDTV solution, but compromising top-end picture quality, this is a shallow recommendation. The widespread availability of 1080p HDTV's has made the 1080i alternative not really a technology worth having. With that said, those of us who want to make our best attempt at a future-proof HDTV purchase should begin looking towards 1080p solutions.

Other peripheral considerations include component controllers. While everything you will buy for your entertainment center no doubt came with a simple remote control, you will eventually have yourself a large collection of basic control devices cluttering your coffee table. I was not a big fan of using a universal remote control until my home theater expanded to over six devices. Most components offered a decent remote, but the functionality was limited and it didn't help the appearance of my home theater. This is why I ultimately decided on the Logitech Harmony 890 Pro Advanced Universal Remote to control every single device in my home theater, as well as a few other devices all around the house.

But before we move on, let's address the subject of HDMI and it's relationship to your HDTV purchase.

Without going into the boring details describing the many ongoing revisions to the HDMI standard and what they might mean to you, this portion of the article will focus on the more important question: will you need HDMI in your HDTV? The honest answer is yes. If for nothing more than the fact that HDMI allows uncompressed audio and video to travel in digital format over just one cable. Technically, HDMI is the replacement for many older cables, such as coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, component video and VGA D-Sub. Additionally, some industry critics claim that Intel's High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) will soon be the standard DRM protection for most all movies published. So if you plan on watching DVD-quality or better digital content, you had better begin planning a home theater system which involves HDMI.

In my particular case, this project meant not only replacing my 36" CRT television with a 52" LCD HDTV, but the DVD player and A/V receiver were also replaced with versions supporting HDMI. None of these items were inexpensive, and knowing your budget for a project like this is essential to putting all of the pieces together.

Know your HDTV budget

In the last section you should have figured out the size and resolution for the HDTV you plan on purchasing. Now we move on to the most important section of the decision making process: the budget. Since we all make different incomes, the rest of this article will concentrate on how to best go about investing a sizable portion of that income towards a primary television set. It could be argued that knowing your budget should come before you know what you want, but lets face it: nobody is going to walk away with an unheard of bargain in the Internet age.

PriceGrabber has made certain that you and everyone else can get the absolute lowest price on everything available to consumers. To this same end, using a price comparison tool such as PriceGrabber can save you hundreds of dollars. It saved me over $1100 by purchasing my Sharp AQUOS LC-52D62U 52" LCD 1080p HDTV from an online retailer instead of my local retail outlet. Although saving this much money allowed me to get an HDTV that would normally be out of my price range, the purchase did not go without incident.

By purchasing online, you put your trust into a freight company to deliver your HDTV. In my first attempt, the online merchant and their contracted freight company had a breakdown in communication which left me sitting at home waiting for a delivery that was scheduled to happen but never did. Two weeks later, I was taking a chance with a different online merchant (who ironically used the same freight company), and my new HDTV was delivered (albeit much later then initially scheduled). Even despite the perils of a freight shipment and botched delivery, I would do it all again to save that much money.

So the most important question is how much you have got budgeted to spend. Sure, the 60+ inch 1080p HDTV paired with a PS3 sounds real nice, but unless you can safely handle the increased financial burden, you are better off either waiting to make your purchase, or getting something more in line with your income. On a related note, because the first HDTV set I purchased was essentially lost with the freight carrier, I kept shopping the same item and two weeks later it had dropped a full $100. Technology is getting better by the minute, just like yesterdays technology is getting cheaper.

There are a few very basic items which should be considered a "given" in shopping for HDTV technology. These are the basic rules, which I learned and ultimately employed to make my (overly) informed decision to purchase the Sharp AQUOS LC-52D62U 52" LCD 1080p HDTV.

Basic shopping rules for HDTV:

1. Any product sent to retail shelves before 1 March 2007 is obsolete.
   • As part of the digital broadcast transition initiative, by law all television sets manufactured after this date must have a built-in digital (ATSC) tuner.
   • Despite lengthy discussion on resolution and size, both should be considered secondary to contrast ratio. Higher is always better, and you will notice the difference.
Contrast Ratio is everything. No exceptions.
2. Native Resolution is key, and 720p is not as low end as it sounds.
   • At its best, HDTV will broadcasts at 720p. So unless you plan on an HD-DVD or Blu-ray investment, your 1080p pixels may go to waste.
3. Widescreen (16:9) is in-style like digital. Full screen (4:3) is out like analog.
   • Since nearly all content is now formatted to the 16:9 picture ratio, full screen display will soon be a thing of the analog past.
   • Digital Cable Ready (DCR) sets replace the cable/satellite receiver, but if you want PPV or on-demand programming you have to call your provider instead.
CableCard DCR televisions cannot order pay-per-view or video-on-demand programming.
4. HDMI has replaced component video connections.
   • The High Definition Multimedia Interface offers uncompressed audio and video stream to and from devices. Make sure you are equipped for the future.

Go HDTV window shopping

In the last section, Benchmark Reviews offered a few general rules to help make your shopping search a little more efficient. Now it's time for a little footwork.

Read everything you can about the product of your choice, and make sure to read just as much about the competing models. But no amount of colorful magazine pictures or high-resolution web page images can recreate the actual appearance and performance of any HDTV. Consider this a fact, and don't make a purchase without first seeing the real thing in person. Even though you may not have any intention on purchasing from a local retail outlet, you should use their showroom display to your advantage.

Local retail stores offer you with the opportunity to see the same product you plan on buying as you would see it in your own living room. But don't be taken with the special lighting and over-extended screen brightness which display floor salespeople employ to impress uninformed buyers. Without being too intrusive, you can request to skip though some channels or change room lighting, which will help you see which models offer the best contrast ratio (the difference between the brightest and darkest colors produced). Because of showroom parlor tricks, you may not have a fair chance at comparing contrast ratio between products; and in the end it may take a leap of faith to trust the manufacturer's technical specifications.

Before you make any major purchase, make sure you allow at least a full day to reflect on the transaction. In other words, don't decide what you want after reading this and then jump right into the checkout stand. There are still a few checklist items remaining to ensure that you get the most out of your money; or at a bare minimum, you get what you pay for. Here is my final list of suggestions prior to making the big purchase:

• Wait a few days. The price will most likely drop, and you may see something better worth researching.
• Get more value for your money by considering discounted flat screen TV deals for your next LCD TV purchase.
• Use a credit card with buyer protection. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express all offer protection in the event you must dispute a charge.
• Get reward points or frequent flier miles with your purchase. If your credit card doesn't give you points on every purchase, I strongly advise you to get with the program. The purchase of my Sharp AQUOS HDTV helped to earn a $100 Best Buy gift card.
• Call ahead and confirm stock. Record the names and dates you call, since the merchant may offer a credit down the road if you can prove them wrong.
• Contact the freight/delivery company on delivery day. Even if the online real-time status shows out for delivery, it could be wrong. Don't spend the day sitting at home believing the freight company's web site like I did. Even the second time around it was wrong, but by calling them on delivery morning I learned that a 10AM-4PM delivery window really was going to be a 5-9PM delivery.

So that's it. Without totally losing you with boring technical banter, this article should help you select and purchase your first HDTV. If there is anything you would like to add, or just simply comment on this article, please post your remarks in the Benchmark Reviews Discussion Forum. Remember that thousands of visitors read this article, so your imput could help many.

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