Since my last ‘Home Theater on a Dime’ got so many comments, I decided to hurry and write the second installment.

Home Theater Displays, or “TVs” as the rest of you call them…
There is a lot of information and mis-information out there about displays. Large, High Definition displays have finally reached the magic sub-$1000 mark. People are grabbing them like mad, and lots of new models are arriving every week. This means lots of options. So, first I am going to run-down the basics of HD displays. If you don’t care about all the geek-speak then scroll to the bottom for the Buying Guide.

Configuration (i.e., Flat Panel vs. Rear-Projection vs. Front Projection)

The first thing you need to decide is what configuration of display you need (want). One thing to keep in mind is that the best size/cost ratio typically results in the worst picture.
Front Projectors are wonderful and can produce enormous images for very little money but you need a light controlled room and the size of the display can make watching TV disorienting.
Similarly, Rear-Projection displays offer more screen size for the money, but are not as bright and do not have as good a picture as many of the Flat Panel displays. The latest generation of Rear-Projections TVs offer excellent picture quality, but they still suffer from the same old “sweet spot” issue where you have to be directly in front of the TV and close to level with it to get the best picture. Brightness and contrast fall off dramatically as you leave the sweet spot.
Flat Panel displays offer the best picture brightness, contrast and take up the least overall space. Consequently, the are the most expensive. But with prices in free-fall, they are still quite affordable unless you need a very large display.

Pros and Cons and Buy Recommend

Front Projection
Pros - Largest picture for the size. Best movie-watching experience
Cons - Only for light-controlled rooms. Large display not as good for watching TV.
Buy - For dedicated Home Theater rooms.

Rear-Projection
Pros - Large screen for little cost. Lightweight and much smaller than previous generation.
Cons - Dim picture if not in the “sweet spot”.
Buy - If you HAVE to have a 60″+ display.

Flat Panel
Pros - Excellent picture quality in all lighting conditions. Can be mounted anywhere.
Cons - Cost, displays only up to 60″
Buy - Best buy for most applications except for very large display needs.

Resolution (480i, 480p, 1080i, 720p, 1080p)

Display resolution is probably one of the most misunderstood areas of displays. The list of resolutions above is in order of quality. I know it looks like it is out of order, but it is not. The number represents the number of lines of resolution or rows of dots that are displayed on the screen. The more dots to appear more quickly, the better the picture (in general).
The “i” stands for “interlaced” and the “p” stands for “progressive”. This has to do with how the image is scanned onto the display.
Interlaced pictures display altenative lines for each cycle. That is, lines 1, 3, 5, 7, …are displayed the first time around, then lines 2, 4, 6, 8… are displayed the next time. This format allows higher resolution video to be displayed on lower resolution displays. Interlacing also makes motion in video appear more smooth. But this was more true when older TV and movies were shot in 24 frames per second “fps”. Newer video is 30 or even 60 fps which eliminates the “smoothness” benefits of interlacing.
Progressive displays show the entire resolution image on each cycle or refresh of the display. All digital displays are progressive scan.

Here is a run-down of the various resolutions, and where they are used.

480i - Standard TV Resolution (AKA “SD” or “SDTV”). All TVs will handle this.
480p - Native DVD resolution. Sometimes called Enhanced Definition “ED”. You need a progressive scan DVD player and a EDTV or HDTV. All digital displays will handle this. Many people regard this resolution as the lowest of the High Definition resolutions. Very few displays are native 480p (mostly just front projection displays) so it is typically up-converted.
1080i - HDTV. Almost all High Definition TV stations broadcast in this resolution. All digital displays will handle this. Many analog (old school) HDTVs are native 1080i displays.
720p - Nothing outputs this resolution natively, but many devices up-convert and down-convert to it. Most LCD Flat Panel and Rear-Projection displays are 720P Native. Some Plasmas and Front Projection displays are native 720p. Most new DVD players will up-convert the 480p video on the DVD to 720p (whether they perform the up-conversion better than the display is arguable). Many of the low-end HD DVD and Blu-Ray players down-convert the 1080p video on the disk to 720p. Whether this provides a better picture than and up-converted standard DVD is arguable. Some XBox360 and PlayStation3 games are native 720p. Most digital displays are native 720p.
1080p - Full HD. This is the native resolution of HD DVDs and Blu-Ray disks. Only high-end displays are native 1080p. This is the highest of the high-definition. It is so high-resolution that you wont even notice the difference until your display is more than 50 inches.

In general, a display can can handle any resolution at or below it’s native resolution. Some displays can down-convert higher resolutions than their native, but this is generally a bad idea. So, basically, it is OK to buy a 720p display to watch regular DVDs and HDTV. But I would not bother watching Blu-Ray or HD DVDs on a 720p display.

Technology (LCD, Plasma, DLP, LCoS, UPS, DHL)

This is probably the most controversial subject for HD Displays. Everyone has their favorite. I am not so humble to tell you what I prefer. But I will give you some general information to make it at least appear that I am impartial before talking you into my favorites.

For Front Projection and Rear-Projection displays there are primarily DLP and LCD. Rear Projection also has LCoS and number of other newer technologies. DLP offers better color saturation and faster refresh times but some people can see a rainbow effect when viewing DLP displays. LCDs generally offer sharper images and are often less expensive. LCoS is essentially a higher-end LCD with higher-end prices. DLP has a lot more options and brands behind it and, hence, has been developed more recently. Beware older LCD projection displays. Older LCD processors produced lots of noise with busy or bright red images.
There are a number of other technologies in this space, but none have the following of LCos, LCD or DLP. Some have even recently been abandoned so I can not recommend them.

Winner: DLP due its superior image and refresh and for its better backing for past and future improvement.

For Flat Panels, the only options are LCD or Plasma. In general LCDs offer a sharper and higher resolution image. Plasmas offer a brighter image with better color saturation. Both LCDs and Plasmas have a huge following and many improvements have been made for both technologies. Plasma screens used to dim considerably within the first 5 years, they would suffer from screen burn-in if left on the same image for too long and individual pixels would burn out, but these problems have been dramatically reduced with newer models (so beware older models). LCDs have been less problematic in the past, but their back-lights have been known to burn out prematurely. This was never a huge deal since the back-light can be replaced fairly easily. Newer models use LEDs for back-lighting and offer much better contrast and life-span because of it (these models are still quite pricey though). Best thing to do is to look at each and see which you prefer. But there are niches that each technology fill better than the other.
Another notable mention is the new OLED technology. The largest display is only 20″ right now, but this technology has the potential to make huge displays that are brighter, have better color and contrast and are as thin as 3mm. This technology is still 3-5 years away from competing with LCD or Plasma though.

Winner: LCD for displays 50″ and less. Plasma for displays 50″ and larger.

Brands (Samsung, Sony, Sharp, Olevia, etc.)

I will probably get flamed for this, but the brand name hardly matters beyond how well they warranty their products. There are only 4 manufacturers of LCD panels in the world. So even though there are over 50 brand names, it is entirely possible that the Vizio TV you bought at CostCo for half the cost of the same sized Sharp from Best Buy is using a very similar if not identical LCD panel. Now this is a generalization. Some of the name brands only use the newer top-end components, but some do not. Most of the budget brands use budget components, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Brands like Syntax Olevia have a proven track record of quality displays and good customer service. Brands like Vizio are backed by CostCo’s guarantees. It is hard to argue with a significant savings like this unless you can actually SEE the difference. So check them out, but do not disregard the budget brands without good reason.
One note on budget brands. Some of the larger retailers have “special” budget brands that are used for nothing more than justification of the “brand name premium” added to the more popular brands. Best Buy carries Westinghouse displays to compete with the budget brands, but IMO the only purpose the Westinghouse brand serves is to make the name brands look good by looking terrible right next to them. They hope that by seeing how much better the Sony or Sharp looks than the Westinghouse, it will discourage people from shopping Vizio, or Syntax Olevia since they can rarely be compared to name brands side-by-side.

Buying Guide

Here is handy guide to help make your buying decision this Holiday Season.

For the Bedroom:
$350-$400 - 27″ LCD Flat Panel TV (720p)
$400-$550 - 32″ LCD Flat Panel TV (720p)
$550-$1000 - 37″ LCD Flat Panel TV (720p)

For the Living Room:
$800-$1000 - 42″ LCD Flat Panel TV (720p) OR 50″ Rear-Projection TV (720p)
$1000-$1700 - 50″ Plasma Flat Panel TV (720p) OR 62″ Rear-Projection TV (1080p)
$1700-$3000 - 52″ LCD or Plasma Flat Panel TV (1080p) OR 72″ Rear-Projection TV (1080p)
$3000+ - 58″+ LCD or Plasma Flat Panel (1080p)

For the Home Theater:
$400-$900 - 480p DLP Projector (perfect for DVDs)
$900-$1500 - 720p DLP Projector
$1500-$2500 - 62″ or 72″ Rear-Projection TV
$2500+ - 1080p DLP Projector

For finding the best deal, I recommend http://www.pricegrabber.com. It is a website that tracks the prices of virtually everything. It is not always up-to-date with recent price changes, so be sure to check the websites of the stores as well.

A final note on Black Friday. You may be tempted to camp out for a deal at one of the stores, but I have to say that I have rarely found a good deal on Black Friday. If there is a good deal, then there is typically very little stock available or the item is a model that is being discontinued but in most cases it is simply re-marketed junk. All the right specs, but no substance, no warranty or bundled with over-priced warranties or something else you dont want to buy. So be very careful before you spend a day fighting the crowds.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 12:39 am and is filed under technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.