10 things you need to know about HDTV

Hello All,

There is a general drop in price on HDTVs right now so I want to share some general knowledge about them as they are a different breed of TV than the tube TV we have all been using for the last sixty plus years.

1. What is HD - HD is a 720p, 1080i or 1080p picture source. What does that mean to you, it means you need an antenna, a HD receiver, an Xbox 360, a PS3, a computer, or an upconvert DVD player to see it. 480p is not HD, this is what all older game systems output in, and the wii outputs. This is all just technical nerd stuff, but good to know what you are getting into.
   
   
2. If you are buying a TV smaller than 42 inches skip the 1080p - If the TV is smaller you will not be able to see the difference between 1080p and 720p. If you cannot see the difference you are paying for bragging rights, do not be that person.
   
   
3. 1080 is not always better than 720 - 1080p is the gold standard for picture quality. Right now only Blu-ray players support this, no TV stations support 1080p. Many TV stations broadcast in 1080i some in 720p. 720p is better for motion, 1080i is better for the rest. Sports look better in 720p, sitcoms look better in 1080i. For your video game system 720p is the way to go if you do not have a 1080p TV.
   
   
4. Bigger is not always better - With new technologies and cheap prices you can buy too large of a TV and hurt your viewing experience. To pick the right size TV take the measurement from where your head will be when you watch TV to where the TV will be. Divide that number by 2 and then by 3. Your TV size should fall in between those two numbers.
   
   For example, in our bedroom our heads are 96" from the TV location. 96/2 = 48" 96/3 = 32", so we are at the smallest end of the spectrum with regard to what we can see comfortably. Anything bigger than this rule and it will look bad, i.e. you might need to move you head to see the whole picture, and smaller, you might not be able to see things on the screen.
   
   
5. Standard definition will likely look worse - If you do not hook an HDTV up to a HD source you will think you got ripped off. This is not always the case, but overwhelmingly it is the case. It has to do with resolutions and pixel density. You can recreate what is happening with any YouTube video. Just look at one of them in full screen and that is what the HDTV is doing to low definition content.
   
   
6. You need to change something to get HDTV - There is a stat out on the interweb that only 25% of all HDTVs are hooked up to an HD signal and that the 75% that does not have it hooked up to an HD signal does not even know. Here is a simple test, when you hook the HDTV up and plug it in, unless the picture is like looking through a window, you do not have it hooked to HD. It is a huge difference over low definition, if you do not see a difference or it looks worse, it is not hooked up to HD. Usually all you need to do is get the HD box from your cable or satellite provider and the HD package. Otherwise you can hook a good old rabbit ears to the TV, scan for channels, then watch beautiful HD for free.
   
   
7. You do not need a fancy antenna to get HDTV - Any pair of rabbit ears will work. You may need a better antenna if you live a long way from the towers, but do not drop $50 for a new HDTV antenna before you try one you have or a cheap one first. You can see what channels you can get here before you even leave the house. I have a $20 rca antenna I bought at Best Buy, it works great. I only bought it because it was smaller than the old rabbit ears I had. One caveat with antennas, HDTV works with line of sight, so trees, walls, etc block the signal. The less you have between your antenna and the tower the better. That being said just moving my antenna closer to the window allowed me to pick up all the channels in Madison without sticking anything on the roof.
   
   
8. Do NOT buy your cables from a retailer - The retailers rip you off horribly on cables, it is shameful actually. Cables for your TV are cables for you TV. What that means is this. HDMI is the standard connector for HD devices. These cables run a digital signal between the two devices. As long as the signal goes through, there is no loss. What does this mean to you? It means that unless you have the requirements listed at the end of this bullet point, the $100 monster cables give you the same picture and sound as the $6 cable you get from monoprice.com. Exactly the same. You can see the tests here if you want more details. *Note* If you are running the cables in your walls, or over long distances (30 feet or more), or worried about future 1080p requirements then you should buy HDMI certified cables. If you do not meet any of those three requirements the $6 cable will work great for you. I buy the cheap cables and I am really into HD.
   
   
9. You should calibrate the TV - TV makers change the settings on their TVs in order to get them to sell in the store. So they change brightness and other settings to make the TV "pop" in comparison to the TVs around it, and helping the TV to sell. When you get the TV home and there are not sodium lights shining on it and fifty other TVs within a foot of it, it will not look like real life. In other words the colors will not be an accurate representation of what the real scene looks like. I calibrate the settings on all of my TVs to make the picture more like real life, with less "pop". You do not need to do this, but grass and water for example both look incredible when you do. To calibrate the TV all you need is a DVD player and a Pixar movie. For details on the howto read this. Remember what you think looks good is all that really matters.
   
   
10. There is a lot of hype over new features - 120Mhz for example. Lower ms response time is another one. For 99% of all people neither of those features matter at all. It is like saying but this car will go 200 mph. That is great, but how is it around town, where I actually do my driving. The bottom line on picture quality is that the source makes all of the difference and calibrating a less expensive TV will make the picture look better than buying a more feature laden TV and leaving it in the stock settings. The 120Mhz is advertised to take motion blur away. The source makes difference for this one. There is no motion blur on my 60Mhz TV with video games. When I watch CBS HD football I see motion blur from time to time. Fox HD football does not have it. This is the 1080i vs 720p issue from number 3 above. Same TV, different sources, different results. You can read more on 120Mhz here.

I will add more if I can think of anything, but that is a good primer for HD. If you have any questions let me know.

***Update*** Thanks to my first ever commenter, here is another place for certified HDMI 1.3 cables cheap. Here is more information on HDMI, here and here. And lastly the logo, if a cable has that on the package it is certified.

Later,

John