5 Considerations Before You Buy Your Next TV
If you’ve ever stood in front of that wall of TVs, read the online reviews, or listened to the Thanksgiving uncle who knows “everything,” you know how confusing it gets when the acronyms, numbers and words you would swear are made up start flying. I’m going to help demystify some of this and share some sensible advice for choosing your next TV.
First, one idea that matters throughout: black level. The deeper a TV can make black, the richer and more lifelike everything else looks. The main types of TVs are: True RGB, Mini LED, QLED, OLED, LED…each has its place. For the tech geeks out there (like me), I’ll take a deeper dive into this in a separate post.
1. Start with the room, not the TV
Is your new TV going into a room with windows and lots of sunlight, or lamps and lights close by?
OLED has amazing black levels but doesn’t fare well in bright rooms and many do not have reduced/anti-glare. If the TV is used during daylight hours, your best bet is True RGB or Mini LED with reduced or anti-glare. Not all glare reducing TVs are the same, however. Generally speaking, a lower-priced glare-reducing TV uses a film that also mutes your color. It’s like putting Ray Bans on your TV, or in this case truck stop sunglasses.
Where is the seating?
If most of your seating is directly in front of the TV, viewing angle may not be a major concern. In a wide room people may be watching from 30 degrees or more off center. True RGB and OLED generally maintain picture much better from those side seats, while some LED and Mini-LED televisions begin losing contrast and color much sooner.
2. Go bigger than you think
People rarely say they wish they had bought a smaller TV. A 65” TV was enormous 20 years ago and now we’re commonly working with 98” and 115” sets. It used to be about sitting far enough back that you couldn’t see the picture structure, but with today’s technology it really comes down to field of vision. For a 4K TV, a good rule of thumb is 1.0 to 1.5 times the diagonal screen size. So, your recliner can be 5.4 to 8.1 feet away from a 65” TV or 8.1 to 12.25 feet from a 98”.
3. Decode the jargon
4K, 8K, 1080p, HDR, OLED, QLED, True RGB, Mini LED… buying a TV sometimes feels more like taking an eye exam.
1080p, 4K, and 8K describe the amount of picture detail, or resolution, a TV can display. 4K has four times the pixels of 1080p and 8K four times the pixels of 4K.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) allows a TV to show brighter highlights, deeper shadows, and a wider range of colors, making the picture look more realistic and lifelike. Although HDR is listed on most TVs now, a budget TV will likely lack the capability to take advantage of it.
True RGB, Mini LED, QLED, OLED and LED describe how a TV makes its light and color. We’ll get deeper into them in a separate post.
4. Match it to what you watch
Cable, streaming, games and movie servers each send your TV a different quality of picture.
If you haven’t cut the cable TV cord yet, here’s a reason to. Even though most TVs today are 4K, much of traditional cable television is still delivered at 720p or 1080i, with the TV doing the work of upscaling that picture to its 4K screen.
Devices like Apple TV and Roku can deliver a true 4K signal, but the picture you actually receive is only as good as the content being sent to them. As an example, Gunsmoke was made long before high definition, so don’t expect to see Festus’s beard stubble in detail.
8K content on a TV is much harder to come by, currently just PlayStation 5 and Kaleidescape can deliver real 8K unless you are going to jump through the hoops to make your TV a computer monitor. What is Kaleidescape you ask….only the best, most cool movie server you will ever see. K’scape delivers movies at full disc quality, with none of the compression that streaming adds. I know, cool right?!
5. Plan for the sound
In a nutshell, TVs look great but sound awful. The only TV I have seen and heard that bucks this trend is Loewe, a German-made TV that had the nerve to put the speaker at the bottom of the TV again.
Thin panels leave almost no room for real speakers, so even an expensive TV usually sounds flat. A good soundbar or a properly designed audio system can change how a movie or game feels as much as any picture upgrade. If you’re planning a room around a new TV, this is the best place to spend a little extra.
A note for designers and builders. A TV is a design decision as much as a tech one. Where it goes on the wall, what the sightlines look like, where the power and cabling run, and how the screen looks when it’s off should all be settled before the walls close up. Bring us in early and we’ll help you plan it.
After 32 years of doing this, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that there really isn’t one “best TV.” The best TV is the one that fits your room, your viewing habits, your budget and what you actually like to watch. Don’t get too caught up in the acronyms, specifications or the TV that looks brightest on the showroom wall. Buy the right TV for the right application, and if all else fails, ask somebody who has been staring at these things for 32 years.
Thinking about a new TV, or planning a room around one? Talk to the Sellhorst team about your space and we’ll help you make the right choice.