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UNIT2 CONSUMER ALERT

HDTV lessons

A guide on what people should know before they buy an HDTV.

By Dave Young, Reporter, KWGN

November 28, 2007

DENVER — Now that the holidays are here, you might be like a lot of people, finally ready to make the big step into high definition TV.

But before plopping down your money, there are a couple of key things you need to know to before you make the wrong buy.

A new industry survey shows that almost 90 percent of consumers these days are confused by high definition television.

And yet, by the end of this year, more than 52 million households will own an HDTV.

But as many as half those people won't be enjoying the full HD experience.

As prices fall, HDTV sales are skyrocketing, and the choices are mind boggling.

"It is a little overwhelming," said Best Buy HDTV expert Rocky Defalco.

So before you face walls of monitors, at least know your plasma from your LCD.

"Do you have a lot of light coming in your room," asked Jason Liest, another Best Buy salesman. "How far away are you going to be sitting?"

Bigger, better and cheaper are the main changes since our last HDTV tutorial. You now get the best picture quality ever from what's called progressive scan, in either 720p or 1080p, the highest resolution ever available.

And you can count on good deals on both plasma and LCDs during the shopping season, most priced well below last year.

Like all technology, HD has improved over the last few years so you'll need to know what you're going to watch and how you're going to watch it, before you make your final purchase.

If you're a big sports and movies fan, you might consider plasma, which handles high speed action with darker blacks and stronger contrast.

But you can also get irritating reflections if there's ambient light in the room.

"LCD is very very popular right now," said Liest, "Especially out here, but a lot of people with a lot of light coming in the room these guys have a little bit softer display, they'll absorb a little bit of the light as opposed to kicking it back at you."

While LCDs have been far outselling plasma, they are hard pressed to recreate plasma's richer natural colors.

But for video gaming or a PC monitor, LCD offers no chance of burning into the screen like plasma can, though plasma does offer a wider viewing area, rather than just a sweet spot in front of the set.

"But sometimes if you get too big a set," said Liest, "it'll overwhelm you if you're sitting about five feet away."

Learn the difference between picture resolutions, and figure that into your budget for the size set you want.

"Most consumers are interested in knowing 'hey you know what are the advantages of 1080p,'" said Liest. "And we talk about what's coming and the next generation stuff, there is a big advantage to going with 1080p. "

Although, experts say, in some smaller sets, 720p also delivers an outstanding picture.

"Even though you just bought an HDTV," said Defalco, "It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to take it home, plug it into the wall and you've got HD ."

For example, even though it's an HD set: with a "regular" digital signal, you cans see a difference of the pixilation signal loss around the edges of things like playing cards in a poker match, versus much sharper cards with a true "high definition" digital signal.

So you'll need an HD signal source, available over the air from local stations with a simple HD antenna.

But be prepared to leave a couple hundred bucks in your budget for things like HD cable or HD satellite, and accessories like surge protection, power filters, and an HDMI or high definition multimedia interface.

"Which gives you high definition in both the digital capacity for audio and video," said Defalco.

The bottom line is; quality has gone up, you have the best TV choices available ever some at very moderate prices.

The final deciding factor might be in the eye of the beholder. But at least have an idea before you get to the store, where you're going to be putting the set, how many people are going to be sitting there and where they're going to sit.

Those could be the biggest factors in determining which sets you should look at.