.FLYINGHEAD GETTING STARTED WITH HDTV
.TITLE HDTV? DLP? WTF?
.AUTHOR Jorge Sosa
.SUMMARY If you’re like Jorge Sosa, you might have noticed buying a TV is now a process that seems about a bajillion times harder than it has to be. The last time he bought a TV, it was an old-school CRT model. "Bigger is better" was the one-and-only simple rule. Now, there’s a whole new lexicon to learn and it seems like you have be a genius to go about purchasing an idiot box. What follows is his personal cheat sheet on the digital TV hoohah. It’s even in plain English, and yes, "hoohah" is a real word.
.OTHER
My fellow Americans, 2009 will bring sweeping change to our country. The change has been a long time coming, and our lives will never be the same. I’m referring, of course, to the big digital TV changeover on Feb. 17.
That’s the deadline for all full-power TV stations to cease broadcasting regular analog signals and start exclusively broadcasting in digital. Needless to say, this is a perfect excuse to go out and buy a new TV.
.CALLOUT It seems like you have be a genius to go about purchasing an idiot box.
If you’re like me, you might have noticed this is now a process that seems about a bajillion times harder than it has to be. The last time I bought a TV, it was an old-school CRT model. "Bigger is better" was the one-and-only simple rule. Now, there’s a whole new lexicon to learn and it seems like you have be a genius to go about purchasing an idiot box.
What follows is my personal cheat sheet on the digital TV hoohah. It’s even in plain English, and yes, "hoohah" is a real word.
.TEASER If you value your TV, read this article.
.H1 HDTV
High Definition TV sets allow you to watch programming that’s of higher detail and sharpness then standard TV. Most HDTV sets out there are widescreen models, in part because a lot of network TV digital programming is broadcast in a widescreen format.
HDTV sets commonly come in of four types: plasma, LCD, DLP or LCoS.
.H2 Plasma
In high-school physics, you probably learned that plasma is a fourth state of matter apart from solids, liquids and gases. It’s what stars and ball lightning are made out of and it is literally what’s inside plasma flatscreen TVs.
Plasma TVs consist of a grid of hundreds of thousands of cells sandwiched between panes of glass. The cells contain gas which is zapped with electricity, converting the gas to plasma and emitting light.
Plasma displays are large and very bright, but expensive. Also, they have a history of not lasting as long as other HDTV types.
.H2 LCD
LCDs or liquid crystal displays use the same underlying technology as the screen on your pocket calculator. LCDs are the most common type of flat-panel display, with about a 50 percent market share of all TVs sold this year. They are popular because they are energy efficient and less expensive than other technologies.
LCDs have long had several disadvantages such as limited viewing angles, somewhat washed-out reproduction of blacks, and "ghosting" when onscreen images rapidly change. However, LCDs have come a long way in recent years and are approaching the display quality of plasmas.
.H2 DLP
Digital Light Processing is a technology trademarked by Texas Instruments and used in many rear-projection TVs. The heart of the DLP technology is a chip covered with about a million microscopic mirrors. A light source is aimed at the mirrors and each mirror reflects a pixel to create an image that can contain millions, or even trillions of colors.
One of DLP’s advantages over plasma and LCD techonology is it can be used to create a much larger screen. Movie theaters in the future might replace their 35mm film projects with DLP projectors. DLP screens are very bright and also have good reproduction of blacks.
Some of the drawbacks? DLP screens are not as thin as LCDs and plasmas. Also, the light source on the DLP will last one to three years. You have to replace the light source at a cost ranging from $99 to $350. However, newer DLPs use longer-lasting LED light sources.
Some people also report eye strain, headaches and migraines from watching DLPs. Of course, Simon Cowell is known to have that effect on people.
[Some industry people claim the rainbow effect is the result of bad marketing and the imaginations of consumers, but Managing Editor Denise Amrich experienced this quite clearly on a DLP, which was immediately returned in favor of an LCoS. – DG]
.H2 LCoS
LCoS, or liquid crystal on silicon, is also used for some rear-projection TVs, most notably Sony and JVC models. Lcos is sort of a hybrid between DLP and LCD. Instead of using a slew of tiny mirrors, it has a single mirror. Pixels are rendered by shining light through a panel of liquid crystals.
LCoS displays are capable of much higher resolution than LCDs, with good reproduction of blacks, brightness and color quality. Like DLPs, the light sources can be expensive to replace.
.H1 Digging through the clutter
I’m not sure if I’ve made it any clearer for you as to which kind of HDTV you’ll want to buy. Ultimately, there doesn’t seem to be a clear winner among all these competing technologies. Each has its tradeoffs.
My advice is to buy your TV from a retailer that will let you take it back after you’ve had a week or so to try it out at home. That way, you can gauge how well your HDTV presents your favorite "benchmark" movies, TV shows and video games.
When you’re dropping a few hundred to a few thousand on a new set, the last thing you want is four-to-eight years of buyer’s remorse.
[When we bought our 65" HDTV last year, we went through four separate TVs. The first two caused rainbowing that made Denise nuts, the third died within a week, and we’ve been extremely happy with the Sony LCoS we’ve had for the past year. It was an insane month, because upgrading to HDTV also involved upgrading the amp, TiVo, and much more. The result was worth it, but wow! – DG]
.BIO
