5 Things To Consider When Buying TVs – BGR

In the decades since the inception and popularization of the consumer TV, the process of actually purchasing a set has become steadily more complicated. Where once buying a TV was as simple as picking a box you were reasonably sure would fit in your living room, improvements in technology have made this decision much more multifaceted. You do still need to consider physical sizing, of course, but you also need to know about different display types, resolutions, operating systems, and other more advanced factors.

If it’s time to replace a worn-out TV for a room in your home, whether it’s the living room, a rec room, your bedroom, or wherever else, it’s important to know and understand the vital factors. Having all the knowledge you can before you purchase a prohibitively expensive device like a TV will ensure that said TV is the ideal one for whatever you plan on using it for. To that end, here are five of the biggest data points you should research on a TV before you hand over the cash.

The first and foremost thing to consider when purchasing a TV for any room is the TV’s actual size. Depending on your available space, a larger TV may not fit comfortably in the room you want to put it in, but a smaller TV may not be suitable for your needs. Look up the particular model you want online to find its dimensions, then get out a tape measure and line it up on your floor, shelf, or wherever else you’d like to put the TV to make sure it’ll fit.

In addition to the TV’s basic size, there’s another factor you have to consider: how close you plan on sitting to the TV, and your angle of viewing. Even if you could fit a massive TV in your living room, if the room itself isn’t that large, you’d be forced to sit right in front of it, where you likely wouldn’t be able to see the whole picture – one of the biggest mistakes you could make when buying a TV. Depending on the TV’s display type, which we’ll get into in detail in a bit, you also might not be able to see the picture clearly if you’re looking at the screen from an odd, sharp angle. If you can, try making a markup of the TV in front of your seat, then sit down to ensure you’ve got an optimal viewing position where you’re looking right at the whole screen.

In the olden days of boxy CRT TVs, you could place a set just about anywhere, and it could stand up just fine under its own power. In the age of flat screen displays, though, things have gotten a little trickier. A flat screen display cannot stand up on its own; it either needs a stand to prop it up on the floor or a shelf, or it needs to be mounted directly to your wall.

Depending on the model of TV you’re interested in, it should come bundled with either a simple stand you can screw in or some mounting plates you can fasten to your wall. This is assuming, of course, you’re buying a brand-new, unopened TV. If you’re going with a used model, it might not come with its stand, so you’ll have to purchase a separate one. When considering a stand, as well as the spot you want to put the TV, think carefully about the TV’s weight. If you’ve got a large, heavy TV, a simple, thin stand may not be able to safely prop it up, increasing the risk of tip-overs. The same goes for mounting TVs on walls; while this tends to be more stable, if you’re using weaker mounting brackets, there’s a risk the TV could fall right off. Make sure you know how much the TV you want weighs, and if you’re getting a separate stand or mount, how much weight they’re rated for.

As we mentioned, modern flat screen TVs have a couple of different display types. Broadly speaking, these display types fall into two categories: LCD/LED displays and OLED displays. You can find flat screen TVs that utilize either of these types in a variety of different sizes and price ranges, though generally, OLED displays are the more expensive option.

LCD and LED TVs have been the standard for flat screen displays for about as long as flat screen displays have been around. The majority of older flat screen displays will use these display types, so if you want to shop around for your ideally-sized or priced set, LED is a good economic option. They can get very bright and counter glare, which is nice for brighter rooms, though their color contrast isn’t quite as deep, so some pictures might look slightly muted. Moreover, they tend to get fuzzy at certain, sharper viewing angles, which can be annoying if you’re not seated in a way that you’re looking right at it.

OLED displays are the newer, more advanced option for TVs. Since they’re newer and fancier, they’re naturally a bit more expensive, and may not be available in as many sizes as you’d like. For your investment, though, you do get a much richer contrast with deeper shades of black, more accurate colors, wider viewing angles, and faster response times for reducing unpleasant picture blurring.

The science of display resolution is a good indicator of just how much televisions have advanced in the last decade or so. Where once HD displays were the absolute pinnacle of quality, now HD is considered low-end tech compared to what some TVs have reached.

In a nutshell, resolution refers to the number of pixels present in a TV’s display. More pixels means a sharper, clearer picture. A pixel count in the thousands will provide the most vibrant picture you can imagine, but obviously, those pixels are going to run you some extra cash. Current resolution standards generally range from 720p (1280×720 pixels) to 8K (7680×4320 pixels). TVs can have either smaller or larger resolutions, which helps to diversify price tags a bit. For daily viewing purposes, opting for something in the middle like 1080p or 4K will work just fine.

You should also be aware of your prospective TV’s high dynamic range features, or HDR for short. HDR allows a TV to change its contrast, brightness, and other similar settings on the fly to really emphasize whatever it is you’re looking at, creating more vibrant, dynamic colors, blacks, and whites. Some simpler TVs may claim to have HDR functionality, but these claims could be exaggerated. Many HDR features have a specific name, such as Dolby Vision, so if you know what kind of HDR is on tap, do a little research online to ensure it’s all it’s cracked up to be.

With the advent of smart TVs, what were previously just standalone displays have become simple computers in their own right, offering a greater degree of features and content through dedicated apps. If you’re purchasing a “dumb” TV or the only thing you’re planning on doing with your TV is connecting an external device like a cable box, game console, or streaming stick to it, you don’t need to think too much about what kind of OS is loaded into it. If you’re planning on using those apps and services, though, make sure you know what your TV will be loaded up with.

Different smart TV frameworks like Fire TV, Roku TV, Apple TV, or Google TV from different manufacturers like LG, Sony, or Samsung have different features, functions, and limitations. For example, Fire TVs are Android-based, so you can side-load homebrewed apps onto them, something that no other framework can handle. Or, if you’ve previously used a Roku streaming player, you could log into your Roku account on a Roku TV and immediately fetch all of your apps and preferences. Some frameworks may have exclusive apps that others can’t access besides the major multi-platform services like Netflix or YouTube.

Just make sure you know what you want out of a smart TV once you buy one, because you can’t change its OS later if you don’t like it.