Choosing the right HDTV [Ridiculously Simple]

There’s an overweight, pimply kid at Best Buy who wants to sell you an HDTV. Moreover, he wants to talk to you about HDTVs, 7.1 Dolby surround sound systems, Klipsch home theater speakers, and probably his Star Wars collection if there’s time. He’s going to dazzle you with techno-babble, spouting such things as contrast ratio, “true” versus perceived widescreen resolution, LCD this and plasma that, HDMI what?, cables and ports and doodads and whistles. And if you’re not sold by then, it comes with a stand!

But seriously, it’s time to shitcan your tired, antiquated tube television and jump on the HD bandwagon. The neighbors are starting to talk. Nobody wants to make it a Blockbuster Night if it means squinting at some washed out, rabbit eared, 19″ monstrosity that generates more heat than the microwave.

I’m here to help you wade through all that technical jargon, make sense of the things that really matter when choosing the right HDTV (hint: it’s in the eye of the beholder), and help you not sound like a jackass when you finally walk into Best Buy to drop some Benjamins. More than a few Benjamins, in fact. Somewhere between four and thirty-two of them, Mr. Moneybags.

There are really only two determining factors when buying an HDTV:

1. The distance from your couch to your (new HD)TV.
2. Your budget.

Your viewing distance will determine what resolution (i.e. 720p or 1080i/p) your eyes will even be able to detect.

Have you ever been admiring all the shiny things in the electronics department and noticed the HDTVs don’t look all that “high def?” In fact, they probably look like crap! Aside from typical TV snow that happens from bad coaxial connections (a common culprit when many display televisions are spliced off the same cable source in stores), think back and remember about how far you were standing from aforementioned HDTV when you remarked on it’s picture quality (or lack thereof). You were probably only standing a few feet away, right? Staring intensely at every pixel, trying to get a grasp of all the detail the commercials have been promising?

News flash, dumbass. You were standing too damn close. It’s okay though. I made the same mistake. Keep reading. That’s why it’s taken me this long to buy an HDTV.

Your first step is to measure the distance from where you plan on having your HDTV to the couch (or chair or jacuzzi or whatever the hell). Now take a look at the chart below and find that distance on the vertical axis.

Click to enlarge

Your next step is to move horizontally along that line until you intersect with your desired HDTV size. You have one in mind, right? I know you do. Where does that point intersect? (The only two curves you need to worry about are light blue (720p HDTV) and green (1080i/p HDTV).)

I’ll use my own requirements as an example. The distance from my entertainment center to my chair is 10 feet. My budget was $1000 and I had my heart set on a 42″ 1080p HDTV. So, with that information. I moved up the vertical axis to 10 then across the horizontal axis until it intersected with my desired screen size. Once I found that point, I could then determine what resolution I would need by seeing which resolution fell below that point. Hence, a 42″ HDTV being viewed at 10 feet could either have 720p or 1080i/p resolution.

But what’s the big difference between the two resolutions, you ask? A 1080i/p HDTV is about $300 more than it’s 720p counterpart of equal size, which could be better spent on Coronas or lap dances if you ask me. To make a long story not even remotely shorter, I settled on a Westinghouse 32″ 720p LCD. It was a size familiar to my old 36″ tube TV and saved me almost $500 over a 42″.

The key point to remember is if your intersecting point falls above the light blue 720p curve, then 720p is all the resolution detail you need! Your eyes won’t be able tell the difference. But if your intersecting point falls between the light blue 720p curve and the 1080i/p green curve (meaning it’s below 720p but above 1080i/p), you need to buy an HDTV with 1080i/p resolution.

Please direct questions through post comments.

References
1. Maxing Out Resolution: Optimize Your Seating Distance for Your Screen Size and Resolution
2. 1080p charted: Viewing distance to screen size