Flat-panel televisions (LCD, Plasma, and rear-projection)

Direct-view, LCD, Plasma, and rear-projection HDTVs

part of materialism by Philip Greenspun; updated October 2005

This article is intended to help you choose among LCD, Plasma, and traditional direct-view HDTV televisions.

For all televisions, these are good features:

built-in or integrated ATSC tuner; this means that you can watch over-the-air high-definition broadcasts from your local TV stations.
HDMI input; this means that you can get an all-digital signal from a DVD or Blu-Ray player or from a cable TV or satellite TV receiver

For any television, "HD-ready" is a bad feature; this means that it has no tuner for receiving HD over-the-air broadcasts from your local TV stations.

Direct-View

As of 2005, the best image quality is delivered by traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) or "direct-view" televisions. The black tones on a CRT will be darker than the black tones on an LCD or Plasma TV. The darkest blacks and the best linearity will be afforded by a Sony XBR model, such as the KD-34XBR960. If you can afford the bulk and 200 lb. weight in your house, and the 34" size is adequate, this is the TV that you want. Cheaper direct-view TVs won't have as good image quality and they won't have as high resolution. Direct-view televisions have a shadow mask with only a certain number of holes in it. No consumer television has a full 1920 slits in its shadow mask and therefore no consumer television can display all 1920 horizontal lines of resolution in the highest quality HD signals. The Sony 34XBR960 comes close, with about 1400 slits.

Another interesting direct-view television is the Samsung SlimFit TX-R3080WH. The image quality isn't quite as good as the better Sony televisions, but the set is inexpensive and only about half as deep as competitive tubes of the same size.

Flat-panel LCD

If you want to hang a television on the wall, the flat-panel LCD offers the lightest weight, lowest power consumption, and highest resolution. Compared to direct-view televisions, an LCD TV will have a narrower viewing angle, blacks that aren't as black, and colors that are not as rich.

Sharp is the traditional leader in this market with its Aquos line. If you're looking for particular features or, in some cases, a lower price, the Philips line can be recommended as well.

LCDs larger than 32" start to get ridiculously expensive and plasma or rear projection will be cheaper.

Here are some links to high-quality LCD TVs in various sizes:

Good LCD TVs with built-in DVD players:

Plasma

Party like it is 1995. If you want a TV that is larger than 32" in size and will hang on the wall, plasma is a reasonable choice. These are brighter and have wider viewing angles than LCD. Plasmas draw more power and are usually lower resolution than LCD.

Here are some good plasma TVs:

Rear-Projection

If you want a huge TV and don't mind a little depth, rear-projection is the most reasonable compromise in terms of cost and weight. The standard rear projectors use a digital light projection (DLP) chip from Texas Instruments that provides a standard resolution of 1280x720. The more expensive models use LCDs and offer higher resolution. The $15,000 70" Sony Qualia, not available online, delivers full HDTV resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.

DVD Players

You want a DVD player that delivers "progressive scan". It is best to avoid Sony-brand DVD players due to their lack of reliability. Panasonic and Toshiba are the best brands. These days it is tough to get a simple single-disk DVD player from a reputable manufacturer. You either buy a multi-disk changer or you end up with a machine that can also record. An HDMI output is a nice feature for pure digital transmission to your television.

Camcorders

You need three CCD sensors, one for each color, to get reasonable image quality from a camcorder. You want the new HDV standard for recording in HDTV. This makes it easy because there is only one camcorder on the market, as of October 2005, that has both features: the Sony HDR-FX1. I bought one when it first came out in late 2004 and it is a fabulous device.

Decorate with television

New Yorker magazine did an article some years ago about the porn industry. The writer visited many of the LA houses where the porn stars lived. She claimed that they were all decorated the same, in "porn star modern." White room, white walls, no pictures, big TV.

My dream way to have television in a living room would be a coffee table whose top flips up to reveal an LCD monitor. The smaller LCD televisions have a standard wall-mounting bracket so it should be possible to manufacture a table that could be used for many years with different televisions.

philg@mit.edu

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