ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST
Purchasing a new TV for your family can be a daunting task. When making an investment like this in the centerpiece of your home entertainment system, price alone can give pause and lead to many questions about making the right choice. Here are the key factors to consider for your next TV.
The Room - What kind of room and environment will your new TV be mounted in? A dedicated media room? Family room? Bonus room? Can natural light be easily controlled or are there lots of windows? Some TV’s work better than others in darker rooms and others are designed for well-lit spaces (more on this below).
The Size – Today, most TV’s intended for primary family entertainment start at about 65”, and go up from there even to 95” and over 100”. So how big is too big? It depends on how far you’ll be seated from the screen. Personal preference is always king, but a good rule of thumb is that your TV’s diagonal size should be about one-third to one-half of your viewing distance. So for a 75” TV, you should be seated 10 to 12 feet back. For the best experience in a really big open family room, consider going as big as your budget permits.
The Technology - There are 3 kinds of TV’s today - LED is the most popular by far; OLED uses organic LED cells and renders better black levels and contrast ratings (OLEDs are best for dimly-lit media rooms or where natural light can be well-controlled; and finally, QLED, which uses quantum dots to provide better brightness and more accurate color rendering. Refresh rates vary from 60Hz to 240Hz and refer to how many times per second the screen image is refreshed. For someone who watches lots of sports or is an avid video gamer, the higher the refresh rate - the better.
The Resolution - This refers to how many pixels are on the screen. The more pixels = the sharper the image. All new TV’s today are 1080p (full HD), 4K or 8K. A 4K TV usually hits the sweet spot for most views and strikes a balance between performance and budget. For the enthusiast, the higher the resolution, the better.
Final Takeaways - Most all new TV’s available today are “Smart” meaning they include on-board apps for the popular streaming services, and they will include the connectivity and hook-up ports for your source components like a cable box, AppleTV, Roku or other. Most will use an HDMI connection which offers the highest possible resolution supported and digital surround sound. When that time comes to upgrade, a great TV decision can help create memorable family entertainment experiences and meaningful conversations around your favorite movies or shows.
