-
Photo: SamsungWIRED and TIRED TVs
Some TV buying tipsIf a TV is not manufactured by LG, Samsung, TCL, Vizio, Sonyor Hisense, make sure you’ve done your research. These are our favorite manufacturers at the moment. A cheap set might look tempting for the price, but try to avoid dirt cheap models from brands like Sceptre, which may seem like great deals but may not offer good picture quality or durable construction. If you don’t have the budget for a new model from the above brands, we recommend looking at last year’s TVs (which are often sold at deep discounts) or factory refurbished options.
Read our guide to buying a TV to learn more about the terms you’ll come across when buying a screen and other helpful advice.
-
Credit: Vlad Rachuk/Getty ImagesHelpful definitions
What do 4K, HDR and other buzzwords mean?Buying a TV requires navigating a sea of jargon, so let’s quickly define a few key terms. You can also read more about these terms in our guide to buying a TV.
- 4K or Ultra HD refers to television technology with four times as many pixels (points of light) as a conventional HDTV.
- 8 THOUSAND Displays have four times the pixels of 4K, but you can ignore 8K for at least a couple of years. 8K devices are still very expensive, and 8K content is scarce.
- HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and all good 4K TVs have it now. A TV with HDR technology has better contrast (brighter brightness, darker darkness) than older TVs. The three main versions of HDR that you should know about are HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Modern TVs usually come with HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, with high-end models supporting HDR10+.
- 120 Hertz means a TV’s display refreshes at a rate of 120 frames per second, resulting in much smoother on-screen action than traditional 60Hz panels. This is great for gaming or watching sports, but otherwise you won’t notice much of a difference as most movies and TV shows are designed to be shown at lower frame rates.
- Full array backlight means there is a grid of light behind the TV screen instead of being illuminated by lights around the edges.
- Local dimming is made possible by full array backlighting. This means the TV will attempt to intelligently lower the backlight in areas of your screen where a movie scene is darker and brighten it in brighter areas.
- OLED On TVs, each pixel on the display can light up or turn off independently. This gives OLEDs vivid colors and deeper blacks than traditional LCD or LED TVs; LED and LCD TVs are mostly the same these days.
- QLED TVs mean the TV has some sort of quantum dot technology, which often means brighter and better colors. It might look like OLED on paper, but QLED isn’t the same quality indicator as OLED in terms of picture. Sure, they usually look better than non-quantum dot TVs, but don’t let the marketing fool you: they don’t always compare to OLEDs.
- QD OLED TVon the other hand, are newer panels from Samsung that use quantum dots to improve brightness and support the color capability of a regular OLED screen.
This article was previously published on Source link
