Tips on Shopping for Plasma TVs

A plasma TV is no small investment for most consumers, so it really pays to know what all the fancy technical specs mean in layman's terms. And let's be honest, the local consumer electronics store isn't staffed with the most knowledgeable people. Hopefully the material below helps you understand what all the numbers, measurements, and comparisons mean so that you can select your TV with confidence.

You probably want to read about the differences between plasma and lcd or check our quick reference chart which compares plasma and LCD technology in a very basic manner. And within the plasma realm itself, you may not be aware of the choices between commercial grade and consumer models.

Another useful article clears up myths about plasma TV's.

And one of the most important articles a shopper may want to read targets pitfalls of internet shopping.

Diagonal Size: Measured from top left to bottom right corner. It's a matter of opinion I guess, but in general bigger is better.

Aspect Ratio: The aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of the picture to the height of the picture. Currently analog TV uses a ratio of 4:3. HDTV uses an aspect ratio of 16:9, similar to movie theaters. Why is this important? Because you have to consider what you're playing on a TV before you purchase. If your TV doesn't display the right aspect ratio then your screen will look funny; "letterboxing" means seeing big empty spaces on two sides of the picture, "anamorphic squeezing" means distorting the picture so that it fits the screen, and "pan-and-scan" means you're only seeing a part of the picture on your screen.

Pixel Pitch: The distance between pixel centers; or the distance between a pixel's centerpoint, and the centerpoint of the pixel above and pixel to the side of it. Why is this important? Well for smaller screen sizes, an LCD TV can fit more pixels next to each other than plasma. This increases the resolution of the picture. But then again, the smaller pixel size negatively affects larger LCD TV sets. The smaller pixel size means you can't just increase the screen and make the pixels farther apart. That would leave visible space, or a larger "fill factor" between pixels (an effect called "screen dooring"). So larger LCD televisions need more pixels and cost more to manufacture. And this also changes their native resolution. So that's why the best choice for smaller TV sets (36 inches or less) is normally LCD. But your best choice for a larger TV is probably plasma.

Contrast Ratio: The difference in brightness between full white and full black. So it's the brightest white compared to the darkest black that a screen can produce. This is listed as two numbers, and a bigger difference between the two is better; so 5,000:1 is better than 800:1. Why is this important? LCD televisions work with a backlight that is basically filtered to produce colors. So to produce black, an LCD attempts to filter this strong light completely, but it can only do so well. It can't make a pixel completely opaque. Whereas a plasma TV can simply turn the pixel off. Similarly a DLP can turn off the light giong to a pixel. So typically, plasma and DLP have a better contrast ratio than LCD. This means that your more dark and dreary DVDs - with scenes that take place in outer space or sequences that happen at night - really do look better.

Output Color: Whatever technology is used to change the color of a pixel, this is how many distinct colors that pixel can be. A larger number is better. Typically, because of the way plasma TVs work, they have the best range of colors. Why is this important? The picture can look much more realistic when more colors can be displayed, because there isn't as much of a "dropoff" between the color of one pixel and the color of it's neighbor. So the edges of an object moving on the screen just look more real.

Viewing Angle: How far to the side can you still see the image on your television screen. In this case, a larger number is better. With CRT televisions, as you walk to the side, you see a quickly degrading picture quality. Why is this important? If you have a large living room and all your buddies cram in there to watch the Superbowl^TM, the guys on the edges might not be able to see the picture as well. In general, plasma TVs have the best viewing angle but some newer LCD sets are designed with a front display panel that allows some pretty comparable viewing angles.

Scanning Frequency: n/a

Native Resolution: This is the resolution (pixels wide by pixels high) that a TV is designed to work with. So for broadcasts that don't match the native resolution, some converting needs to happen as the signal is displayed on the screen. Why is this important? Analog TV, HDTV, and DVDs all have different resolution. And they could change the resolution format in the future. If the native resolution of your television isn't as high as the signal being broadcast to it, then you won't get the clearest and best picture possible.

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Warranty: It may seem silly to have the definition for a warranty on here, but there are serious reasons for it. As with a lot of modern technologies, if your new television set (plasma, LCD, whatever) is going to fail, then that failure will happen pretty quickly; like in the first 2 years. There are a couple things to keep in mind about warranties. First is: are you really getting one? If you found the best possible price on the internet, then there's a good chance that the seller is not an AUTHORIZED RETAILER. This means that the manufacturer is not extending you any kind of warranty at all. Second thing is: does the warranty include in-home service? I mean, do you really want to disassemble and carry a big screen television back to the store or to a repair shop?

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See our full list of consumer shopping tips.