Table of Contents

Television Buying Guide

This TV buying guide proceeds through everything that you must know while buying a new TV. Maybe you get many pieces of advice, which TV is good for you according to your friend’s and family’s opinions. But before following any such type of advice, you should know some of the critical factors that will matter a lot in the long term durability of a TV. All these factors are discussed below in detail.

Screen Size

Size is an important factor that you must consider. So, first, make a mind where you want to fix it. Then as per the available space, decide the size. In the case of a large room, you can consider the large size, but it is not worth installing the extensive screen in a small space.

For the medium-sized bedroom, 43 inch LED tends to be the sweet spot. And for the living room, 55-inches to 65-inches TV is suitable. If you are on a budget, move your sofa set closer and purchase a smaller sized screen.

According to the experts, the viewing distance should be double the size of the screen. On the other side, if you go with 4K UHD TVs, then the suggested length should be 1.5 times the screen size.

The right size of the screen will give you a cinema-like experience. You should know the exact size according to your definition. If the TV is too large or small, then there is a chance of loss of clarity.

Screen Resolution: FHD, UHD or 4K

Resolution explains the number of pixels needed to make the picture on a screen. For instance, 1280 x 720 means 120 lines horizontally and 720 lines vertically with a square inch. If the pixels are in more amount, it will give the sharper image fine details.

The three most common screen resolution types are:

HD Ready (720p TV)
Full HD (1080p TV)
UHD/4K (2160p TV)

720p HD ready TV has a 1280 x 720 resolution, that means there are 1 million pixels per square inch. It isn’t full HD, but if it receives 1080 pixels, the built-in tuner reduces it to 720 pixels and makes it sufficient to watch HD TV channels. If your TV use is limited to watch channels from Set Top Box, then 32″ or less than that is a perfect choice.

The full HD fits as a standard type of TV for a long time. Full HD (1080p) LED TV has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It gives you a more refined viewing feel. Furthermore, full HD LED TV offers an immersive experience for streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube and Prime Video. If you want a full HD LED TV, it is better to pick a screen larger than 43″ for a better experience. However, if you have a tight budget, Full HD LED TVs are also good for their price range. They can still play 1080p videos through a USB.

4K or Ultra HD has a resolution of 3820 x 2160 pixels. The producers introduce a new model with an advanced level of pixels amount. These TVs belong to the latest generation and come with various features and provide a highly immersive viewing experience. They are suitable for gaming, HD Bluray videos, etc.

They produce the UHD sets known as 4K and have four times more pixels than the HDTV. These 4K televisions have the biggest benefit that the small objects on the screen have more details. Now they are becoming less costly, and you can get a capable TV set on a low budget.

With the advancements in technology in the market, you find 8K TVs. These products displays have quadruple the resolution of 4K sets that offer a huge picture quality.

Refresh Rate

It is the rate at which the TV screen refreshes. In other words, it is the number of seconds your TV will take to change the image. With the enhancement in video shooting refresh rate and online video provider support, the common (frame) refresh rate ranges from 30Hz to 60Hz. You should pick the LED with a 50 to 60 Hz refresh rate. The higher the rate is, the better the movies, shows and images.

Choose the Display Type

The display is the most critical aspect of TV. Panel Type ensures that you get great colours and viewing angles while watching movies and shows on your TV. It will decide the portrait quality that you can produce.

Nowadays, LEDs are generally used. The prominent display is- LED, QLED, and OLED. All of them use LED technologies; the previous TVs use the LCD or Plasma. They are not popular these days. IPS is the most popular one as it gives great colours and viewing angles.

Most of us indeed get confused between the LCD or LED TV. There is a silent dissimilarity between both of them. The display of both of the screens is made up of Liquid Crystal Display. There is only a split of lightning sources in them.

What difference does it make?

LEDs are long-lasting than LCD.
The LEDs are sharper and brighter than the LCDs.
They are much thinner than LCDs. They can easily mount on the room wall.
Thinner and slimmer LED are in fashion these days.

LED TVs

This is one of the accessible technologies. It is thin and light. The TV is based on the Edge+ Back-Lit and is suitable for the lit chamber and the daytime.

Different types of display screens come in LEDs, like TN, IPS, PLS, and VA. The most common type is the VA and IPS display. The IPS panel is strong and has less chance to get a crack. Also, it has better picture quality and viewing angles than VA or TN display technology.

On the other hand, VA displays give averaged performance as compared to IPS displays. Furthermore, they are not sturdy, and it is strongly advised not to spray cleaning agents directly on the screen or don’t rub the screen. Some manufacturers like Sony, you’ll find mostly VA displays.

Edge-Lit Screen: In this, Lights placed across the television’s perimeter that makes it to glow more from the centre when you watch. Another benefit of this feature is that it will let the LED TV consume less electricity as it has fewer LEDs. In this way, it is available at a cheaper rate.

Backlit Screen: This thing is the other common variety. In this model, lights are placed at the back of the screen. It provides the uniform distribution of light with better contrast. The main thing is that the LED (Light Emitting Diodes) used inside of it are costlier.

IPS Technology

It refers to a wide viewing angle of 178 degrees. IPS technology leads you to watch TV from any side without any change in colour and brightness. They are only used in LEDs, OLEDs, and QLEDs. Non-IPS TV does not allow to watch TV from a full view and allows only 50 degrees.

QLED TVs

QLED TV uses quantum dots that can produce red, green and blue lights. It has a range of colours and has the brightest level. This TV is of excellent portrayal quality as compared to LEDs.

OLED TVs

The OLED uses millions of individual lit pixels to produce the images. It has perfect blacks, and it does not appear grey. This TV comes of nice colour reproduction and is of excellent view. You will get blur-free pictures and also with excellent depiction quality as compared to LEDs.

These are expensive panels, and LG is the only company manufacturing OLED panels. When compared to QLED TVs, OLED panels don’t have the same brightness levels. They are susceptible to retention or burn-in.

Sound Quality

If the HD movie has low sound, your overall experience of watching a movie gets worse. The reason for considering audio’s effective quality is essential for a quality sound. We recommend choosing the Digital Dolby support TV.

Some product has Dolby+ DTS technology that takes the music actions on a whole new level. So before selecting the TV for audio quality, go through with three factors.

The first and foremost thing is the speaker output. For better sound, the audio or speaker output should be good enough. In the case of 40 inches LED TV, 15 W audio result would be a better choice. If you plan for giant television, then 25 W speaker output is a preferable option.
Moving to the next factor, that is the position of the speaker, in large TV speakers mounted at the bottom and some models integrated at the front. Front side mounting speakers deliver astonishing output. Despite this, a thinner LED TV offers speakers at the bottom. In such a situation, it would be better if you mount the TV on the wall so that sound spans every corner of the room.
Another is the adjustment of sound quality, its requirement for the outstanding output. This factor decides based on the room’s dimension, and every room is different from others. Indeed, several things inside the room and how many windows contained in the room. So, it would help if you fine-tuned the sound output manually according to the environment. Manual customization of audio provides a better quality of sound output.

Make the Right Connections

At least two or three USB ports you will find in modern LED Televisions. You can play your stored data in terms of videos, photos. You only need to plug in the USB and hard drives to the port. You also get the HDMI ports required for the setup-top box connection, gaming console or Blue Ray Player. These two are the external hardware interfaces. These ports are helpful to connect a personal computer, laptops, DVD players, etc.

Bluetooth and WiFi are the two connections for wireless linking between the devices or gadgets. This connection is used to connect the audio devices to the TV unit. Smart LED TV are common nowadays. For accessing the online and smart feature, you need an internet connection. Your TVs must have to connect to the WiFi.

HDR Formats

HDR boosts a TV’s brightness, contrast, and colour, making the pictures on display look more like real life.

High Dynamic Range is a catch-all term for a variety of ways to deliver it. If vividness is especially important to you, upgrade to a 4K TV that features “ultra high definition” (UHD) or some version of HDR. It gets you an even better colour presentation.

If you see “Dolby Vision” or Samsung’s “HDR 10+” advertised, that’s considered a higher-end form of HDR that promises to deliver striking scenes.

Must Have Features in a Smart TV

1. Screencasting or Screen Mirroring

Chromecast compatible Applications like YouTube can stream on the TV screen via your Smartphone or tablet. However, the availability of this feature may vary from brand to brand.

With a few taps, the Screencasting feature also allows web browsing and e-mailing, among other actions. This feature turns the TV into an entertainment hub and a work desk for you.

You can easily watch your favourite shows and movies on the big screen by casting your smartphone content on the screen. This feature is useful to access your data instantly without any hassle.

2. Voice control and search

Voice search first introduced in Smartphones with Siri and Google assist. This feature has now arrived on TV too. Most TV skips the typing part by letting you speak to the TV via a voice receiver button on the remote. You don’t need to type Bollywood movies, top comedy shows and others. You can speak into the remote, and the TV follows your instructions.

Some LEDs only allow you to control the TV volume, channels and primary navigation with voice-activated control. Yet, Google-certified Android TV support even general queries like, ‘What’s the cricket score,’ ‘Will it rain today?

However, some latest versions of Mi TV offer voice control and search feature. So, check the TV’s specifications before buying to confirm its voice feature and what it allows.

3. Processor

When you pick an Android box, select one with a 1.5Ghz Quad-Core CPU or one that’s higher than that. Octa-core processors are the wise choice over others. It wouldn’t stream videos without any buffering problem, but even games could run in smooth actions. However, the cost for the android system box would also rise with the higher processing power choice.

4. OTA upgrades

By advancing in technology, update in devices comes with time. So everyone wants a new updated feature in their systems. But manual updation consumes a lot of time and complexity to upgrade. In this case, you would prefer to skip the updating notifications. Here, OTA upgrades help you to update the system with yes or no to questions.

Operating System

The OS of the device should be fast, not complicated and supports a wide range of apps so that you can browse and do other online stuff.

Sony uses an Android OS, and the most cooling factor of these devices is that they have a Google Assistant for verbal controls. The leading benefit of Android OS, the other android build devices can connect to your TV and manage the task.

WebOS featured in the LG devices. It is simple to operate and has a user-friendly interface. It has an excellent response and speed rate like other TV, for oral control. You may find some lacking apps, and it wouldn’t give access to all the services.

Smart HUB and Tizen OS you find in Samsung LED TV gives many shortcuts, apps or icons. It is easy to navigate and has a comfortable layout. Similarly, this OS-based LED TV has access to only a few services, not all.

Buying Guide: How To Choose the Best TV?