Backchannelmedia

Oakland Tribune

By David Morrill, BUSINESS WRITER

LCD? PLASMA? Projection?

Buying a television used to mean choosing between 27 or 32 inches. But today, consumers have a dizzying array of choices in size, screen type and image quality.

The good news is that quality has improved and prices have come down. Although not quite bargain prices, the cost of high- definition, LCD and plasma TVs has dropped enough that more people are at least considering them.

"I'm perplexed by all the possibilities available," Mark Hansen of Pleasanton said while shopping for a television recently. "It's pretty overwhelming but exciting at the same time."

The most popular choice lately has become high-definition televisions, or HDTVs, which can be bought in a wide range of types from plasma to LCD to picture-tube televisions. HDTVs are the most common type of digital televisions. They provide far superior quality compared to those that offer just standard broadcasts and can receive broadcasts transmitted in widescreen formats.

"These televisions have become really hot because prices have been falling basically every year since they've been introduced," said David Katzmaier, senior editor with Cnet, a Web site that reviews high-tech products. "The lower costs are definitely making people think carefully about scrapping their old TV and getting a new one." So with the number of possibilities suddenly up, are there ways customers can narrow the selection process?

Definitely.

The most important factor when deciding between standard and high- definition TVs is to consider how important superior sound and picture are to you.

If you're the type who watches TV more for the content than picture quality, then the decision process has been narrowed significantly. In this case, the best way to go is with a standard tube TV that often can be found for less than $500 at most discount retail stores.

On the flip side, if you want a television to serve as the central component to a home theater experience, then an HDTV is the way to go, experts say.

Among HDTVs, those with plasma and LCD technology are gaining in popularity.

"We've been selling more LCD and plasma TVs and less of the tube televisions, which many manufacturers are beginning to phase out," said Jeff Halliday, who works in sales at Anderson's in Dublin.

Only a limited number of programs, mostly movies and sports, are currently available in HDTV. But in the coming years, the consensus is that the format will likely become the norm.

High-definition televisions also require the customer to subscribe to HDTV programming through their cable or satellite service provider.

Besides picture and sound quality, the next easiest way to whittle down your options is to determine what size your screen should be.

Consumer Reports advises to "get the largest set your budget and your space will allow."

A good way to determine what size to get is to measure in inches the distance from where you sit to where the screen will be. Divide that number by three, and that should be the screen size you get. For example, if your couch is 10 feet, or 120 inches, from the TV, your screen size should be about 40 inches.

"Once you know exactly what size screen you want, then your options will be cut down to just a few," Katzmaier said.

That's because some options have a minimum or maximum screen size available.

If you're looking for something in the 15- to 37-inch range, your options are narrowed down to picture-tube or LCD flat-panel because these are the only types available in the smaller sizes. If you want to go larger, then rear-projection or plasma televisions become your only choices because they're the type that come in larger sizes.

After determining TV size, consider your budget.

Plasma flat-panel HDTVs are the most expensive but also are thinner and can be wall-mounted. For a 50-inch model, you can expect to spend $3,500 to $5,000.

A rear-projection TV would be the alternative for a screen larger than 47 inches that costs less than a plasma. A 50-inch rear- projection television integrated for HDTV costs from $1,000 to $2,000 less than a plasma. However, projection TVs do require occasionally replacing the lamp, which costs about $200.

Just as you would with a car, avoid impulse buying.

One problem consumers fall into, Katzmaier says, is that they go into a showroom and are blown away by the sound, picture and sales pitch and don't take the time to do some extra research.

For instance, most of the time the picture looks great in high- definition. But when a standard definition program is shown later, it doesn't look as sharp.

"It's really hard to compare TVs in terms of picture quality on the floor because most people don't watch television in perfectly lit rooms with 1,000-watt light bulbs shining down on the screens so it looks perfect," Katzmaier said.

A buzzword that consumers might hear during a sales pitch is that the TV is "digital-ready" -- so that it can handle digital signals rather than the analog signals that most television stations will still be using for the next several years. TV sets larger than 36 inches are already required to be "digital-ready," and all TVs are supposed to be equipped with this technology by March 2007.

Either way, having such a television is not essential if you have a cable or satellite box, which already have digital tuners built into them.

Lastly, experts say consumers should write down several model numbers they're considering and seek insight from third-party reviewers such as Consumer Reports and Cnet, or even other users on the Internet.

Each TV comes with its own nuances that can be a big deal in price difference but not a big difference in picture quality.

"The thing people need to understand about high-definition is that it looks spectacular on pretty much any television," Katzmaier said. "You can pretty much take that to the bank."

David Morrill can be reached at (925) 416-4805 and dmorrill@angnewspapers.com.