CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun The range of choices for buyers of new television sets is enormous, but plan to look for high-definition TV, which is the wave of the future.

When it comes to television sets, there’s an entire universe of choices.

Should you go for plasma? What about liquid crystal display? Should you be considering that rear projection model? And what about high-definition TV? Would it just be better to wait another year?

North Americans are snapping up new sets in record numbers. In 2004, total sales of digital TV products reached $10.2 billion US, a jump of 78 per cent over 2003.

There are lots of options sitting on the sales shelves. Here’s a guide to help you navigate through that galaxy of choices:

1. Don’t put it off getting that set, and, when you buy, opt for high definition:

David Heim, deputy editor of Consumer Reports magazine, doesn’t believe you should wait around for the next big thing before you buy a set, as long as you make sure it’s capable of giving you a good high-definition picture.

“I’ve been telling people for some time that if you want a set for the long haul, for five or seven years and if you’re going to spend $5,000 or $6,000 or more, you’re making an investment and you want to make sure you’re getting all the resolution you’re paying for.”

In other words, buy a set, no matter what type you choose, that is at least HD-ready. And what does this mean?

Your current analogue television set shows a picture made up of 480 horizontal lines. To be considered HDTV a television set has to have a minimum of 720 horizontal lines and a wide screen.

When it comes to that decision about HD sets, most Canadians don’t need a built-in tuner but can go with HD-ready (no tuner, but capable of handling HDTV pictures) sets because you get a tuner with the new digital boxes offered by the cable and satellite services — each of which have at least a few HDTV channels.

Shaw, for example, offers one movie channel, four Washington state stations (KOMO, KIRO, KING, KSPS) and a special events channel called HDTV1.

Basically, if you don’t have cable or satellite, you’re out of luck when it comes to HDTV.

2. Gear the size of the set to the room you’ll be using.

Sony Canada‘s communication manager John Challinor said that after asking if the set is HD or HD-ready the next step is simple:

“Ask how big a TV do I need, where is it going and what technology that I can afford will fit in the space that I have.”

Enough said.

3. Narrow down your choices, which are wide and plentiful.

“It’s not as if anyone is being deprived of a selection here,” said Heim. “Far from it. In fact, there’s probably too much for people to choose from.”

Among the most popular choices are:

* Rear projection sets: These come in two different types:

— The large, space-hogging, but relatively inexpensive models based on the cathode ray tube (CRT) technology that provides the picture in traditional TV sets.

— The more expensive, but much slimmer and lighter microdisplay models that offer a better picture through more modern liquid crystal display (LCD), data light processing (DLP) or liquid crystal on silicon (LCoD) technology.

The most common technology used in microdisplay models is LCD, which is what is used in current computer monitors.

* Plasma: What most people still think about when they think big screen, these sets, thin enough to be wall mounted, have thousands of red, green and blue pixels activated by plasma and work something akin to fluorescent lights. They have bright, eye-catching images.

* LCD: These thin and light, but expensive and relatively small sets — similar to modern computer monitors — have a backlight that shines through thousands of red, green and blue pixels to create colourful images.

4. Do I want a rear-projection set and, if so, what type?

The set of choice for Christmas at Canada‘s giant Future Shop chain was the rear-projection set, divisional merchandise manager Tony Sandhu said.

“Traditionally, the projection sets have been the most affordable for the size,” said Sandhu, who says that both the CRT and microdisplay models sold well, but the trend is towards the microdisplay.

A 50-inch microdisplay set generally runs around $3,500, while an equivalent 50-inch high definition plasma model would go in the $8,000 to $9,000 range.

Sony’s Challinor said that his company’s most popular set with consumers is its LCD-based rear projection model.

“It’s a combination of a bunch of things,” Challinor said. “The screen size gives them the home theatre experience and the quality of picture relative to other technologies. And the weight of the product and its design allows them to put it in their living room or den and other areas where they want to watch TV.”

Heim says CRT-based projection TVs often do well in Consumer Reports tests, the most recent of which will be in the March issue.

“Some of them have a very slight edge in performance and they certainly have a big edge in price,” Heim said.

5. What about those big, colourful plasma pictures?

Plasma is certainly the most eye-catching of the technologies so far and many owners love them and swear by them.

However there are concerns.

“For all the pizazz, there are still issues with plasma sets, not the least of which is their price,” said Heim.

Other worries, he added, are colour accuracy and burn-in, where a ghost image can be left on the screen by such things as crawls across the bottom of the screen from news channels and images from games.

“If you’re paying $5,000 or $6,000 or $7,000 for a set that’s not something you really want to look forward to,” Heim said.

Challinor said that plasma is not as robust as other technologies.

“I categorize plasma as the Paris Hilton of television,” said Challinor. “It’s high maintenance, it’s technology you have to take care of.”

Challinor also mentioned burn-in and said that plasma was subject to changing conditions in a room. “The technology is sensitive, so it really does require someone who is very keen about what they want and where they watch it and the environment around the television.”

6. LCD works fine for my computer monitor, what about it as a choice for television?

The picture on the thin, light LCD screens looks good and is steadily improving in quality. The big knock against LCD at the moment is that the sets are very expensive.

“Traditionally, with LCD for a 40-inch screen you’re looking at about $10,000,” said Sandhu.

However, he added, that could change when sets with screens from a new Sony/Samsung LCD plant in South Korea begin hitting the market.

“I believe that by about May you’ll be able to pick up that 40-inch screen for about $5,000.”

Heim said that those looking for a flat panel, five-inch thick display, would probably be best to go with an LCD set, assuming they buy as big a screen as they want.

“That’s because there are probably fewer issues with LCD than there are with plasma,” said Heim.

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NEW SWING AT FED TELEVISION

Diamond dust — or perhaps just plain old carbon — could soon be coming to a television screen near you.

And, if it does, then it could launch the category killer that wipes Plasma and LCD TV sets off the digital map — eventually.

The dust will be used in what are called field effect displays (FED) which, if you believe the hype, could offer a better picture and be cheaper than LCD or plasma and, as an environmental bonus, eat less energy.

FED TVs (and, be warned, this technology fizzled the first time it was tried by Motorola in the 1990s) might make it into stores by late 2006. Samsung already has a prototype of a carbon-based TV.

Others working on it include Sony, Fujitsu, Hitachi, LG Philips, Mitsubishi, Motorola and Pioneer.

As if that weren’t enough another, similar technology, called surface conduction electronic emission (SED) is also being tried by the likes of Canon and Toshiba.

The FED concept works — stretching things just a bit — somewhat like a combination of the plain old cathode ray tube (CRT), with its electron gun, and the LCD, with its sandwich technology.

It’s said that, if the technological problems can be overcome, a FED TV set could cost half of what a similar LCD model would run.

And this could mean that FED would also work well in large computer monitors.

However, those hungering for a flat-panel or wide-screen or HDTV experience might not want to wait for something that, at best, is likely to be two years away.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005