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HD Ready or Full HD?

A HD Ready television will display at least 720 lines, while a Full HD model will have 1080 lines.  And what's so great about having 1080 lines?  It's the best possible resolution for enjoying HD TV, or films on Blu-ray, which are also at 1080 lines.   That doesn't make it the only choice though: you need to either have a very large screen, or sit very close, to be able to tell the difference between HD Ready and Full HD.  That makes HD Ready a perfectly acceptable choice for 32'' and smaller TVs, as long as you make sure you're about 2.5 m away.  Between 37'' and 42'' it all depends on how far away from the screen you plan to sit and how good your eyesight is.  Beyond 42'', though, we strongly recommend a Full HD TV.

Of course, Full HD TVs are more expensive, but the quality is often better and the overall display is better than on smaller HD Ready models.  With 26'' and 32'' TVs, you need to be very careful as they often have displays that are far from ideal.

Since the start of 2009, Full HD has been begin taking to take the lead, and only a few entry-level TVs still have 720p displays.

Can you believe manufacturer's contrast statistics?

In a word: no.  You can quite simply ignore the contrast ratio in manufacturers' specifications.  They calculate these figures using conditions that allow them to produce impressive numbers, but are far from ideal for watching a film.  As an example, we've seen TVs whose specs claimed contrast ratios of 1 000 000:1--but when we calibrated them to watch a film, that fell to 1 000-2 000:1.

That said, you can still use the figures within a manufacturer's range to make relative comparisons between various models, but not, of course, to compare one manufacturer to another.  Trust our test results instead.

Plasma or LCD?

At the moment, LCD technology has clearly taken the lead and represents the vast majority of TVs sold.  But that doesn't mean that plasma is dead!  There are several convincing advantages that it has over LCD TVs: plasma screens have much wider viewing angles, incredibly accurate colours, a clean, natural display, very deep blacks--and finally, a more affordable price in many cases.  That's why a lot of Home Cinema fans have remained loyal to plasma.  The biggest downside of plasma screens it that if you display a fixed image for a certain amount of time, it can get 'burned' on to the screen, which means that you should avoid using them as computer displays for for video games consoles.

On the other hand, LCD televisions have much narrower viewing angles and allow a certain amount of light through areas that should be black when you move away from the centre line of the screen.  As a result, only the very best LCD TVs have a really good deep black: the backlighting allows manage to slip through some of the crystals in the LCD even though the screen should be completely black.  They are, however, immune to the screen burn problem, and are therefore great companions for your PC or console.  A 26'' or 32'' Full HD LCD TV can make a great multi-purpose TV/monitor.

What's the point of 100 Hz or 200 Hz mode?  How can I get a perfectly fluid display?

This is a very prickly subject but we'll try to be as simple as possible.  Contrary to popular opinion, a 100 Hz mode has nothing to do with producing more fluid movements in films.  The confusion has largely come about because most TVs that have a 100 Hz--LCD TVs, in particular--also have other features to improve the fluidity of movements in films.  On plasma TVs, 100 Hz only reduces the amount of flickering, while on LCDs it reduces ghosting (see inset) on particularly fast movements.  At 200 Hz, ghosting becomes invisible.

It's important, then, not to confuse 100 Hz (or 200 Hz for that matter) with systems like Sony's Motionflow, Philips' HD Natural Motion or Samsung's Movie Plus, which are filters that remove jerkiness from films by calculating intermediate frames based on the original video.  These proprietary systems are a real boon if you can't stand jerky movements, but they also lead to a 'video' look that can put other people off.  You can always decide whether to use them or not, so if you're looking for the widest range of options, we strongly recommend you buy a TV with this option, whether you end up using it or not.


Music, photos and videos

Although a lot of TVs can display photos or play music contained on a USB key or an SD card, very few of them can play video found on these external storage devices.  We have yet to test a TV that is capable of displaying all of the most common video formats.  It's not worth choosing a TV with a media player thinking you can get rid of your DVD player, computer or multimedia hard drive, as for the time being, only these dedicated devices are the only ones that can really show video.



Our Favourites:

A small TV for a smal price: Sharp Aquos LC-32DH77E
Just 32'', but no compromises on hardware or quality

Sharp LC-32DH77E Find the best price

There aren't many 32'' TVs that have such a good quality display, a 1080p resolution and a decent standard of hardware.  This member of Sharp's Aquos family passes all three tests.  However, we still suggest you only use a television like this when there isn't room for something bigger--because you always end up wanting something bigger ...

Good value for money: Samsung LE40B551
A large TV with a great display--but no extras

Samsung LE40B551 Find the best price

At 40'', your TV measures over a metre from corner to corner.  For this TV, Samsung only removed a few features that are found on its more expensive TVs to bring the cost down a little--but without reducing the quality of the display, which can comfortably stand up to the Sony V5500, which is noticeably more expensive.

46'' for under £1000: Sony Bravia KDL-46V5500
A great quality image, but still no 100 Hz mode

Sony 46V5500 STORES £     Digitech Electronics  939.00  Hiwayhifi.com  939.95  Beyond Television.co.uk  949.90  Electrical Discount UK  959.99          Compare prices

Along with the Samsung LE46B651, this is one of only a very few 46'' TVs to enjoy both excellent features and a price of under £1000.  But why is it a little more expensive than the Samsung model?  Well, because it has more features, including DLNA compatibility, to play multimedia content over your home network.  And while it might be a deal-breaker, the inclusion of a matte screen didn't put us off either as it noticeably reduces the negative effects of reflections on the screen.

Home Cinema : Sony Bravia KDL-46WE5
An incredible display quality, with MotionFlow too

Sony 46WE5 STORES £     1staudiovisual.c- o.uk  1173.41  Digitech Electronics  1175.00  Hiwayhifi.com  1184.95  Pixmania.co.uk  1243.00          Compare prices

Here, we're definitely within the range of TVs with the Home Cinema market firmly in mind.  The image quality is amongst the best you can find in the current market: deep blacks, natural colours, very little ghosting, a 100 Hz mode and the MotionFlow system for limiting jerky movements in films.  The black version, the W5500, is a little less energy efficient and sometimes suffers from 'clouding', small light areas on screen that should be black.  If you want to go for that version, try it out before you buy.

And why not ...

A huge screen: Panasonic TX-P50V10
For real Home Cinema purists

Panasonic V10 Find the best price

Quite simply, the V10 has the best quality display available when it comes to watching films in your Home Cinema--that is, in a dark, if not very dark, room.  It has incredible contrast, natural colours, very deep blacks, wide viewing angles and perfectly fluid movements.  It also has Panasonic's VieraCast feature allowing it to access online content from sites like YouTube or Eurosport.  We can't recommend you use it with a computer, however, because of the problems associated with screen burn when you display a static image for a certain amount of time.