What to Know about New TV Technology

According to statista.com, 220 million TVs are purchased globally in one year! And right now we’re in prime purchasing season. It is said the best time to buy a TV is between November and January. But when it comes to TVs, deciding which one to purchase comes down to size and picture quality. We know the higher the resolution, the better and more expensive they come.

All the images on a TV screen consist of small dots called pixels. Nowadays these dots are displayed using LCD and LED. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display and LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. LCD displays need lighting, which is where LED comes in. LEDs are used to illuminate the screen. The goal is to make images sharp and colors vibrant, therefore you will see different types of LED TVs on the market; one of the expensive ones being OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode).

When you shop for TVs, size matters. Basic high definition (HD) means the resolution is 1280 horizontal x 720 vertical pixels for 921,600 total pixels. The upgrade from that is called Full HD offering 1920 x 1080 pixels in the screen for sharper picture quality. Now we have Ultra HD TVs, also called 4K, at about 4 times the pixels than Full HD, and the newest 8K TVs at 7680 x 4320 pixels, which is a whopping 33 million pixels in one screen!

You should note, however, you can only get the benefits of the newer 8K screen if you’re looking at 8K video quality. In other words, the movies and shows you watch have to be filmed for these standards. Until all films are made in 8K video, you don’t really need an 8K TV screen just yet. When buying a new TV, you should note a higher resolution on a smaller screen will provide sharper picture quality. And also be aware that viewing TVs in a large, open, well-lit store may look different once in your home or office space.