Hey, I'm JR, training manager here at Crutchfield, and in this video we're going to talk about
how to choose a TV. There's so much to think about with TVs these days: what size TV is right for you,
how much resolution do you need,, 4K, 8K, should you get an LED or an OLED TV? What's the refresh rate
all about? Aren't all TVs smart TVs anymore? And of course, price. So we're going to break
it all down for you. One of the first things to consider is whether or not it's a primary TV
or a secondary TV. Is it the one you use for most of your movie and TV viewing,
or is it something you have in a separate room like a bedroom or a kitchen or things like that?
If the TV is going to be in one of those secondary rooms you may not need to invest as much. They'll
all do a great job in just about any room. If it's your main movie watching TV, you might want to go
with something a little better. When you start searching for a new television, you're going
to notice there's a lot of TVs, and our website offers several tools you can use to narrow your
search down to the TV that's perfect for you. You can sort the list of TVs various ways. You can use
filters on our website to find TVs that have the features you want. There are also really great
customer reviews on most of our TVs. Use those tools to help you find the perfect TV for you.
Let's talk about size. The easy answer is get the biggest TV you can afford and fit in your room.
The reason for that is, we can actually sit closer to TVs than we ever have before. Your old TVs from
years ago looked blurry when you were too close. That really isn't the case any more, and you're
probably looking for a more movie theater-like experience anyway. Those screens are pretty huge, so
you can sit closer, and if you're sitting further away, the screen should be bigger, so go as big
as possible, you won't be disappointed. If you're looking to go super large, pretty much anything
over 80 inches or so you might want to consider a projector and a screen for the most immersive
experience possible. We do have an article on crutchfield.com that goes into the details, it even
includes a TV size and viewing distance chart so you can help figure out what is the right size for
your living room. Okay, let's talk resolution. We've mentioned it several times now, let's break it down.
There's plenty of 4K content available via streaming apps and over Blu-ray discs and most
of our TVs are 4K, so that's almost the standard now. You're also going to see some TVs that say
they are 8K. There is no 8K content available as of right now. However, when you watch non-8K content
on an 8K TV, it will upscale it, it will add detail and it will look better on an 8K TV than it will
on a 4K TV. So if you want the best 8K TV is where it's at. Most of us are completely happy with a 4K
TV experience. Let's talk about the HDMI inputs on your TV. Most TVs have three or four inputs,
and they're not all the same. Some are different levels of HDMI certification.
The best right now is HDMI 2.1, and that supports the highest resolution, the best high dynamic
range, and the gaming features found on the newest gaming consoles. That's when it's important to make
sure you have a TV with HDMI 2.1. So let's talk a little bit about those next generation gaming
console features that you want your new TV to have. For example, you're going to want the ability to
display 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. New gaming consoles offer something called VRR,
or variable refresh rate, which prevents screen tearing and creates a smoother motion.
Auto low-latency mode makes it so your TV does less processing so that the action in the game
from your hands on your controllers happens as fast as possible. You don't want any lag or latency
there, and you don't have to put your TV in gaming mode to make that happen. It happens automatically,
as well as enhanced audio return channel for better surround sound during the gaming experience.
So you're going to get those with HDMI 2.1 on your TV, and you want to make sure your TV has that.
Next let's talk about high dynamic range. You're going to usually see it abbreviated as
HDR. Dynamic range is your TV's ability to go really bright to really dark, and everything
in between, and a TV with HDR can go brighter and darker, and as a result give you better,
more vivid colors and better contrast. There are three main flavors of HDR; the difference is how
much information and when your movie sends that information to your TV to control its brightness
and colors. With HDR 10 it happens once at the beginning of the movie; with Dolby Vision
and HDR 10+ it continues to happen throughout the movie for an even better, more immersive
experience. Dolby Vision is primarily found on LG and Sony TVs; HDR 10+ is a Samsung technology.
You might be considering whether to buy an OLED or an LED TV. Let's talk about the fundamental
differences first, and why you should get one over the other. The main difference is how light is used
to create the image. On an OLED TV, each individual little pixel creates its own light, which means
each pixel can be on or off depending on the scene. With an LED TV, there are lights behind a liquid
crystal display that shine through those liquid crystals to create the picture and the colors, and
as a result they are a little bit brighter and will do great in a brightened room. An OLED TV
will be better at colors, maybe more contrast ratio, and will probably look more movie-like
and really shine in a darkened room. Those LED TVs are not all created equal. The best LED TVs have
more light bulbs, in fact we call it "full-array local dimming." There's so many light bulbs back
there they can be turned on and off in different zones to give you pretty close to the performance
of an OLED when it comes to contrast ratio. You might be wondering if burn-in is an issue or
something to be concerned about on an OLED TV, and for most people it's nothing to worry about.
They have built-in technologies to these TVs that move the pixels around and refresh the screen, so
it's pretty hard to burn an image into your screen. If you work really hard you can get it done. If you
have a gaming console on and you leave it on the same screen for many hours, you might burn it in,
but that's really hard to do. If you're concerned about that, though, you might just want to get
an LED TV, you really won't have those issues. Refresh rate is certainly something to consider
when buying a new TV. There's two main flavors of refresh rate, 60 hertz and 120 hertz. What
that means is the TV is literally refreshing the image 60 or 120 times per second. The more times it
does that per second, the smoother the screen will look, especially with fast movement. The larger your
screen, the more important that is, so really 120 hertz refresh rate is the sweet spot, look for that.
You're also going to see some manufacturers offer additional processing that is designed to smooth
that motion; we generally recommend turning that processing off, mainly because that processing is
the is what causes "soap opera effect," or sometimes your TV shows and movies just look a little weird.
That's that technology adding additional processing, not to be confused with a straight-up
120 hertz refresh rate, which is what you want. Should you get a smart TV? I challenge you to not
get a smart TV, they're pretty much all smart these days unless you're looking for a dedicated outdoor
TV. For those TVs you might have to get a separate streaming device to allow you to do all of the
Netflix and HBO and stuff, but any TV we sell designed to go inside your house is going to be
very smart. It'll be compatible with your Alexa and your Google and will give you access to pretty
much all of the streaming apps. Usually you can update or add new apps as they become available.
Thanks to the magic of smart TVs and how all that's evolved over the years, they're pretty great.
You can even take stuff from your phone, whether you have a Apple phone or an Android, and you can
use Airplay 2 to cast onto your TV or Chromecast to get what's on your phone on your TV. All this
stuff has become pretty standard in smart TVs these days, and if you're going to be doing a lot
of streaming, especially in 4K, you're going to want to make sure your internet is up to the job, so
make sure your internet service provider is giving you at least 25 megabits per second download speed.
Some streaming platforms even recommend up to 50 as a minimum for streaming in 4K. Long story short,
you're going to want a lot of download speeds to get the best picture quality and sound quality
from anything you might want to stream. If you're considering or if you have already cut the cord
and are using over-the-air broadcast TV with an antenna, you're going to want to make sure
your new TV has an ATSC 3.0 tuner to get the best resolution and the best sound from those local TV
stations, and if you're in a large city there's a good chance you have several TV stations already
broadcasting in ATSC 3.0. If you're like the rest of us in the rest of the country, that technology
will trickle out over time, and we will get even better over-the-air TV as time goes on. So if
you're looking for a new TV, hopefully you found this video helpful. There's plenty more resources
available on crutchfield.com. In fact, you can even talk live with an advisor on the phone
or chat with them online. To do that, just go to crutchfield.com/contact. You can also post your
questions here on this YouTube video, we will look at those and answer your questions accordingly.
Also, while you're here please like, subscribe, and turn on those notifications. Thank you for watching.