Native Resolution

Wow. This confuses so many. Principally, the higher the resolution the more detail in the image. If you will be sitting close to your TV, the resolution needs to be high so you do not see the little dots (pixels) that make up the picture, i.e. pixilation.

Guess which has the higher resolution?

Televisions with less resolution (i.e. less pixels) may sometimes claim to be HDTV-capable, that only means they can show the image through processing - but some detail is invariably lost.

If you have the time to read about this in more detail, check out www.ecoustics.com for a thorough explanation of pixels. An in-depth explanation of native resolution can be found at the DesignTechnica website.

This is usually the spec that differentiates the $1000 models from the $4000 ones. The human eye is more sensitive to levels of brightness than it is to variations of color. Therefore, most people will perceive a brighter television as being better. Measured in cd/m², the brighter a TV the better it will appear even when viewed in a brightly lit room. Most of us will be OK with a brightness of 350-450 cd/m², unless you're planning on setting up in the outdoor balcony.

Flat panel displays, especially plasma TV's, have developed a rumor that they lose their brightness too fast. In fact, all televisions lost their brightness gradually over a period of years. A standard television loses about 30% of its brightness after about 20,000 hours. A plasma will lose 50% after 30,000 hours. That's about 9 years of 8 hours a day viewing.

The average lifespan of an LCD display is 60,000 hours. If watching TV was your full-time job, and you did it 24 hours a day, it would take you almost 7 years to wear out your LCD display. With more normal viewing habits of, say, 8 hours per day, you can extend the lifespan of your TV by a decade or more (to about 20 years)!