Cheap TV

How to buy a Cheap TV; without paying for it later

If youre among the cheap but proud cost-conscious consumers out there youve probably asked how to get into as cheap a TV as possible without regretting buying junk. Everyone wants to buy a cheap TV -- not a cheap piece of crap thats going to break in a few years, but an inexpensive television you didn't have to pay top dollar to own.

With new digital display technologies surfacing all the time now, the real purveyors of bargain prices might feel left out. Digital display (TV) technologies that fall under the fixed pixel category of TVs have fancy names like LCD, DLP and especially Plasma. Fixed pixel simply means the images are measured in pixels, not in scan lines, so you get a resolution measurement like a computer monitor.
Plasma panels still fetch a high price on the market despite the drop in price that many of them have enjoyed. Take the average 35 Plasma Television that can cost almost $3000: thats definitely not cheap TV. But when you consider that as the Plasma technology has developed over the years that price is a serious drop from what it used to be. Not so long ago you could expect to pay upwards of $10,000 for the same TV and the ones people paid that much for didnt even have digital video inputs, so todays Plasma are cheaper but better than ever.

LCD is another pricey way to go for a television. LCD and Plasma make up the televisions they call flat panel TV. Theyre called flat panel becausewell, theyre flat televisions built around a panel technology that is practically wafer thin. A 32 widescreen LCD panel will cost you over $2,000 -- thats a lot to pay to watch the crap they pass off as TV these days. Even LCD technology has had some serious drops in prices in the last few years. Both Plasma and LCD have greatly expanded in size too. Today you can find them in excess of 40 where a year ago their limit was about 32.

Expect prices on LCD and Plasma panels to keep dropping as their sizes keep expanding.

LCD has another style of TV that gets even more expensive than the flat panel, rear projection televisions. Theres a cost advantage to the rear projection models for their size. Although plasma and LCD are getting bigger, the cost of a panel thats beyond the 42 range gets cost prohibitive even for the most spendthrift among you.

Rear projection displays get pictures up to the 50 range without breaking a sweat and these are great for getting the whole crowd together to watch the ballgame. But youre still paying $2000 for digital TV that size. But what about all the other fancy rear projection display types like DLP, LCoS or those new ones like JVCs D-ILA and Sonys SXRD -- these all sound good and give big pictures. So, which one gives me a cheap TV? None, theyre all about equal in price. If one of them was to give you cheap 50 TV none of the others would stay in business. All of them, DLP, LCD, LCoS in all its variety (D-ILA and SXRD) are just a proprietary way of saying LCoS -- theyre all basically the same. All of these digital rear projection display types use a chip to make a small picture that is projected using mirrors and lenses onto a big screen that you watch. Theyre a lot cheaper than a flat panel at that size but theyre not what youd call cheap TV.

A quick look at how to find a cheap TV

Patience is a virtue. The longer you wait for any given display technology the cheaper it will be. Just remember itll also be replaced by something better.

CRT! CRT! CRT! Theyre cheap, and still look great by comparison to fixed pixel displays and come in a variety of sizes.

Scrap HDTV. If youre looking for a smaller TV in the 27 range, dont waste your money on an HD LCD panel unless you really like the flat feature. At a distance you can tell the difference between HD and standard definition on a smaller set.

Prepare to compromise. As much as we hate to, you must be prepared to compromise when shopping for a cheap TV. The more new features youre prepared to do without, the cheaper the set will be.

Here is the best kept secret to buying a cheap TV in todays high tech HD world. Its called the good old fashioned CRT! Yeah, it means picture tube, boob tube and whatever else you call it. Picture tubes have been what people watch in TVs since dinosaurs walked the Earth. Every time a new display technology surfaces, people get all excited and it becomes the next big thing. We all know those crazy suckers who will pay a premium just to have the latest thing. Its supply and demand: the more people demand the new digital display types, the less demand there is for the old ones like CRT, so the price comes down. And wow, has the price ever dropped on a standard TV. Today you can get a 32 direct view CRT television for under a grand, sometimes around $500.

If youre looking for a smaller, really cheap TV, the secret is to forget about HDTV and go with an old fashioned NTSC (480i) standard definition TV. Standard TVs are better looking than ever and if youre sitting six to ten feet or more back from your TV you cant tell the difference between standard and HD in a picture less than 32. People who spent extra on a 30 HDTV will kick back about ten feet away from the display to watch and wont even notice high definition video. The gains in perceived detail from HD are really noticed on larger TVs, 32 and beyond. CRT televisions can also do HD in any size. Direct view CRT TVs (thats a picture tube you look directly into) get up to about 35. Rear projection CRT TVs get upwards of 50, and Hitachi makes high quality 65 monsters -- any larger and you should seriously consider a front projector. But if youre entertaining the possibility of getting into a screen larger than 65, youre not looking for cheap TV, are you?

CRT is indeed the best kept secret in HDTV, but its no secret. Whenever you see ads for HDTVs under a grand, chances are its a CRT based TV. If that new HDTV is under 32, youll need to sit very close to notice the HD resolution, so chances are you wont want to bother paying extra for HD in anything less than 32.

What about the picture quality of CRT? Second to none! Video engineers still use CRT images as the standard by which they judge video. Its still the industry standard for presenting colors and images. CRT is the best at presenting black of any display type today and does the best work on shadowy images without getting details mired in shadowy globs like many large digital display types. And the colors, crispness and brightness are as good as anything presented by the other non-CRT or fixed pixel displays.

So get out there and find yourself a cheap TV!