TV Terminology you Should Know Before Buying a new TV

Are you in the market for a new tv? In today’s competitive TV market, it is crucial to examine in great detail all the specs and features offered by the TV you are looking to purchase. Getting a great 4K TV capable of showing content in UHD and HDR including Dolby Vision is the gold standard of the high dynamic range capabilities of TVs. Other HDR standards supported by the best TVs, include HDR 10, HDR 10+ and HLG. These would also apply if you were in the market for a top tier high end 8K TV. The best TVs have these features which mean that each pixel shows amazing image quality, so once you have determined which screen size you need for your new TV, you can explore different types of HDTVs that meet your viewing needs. These new TVs will offer better viewing angles, better contrast and when reviewing a specific TV model, the specs will usually apply to any screen size usually to an 75–85-inch TV, in that models lineup. However, some TV manufacturers will offer larger screen sizes with upgraded specs, therefore we recommend confirming with the TV manufacturer’s user manual or online guidance before you choose.

Let’s look at some of the terms and important facts that will assist you in your TV buying guide and your endeavor to get the best TV.

TV Terminology

Display Technology

OLED

There are so many new amazing modern TVs on the market including OLED TVs or organic light emitting diodes, which have the best picture quality. OLED TVs have long been known for providing great viewing angles and brightness for darkly lit rooms. OLED TVs also enhance the black levels giving you vibrant colors and a warm picture to view. OLED TVs are currently the best display technology that you can get. They are also great for fast action scenes as found in intense gaming and action movies.

QLED or Quantum Dot Technology (QD-OLED)

QLED TVs are known to achieve the best 4k resolution and HDR performance. QLED technology featuring Quantum Dot technology increases the color output..
 Samsung offers NeoQLED, QLED 4K, Liquid Crystal 4k UHD and Lifestyle TVs like the acclaimed frame TV and even TVs with resolution up to 8K.

Samsung’s liquid crystal display TV which is a more budget friendly TV screen can still get you a 4K HDR viewing experience.  You can get HDR 10 and HDR 10+ which we will delve into a but more later. Even with larger screen sizes, the backlight fluorescent lighting and the pricing for this type of display is very appealing.

Liquid Crystal Display or LCD

Samsung’s liquid crystal display TV which is a more budget friendly TV screen which can still get you a 4K HDR viewing experience. You can get HDR 10 and HDR 10+ which we will delve into a but more later. Even with larger screen sizes, the backlight fluorescent lighting and the pricing for this type of display is very appealing.

Mini-LED Display

We have found that TVs in a good price range, like the TCL 6 series which features a mini LED display QLED and a full array display improving the HDR capabilities, are a great budget option to still get an amazing ultra HD display. This is one of the best non OLED TVs for the price on the market. Mini-LED TVs use multiple LED lights which can dim or brighten automatically based of your viewing environment.

LED Display

These TVs offer better picture quality, than traditional LCD screens. These are now the most common TVs that are offered on the market. Improving on even the older Plasma technology, LED TVs get better power consumption, lowering electric bills. So with a TV that has LED or Light Emitting Diodes as it’s display technology, you get sharper and more vibrant images and slimmer profiled TV screens than typical LCD TVs. So you can wall mount an LED TV that has slim bezels, which gives a nice sleek design to modern LED TVs.

Edge Lit LED Display

Edge lit displays have light emitting diodes placed around the perimeter of the display. The lights than can dim or brighten as needed and face towards the center of the display. Many Edge Lit TVs come with local dimming support which you can tweak in the picture settings and activate “Intelligent Picture” settings as found on TCL TVs. Keep in mind that different TVs will have other types of verbiage for this setting.

LED Backlit Display

 Using LED backlighting is when the LED lights are placed behind the LCD display. Usually these are more affordable TVs than high end OLED or QLED TVs.

HDR or High Dynamic Range

HDR offers richer and more realistic colors and contrast to compliment the 4K UHD technology. HDR lets you feel like you are right in the scene in your TV and movie viewing experience. There are several common types of HDR to explore:

HLG

This standard of HDR call the Hybrid Log Gamma is typically used by basic cable TV channels to achieve their level of the High Dynamic Range.

HDR 10

This is the most common type of High Dynamic range that is compatible with most new Smart TVs, allowing for an improved picture quality, the ability to achieve 1,000 peak nits of brightness. So viewing in a bright room will still allow for the 10 bit over 1 billion vibrant color reproduction.

HDR 10+

This is an upgrade over HDR 10. However, HDR 10+ allows for the picture brightness to automatically change to suit your viewing environment. You can also get 4,000 peak nits of brightness for even better viewing in bright rooms with plentiful ambient light.

Dolby Vision

This is the gold standard of HDR viewing competing with DTS:X but is much more commonly used. This HDR standard can produce approximately 68 billion colors. For a sharp and vibrant viewing experience. Dolby Vision used the displays metadata to help create the ultimate display without having to make changes on your end. The TV will use the pictures metadata to do this for you.

TV Viewing Terminology

Display Resolution

The most common TVs today can provide a 4K screen resolution. What does that mean? Well prior the top tier TVs would only offer a Full HD resolution or FHD which is 1920 x 1080p, however 4K TVs give 4 times the amount of each pixel on the display for a display resolution of 3840 x 2160p. You can even go further and get a TV with an 8K display which has a screen resolution of 7680 x 4320p and can display 33 million pixels for an unrivaled display. However, please note that current 8K TVs will be the priciest on the market.

Aspect Ratio

TVs typically have a 16:9 aspect ratio which is what most TV and movies are recorded in. You can also view displays with an aspect ratio of 4:3 which is more of square type of display. A good example of using the 4:3 aspect ratio and still get a 4K UHD HDR viewing experience is the Zack Snyder version of the Justice League movie which you can find on the streaming service MAX.

Refresh Rate

This is something that is crucial for your TV. Most newer TVs will offer at least one HDMI port that can achieve at least 120 FPS or frames per second. This makes TV watching and gaming so much better. The TVs screen will refresh at a quicker rate which gamers will love especially for competitive online gaming. Please keep in mind that currently streaming TV or movies top out at 60 FPS.  

Upscaling

Many current smart TVs will have the ability to upscale FHD content to a 4K or even 8K viewing experience. While this is a great feature, it still won’t get you the best display as you would if the native picture was shot in 4K or 8K. That being said you still will get a better more sharp and vibrant display than you would watching the content in only FHD or 1080p.

TV Audio Terminology

2 Channel Stereo

This is probably the most basic type of audio output that your TV will be capable of. This gives you a two-channel type of immersive audio. We like these for computer monitors as well.

Spatial Audio

Spatial audio allows for a great 360-degree immersive audio experience. This type of listening lets you hear surround sound coming from all angles and from a up firing speaker or ceiling speaker (known as Height on many A/V receivers) lets you feel like you are right in the action. There is a couple of spatial audio version that are work discussing.

Dolby Atmos

This is the gold standard of surround sound used in movie theaters and cinematic productions. You can tell by your speaker set up if you have a Dolby Atmos capable device. If so, you will see a speaker configuration of say 3.1.2, the first number is your center cannel speaker and surround speakers. The second number corresponds to how many subwoofers you have in your speaker configuration. The third number are your Dolby Atmos speakers. These are the ones that will let you hear planes, and other overhead action making you feel like you are in the middle of the scene.

DTS:X

DTS:X which is the main competitor to Dolby Atmos uses a different way to provide an immersive sound to your viewing experience. This is an open-sourced surround sound technology which means the TV or Movie doesn’t have to pay for the Dolby Atmos in their production. This also means that they can place action coming out from any speaker. However, they don’t need height channel speakers or ceiling speakers to get that surround sound. Please note that Dolby Atmos is a better overall surround sound option as it is more accurate and will provide a more immersive audio experience.

A/V Receivers

Audio/Video receivers are a great option for setting up a home theater system. Utilizing the latest sound and video technology, receivers can get the most immersive surround sound possible. You can attach a center channel speaker (which is very important as the dialogue of what you are watching comes through that speaker), also attach multiple surround speakers possibly up to 9 in many newer receivers. There also will be ports for subwoofers which you can wire to work through your existing speakers or attach them via an LFE (Low Frequency Effect) port for the easiest connections.

Sound Bars

Getting a great soundbar is a good alternative to a full Audio Video Receiver set up. Many high mid-tier and high end soundbars come with a wireless subwoofer and built in tweeters a center channel and up firing speakers to get Dolby Atmos. If you want a smaller set up than a full receiver set up, you can go wrong with a top end sound bar.

Connectivity

Ports

            Component Connection:

This is the basic audio connection using your red, white and yellow component cables for an easy audio set up. However, you will not be able to achieve Dolby sound with this form of connectivity.

            Optical Connection:

This uses an optical cable for better sound. You can still get Dolby surround sound up to a 7.1 configuration with this type of connection.

            HDMI ARC or eARC:

This is the best connection possible. By connecting your TV to an A/V receiver or sound bar via an HDMI cable rated at 2.1, this will allow you to get Dolby Atmos surround sound. This will allow for the sound to come from the TV through the attached device with best audio quality possible by transmitting the original full resolution surround sound that the content was recorded in. Try and get and get a TV that has this port supporting at least 120 FPS for the fastest refresh rate.

Wi-Fi

With the latest technologies of Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi AX you get at least 2x the speed you would with Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi AC. However, Wi-Fi AC will still allow for your TV to access the faster 5ghz network for speedier downloading of apps and overall streaming and gaming. If your TV supports Wi-Fi AX, you can access the even faster 160ghz channels on your router.

Bluetooth

Your new TV should come with bluetooth technology so you can wirelessly connect devices like headphones, keyboards and remote controls just to name a few. We recommend a minimum bluetooth standard of 5.0, however, if you can get a TV that supports bluetooth 5.3 you will get better quality wireless connections with lower lag between the TV and your device. To put this into layman terms, if you are watching TV with wireless bluetooth headphones, with a 5.3 standard you have less to worry about adjusting audio settings, so the audio matches up with the video output as originally designed.

Ethernet Port

Most TVs will also have an RJ-45 Ethernet port for direct wiring into your router. This will give you the fastest speeds possible based of your ISP provider plan. So, if you are a competitive online gamer, we highly recommend using a wired connection versus a wireless connection. We would also recommend getting at least a CAT-6 Ethernet cable up to a CAT-8 if you have a multi gig internet connection to your home. These types of high-speed connection are capable via Fiber Optic Cable, so many ISP providers are supporting speeds of 5GB per second. CAT-8 cable can future proof your internet connection.

Apple Air Play and Casting

Many of the new TVs have Apple Air Play 2, so you can easily play content from your phone directly to your TV when paired via bluetooth. Also on Android phones, you can cast from your phone to your TV in apps like YouTube.

TV Operating Systems

The best TVs out there have built in OS’ that you can download apps for streaming services like Hulu, Disney+, Netflix and more. In addition, you will find productivity apps like an internet browser or even some apps that you can use to make power points or excel type spreadsheets.

Samsung uses their Tizen OS, but you can get TV’s that have built in OS Streaming Services like Roku, Google TV or Amazon Fire TV. We personally love the Apple TV as a great OS that you can install into the HDMI eARC port on your TV or into one of the 120 FPS ports on you’re a/V receiver or soundbar.

It comes down to what eco system you prefer to be in and how your other devices will interact with the TV. For example, if you have an Android phone, you may want to consider a TV with Google TV as their OS because of the deep integration with Android. Conversely if you are an Apple user, you should get the Apple TV Streaming device as a great add on.

Gaming Consoles

As we all know and love the gamers in our households and their preference for which gaming console they want. With options like Microsoft Xbox S/X or the Sony PlayStation 5, you can take advantage of the 120 FPS HDMI ports, as many new games are offered in 120 FPS and Dolby Atmos. So having a TV with supporting ports will allow for gamers to get extremely low lag and input from the router to the TV, meaning better refresh rates and a more immersive competitive online gaming experience.

Not only that but most gaming consoles will also have apps for streaming services and even productivity apps.

One item that we recommend for security purposes, especially when playing online gaming is to use a VPN or Virtual Private Network. This will hide your ISP address by connecting to a remote server which prevents hacks into your device. Please note that using a VPN may slow down your download and upload speeds, however you should still be able to achieve speeds needed for 4K HDR video.

4K UHD HDR Blu-Ray Players

If you are getting a new TV, it is a great time to also investigate 4K blue rays. Blu-Ray Players are perfect if you like to watch movies with an unbelievable display, providing an accurate aspect ratio, great refresh rates and an overall wonderful viewing experience. This is nice to have if you have if you like hard copies of the shows and movies that you watch versus a digital copy. This device can possibly get you a better viewing experience than streaming your show. Although, there is an ease of use by just downloading a digital copy of what you want to watch.

Additional TV thoughts

We lean more towards using OLED technology for a new TV over a QLED TV. Both technologies are great for watching television and streaming devices for watching shows and movies. Gamers will surely appreciate the overall picture quality even when attaching a gaming console like an XBOX. Its close though, the overall viewing picture will be a personal preference and are very much alike in many ways.

You will see many budget friendly TVs such as Full HD LCD TVs listed as popular purchases due to their price. These cap out the screen resolution at 1080P and will not be able to process and watch ultra-high definition 4K content. However, many of these TVs still offer an array of smart features like built in apps which can connect you to built-in streaming services, productivity apps and even games, depending on the operating system of the TV.

With acronyms like refresh rate, contrast ratio, and latency it can prove vexing to peruse the different TV manufacturers and understand what these do for your viewing experience. Using our TV Terminology guide will assist you in getting the right TV with the exact specs you desire.

As a refresher for some of the TV terminology we previously discussed, like refresh rate, which the best TVs on the market today will offer at least one HDMI port with a 120 hertz refresh rate and an extensive number of pixel resolution in the display, meaning each pixel is displayed in a vibrant sharp and clear display. One thing to look for is to make sure that your new TV has upscaling capability that we previously mentioned. That means if your content is at lower resolution than your new 4K or 8K TV, the TV will upscale the content to meet the display capability of the TV. With a higher refresh rate and low latency modes, gamers will love the quick response time for fast action online gaming. In terms of contrast ratio, the higher offered by your TV means you get deeper blacks getting a better picture quality, especially when watching TV in dark environments. Having a TV with local dimming will also improve your TV’s contrast, as the TV will dim backlight LED lights to deliver even deeper blacks for an improved picture quality.

Time to get that New TV

Now that you have a definitive TV buying guide, with a detailed explanation of some of the terms you will see when deciding on your new TV, and several highly capable recommendations for a new TV, you should feel confident in getting the right product to serve your needs. Whether you are streaming shows and movies or using one of these new TVs for intense gaming, you will see an improved picture quality, gaming modes, low latency and a blazing refresh rate. So, invite some friends over to watch a sports game or have a nice movie night in with a loved one and enjoy the advanced specs and features of these new Smart TVs.