Five essential questions when purchasing a new TV

Buying a new TV is not exactly the same as buying a loaf of bread: potentially you can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on it, so you also want to enjoy it for a long time. On the basis of these five questions you can make an informed choice.

1. 4k or ‘normal’ HD?
This question is currently losing some relevance: the majority of the television sets that you find on store shelves today are 4k devices. Devices that only provide a ‘normal’ Full HD image are becoming increasingly scarce. Realize that other devices are now set to 4k: game consoles such as the PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X play their games in 4k and many Blu-Ray players are 4k.

2. Which ‘High Dynamic Range’ variant?
HDR or High Dynamic Range is a technology that is integrated in most 4k TVs and gives the colour range on your screen a big boost. Here as a consumer you have to pay attention: there is still a small standard war between Dolby Vision and HDR10, which is not completely settled. So, you choose a TV that supports both. In addition, the development of the new standard HDR10 + is something to keep an eye on.

3. Greater or smaller than 55 inches?
The size of a TV screen is indicated by the diagonal from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. The ‘breaking point’ is at 55 inches. That size lends itself to a real cinema experience, but then you must of course have a (house) room that is large enough, because the ideal viewing distance between screen and seat is then 1.67 to 2.36 meters. If you put your TV in a smaller room and your seat is closer, you better opt for a slightly smaller TV.

4. With or without a separate soundbar?
With an epic viewing experience also, a serious audio system. Until a few years ago you had to rely on a 5.1 surround system: five loudspeakers that you set up in different places in your living room, plus a subwoofer. Nowadays, the soundbars are so good that most consumers opt for that. The latest trend is to immediately incorporate them into the televisions, such as the OLED 973 TV recently proposed by Philips.

5. How many HDMI ports?
Ask before you go to the store or make your online purchase also for a short while what you use your TV exactly all. After all, you want a device that has enough HDMI ports (the standard for the radiating of image and sound from device to device). If you look at your TV purely linearly and use only the interactive services of your telecom provider, you will probably get one port. Do you also want to add game consoles? Google Chromecast? Apple TV? Or Blu-Ray players, PCs or other peripherals? Then choose a TV with multiple HDMI ports. Standard for the media omnivore is a device with three ports.