Appliances are an investment at home, especially those that really come with a price. Some of which are computers, kitchen electronics, and the most popular of media set -the television.

In buying your television, it is not enough that you only choose based on its size or on how overwhelming its appearance is. There are more technical factors you should learn in order to get the best buy on TV. Let me show you those five things you need to know beforehand about them.

Response or Reaction Time
Response time tells about how quickly one pixel on your screens changes its color, for example from active black to inactive white. The standard reaction time for the liquid crystal display or most popularly known as LCD TV is 8 milliseconds which is equivalent to an LCD refresh rate of 60 hertz. The faster your response time, the clearer your display images are even if you watch a fast-moving event onscreen.

The reason why some TVs get blurry or produce judder or sudden jerk is because they have slower refresh rate. When they air a dynamic event like a car race or a sports event, it cannot produce quality coverage of the whole show live. Rather what they generate are those “motion lags” as the screen cannot keep up with the fast movements happening.

Older televisions have usually a response time of 16 milliseconds. But as technologies grow more advanced, electronic manufacturers began creating LCD TV with a faster response rate by doubling the standard 60 hertz to 120 hertz. Logically however, televisions with higher response rate cost a little higher than most TV with only a standard response time.

Television Resolution and Picture Quality
Together with a fast reaction time, it is also good to know whether our televisions display quality pictures. Resolution determines how the details of images are being showed on TV in relation to other images on the screen. This is the reason why most people turn now to High Definition TV or HDTV as it produces quality images than the Standard Definition TV.

Television Flexibility
Some television manufacturers incorporate more functions, particularly of the video and audio inputs and outputs, for maximum viewing enjoyment. With these tools, you get to fully enjoy watching films in high-performing digital versatile disks (DVDs) or Blu-ray discs. You can also connect camcorders or your game console gadgets to add more visual enjoyment and convenience to viewing and gaming.

Manufacturer Warranty
And aside from knowing what it takes to be a good television, we should also learn what it takes to protect them as an asset.

Most TV manufacturers provide a TV warranty service for customers to provide a maximum user satisfaction. TV warranties cover damages resulting from probable technical problems of the TV itself but not on damages resulting from misuse of the owner or accidents. Most warranty covers are on a 12-month period for LCD TVs and will be longer for more sophisticated models. So if you would be buying your newest TV, it is better if you would ensure a warranty for it especially when it is the state-of-the-art where only experts know how to handle it.

Personal Maintenance
Televisions will live longer if it’s being taken cared off well by its users. You can do simple maintenance by never allowing your TV to be placed under high temperature and humidity, or else, proper display will be destroyed. Also, put your TVs away from dusty places or in locations where it is prone to being poured of liquid substances to avoid electronic malfunction inside the product. Your LCD TV is composed of sensitive electronic parts. Exposing them to accidents may lead to the demise of your newly acquired TV.

Buying your television requires a lot of careful selection and keen technical inquiries to achieve the best purchase deal. However, never stop being meticulous on the buying alone. Also take note the post-purchase events like maintenance and probable repairs. Being one of the valuable things at home, owning it definitely requires care.

By: Daryl B. Chapman