Things to know before you shop

4K TVs are the norm these days. If you’re not sure what 4K means, it describes the image resolution. TVs with 4K have four times as many pixels as standard 1080p resolution. But keep in mind that most live broadcasts are still not shot in 4K, so you’ll mostly see the benefit in apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, or if you subscribe to YouTube TV with a high 4K plan. grant.

When choosing between resolutions, you may see specifications such as Ultra HD, UHD, or 4K. They all mean the same thing.

8K resolution is twice the resolution of 4K. It has four times as many pixels as 4K and 16 times as many pixels as 1080p.

While that may sound tempting, you probably won’t enjoy any of the benefits of 8K since any content has been shot in 8K yet. Not to mention expensive 8K TVs. Be prepared to spend more than $2,000.

HDR, also known as high dynamic range, allows your TV shows and movies to look like the studio that produced them if they were shot in HDR. You’ll get more light in darker scenes, which means it’ll be easier for you to view content. Most 4K TVs are also HDR compatible.

There are many quality types of HDR TVs. The expensive ones may look great, while the cheap ones may not. If done right, HDR can really be a more important feature than 4K.

Good HDR depends on brightness and contrast. When the light parts of the TV picture are brighter, it improves the colors and makes the picture more depth, and movies and TV shows can look lifelike. Assuming you’re watching a movie with an ocean scene, you’ll be able to see the nuances and textures of the waves, the darkest blues and whites, giving you a sense of the realism of the scene.

But HDR performance can vary considerably from TV to TV. Make sure the TV you buy has a brightness of at least 400 nits — a measure of brightness intensity — because sometimes TVs with levels lower than 400 are also marketed as HDR TVs. 600 nits or more is better, with the best performing HDR TVs hitting 1,000 nits or more.

You will see a lot of different types of HDR marketing. HDR10 is the most widely used because it is a free and open technology standard. Nearly all TVs marketed to support HDR will work with HDR10 content.

There is also HDR10+ which is supported by most major streamers, except Netflix. However, please note that TVs may receive updates, so if the manufacturer decides to use HDR10+, the company can add that capability to your TV without you having to do anything but Software updates.

The TV’s refresh rate is the number of times per second the TV can reset and display the picture. Most TVs today offer 60 Hz, which means the screen refreshes 60 times per second, or 120 Hz, refreshes 120 times per second.

The latter is more expensive but may be better if you watch a lot of fast-moving content, like sports or action movies. When the refresh rate is low, it creates motion blur, making moving images look blurry.

This number is especially important for gamers. The latest consoles, such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, offer 120 Hz refresh rates, but you’ll need a true 120 Hz TV to see the clearest graphics possible.

If you’re connecting a gaming system that uses a higher refresh rate, “make sure the TV has an HDMI 2.1 input,” says Gagnon. It is the port that will support these fast refresh rates, he said.

Almost every TV these days uses a liquid crystal display, known as an LCD, or an organic light-emitting diode display, known as an OLED. The latter is capable of producing the best image quality, while LCDs are generally less expensive but can still give you great images.

OLED is a newer technology. It has no standard backlight. Instead, each pixel is individually illuminated. On the other hand, the best quality LCDs have local dimming, meaning that parts of the screen can be dimmed without affecting the brightness on the rest of the screen.

“The biggest advantage of LCD is that it is the most affordable of all technologies,” says Gagnon. “High-end LCD TVs do a great job of achieving performance close to or matching the performance of OLED screens.”

With OLED, “you’re talking about the highest performing display, so it should have higher contrast levels and better color performance.” It will also be easier to watch TV from multiple viewing angles, Gagnon explains, and it will likely have the fastest refresh rates.

There is also QLED, which stands for quantum light-emitting diode. A QLED TV is basically an LCD TV with quantum dots. Quantum dots are microscopic molecules that, when hit by light, emit light of their own different colors. Thanks to this technology, QLED TVs emit more accurate colors, which improves the overall picture quality.

With QLED, “you get better color performance, you also get a slight improvement in performance, meaning the setup can be a bit brighter, and these TVs tend to include features that are not other features, such as higher refresh rates and more HDMI inputs,” said Gagnon.