In addition, most stores rarely show 4K content on their TVs and often play animation, which always looks better than “live” TV, all of which renders A-B comparisons useless.

Retailers brighten their sets to compensate for a store’s harsh fluorescent lighting. Ignore what TVs look like on the retail show floor. Most budget TVs use a popular operating system like Google TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku, all of which allow you to download and use streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Youtube, and more. Nearly every TV on the market today has streaming services built in. You don’t have to break the bank to get a premium 4K television loaded with features like internet TV channels or cloud gaming. If you don’t want a sound bar now, make sure the stand on the TV is wide enough and lifts a TV high enough to fit a sound bar as unobtrusively as possible under the set. If you plan on using your cheap TV for prime time living room entertainment, consider pairing it with an affordable sound bar or bookshelf speaker. With the move towards thinner displays, built-in speakers have gotten increasingly smaller. TVs have improved dramatically in picture quality.

If you play lots of video games, we recommend spending a little more to get a TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. But this can be a bit slow for fast moving content like sports and video games, leaving a trail behind-ghosting. Most cheap TVs hover around a 60 Hz refresh rate which is standard for most shows and movies. This is how many times a screen refreshes the image in a second. SpeedĪ TV’s speed is called its refresh rate, measured in hertz (Hz). This film technology adds an extra layer of particles in front of a backlight panel to greatly enhance colors with more contrast and overall pop. And if a TV is equipped with a QLED screen you’ll see a major boost in color reproduction.

However the best value TVs will clump layers of backlights together in smaller zones for improved brightness and picture detail in dark scenes. Cheap TVs tend to use standard LED backlighting which offer average brightness levels but are still capable of 4K high dynamic range. Picture Qualityīrightness, colors, and sharpness all impact your viewing experience. Even if your budget is under $1,000, there is still a wide variety of considerations to make when purchasing your new TV, like picture quality, speed, sound, and smart features.

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