Best Plasma TV

Probably the most important step before buying a plasma TV is to figure out the size you need. The prices of plasma TVs are becoming more and more accessible these days that you might be tempted to buy the largest plasma TV you can afford. However that’s not a good idea. The best plasma TV for you might not be the largest one. The right size depends mainly on three factors:

1. The dimensions of the space in which you will install it
2. The distance between the plasma TV and you
3. The plasma TV resolution

First of the factors is pretty obvious. If you intend to install it in a small place then the best plasma TV for you is a small one. This, however, is not as important as it might seem because you can (and you should) adapt your space in such way to allow you to install the biggest plasma TV the next two factors will indicate. You might need to rearrange your furniture a bit but it’s worth it if you want the best viewing experience. Keep in mind that you should always leave enough room around the plasma TV to have a good ventilation. They tend to produce a lot of heat and in order to avoid damaging them you have to allow air to flow around them.

If you happen to have a lot of room - like a whole wall for example - that doesn’t mean the best plasma TV to have is the largest you can get your hands on. What you also need to take into consideration is the distance between the plasma TV and where you will be sitting. The shorter the distance is the smaller the size of your plasma TV should be. It doesn’t matter if you have a wall so large that you can fit there a 108" plasma TV. If the distance between you and the plasma is very short then you must settle for a smaller screen. You can’t have a Star Trek screen in your house yet and the reason for that is the limited resolution. "But HDTV plasma TV have a very high resolution!" i hear you say. True, but if you sit too close to a very large plasma TV, you will actually experience worst quality than by watching a regular low-resolution TV from the right distance. Instead of seeing the picture as a whole, your eyes will be able to distinguish the pixels that make up the plasma TV screen and that translates as bad quality and bad viewing experience.

All this might start to sound as bad news for you if you don’t have much space, but don’t get to stressed because i have good news. Let’s not forget that we are interested in choosing the best plasma TV for the best viewing experience not buying the largest and most expensive plasma TV. If you have a short distance between the place where you will install the plasma and where you will be sitting you can actually buy a smaller and cheaper plasma TV and experience similar quality as if you had a large plasma TV installed in a large space (with long distance between you and the plasma TV). You see, resolutions of plasma TV screens varies with size. Smaller screens have smaller resolution and the biggest screens have the biggest resolution. Smaller screen and resolution means lower prices (if you have a small room then I bet you are smiling right now).

As a rule of thumb, the optimal viewing distance should be at least two times higher than the plasma TV size and not higher than five times it’s size. 

I believe you got the idea so I will go ahead and tell you the recommended viewing distances for each popular plasma TV sizes. OK, maybe the 108-inch plasma TVs are not so popular, but I put them here for the sake of completion.

Using the table above, if for example, you will be sitting at 12 feet away, the best plasma TV size to have is the 50" one (preferably a Full-HD one). Nothing beats personal experience, so it may be a good idea to actually go and take a look at plasma TVs of various sizes from the distance you will be viewing it at home. See by yourself witch one feels better. Also keep in mind that if you decide to buy a plasma TV which has a lower resolution, then you should know that the best viewing distance decreases. Following the same logic, a plasma TV with a higher resolution will offer a good viewing experience from a shorter distance because of the increased level of detail. Also you may find out that the best plasma TVs on the market in terms of image quality, will offer better viewing experiences from shorter distances than the not so good models.