Choosing the Best Home Theater Television for Your Home Theater

Out of all the components that make up a home theater system, the television may be the most overlooked and least understood. Like all the components of your home theater, bigger isn’t always better. With the many choices in home theater televisions, you have a lot of things to consider.

When selecting television for your home theater, you need to look at the size, cost, connection types and many other things to ensure that you get the home theater television that’s right for you.

Most electronic retailers will try to convince you that you need one of the biggest, most expensive home theater televisions. The truth is that today’s "medium size" television was yesterday's "huge" television.

The size of your television won’t matter if you’re not sitting the right distance away. It’s just like reading a book — too close or too far away can ruin the experience.

Television size will continue to grow, but your living room size and distance you sit from the TV will most likely stay the same. With too big of a TV, you’ll get the same effect as when you go to the movie theater and sit far too close to the screen.

Here are some good rules of thumb to keep in mind regarding television size and viewing distance:

* For every foot away from the cable TV, there should be no more than four inches of diagonal screen on the television.

* If you’re watching satellite TV or a DVD, the rule changes to five inches per foot.

* For high-definition television, it's six inches per foot.

Just like most rules, the above may not apply to your situation. Perhaps you have a very large wall or an exceptionally high ceiling. These cases would obviously call for a home theater television size that would break those rules of thumb.

* The higher the quality the type of shows you usually watch, the bigger the television can be.

* If you watch a lower quality show such as one over the antenna, it probably wont look very good on a big TV that is very close to you.

Screen size is only one of many important factors that you’ll consider when selecting television for your home theater. Size, price, warranty and many other things will weigh in on your final decision.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed in the home theater television section. All the biggest, best and most expensive home theater televisions are lined up beautifully, playing a high definition show to exhibit their amazing picture quality.

It’s important to not be overcome by all the glitz of the latest and greatest models of home theater televisions. Stick to the guidelines you set for yourself on size, picture quality and the other attributes.

When the day comes to purchase your new home theater television, it’s best to leave the credit cards at home and take cash with you. But only take exactly what you want to spend. Don’t bother bringing an extra $200 dollars "just in case," unless you really want that money to be part of the television budget. Bringing extra money or credit cards will tempt you to go over your budget.

Beyond the cost of a home theater television, there are many other aspects to consider. For example, a large television with slightly older technology may cost the same as a small television with cutting edge technology.

Think about the possible rooms in your home this television will be in over the years when considering what size to get. You may find you don’t need as big of a television as you assumed.

Keep in mind that you will have this television for years so it’s worth spending a little extra money to make sure you get something you’ll be happy with.