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If you haven’t been TV shopping lately, you’ll likely find that the process has become a bit more complex in the past few years, mainly because of the proliferation of new features and choices.
Go shopping and you’ll see that the majority of sets are now Ultra High Definition (UHD), or 4K, TVs, and there’s even a growing number of 8K TVs, which promise greater picture detail than HD TVs offer, along with improved contrast and color. So one question you’ll face if you’re buying a larger TV is whether it’s time to move to one of these newer 8K UHD TVs or stick with a regular 4K set.
Many sets feature high dynamic range, or HDR, which promises brighter, more dynamic images and more vivid, lifelike colors. However, not all televisions deliver good HDR performance, and the ones that do better tend to cost more. You’ll face another choice there.
Lastly, Consumer Reports members may notice that OLED TVs tend to dominate our ratings of larger TVs. These days, you now have a choice between two OLED TV technologies. (More on that below.) Also, as we note below, some of the very best LCD sets now rival OLED TVs for performance (and price), and they are capable of even greater brightness.
Once you know which type of TV you want, you can focus on getting the right size screen, and on a few other important features and performance characteristics. You can see more details below. CR members can get test reports and complete details on more than 300 sets in our TV ratings.
Consumer Reports also has advice on streaming media players, soundbar speakers, and antennas, along with ratings of internet and cable TV services.
LCD TVs keep improving. While OLED TVs still top our ratings, the best LCD TVs get better every year, edging closer to OLED TV-like performance.
More TVs, dubbed "QLED TVs," use quantum dots for an expanded range of colors. Another reason for the improvement is the rollout of full-array LED backlights, where LEDs are arranged across the entire back of the panel, rather than just along the edges of the screen. That design is combined with a feature called local dimming, where the LEDs are divided into zones that can be illuminated or darkened separately. These improvements address a shortfall of LCD TVs, which is that their black tones often look grayish rather than truly black. With full-array backlights and local dimming, dark areas look darker, and you’re less likely to see halos around bright objects on a dark background.
Now, a newer development in LCD/LED TV technology, called Mini LEDs, is taking local dimming one step further. You can see this new backlight technology in TVs from LG, Samsung, TCL, and other brands.
By shrinking the size of the LEDs in the backlight, companies can pack more of them together into the same area. In fact, these sets can boast thousands of Mini LEDs behind the LCD panel. These are divided into dimmable zones, and because the LEDs are so small, there can be a lot of them—say, a thousand zones, instead of the dozens found in even the best LCD sets up until now. And the zones can be controlled more precisely.
Mini LEDs can increase the dynamic range of the TV, the difference between the brightest whites and deepest blacks the screen can show. And that can also help boost a TV’s HDR performance, which is discussed in more detail below.
Combine all this and Mini LED sets come closer to performing like OLEDs, while retaining some traditional benefits of LCDs, such as better brightness and a wider choice of brands and screen sizes.
But OLED TVs are also getting some newer technology, called "QD-OLED," where the first two letters stand for quantum dots, which up to now have been used only in LCD-based sets. QD-OLED TVs, from Samsung and Sony, represent a hybrid approach that marries the advantages of traditional OLED TVs—high contrast, deep blacks, and unlimited viewing angles—with the higher peak brightness and more vibrant colors you often get with QLED TVs.
(For a more detailed explanation of these technologies, see "QLED vs. OLED (and QD-OLED): Which Technology Is Right for You?")
Just like QLED TVs, QD-OLED sets start with a blue light source and use quantum-dot material to produce red and green light. But because they are OLEDs, the light source in this case is each individual pixel.
Because these TVs don’t use color filters in front of the light source, QD-OLED TVs have the potential to reach higher peak brightness levels without losing any contrast. In fact, we’re now seeing peak brightness levels in the best OLED TVs hit 1,500 nits. By comparison, the 2022 LG C2, a top-performing TV, hit 850 nits.
8K TVs have arrived, at prices still significantly higher than comparably sized 4K sets. Though 8K TVs made their debut three years ago, they’ve so far been a minuscule portion of TV sales. One reason is that the extra detail you get with these TVs—which have 33 million pixels, compared with 8 million in a 4K set—is mainly evident only in the largest TVs.
While all those millions of extra pixels promise sharper, more detailed images than what you can currently get with 4K UHD TVs, that doesn’t mean an 8K set makes sense for most people. For one thing, you won’t find any native 8K content to watch on one of these sets, at least for a while.
Over-the-air TV is advancing, too. Next-Gen TV, technically called ATSC 3.0, is a standard for broadcasting signals over the air, which you can pick up with an antenna. Next-Gen TV is still rolling out, but proponents say it will be available in some form in about 80 percent of the country by the end of the year. The standard lets TV signals carry a lot more data, so broadcasters can start offering 4K programs and movies with HDR that get beamed to ordinary television antennas. The new standard is IP (internet protocol)-based, allowing some broadcasters to offer over-the-air TV plans that marry traditional over-the-air TV channels with a handful of lifestyle networks you’d typically get from a cable TV company or streaming service such as Sling TV or YouTube TV.
With Next-Gen TV, you may eventually be able to get TV shows and other content on smartphones, tablets, and even in moving vehicles. Broadcasters are also promising improvements in emergency and weather alert systems.
To receive these new TV signals your TV will need an ATSC 3.0 tuner, something not found in most existing televisions—only some sets from a handful of TV brands come with one. Don’t worry if you’re TV shopping, though. There will be more TVs with these new tuners in the coming months, and we expect to see companies start selling adapters to allow other TVs to use Next-Gen TV signals.
Though TV shoppers have seen new technology in 2023, a lot of the basic information you need to choose a TV has remained the same. Below is what you need to understand about screen size and other factors to make an informed decision.
Remember when a 50-inch TV seemed gigantic? Well, TVs with 55- and 65-inch screens are now commonplace. "We’ve seen 65-inch models overtake 55-inch sets as the most common screen size consumers see in stores," says Scott Peterson, senior analyst at the retail market research firm Gap Intelligence.
Paul Gagnon, VP and industry advisor at market research firm NPD, says that 60- to 69-inch TVs—mainly 65-inch sets—accounted for 16 percent of U.S. television sales in 2022, up from 14 percent in 2019. And even bigger TVs, 70 inches and larger, account for around 11 percent of sales.
There are no hard-and-fast rules for determining the right size TV—personal preference, the field of view, and even visual acuity come into play. However, if you’d like some guidance, you can try one of the many free online calculators available, or apply the following equation.
If you’re buying a 1080p set—and these have become unusual in larger screen sizes—the closest you can sit to your television, while still maintaining the proper maximum field of view, is 1.6 times the diagonal measurement of your television. So if you have a 60-inch screen, you’d want to sit at least 96 inches (or 8 feet) away. You can simply reverse the arithmetic if you want to start out with the viewing distance.
But don’t feel obliged to perform these calculations. These days, just about all larger sets are higher resolution, 4K UHD models. Because these TVs have more densely packed pixels, you can go larger, and your seating distance can be as close as the screen diagonal itself. So, for example, with a 65-inch UHD TV, you could sit as close as 5½ feet from the set.
Just remember that the goal is to create a comfortable, immersive viewing experience. You don’t want to be so close that you can’t see the whole picture or so far back that you miss out on the high-definition detail you’re paying for.
You’ll also have to pay attention to your budget. One unusual development this year is that TV prices actually rose across the board, for reasons ranging from component shortages to higher shipping costs.
Below are rough price ranges for several screen sizes. In general, the bigger the screen, the more expensive the set. Of course, performance matters, too—for a given price you can often get a smaller screen with better performance or a larger screen with less performance.
As you can see, for the biggest sets the range is enormous, from just a few hundred dollars into the thousands.
• 32-inch set: $100 to $450 • 39- to 43-inch set: $160 to $1,000 • 49- or 50-inch set: $250 to $700 is typical; $1,000 or more for premium LCDs and OLED TVs • 55- to 59-inch set: $300 to $1,600 • 65-inch set: $450 to $3,000 • 75-inch and larger sets: $600 to $3,400 for very large OLED TVs
A regular high-definition (HD) set is also called a 1080p model because its screen resolution is 1920x1080. That means it has 1,920 pixels horizontally and 1,080 pixels vertically, so it contains roughly 2 million pixels in all. Think of pixels, short for “picture elements,” as the tiny individual dots that make up the TV’s picture.
Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs, also called 4K TVs, have screen resolutions of 3840x2160, so they contain 8 million pixels or four times the number of individual pixels as an HD set. The more densely packed array of pixels in UHD sets makes them capable of greater picture detail. The benefits of a UHD TV are more apparent in larger screen sizes—say, 65 inches and above—or when you’d like to sit closer to the TV than you could with a 1080p set.
We’re now also starting to see 8K TVs, which have screen resolutions of 7680x4320, with more than 33 million pixels. Right now there aren’t many of them, and they’re typically a good bit more expensive than comparably sized 4K sets.
We don’t recommend purchasing an 8K set right now, because you’ll pay a premium for it and there’s almost no 8K content yet. So these days, purchasing a 4K TV makes the most sense, especially in larger screen sizes where it’s getting more difficult to even find HD sets. You will still find 1080p and 720p TVs in smaller screen sizes—say, 32 inches and smaller.
There is now a decent amount of 4K content to watch, especially from streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix. There are also 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players that can play 4K Blu-ray discs. We expect more to come on the market in the future.
Another benefit of 4K TVs: Most now support high dynamic range (HDR) and a wider palette of colors, for more vibrant, natural-looking images. To find out more about high dynamic range, see the HDR section below.
A high-definition TV with 1920x1080 resolution will be fine for most viewers; however, most sets 50 inches and larger are now 4K sets, and you don’t have to pay a premium to get this higher resolution. Almost all 1080p TVs are now smaller LCD TVs, but we’re even starting to see some 32-inch 4K TVs. That said, we’ve found that many viewers aren’t able to see the extra detail in a UHD TV from normal viewing distances until they get to very large screen sizes, say, 65 inches and above. Just remember that resolution is only one of the attributes that a TV has to get right to produce excellent overall picture quality. Regular HD TVs still remain a great choice for many consumers looking for a smaller TV.
Thanks to its higher-resolution 3840x2160 screen, a 4K TV can display greater detail than a 1080p set when presented with high-quality UHD content. New 8K TVs, with 7680x4320 screens, are capable of even greater fine detail. Images on these sets appear sharper, with smoother lines on the edges of objects, depending on your viewing distance. Many UHD sets attempt to enhance the image in other ways. For example, many better TVs now have sophisticated video processing and use artificial intelligence to upscale lower-resolution content to the TV’s 4K or 8K screens. And most 4K sets now support HDR, which provides a higher level of contrast between the lightest and darkest parts of an image. Newer UHD TVs also widen the array of colors a TV can display, but exploiting these advantages requires specially produced content. More content that has been encoded with HDR is available every year.
One of the most exciting recent TV developments is high dynamic range, or HDR. When done right, HDR boosts a TV’s brightness, contrast, and color, making the pictures on the screen look more like real life.
The dramatized image below shows that when HDR is at work, you’ll see details that might not otherwise be obvious, from the texture of the brick on a shady walkway to nuances in the white clouds in a daytime sky.
You’ll also see brighter, more realistic "specular highlights," which are glints of light, such as the sun’s reflection off a car’s chrome bumper or an airplane wing. With HDR, those highlights pop; without it, they wouldn’t stand out against other bright objects.
HDR does all that by increasing the contrast between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks a TV can produce. That’s where the "dynamic range" in the name comes from.
"When done well, HDR presents more natural illumination of image content," says Claudio Ciacci, who heads the Consumer Reports TV testing program. "HDR can flex its dynamic-range muscles in strong sunlit scenes that push the TV’s contrast to the limits," he adds, "but you’ll also see HDR’s subtler benefits on more simply lit scenes."
Typically, HDR TVs also produce more vibrant, varied colors than other sets. That’s because HDR is often paired with "wide color gamut," or WCG, capability.
Standard HDTVs can display about 17 million colors, but those with WCG can display up to a billion. That’s like giving your TV a larger box of crayons to play with.
But you won’t see all that fantastic contrast and color every time you turn on the TV. You have to be playing a movie or TV show that has been mastered to take advantage of HDR and WCG. You can get 4K content with HDR right now from streaming services, on 4K Blu-ray discs, and even from DirecTV’s satellite TV service. But we expect to see more HDR content become available, including through a new over-the-air broadcast standard that’s being launched in many markets this year. (Find out where you can watch 4K content with HDR.)
Types of HDR So far, we’ve been talking about HDR as if it were just one technology, but there are a few types of HDR, each following a different set of technical specs.
This can get complicated, and before we get into the details there’s some good news.
First, your TV should automatically detect the type of HDR being used in the content and choose the right way to play it.
Second, the type of HDR doesn’t seem to be too important right now. What we’ve seen in our labs is that top-performing TVs can do a great job with different types of HDR. The quality of the TV is more important. So it makes sense to buy the best TV you can regardless of the type of HDR it supports.
However, if you’d like to understand the differences among types of HDR, here’s an overview.
One type, called HDR10, has been adopted as an open standard. It’s free to use, and all 4K TVs with HDR support it. That’s also true of all 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players and HDR programming, so you won’t be stuck with a set that can’t play HDR.
But some TVs also offer another type of HDR, called Dolby Vision, which is being promoted as an enhanced version of HDR10. Companies pay a licensing fee to use it. On paper, it has some advantages. In particular, it supports “dynamic” metadata, where the brightness levels for a movie or show can be tweaked scene by scene. By contrast, HDR10 uses "static" metadata, where brightness levels are set for the entire movie or show.
Dolby Vision isn’t alone in using dynamic metadata, though. There’s a newer version of HDR10, called HDR10+. It, too, has dynamic metadata, making HDR10 more like Dolby Vision. Initially, it was supported mainly by Samsung, which developed HDR10+, and Amazon, but more TV brands, including some sets from Hisense and TCL, now support it. HDR10+ content is available from Amazon, Google Play, Hulu, and YouTube, and on some 4K Blu-ray discs.
There are also some offshoots to each of these two HDR formats. Both Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, found in TVs with built-in light sensors, can automatically adjust the TV’s brightness, contrast, and colors based on the ambient light in a room to enhance the HDR experience. Right now, these newer formats are found on only a small, but growing, number of models.
Most TVs now also support another HDR format, called HLG (hybrid log gamma). It could be important if it’s adopted for the next generation of free over-the-air TV signals, which will follow the ATSC 3.0, or Next-Gen TV, standard mentioned above. This matters only for people who get TV through antennas, which are making a comeback. Some TV services, such as DirecTV, use HLG as the HDR format for their 4K broadcasts.
Are All HDR TVs Created Equal? No. Our tests show that not every TV with "HDR" written on the box produces equally rich, lifelike images. That’s one reason we now provide a separate HDR score in our TV ratings.
First of all, TVs are all over the map when it comes to picture quality, HDR or no HDR. But there are also challenges specific to this technology. Most notably, a TV might not be bright enough to really deliver on HDR. To understand why, you need to know your “nits,” the units used to measure brightness.
Better-performing HDR TVs typically generate at least 600 nits of peak brightness, with top performers hitting 1,000 nits or more. But many HDR TVs produce only 100 to 300 nits. With an underpowered TV, the fire of a rocket launch becomes a single massive white flare. With a brighter television, you’d see tongues of fire and smoke, as if you were really there.
"The benefits of HDR are often lost with mediocre displays," Ciacci says.
How Can I Tell a Great HDR TV From a Bad One? Unfortunately, you can’t just read the packaging—or even rely on how the picture looks in the store.
What to do instead? Check our TV ratings, which now have a score for HDR.
As you’ll see, the TVs with the best HDR tend to be the priciest. But there are also some good choices for people who want to spend less, from brands such as Hisense and TCL. And if you’re buying a smaller set or just want to wait on 4K and HDR, you can find several good—and inexpensive—options.
The overwhelming number of TVs on the market, especially in midsized and larger models, are smart TVs. These televisions can access online content, such as streaming video services from Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix. Basic smart TVs may be limited to the most popular services, while others offer a vast assortment of apps. More sophisticated smart TVs can respond to voice commands, using microphones built into the TV’s remote control or using an app on a smartphone.
According to Hub Entertainment Research’s fourth annual “Connected Home” study, 80 percent of U.S. TV households own a smart TV, up from 61 percent in 2020. But if you’re considering a more basic TV or you already have a TV that lacks smarts, you can easily add internet capability using a separate streaming media player, such as an Amazon Fire TV, an Apple TV, a Google Chromecast, or a Roku player. (Details below.)
Some manufacturers, such as LG (webOS) and Samsung (Tizen) have developed their own smart TV platforms. (Both companies recently announced that they’ll be licensing their respective smart TV platforms to other companies.) Others may use a licensed system, such as Amazon Fire TV, Android TV or Google TV from Google, or Roku TV. A TV with built-in smarts can make accessing content easy—there’s only a single remote control—but a separate streaming media player may have more content options, or use an interface that makes finding and accessing content easier.
More TVs these days come with support for third-party voice-enabled digital assistants, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant. This will let you perform basic TV controls—such as raising and lowering the volume, and changing channels or inputs—and search for shows and movies using voice commands. Sometimes you’ll be able to control other compatible devices, such as smart speakers, lights, or thermostats, right from your TV.
Just be aware that almost all smart TVs collect information about the shows you’re watching and the apps you’re using—for marketing purposes. The degree to which you can control this data collection varies by the brand of the smart TV system, but there are ways you can limit the amount of data being collected and shared.
Streaming media players are a popular add-on for TVs, bringing streaming movies, TV, music, and games to TVs that lack internet access. Even if you own a smart TV, you may consider a streaming player if it has features or services your TV doesn’t, or it just performs better.
There are more than a dozen streaming player models, offered mainly in two styles: set-top boxes and stick players about the size of a USB flash drive. The most basic ones support 1080p video, and many models can play 4K content with HDR from the streaming services that offer it.
Prices for 4K models start as little as $30 and range up to $170 for an Nvidia Shield TV Pro, a combination game console/streaming player. You can get a 1080p model starting at around $20. Because 4K models often come with promotional discounts, getting a 4K player probably makes the most sense for most consumers because their next TV purchase is likely to be a 4K model.
And be aware that streaming video requires robust broadband and WiFi connections to prevent the video from freezing or buffering. If you move more of your entertainment to the internet, you may need to upgrade to a faster connection.
Smart TVs, also called internet TVs or connected TVs, can be your bridge to a world of online content that you can access directly from the TV itself. Most smart TVs these days let you access multiple streaming video services, such as Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, Sling TV, and YouTube TV, plus one or more internet music services, such as Pandora and Spotify. Many smart TVs also let you check social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and several support casual games as well.
More smart TVs are now voice-enabled, using either their own proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) technologies or working with established third-party digital assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant. (Some sets may have all three.) Some TVs from the major brands will also connect to, and interact with, other smart home devices, allowing you to play music on smart speakers, raise or lower the temperature on smart thermostats, or adjust the room’s lighting on smart lightbulbs, all from the TV.
Like streaming media players, smart TVs need to be connected to your home network. We recommend using a wired Ethernet connection, if possible, but all smart TVs now also have built-in WiFi for accessing your network wirelessly.
Despite many improvements, many LCDs still have a fairly significant shortcoming: limited viewing angle. That means the picture looks its best only from a fairly narrow sweet spot right in front of the screen. We recommend checking the viewing angle by watching a TV from off to the side, and from above and below the main part of the image. As you move away from the center of the screen, the image can dim, lose contrast and color accuracy, or look washed out. And the degree of picture degradation varies from model to model. We’ve found that TVs that use “IPS” LCD panels offer wider-than-average viewing angles for LCD sets, though this can sometimes come at the expense of contrast.
By contrast, OLED TVs have almost unlimited viewing angles, just like old plasma TVs did.
Recently, we’ve seen some TVs from Samsung and Sony that have wider-than-average viewing angles for an LCD-based set without using IPS panels. These are typically in the companies’ higher-priced models.
If you try to check out a TV’s viewing angle in the store, be aware that the TV’s retail setting typically cranks the brightness and boosts colors to unnatural levels, artificially improving off-angle viewing. Whatever you experience in the store, it’s important to also check the viewing angle after you’ve set it up in your home. We suggest you do it immediately so that you can easily return the set if it proves to be disappointing.
A television's picture looks best when you're sitting right in front of it. Check out the quality of the image from a variety of viewing angles.
Television technology is constantly evolving. Here's a roadmap to help you navigate the terms and types as you shop for a new TV.
Don’t forget to consider a TV’s connections before you buy. You’ll want to ensure that it has the right type of inputs and outputs to support all your audio/video gear.
Almost all TVs now have side input connections, as well as rear inputs, which provide some flexibility for connecting source components to your TV. Inputs located on the side or bottom of the TV work best if you’ll be mounting a TV flat against a wall. If you are wall-mounting a TV, a short HDMI extender can be used to make connections a bit easier to use.
HDMI is now the most common technology for connecting cable boxes, Blu-ray players, streaming media players, and game consoles to a TV. However, many budget sets have only one or two HDMI inputs. When choosing your primary TV, we recommend that you look for at least three HDMI connections unless you’ll be connecting all your other components to a home-theater receiver or an HDMI switcher. Some sets have an HDMI input marked "ARC," which stands for "audio return channel." This input lets you send sound back out of the TV to the connected component, such as a soundbar speaker, using the same single HDMI cable. A newer version, called eARC, has higher bandwidth and speeds, and supports higher-quality audio, including Dolby Atmos. If you’re buying a UHD TV, you’ll want to make sure it has at least the HDMI 2.0 version of HDMI, which can support 60-frames-per-second 4K video content and HDR. Most new sets also have at least one or two HDMI 2.1 inputs, which have higher bandwidth to support features such as 8K video, higher frame rates, and HDR formats such as Dolby Vision and HDR10+ that use dynamic metadata. Most HDMI inputs also support HDCP 2.2, the latest copyright protection, which is needed to play prerecorded 4K movies from a UHD Blu-ray player connected via HDMI.
Many TVs now come with built-in Bluetooth, which lets you send music and other audio content to the TV wirelessly. Two-way Bluetooth lets you send sound from the TV to a soundbar or set of Bluetooth headphones. Models with WiFi let you stream directly from online music services such as Pandora and Spotify.
Many TVs still have the familiar red/white RCA jacks used to send (output) or receive (input) stereo audio signals. Many smaller TVs, and some larger ones, may have a headphone jack so that you can watch a show without disturbing others in the same room. A TV with Bluetooth capability will let you do this wirelessly if you have Bluetooth-enabled headphones.
A TV with one or more USB slots will let you connect a USB flash drive and play music or watch photos or videos on the TV. Some TVs’ USB ports can charge devices such as streaming sticks so that you don’t need to connect to an AC wall outlet. Many TVs have a slideshow feature for viewing digital photos.
If you want to send digital audio from your TV to a soundbar speaker or an audio/video receiver, and an HDMI output isn’t available, you can use a digital optical audio output, which can handle multichannel audio signals. Some TVs also have a digital coaxial audio output, which is another digital audio connection, but these are becoming less common.
Almost all internet-capable TVs come with an Ethernet jack, sometimes also called a LAN (local area network) port. Even though all smart TVs these days have built-in WiFi, you may find that a wired connection to your home network will provide a better, more reliable streaming experience, especially with video services, such as Netflix.
All TVs also still include an RF (antenna/cable) input to feed high-def TV signals, either from an off-air antenna or from a cable hookup, although most digital cable boxes now connect to your TV using an HDMI connection. These inputs will also be able to receive Next-Gen TV over-the-air signals when they become available in your area, though you’ll need an ATSC 3.0 tuner in the TV to view them.
HDMI is now the most common technology for connecting cable boxes, Blu-ray players, streaming media players, and game consoles to a TV. However, many budget sets have only one or two HDMI inputs. When choosing your primary TV, we recommend that you look for at least three HDMI connections unless you’ll be connecting all your other components to a home-theater receiver or an HDMI switcher. Some sets have an HDMI input marked "ARC," which stands for "audio return channel." This input lets you send sound back out of the TV to the connected component, such as a soundbar speaker, using the same single HDMI cable. A newer version, called eARC, has higher bandwidth and speeds, and supports higher-quality audio, including Dolby Atmos. If you’re buying a UHD TV, you’ll want to make sure it has at least the HDMI 2.0 version of HDMI, which can support 60-frames-per-second 4K video content and HDR. Most new sets also have at least one or two HDMI 2.1 inputs, which have higher bandwidth to support features such as 8K video, higher frame rates, and HDR formats such as Dolby Vision and HDR10+ that use dynamic metadata. Most HDMI inputs also support HDCP 2.2, the latest copyright protection, which is needed to play prerecorded 4K movies from a UHD Blu-ray player connected via HDMI.
Many TVs now come with built-in Bluetooth, which lets you send music and other audio content to the TV wirelessly. Two-way Bluetooth lets you send sound from the TV to a soundbar or set of Bluetooth headphones. Models with WiFi let you stream directly from online music services such as Pandora and Spotify.
Many TVs still have the familiar red/white RCA jacks used to send (output) or receive (input) stereo audio signals. Many smaller TVs, and some larger ones, may have a headphone jack so that you can watch a show without disturbing others in the same room. A TV with Bluetooth capability will let you do this wirelessly if you have Bluetooth-enabled headphones.
A TV with one or more USB slots will let you connect a USB flash drive and play music or watch photos or videos on the TV. Some TVs’ USB ports can charge devices such as streaming sticks so that you don’t need to connect to an AC wall outlet. Many TVs have a slideshow feature for viewing digital photos.
If you want to send digital audio from your TV to a soundbar speaker or an audio/video receiver, and an HDMI output isn’t available, you can use a digital optical audio output, which can handle multichannel audio signals. Some TVs also have a digital coaxial audio output, which is another digital audio connection, but these are becoming less common.
Almost all internet-capable TVs come with an Ethernet jack, sometimes also called a LAN (local area network) port. Even though all smart TVs these days have built-in WiFi, you may find that a wired connection to your home network will provide a better, more reliable streaming experience, especially with video services, such as Netflix.
All TVs also still include an RF (antenna/cable) input to feed high-def TV signals, either from an off-air antenna or from a cable hookup, although most digital cable boxes now connect to your TV using an HDMI connection. These inputs will also be able to receive Next-Gen TV over-the-air signals when they become available in your area, though you’ll need an ATSC 3.0 tuner in the TV to view them.
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