06.Tuner and power performance
Digital tuner performance
Digital tuners pick up the signal from free-to-air digital broadcasts. They tend to deliver either a very good picture, nothing, or an image so badly broken up that it’s unwatchable.
Over the past few years of testing we've found most tuners will handle most situations. Some may have a problem in particularly difficult circumstances, such as where there’s a lot of electrical equipment in use nearby. If you think you're likely to have a problem in your area, make sure you specify to the retailer that you'll need a tuner that can handle your needs and get an agreement that you can return the set if it performs poorly. An agreement such as this is binding under consumer law.
In this test they’re all high definition tuners, which means they can accept and display both high and standard definition (SD) channels. Some free-to-air broadcasters are introducing different programs on their HD and SD channels, so an HD tuner has some advantage over an SD in that it gives you some more choice of programs, as well as higher resolution and better sound quality.
How much power do they use?
Although the amount of energy used by each TV when on standby is small, it adds up quickly across the nation. The more we can reduce the constant load on the electricity grid the less demand there will be for base load power.
The new standard for measuring TV energy consumption when in use requires “out of the box” settings and our power consumption figures in the table are based on this measure. LCDs generally consume less power than plasma TVs of the same size, but there’s a clear indication that higher resolution will mean more power use when running. Although the increase isn’t great, it’s yet another reason not to spend extra on resolution you don’t need.
TVs that use LEDs as a light source can be more efficient than plasma, or the more traditional fluorescent backlit LCD TVs.