This black Friday, is it finally time to upgrade your old TV?

Now that you see Black Friday ads for discount TVs and heard about the best prices yet on the best TVsyou might finally be tempted to upgrade this old set.

After all, TVs are really, really good. A performance that we could only have dreamed about a few years ago is now commonplace. Cheap TVs look good; High-end TVs are incredible. They are also easier to use, thanks to the fast loading and browsing of smart TV applications. Oh yes, and they are all smart TVs now, with built-in access to 4K and HDR light-years content beyond what we could have had a decade ago.

And yes, let's talk about 4K and HDR. Although the additional 4K resolution is not crucial for the overall image quality, the added color and dynamic range of the HDR and wide range of colors can create a much more realistic image than was possible before.

So the question becomes, is it time to upgrade?

The case against

If you like your TV and it still works, do not upgrade. Despite all the excitement on 4K, 8K, HDR And so on, nothing happens in the near future that will prevent your TV from working just like it does now. Well, I mean, I guess it could break, but other than that. Even though there are current and future formats that will not work on an older TV, the "standard" remains the 1080p.

So, even if a new TV will offer all the potential upgrades we'll discuss in a moment, you're not doing it. need upgrade unless you want to.

And if you are tempted to upgrade simply because the smart TV system of your current TV is slow and outdated, you can update it for much less than buying a new TV. Just add a decent media streamer – they are as cheap as $ 20.

The case for

For many years, plasma TVs offered the best picture quality available. They looked fantastic: deep blacks, bright reflections, clear movements. OLEDs are better. They are able to create darker blacks, while creating much brighter highlights. Their Contrast ratio is significantly better than even the best plasma TV. I say that as a longtime fan of plasma TVs.

Add to that is wide range of colors. Modern OLEDs can reproduce a much wider range of colors, making their image much more dynamic and realistic.

Even LCD screens, long regretted for their poor image quality, have progressed considerably. Thanks to technologies like quantum dots, LCDs can produce much brighter images, with a much wider color gamut. This, in conjunction with local gradation, can create a much more realistic image than was possible before.

Local grading is much more common now. This is where the TV is able to reduce the brightness of specific areas of the screen much more than is possible with a non-local dimming LCD. The result is a higher contrast ratio and, overall, a better image. Without local dimming, good HDR is not possible.

Motion resolution is an area in which the quality of the image has decreased slightly. When something on the screen moves quickly, such as an athlete running, or when the entire image is filmed, such as a camera panning, the image may become blurred. Plasma TVs had the habit of handling this pretty well, maintaining a lot of detail despite any movement. LCDs did not handle this well and do not do it much yet. Current versions of OLED do not do it either.

There are two main ways to combat this, and most TVs have one or both. The first is the often loved, often hated soap opera effect. It is at this moment that the TV adds additional images to the video, which makes the movement super smooth. Less like a movie, and more like a soap opera. In almost all televisions, this function can be disabled. The other one calls inserting the black frame, where a black or faded image is inserted between the original video images. In general, modern TVs are bright enough and the processing of this feature is advanced enough that the result does not flicker as in older TVs with this feature.

Finally, the overall user-friendliness of televisions has evolved considerably. TVs usually turn on faster, apps load faster and it's less time waiting for the TV to do what you asked for.

So … should you?

Again, if you like your TV, do not worry about upgrading until it stops. If you have one of the last years on the plasma TVs (from 2011 to 2014, for example), you will probably notice an improvement in the quality of the picture, although the jump may not be as huge. than that of others. And by others, I hear those with non-local dimming HD LCDs or older plasmas. If you own one of these televisions, you will notice the greatest improvement in the quality of the picture. Much better colors, contrast and brightness, especially if you opt for OLED.

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Do you have a question for Geoff? First, check out all the other articles he has written on the following topics: Why are all HDMI cables the same? Do you explain TV resolutions? LCD LED vs OLED display.

Do you still have a question? Tweet to him @ TechWriterGeoff, then check out his travel photos on Instagram. He also thinks that you should consult his successful science fiction novel and his sequel.