How to Buy Plasma TV Accessories

A plasma TV can be the perfect addition to your home theater system. When you buy a plasma TV, however, you may not have all the accessories that you need to connect your plasma TV to your existing system. In addition, you may need to buy additional accessories to make for optimal viewing.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Plasma TV

Find the Right Accessories for Your Plasma TV

1. Determine the video sources to which you want to connect your plasma TV. You can connect your plasma TV to a DVD player, cable source and computer, among other options. You may need to buy video cables to connect each device to your plasma TV.

2. Purchase the necessary cables to connect your video sources to your plasma TV. While your plasma TV might include basic cables, you can often achieve a better picture with video cables of a higher quality.

3. Decide how you want your audio delivered. Unlike most tube TVs, plasma TVs often do not include speakers. Speakers and the necessary cables can, however, be purchased as accessories for your plasma TV.

4. Examine the remote control that came with your plasma TV. You may find that the controls are awkward or that you are uncomfortable juggling multiple remote controls for your home theater system. Universal remote controls that can be programmed for multiple devices are common accessories that you can find in most electronics stores.

5. Choose between a plasma TV stand and a wall mount for displaying your plasma TV. Though wall mounts suffice to hang a plasma TV, plasma TV stands let you move the TV to different rooms more easily. While a plasma TV stand is included with the purchase of most plasma TVs and is designed to fit the particular model, wall mounts are available from most stores that sell plasma TVs.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the best connections that are available on both your video source and plasma TV. Component video connections offer a sharper image than S-video connections, which are in turn better than composite connections. Digital connections such as DVI and HDMI can provide a sharper image than component connections, though this depends on the video source and your plasma TV.

• If a video source does not have the same connections available as your plasma TV, you can purchase adapters that will let you connect two different types of connections.

• If you already have a home theater system set up and are simply upgrading to a plasma TV, you can use your existing speakers and cables.