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Super Bowl A Popular Time To Buy New TV, But Choices Can Be Daunting

(CBS) -- Super Bowl 50 is just over a week away in Santa Clara, Calif., but for less money than buying a ticket and traveling for the big game, you can buy a state-of-the-art TV and watch it on CBS 2.

In fact, more people buy new TVs around the Super Bowl than they do on Black Friday.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole takes us shopping.

Cindy Robbins is looking for a new giant television after her old one faded away.

"We pulled the 20 inch TV back into our family room when the TV broke so that we would have something in there and it's just really kind of bizarre to watch a very tiny screen," Robbins said.

She is among those coping with an ever-changing array of sizes, pixels and options in advance of the biggest of big screen events, the Super Bowl.

"All this terminology is really referring to a high-definition TV, which dominates the market," said Josh Davis of ABT Electronics.

Keep in mind this term: 1080p. In basic HDTV, it's the number of lines of pixels that light up to create the image.

"1920 by 1080 lines of resolution on a television makes up all these little pixels that make this picture," Davis said.

But as you make your way through broadcast and cable channels, not everyone provides 1080p quality, so computer chips in newer TVs enhance or upscale the signal.

"What they're doing is they're taking all these sources that are not 1080p and they're getting a higher quality out of it," Davis said.

Then there is Ultra, which can also be called 4K because its resolution is four times clearer. If you watch programming from popular streaming sites, that's what you are getting.

"You've got Netflix, Youtube, all these big names that stream video, they are streaming 4K quality," Davis said.

The new top-of-the line television is known as organic or O-LED. Its pixels do a better job of creating their own individual light.

Vince looked at 65 inch televisions and most are deeply discounted right now. The standard HDTV can be found in the $1,200 range, which is about 50 percent off. Ultra can be found for around $2,000, which is about a third off and the beautiful pictures of the O-LED are a pricey $3,000 even with a $1,000 discount.

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