Flat Screen TV shopping

[Alpha_Geek]

Sports programming is not the entire spectrum of TV broadcasting.

 

[Irishman]

Sports programming is not the entire spectrum of TV broadcasting.

True, but when it comes to displaying high-speed motion, sports are a litmus test.

 

[The Fatman]

However, they do have higher energy costs, generate a LOT of heat, have a horrific problem with screen burn in (basically, you really can't use a plasma set for gaming), and most damningly, also have a problem with bleaching (where the picture becomes very noticeably faded after so many hours of use). In the first couple generations of Plasma sets, it was as little as 2 years before you had severe color loss.

Foley, I know you mean well, but your recommendations are so many years out of date it's actually harmful!

Horrific problems with screen burn in? When was the last time you gamed with a plasma?? 1999?

It is now statistically easier to burn-in a CRT (tube) tv than a new plasma tv. Games look better on plasma due to their better motion handling, superior color, deeper blacks.

Bleaching?? Huh? Not a problem. Hasn't been a problem with sets built in the past 2-3 years. The lifespan of current plasmas assumes you watch 7 hrs per day for 365 days per year, and they take 26 years to lose half their brightness.

Plus, as you go up in size, it's actually cheaper to buy a plasma than an LCD. For example, a 50" Panasonic G10 hovers around $1200-$1300! That's the tv that noone has had a bad thing to say about in professional reviews. It has the brightness that LCDs are known for, plus most of the advantages plasmas have. a 52" LCD with similar performance will cost you over $2000!

DLPs are dying. Only Mitz sells them anymore.

Pioneer is getting out of the TV business because they've been losing money over at least the past 5 years, not because there's something wrong with the technology. Pioneer Elite plasma tvs are THE reference standard, the stick by which all other sets are measured. Even now reviewers are test-floating new sets as "the new Pioneer Elite"? Vizio is getting out of the plasma business, that's true, but for them it was never more than a side-line anyway. Vizio is a value brand, and in looking to reduce costs (which you have to do if you're a value brand, at the expense of all else), they had to eliminate what was, for them, a secondary manufacturing arm. They were looking to simplify in the small to mid-size of the market. Plasmas dominate only the large end of the market at the moment.

but seriously, if you don't have a LOT of sunlight coming into your room, I'd buy the Panasonic 42" x1 and let that be it. You can get it for under $700 quite easily.

If I'm really that off about Plasma, I apologize. I admit I haven't been researching TV techs seriously in the last couple years since I settled on my LCD(2005). I just took the recent headlines about manufacturers dropping their plasma lines to mean the technology was dying out, except in the videophile market. If they truly have overcome the bleaching and burn in issues, when I look to upgrade I may consider Plasma options.

 

[Saturn0660]

In a similar vein to the Blu-Ray thread, I'm asking for advice on buying a flat-screen TV.

I recently became a father, and my mother wants to give us a flat screen as a present, and wants us to pick it out.

I know next to nothing about the things, having last bought a new TV some time in the 1980s.

So I read the Consumer Reports latest update from March, and I thought I had it narrowed down to a Samsung 42-inche plasma.

But looking around, my local stores only have LCDs.

I'm unclear as to the difference.


Plans are to wall-mount it in the corner of the living room. The plan is eventually to hook to bluray. but do dvd for now. We don't have cable, only watch movies, and the four channels we can get over the air.

Tech-heads, any advice?

A couple of questions. What Size are you looking for? And price wise where are you? And whats the light like in the room i.e. How much uncontrolled light is in the room? How far away do you sit. Do you have an Antenna? Do you use Netflix?

 

[Saturn0660]

Sports programming is not the entire spectrum of TV broadcasting.

Well, of course it is.. Well that and SciFiHD

 

[seigezunt]

In a similar vein to the Blu-Ray thread, I'm asking for advice on buying a flat-screen TV.

I recently became a father, and my mother wants to give us a flat screen as a present, and wants us to pick it out.

I know next to nothing about the things, having last bought a new TV some time in the 1980s.

So I read the Consumer Reports latest update from March, and I thought I had it narrowed down to a Samsung 42-inche plasma.

But looking around, my local stores only have LCDs.

I'm unclear as to the difference.


Plans are to wall-mount it in the corner of the living room. The plan is eventually to hook to bluray. but do dvd for now. We don't have cable, only watch movies, and the four channels we can get over the air.

Tech-heads, any advice?

A couple of questions. What Size are you looking for? And price wise where are you? And whats the light like in the room i.e. How much uncontrolled light is in the room? How far away do you sit. Do you have an Antenna? Do you use Netflix?

1. Probably in the 40-50" range, because of my eyesight, and where it's going.

2. My mother, who strangely has some money now (we didn't so much when I was growing up) has mentioned the $1,000-$1,500 range being about the cap.

3. We pretty much only watch TV at night, but that said, it would be in view of a window that gets afternoon light.

4. I would like to mount it in view of our two couches, which would be across the room at about 12-15 feet.

5. No dish. We use rabbit ears and a converter to watch ABC and PBS. We mostly watch DVDs, and I'm thinking of getting BluRay.

6. We do not use netflix. We found it didn't work for us. We rent from a local store, and I buy DVDs used and new.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

16:9 widescreen, meh, what the consumer with cash to burn needs is 21:9 widescreen

http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/01/29/philips-cinema-219-wide-widescreen-tv-hands-on/

And 3-D is just down the line...

 

[Irishman]

In a similar vein to the Blu-Ray thread, I'm asking for advice on buying a flat-screen TV.

I recently became a father, and my mother wants to give us a flat screen as a present, and wants us to pick it out.

I know next to nothing about the things, having last bought a new TV some time in the 1980s.

So I read the Consumer Reports latest update from March, and I thought I had it narrowed down to a Samsung 42-inche plasma.

But looking around, my local stores only have LCDs.

I'm unclear as to the difference.


Plans are to wall-mount it in the corner of the living room. The plan is eventually to hook to bluray. but do dvd for now. We don't have cable, only watch movies, and the four channels we can get over the air.

Tech-heads, any advice?

A couple of questions. What Size are you looking for? And price wise where are you? And whats the light like in the room i.e. How much uncontrolled light is in the room? How far away do you sit. Do you have an Antenna? Do you use Netflix?

1. Probably in the 40-50" range, because of my eyesight, and where it's going.

2. My mother, who strangely has some money now (we didn't so much when I was growing up) has mentioned the $1,000-$1,500 range being about the cap.

3. We pretty much only watch TV at night, but that said, it would be in view of a window that gets afternoon light.

4. I would like to mount it in view of our two couches, which would be across the room at about 12-15 feet.

5. No dish. We use rabbit ears and a converter to watch ABC and PBS. We mostly watch DVDs, and I'm thinking of getting BluRay.

6. We do not use netflix. We found it didn't work for us. We rent from a local store, and I buy DVDs used and new.

Panasonic G10. It's a 50" hottie of a set. Plus it calibrates very well, so you can really get it dialed in right.

 

[Mooch]

I have a 46-inch Sony (KDL-46W4100) LCD TV that I am very happy with. It's about a year old now but I did a lot of research before I bought it.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

16:9 widescreen, meh, what the consumer with cash to burn needs is 21:9 widescreen..

When my station converted to HD, we kept telling the sales people that we were gonna give them all 16:12 monitors for their PCs.

All the engineering staff thought it was funny, anyway.

 

[Saturn0660]

In a similar vein to the Blu-Ray thread, I'm asking for advice on buying a flat-screen TV.

I recently became a father, and my mother wants to give us a flat screen as a present, and wants us to pick it out.

I know next to nothing about the things, having last bought a new TV some time in the 1980s.

So I read the Consumer Reports latest update from March, and I thought I had it narrowed down to a Samsung 42-inche plasma.

But looking around, my local stores only have LCDs.

I'm unclear as to the difference.


Plans are to wall-mount it in the corner of the living room. The plan is eventually to hook to bluray. but do dvd for now. We don't have cable, only watch movies, and the four channels we can get over the air.

Tech-heads, any advice?

A couple of questions. What Size are you looking for? And price wise where are you? And whats the light like in the room i.e. How much uncontrolled light is in the room? How far away do you sit. Do you have an Antenna? Do you use Netflix?

1. Probably in the 40-50" range, because of my eyesight, and where it's going.

2. My mother, who strangely has some money now (we didn't so much when I was growing up) has mentioned the $1,000-$1,500 range being about the cap.

3. We pretty much only watch TV at night, but that said, it would be in view of a window that gets afternoon light.

4. I would like to mount it in view of our two couches, which would be across the room at about 12-15 feet.

5. No dish. We use rabbit ears and a converter to watch ABC and PBS. We mostly watch DVDs, and I'm thinking of getting BluRay.

6. We do not use netflix. We found it didn't work for us. We rent from a local store, and I buy DVDs used and new.

Go look at the following.
46" Sony V5100
46" Sharp Aquas 85U
47" LG LH40
All of those units are 120Hz units.
You can always PM me for more info..

 

[Saturn0660]

16:9 widescreen, meh, what the consumer with cash to burn needs is 21:9 widescreen..

When my station converted to HD, we kept telling the sales people that we were gonna give them all 16:12 monitors for their PCs.

All the engineering staff thought it was funny, anyway.

I was all like 16:12??? nice...

 

[All Seeing Eye]

If I was you i'd go for an LG LCD TV

 

[Saturn0660]

If I was you i'd go for an LG LCD TV

Lg makes a fine TV... Comes with 2 ISF per calibrated modes..

 

[Bisz]

Plasma is the better display technology in terms of picture fidelity (how closely the display matches reality). I have a 50" Pioneer and I love it.

That said, most people don't notice the difference, don't want their display to 'match reality' but instead want the display to look good to them, or both.

I would recommend going with a 1080p display, especially if you are looking at getting a BD player.

The internet has empowered people by giving them immense amounts of information which they can use to help them make the right decision. The internet has confused people by giving them immense amounts of data which they can get lost in when trying to make a decision. If you do find something you think you like make sure to check it out the review for it on cnet.com, I find it to be an excellent source of information for this type of stuff.

 

[Saturn0660]

Plasma is the better display technology in terms of picture fidelity (how closely the display matches reality). I have a 50" Pioneer and I love it.

That said, most people don't notice the difference, don't want their display to 'match reality' but instead want the display to look good to them, or both.

I would recommend going with a 1080p display, especially if you are looking at getting a BD player.

The internet has empowered people by giving them immense amounts of information which they can use to help them make the right decision. The internet has confused people by giving them immense amounts of data which they can get lost in when trying to make a decision. If you do find something you think you like make sure to check it out the review for it on cnet.com, I find it to be an excellent source of information for this type of stuff.

Wait... Lets be clear.. You have a Kuro.. Thats a big difference then some shit box Sanyo plasma.

 

[Bisz]

Wait... Lets be clear.. You have a Kuro.. Thats a big difference then some shit box Sanyo plasma.

Of course its better than a shitty plasma... I'm not sure what your point is though. We are talking about the two different technologies, not discussing specific brands.

 

[Saturn0660]

Wait... Lets be clear.. You have a Kuro.. Thats a big difference then some shit box Sanyo plasma.

Of course its better than a shitty plasma... I'm not sure what your point is though. We are talking about the two different technologies, not discussing specific brands.

Point is don't just say.. "plasma is better"..

 

[seigezunt]

I'm noticing that few stores around here don't have many plasmas, so I may go with an LCD, just to allow for more choice. Also, I'm hearing for the bigger ones, a stand is recommended over a wall mount.

CR is recommending Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR8 and Samsung UN46B6000.

 

[Bisz]

Point is don't just say.. "plasma is better"..

I didn't.

Please don't put words in my mouth.