Favorite TV Brand

I have a 50" Samsung Plasma... I lile it and compared side by side against its LCD counterparts when I purchased and liked the color much more on the plasma... I'm wanting to purchase an LED this fall and may have to move the plasma to the bedroom or the man cave.

 

I only have first hand experience with LCD and CRT, of the two LCD.

 

I have a Toshiba 40in LCD. I love it! I bought if off of Newegg.com for Black Friday!

 

Yup. I love my Panasonic 42 plasma 720p. Can't remember the exact model, had it for about 3 years now (the models seem to change about every 6 months). No problems, beautiful picture, and sharp looking chassis, and I really like the menus, they are easy to use ( you should check this out on all sets you consider).

For HDMI cables, try bluejeanscable.com. They have awesome Belden cabeles for about $12, and good variety of lengths (3 ft, 6, etc.) DO NOT buy HDMI cabels at Best Buy, etc. or Monster cabel. Total ripoff.

 

for cheap cables go to monoprice.com they have rediculously low priced cables that are very good quality.

 

thanks for the input guys I am learning a lot

 

Where is the best place to buy?? Walmart, best buy, sams club ??

 

Costco, or online someplace like Amazon or NewEgg

 

My roomate has a vizio, its ok, but for football once you see the motion blur you will never be able to not see it. My dad has a samsung 120hz, highly recomended. Check out Frys too.

 

I like Costco cause they extend the manufactures warranty for another year and they also have a 90 day no questions asked return policy.

 

I have 20/18 vision. At 5 feet I couldn't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p. That was on a 32". At the same distance on a 37" I could. Basically, the bigger the screen is the more pixels you need, otherwise your eyes start seeing the pixels rather then the picture they make up.

I would go with a 120 hertz or higher screen if your a serious sports fan, or if your going to play games where reaction time is an issue. Your video isn't actually going to be displayed at 120 hertz, but to get those ratings the pixels on the screen need to be able to change color faster. Lower hertz ratings generally means slower changing pixels which can give you a bit of blur when things are moving fast.

When you go comparing tv's I would not go to an electronics or home entertainment store. Usually the tv's they have on display have been adjusted so the higher priced ones look better. Places like walmart and costco don't usually do this.

I personally wouldn't buy a tv that only has ratings starting with an "i". The "i" stands for interlaced. That means that only half the horizontal lines on the screen are drawn in each frame. Talk about fast motion distortion. That's terrible. I'm thinking these may not be on the market anymore, but it's still a good idea to check the available output modes.

 

YES INDEED
Also very good iphone/ipod cables

 

Pick a set and post it here.

There are several great on line stores that arre authorized so warranties apply.

There are distribution centers all across the country, just because the place you order from is in california it will be shipped from the nearest distrubition center.

I use as some references/stores
www.froogle.com (google shopping)
www.cnet.com
www.pricegrabber.com
www.yahooshopping.com
www.dtvcity.com has some good info.
www.amazon.com
www.gotapex.com
www.dell.com
www.sears.com
www.6ave.com
www.abesofmaine.com
www.jr.com/
www.onecall.com
www.buy.com

When shopping pay particular attention to the entire model number.
Some stores have different versions of a set.
Sometimes they change the number of inputs, sound board, network capabilities, the remote and so on to reduce the retail price.

Make sure you clearly understand the return policies.

Sears and Dell sneak in some OUTSTANDING DEALS.

 

I really like this one...thanks for the links

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...sName=View+All&prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=G2

 

What you heqard is wrong. Plasmas become less bright not less sharp. And they last many years 7-10 for a nice dark living room. THey use a little more power and have reflective glass (like your old non flat screen did) and those are the only negatives.

 

Plasmas dont use that much more power... what an extra dollar or two a month in electricity? Heavy? They are WAY lighter than my old school TV and if you dont wall mount or have over 42" screen size its a complete non issue. they do NOT burn in. They have burn in issues for about the first month or two which go away with use. They dont get hot, not enough to feel or change your thermostat when on or burn you or anything else that would actually matter... my computer get WAY WAY WAY hotter. The black level is AMAZINGLY different. My cousins black levels are so bad on his LCD its stupid. Some compaines have infalted black level numbers to get higher contrast ratio number essentually they wash out dark grays to just black. In video games anything dark has no detail and you cant see for shit... its just horrible to use his LCD vs my plasma for games. Also on large green sections of field in sports like football you will see much more "digital" effect on the field... it just looks less natural and was the first and probably the largest thing I noticed about LCD vs plasma picture quality. No LED or LCD TV has reached the picture quality of the best plasmas yet. Do not be fooled... plasma offers the best picture quality, period. Its more noticable in your house in low light rather than in the bright light of a showroom where plasma has to be set to horrible settings to look bright enough for showroom display. Also they require quite a bit of tuning to look best. My Panasonic was the WORST looking TV on the showroom floor. I adjusted to the reccomended picture settings I found on TV forums like this one for Tacomas and it suddenyl was dimmer but was the best picture qulaity on the floor.

The best TV for the money is a Panasonic plasma. My older Panasonic had a very common quirk... flesh tones in very dark area with lots of gray scale would get a purple/pink line between the brighter and darker sections of skin... very annoying. The industrial Panasonics had more gray scale levels and did not have this issue. Current Panasonics, even in 720P all asue this better industrial panel and processing so that is no longer an issue.

 

Two more positives about the Plasma displays are : 1) Glass screen, if you have kids that are constantly touching the tv screen while watching tv you can just wipe off the glass with a micro fiber cloth and 2) Viewing angle, you get the same clear (not faded) picture no matter where you sit.

 

So let me finish my rant here. I play the shit out of video games... I have a 42" 720P plasma its 3 years old. The firs week burn in was VERY noticable with the HUD on games. By the third month it would be barely visible and goa way after watching TV for an hour or so. After year 1 I NEVER could see burn in. I have used all sorts of LCD TVs at friends houses for gaming. They ALL had inferior picture quality... Samsung, LG, Sharp from 720P to 1080P. ALL had more digital artifacts in the field on football. None would produce as deep of blacks and had as much low level detail in movies with lots of black material.

For the money you want a Panasonic 42" 720P television for the best picture quality. All the reasons anyone has told you plasma is inferior DO NOT matter. All the reasons people say plasmas advanages do not matter DO matter. I am like the pricess and the pea. I notice everything wrong with every type of equipment I use. There is NO way I would get an LCD TV. THey are only more common becasue they are easier to market and make more money for the companies that sell them. Its like someone saying that class A/B amps have better sound quality than tube ampsto say LCD is better than plasma.

My cousin just swapped his 1 year old 1080p Vizio for a new 1080p Samsung (priamrily because of the low grey black wash out effect I metioned earlier) and while it is noticably better than the 1 year old vizio my 3 year old Panasonic plasm still produces BETTER picture quality with compressed signal you get from cable, BETTER picture quality on games with my Xbox 360, and looks better with 720p for football.

You can waste your money on what I consider an inferior product and fall prey to marketing or people justifying their inferior picture quality or get the Panasonic... just do it with your eyes wide open. You WILL have TEMPORARY burn in for 3 months, which will go away after an hour or so of TV watching. At 1 year you wont even get it after a 5 hour marathon of Call of Duty. After 3 years I did have to bump my brightness and contrast 1 level as it was a TINY bit dimmer. In 6 more years I suspect the room will have to be pretty dark for it to seem bright enough.

 

Love my vizio and got it at either Sams Club or Costco can't remember.

 

You are describing Image Retention, not Burn In.



I just finished a week's worth of research and finally bought my TV last night.
I can summarize in three sentances:
If you want the best picture possible, get a Panasonic G20/G25, unless you can shell out for V series.
If you are lucky enough to find one and have a small fortune, get a Pioneer Kuro series.
If you abuse TVs, you need to suffer a loss in quality and save up for LED.

Don't believe me?

I smashed through CNET, TelevisionInfo.com, LCDTVBuyingGuide.com, htmag, and several other review sites.
I talked incessantly to Benca1.
I joined highdefforum.com
I've been to three local TV shops (Best Buy, Video Only, Standard TV & Appliance). I've made myself sick of salesman and I've stared at Best Buy TVs for a few hours.
I've compared Samsung, LG, Sony, and Panasonic.

The resounding opinion, reviews, and tests all point to the Panasonic. The picture quality is unmatched, even by TVs costing double the price.

There is no question in my mind that I made the best choice.