HDTV Advice

What is the room like where you are putting the new TV? Big room with lots of sunlight and windows is different than a downstairs basement family room with minimal indirect light. Also where people are going to sit as in the sides of the TV or is it more in-line.

Take your room setup into consideration was the advice I got when purchasing my Samsung Plasma which has been troublefree for 2 yrs. Mine is hung on wall downstairs in a room which gets minimal direct sunlight. Side viewing was important because the room is large and L shaped.

Also don't buy the overpriced cabling from the big box, buy online and save a ton, the markup is incredible for the same HDMI cable.

 

That may have been true for the earlier Plasma TV's, but Plasma TV's are now rated for roughly the same life span as most LCD's. I have a Panasonic Plasma that's rated for 60,000 hours or more... Let's put that in perspective. If you watched TV for 8 hours a day it would take 20.6 years to burn out your plasma.

IMO, Plasmas are far superior to LCD's... I just can't get past the brightness of LCD displays. The backlighting on them is also so bright that they can't reproduce deep enough blacks, which can be really annoying when watching dark scenes in movies.

 

Again, something that may have been true for earlier Plasma TV models, but most now have enhancements to prevent this from happening. The screen on my Panasonic Plasma is flawless after 2 years.

Altitude also used to be a big issue for Plasma's, but Panasonic now says that their TV's will operate at up to 9,600' above sea level.

 

The Plasma TV sitting in the other room shows me differently. The damn thing burns just from having channel guide from Comcast up. It's probably a year and a half old.

 

Ghosting or burn in? Is it a permanent image from the guide? The Panasonic that I have has pixel shifting technology, that imperceptibly moves the pixels to avoid burn in. I'm pretty sure that Pioneer and Samsung have a similar feature, but I didn't research too many other Plasma's when I bought mine because those 3 were the highest rated.

 

Get a LCD 1080p ( Sweet deals at Costco & Sam's Club)

Heres my 52" Philips

 

+1

You can't go wrong with Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or LG. Now a days, what's going to make the most noticeable difference will be if it has 120hz or 60hz. Getting an LCD with 120hz is well worth the extra money. Its almost as if your watching TV in 3D. It looks too real, more real then real life . Especially if you watch sports, you won't have any more tearing or jitter from fast movements. Every person who checks out my Sammy always trips out on how it looks with the 120hz. You almost have to get use to watching TV with it because its something your brain is not use to. It look me a while to actually start paying attension to the programming as oppose to tripping out on how good and real it looked.

 

a month ago i bought a Sony KDL-40S4100 40" LCD and it was the standard 60 Hz refresh rate. I watch alot of college football and that was the main reason for the purchase. When the camera would pan across the crowd you could definitely see problems with the 60 Hz. I returned it and found a really good price on the Sony KDL-40W4100 120 Hz. They havent delivered it yet buy ive heard its pretty nice.

 

I'm not sure what the difference is between ghosting and burn, but after using the guide (or having any image stationary for more than 10 seconds) you can see it outlined on my TV for hours or days (depending on how long it was there). It eventually fades.

Its a Vizio Plasma. The Samsung LCD we have downstairs is lightyears better than the Vizio Plasma.

 

Yow... that sucks. I'd blame it more on the brand than the type of TV. I've never had anything like that happen to my plasma.

 

LCD's use less power and create less heat and typically last longer.... plus, they wont burn in like plasmas, and there is literally no difference in picture quality with the new lcd's. LCD all the way. 1080p and whatever size you want. make sure you have a high refresh rate

 

120 hz is definately a must

 

I dont see the need of 1080p... 720p works fine for me

But stick to LCD..

I have a 50" Plasma.. I regret not getting the LCD......

 

you dont NEED 1080 but it sure is nice

my room mate has a plasma and wishes he got the lcd. we use Plasmas at work (despite all advice not to) and they have some bad burn in issues and put out a ton of heat, which we all know is bad for electronics

 

If you"re already spending that much to get a quality TV... may as well go the extra mile and get the cream of the crop

 

i agree, thats always been my mindset. if i'm gonna blow some money then i'm gonna blow some money!

 

What brand of plasmas? I still stand by plasma, but of course, you need to do your research. My Panasonic plasma has had zero issues, and has a better picture than any LCD I've seen, and I'm not just saying that because I spent a lot of money on it and want to make myself feel better for doing so

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8632875&type=product&id=1194052042360 mounted in my livingroom i like it alot ... and http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-LD320SS8-32-Inch-Built-Player/dp/B000NDRU6Q mounted in my bedroom

 

LG 60 inchers. not consumer grade either but commercial grade. in each corner there is a "no input" signal burned into it from when it's left on with no laptop connected. even though they move every few seconds from one corner to another it still burns in. plasmas use to be alot better for rapid movements than lcd but the new lcd's look just as good as plasmas. plasma technology is outdated and doesn't move as fast as lcd technology. i'm an AV technician for GE so i keep pretty up to date with the technology

 

Higher contrast ratio is better picture quality. Cheap LCD tv's usually have the lower contrast ratio.

Contrast ratio, or the degree of variation of the whitest and darkest parts of the image, is a very important factor to note. If the LCD TV has a low contrast ratio, dark images will look muddy and gray, while light images will look washed out.

Contrast ratio is the most important factor determining picture quality, followed by black level, and then followed by resolution. So a good LCD TV that only has a 720p resolution but a high contrast ratio will probably produce a better looking image than a 1080p with a poor contrast ratio. However, most 1080p sets have very good contrast ratios.