Television Technology Question

[fishyguy]

I am in the market for a new T.V. and finding myself a little lost with the different options. HD, Plasma, LED, LCD, Projection HD, etc...

We are looking for something fairly large. Our two TV's now are a 36" tube and a 52" projection, so we are used to larger screens. Looking for something 40" and above that will provide a high quality picture but also will last. Looking for what will give us the most bang for the buck. Willing to spend money for quality and durability but will buy "lesser" t.v. if the savings justifies the purchase.

Thank you all in advance for your advice.

[DTro]

I said this in another post, but I think right now, the best bang for the buck are the "micro" projections. Whether it be DLP or LCD. I chose the LCD, because of the less moving parts and the new 3LCD technology is pretty good.

There might be some downside to an HD picture compared to a plasma or flat screen LCD, but it makes it up on SD (regular TV). SD looks pretty bad on a plasma.

Also, you are probably familiar with projection TV's, having, one. If it is an older style you know about the guns and calibration and adjustments you need to make. With a DLP or LCD projection, it's basically, watch it until the bulb goes out (approx 5000 hrs) and replace the bulb for a like new picture.

Some of the things to make sure your new TV has:

-Built in HD tuner (who needs more boxes to hook up?)

-At least one HDMI input (the more the better).

-Be sure the set is 720p native at the very least.

-Don't go too big. If your viewing distance is 10ft or under, I wouldn't go bigger than 50"

I would also recommend not spending the extra for a 1080p TV. The only current way to get a 1080p picture is with BluRay or HD-DVD. If you have a PS3 or Xbox 360 then you might benefit from it. But all the major players in programming have did all their upgrades so it's going to be a long time until they are putting out a 1080p signal.

Think about how long the transition from regular TV to HD has been. Your looking at about the same transition period.

If you are looking to hang a TV up on the wall, I would go with a flat panel LCD. I believe you can get a 47" Samsung LCD for about 2500 right now. That's what I paid for my projection LCD a couple of years ago.

If you happen to buy a micro projection, I would recommend buying an extra bulb right away. If it goes out, you might have to wait a while to get a new one, if they are out of stock or backordered.

My brand recommendations would be Sony, Samgsung, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi, in no particular order.

Good Luck!

[DTro]

BTW, if you are willing to brave the crowd, both of these TV's will be $999 on Black Friday at CC.

I would buy either, but lean heavily towards the Panasonic.

One

Two

[fishyguy]

Dtro,

Thanks for the info and the heads up about Friday. The fiance` has a friend who manages a CC. Maybe we can get the additional family discount.

PS...I first heard about "The Dash" as a family friend was reading my Dad's eulogy a few months back. Better words were never spoken as they say.

[Pherris]

There is another thread on this topic I started with some good information. I have spent the better part of the last week trying to determine what would best fit my needs. Here are some of the considerations that I have come up with-

Plasma- Nice picture but be very careful where you put a plasma because of the glass screen there is a reflection problem with any background light. Also as Dtro mentioned be sure to get a built in tuner. There can be an issue with screen burn but advanced technology has addressed it but IT CAN STILL OCCUR. I have 2 friends and both have 50" plasmas. Their biggest complaint is picture quality on non HD programs and the amount of buttons that have to pushed in order to get HD then non HD signal. I have viewed both and am very impressed with the HD but when I see most programming in non hd it is offers inferior picture quality in my opinion. I personally ruled out a Plasma for two reasons. Cost vs. lifespan and glare issues.

LCD- I almost bought the new Sony BR 40" LCD 1080P but decided to hold back. I like the tv and there are no problems with screen glare. I was very excited then I asked to see picture of Non HD programing and was extremely disappointed. According to what I have researched only 10-15% programing is in HD so I could not justify 2500-3000+ for a picture that was sub par in my opinion. I could not really tell the difference in picture quality from 720p-1080P and again from research have found that the 1080P is really only noticeably better then 720P on Blue ray DVDs and video games. BTW a Blue-ray DVD player is about an additional $800-$1000.

My choice for the money and picture quality is the LCD 1080p Projection TV's. Most bang for the buck. The problem for me on this is that the picture is rather dark in bright rooms but OUTSTANDING in low light rooms like my basement but I have a 50" projection there already and it works fine and the TV I want to replace is in my living room. In the end I have decided to wait on the TV purchase. The TV I was going to replace is a 27" Sony flat CRT screen and it works fine so instead of getting the best technology (in my opinion the Sony Bravia XBR 1080P) at current pricing levels I am going to wait a couple of months and see what happens with prices and choices. Also with anything like this a warranty package would be must for me and they run about 400-600 depending on the tv. I hope this is helpful. Here is the link to the thread on this topic.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=899112&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

I did purchase a digital camera and settled on the Cannon SD630. The 3" viewing screen was the determine factor. Good Luck with your TV and thanks to all that replied to my post. Good Fishing!!

[wayne123]

Best buy had a lot of good information on their HSOforum to help you choose. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat03001&type=category

[bucketOsticks]

I used to do product testing at the Best Buy corporate office, and although I specialized in PC technology I did test several TVs and picked up a lot of residual information during my 2+ years there.

I agree with a lot of what dtro said. The best price to size ratio is going to be in your micro projections. I would however choose DLP over the rear projection LCD, but part of that is probably just personal preference. I would advise that you go and watch a DLP television before you buy it (as you should with any TV) specifically because a very small percentage of the population can actually detect the color wheels spinning and watching a DLP TV can make them disoriented and dizzy. This is a very very small percentage of the population but it worth checking out before hand.

One thing people don't realize is that directview CRT TVs (the big huge heavy ones) are generally your best picture quality. There are additional issues like magnetic interferance, overscan, etc but in terms of black levels and contrast ratios CRTs can't be beat. However, flat panel technology has come along a ton in the last 2 or 3 years and that is why those huge CRTs are being eliminated.

One thing dtro didn't mention is the cost of new bulbs for a rear projection is no small amount. They are literally hundreds of dollars. And to comment on the SD vs HD quality of picture...you're going to get poor picture quality on any HD set no matter what the technology. HD resolution has an unfortunate side effect of amplifying defects in your cable feed quality. You will not see this problem when watching true digital broadcast, or nearly as much if you use a satellite provider like DirectTV because all channels are digital. Cable is making some progress with conversion to digital but even if you subscribe to the "digital package" the vast majority of the channels are still 100% analog. Hopefully with the new federal mandates that all TVs must include digital tuners the cable providers will start to move in that direction.

Also, do reseach into what brands to buy. dtro provided an excellent list to start with, but one brand may produce strong plasmas but their DLPs are not that great, or vice versa. Decide on a technology first and then do research on which brand to buy. I tend to prefer Samsung myself. Sony makes some good products but you will pay more because of the brand name.

Also I would not plan to buy a plasma to hang on the wall. Most people don't realize plasmas weigh a TON. A 40-46" set is going to run well over 100 lbs. A comparably sized LCD will weigh half of that.

Sorry about how disjointed this post was, it was more of a brain dump then anything...

[Mr. Nailz]

We had this same quandry last spring. It's not like it used to be, just pick the size you want and find the best deal. We ended up with a 46" Toshiba DLP. I'm very glad that we chose that one. The picture is great and easy to operate. It is light and priced very good. We considered the 52" and I know now that that would have been to big. I sit about 12-14 feet from it. The nice thing with DLP is that you can see the picture from the side, you don't have to be right in front of it. I was also told that for every 10" of screen size you should be 3' away from it. Good luck with what ever you decide on!

[Lip RIPPER!]

The reason you sit 12-14 feet away is because that's where the beer fridge is located!

[Whoaru99]

I still like the Panasonic plasma sets all in all, but the Sony SXRD rear projection and the Sony Bravia XBR LCD sets look pretty good too. The 46" XBR LCD looks REALLY good, IMO, and the SD image seems to be noticeably better than on the Panasonic plasma sets. The big issue for me is that the 46" XBR LCD is still ~$3K-$3.5K while the plasmas and SXRD are nearly 30% less for a 50" set. Both the Sony Bravia XBR LCD and the SXRD are true 1080P sets, although as previously mentioned, not sure that should the most important criteria.

It sure would be helpful to the cause if my old Hitachi 36" would die...

[wishing for walleyes]

I have a 42 maxent HD plasma and love the tv.Dishnetwork offers 28 channels of hd programming.It is my second tv of this brand though.The first one went bad after 5 monthes.It was still covered under the manufactures 1 year warranty.Problem was they wanted it shipped back to them in CA at a cost of $300.I also purchased an extended warranty from best buy for $300 giving me warranty for 4 years.Thumbs up to bestbuy for replacing it for free under the lemon law.It took a couple weeks for bestbuy to do this.They replaced it with a newer maxent tv that is better then the first one.As far as light glare.....its not a problem.

[fishyguy]

Thanks everyone for you thoughts and experiences. It will help a great deal.

[JollyT]

TTT