OT: --- TV advice Needed Before Purchase

Plasma is definitely a far superior image to LCD, mainly due to the lack of the backlighting issue that some LCDs have washing out the black levels, and also due to the much higher contrast ratio. Plasmas have a contrast ratio of about 10,000:1, whereas LCDs are about 1000:1. I have a 34" Sony HD CRT that I got from work for a couple hundred bucks (it also weighs 200 lbs) - it has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and the image is absolutely incredible. Make sure to compare the actual contrast ratio, not the dynamic contrast ratio - the dynamic ratio isn't hardware, but software jacking your image.

A plasma looses it's great contrast image if you have ambient light in the room - so a plasma is great if you're mainly watching movies in a very dark room. If you have a bright room and plan on mainly watching tv and playing games then go with a good quality LCD. LCDs do burn in though, I have a pair of 24" Apple LCDs that have developed strong burn in after less than 3 years of use.
 
If you want something cheap that will last you forever and look great then get a DLP. They are light, thin, and have great picture quality with 0 burn in. Also the bulb can be replace every couple years and you have a brand new tv again.
 
SO much info !!! I love it I've done research on this then I care to say. I'm still torn I do not play my PS3 much anymore but I do plan on getting a tower custom made here local for gaming to hook up to the TV ...... so that plasma would get alot fo air time.

I thankyou guys for the help thus far
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14796770#post14796770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Saddler

A plasma looses it's great contrast image if you have ambient light in the room - so a plasma is great if you're mainly watching movies in a very dark room. If you have a bright room and plan on mainly watching tv and playing games then go with a good quality LCD.
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This was the deciding factor for me. Our room was too bright for a plasma tv. The new LCD's are rivaling the picture quality of the plasma's. Only the audio-files will disagree.

If you have a dark room, a plasma has the best bang for the buck$$.

Another downside of the plasma's are the energy consumption. I went to the stores with a killo-watt meter in hand. The plasma's draw almost double the wattage of a LCD. But figuring the amount of TV I watch, it was not the decidng factor.
 
Wow. I already dump large sums of $$ into my reef tanks; I don't think I need to drop multiple thousands of dollars for a TV. My current TV is either the same size or perhaps a bit smaller than my computer monitor (different aspect ratios make it harder to compare). For now, that suits me fine.

Interesting data from BestBuy.com:
27" tube (CRT) 480i Standard Definition (SD) TV - $210
24" CRT 480i SDTV - $180
Two different 19" off-brand 720p LCD HDTVs - $200

Conclusion: If you're not looking for top-of-the-line, and you don't mind a smaller but sharper picture, flatscreen HDTVs are finally able to compete on a price level with CRT SDTVs. It wasn't that long ago that even the 19" HDTVs would have been $500 or more.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14788614#post14788614 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by psimitry
In other news, Vizio is coming out with a 240Hz LED backlit LCD setup soon. I am sooooo quivering in anticipation. :D
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Before I make a single purchase for the new fish room, I've been told that we "have to" get a new entertainment center for the living room. Thank you so much for this post - now you've given me motivation to get this done more quickly and added "new HDTV" to the list of pre-reef purchases. Or, at least have a big gaping hole with my current 27" HDTV sitting in our new entertainment center for awhile until we pick the new Vizio up.

Can't wait for the release!

- Eric
 
Although I would love a smaller TV I cannot see it from the other side of my room so I would have to go with a larger tv. I think I will go with the with LCD 46"

Now to go and wonder the lanes and view them
 
cnet.com does a great job at reviewing tv's and a bunch of other stuff. they point out the bad stuff that the normal person would never see.
 
spencers TV and appliance is ok for doing a rent to own/finance. most places for example if you pay $150 a month about $50 goes to the pay off at spencers i was paying $100 and $50 was going to the pay off. it sucks either way pay double or triple.
 
JMCAquarium whatever you do try and stay away from samsung lcd's. they have a problem where the picture goes black but you still have sound. i have a Samsung TOC LCD 52" and this just happened to mine black screen but still has sound :( the tv is only about 4 months old. i am now waiting for that new Vizio led 55" to come out i will never buy samsung tv again. do a search on google or even youtube for samsung lcd tv problems it comes up everywhere. well thats the only advice i have for you and have fun looking for a tv.
 
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I own 3 different Samsung Tv's, two 50" plasmas and one 56" lcd. One tv is about 3 years old and to date i have never had any issues. the other two samungs are about a year and a half old and again no issues with either of those. I personally would only buy Samsung.

Oh i also have an LG plasma (3 years old) which works great too with no issues.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14842568#post14842568 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Westy82
I own 3 different Samsung Tv's, two 50" plasmas and one 56" lcd. One tv is about 3 years old and to date i have never had any issues. the other two samungs are about a year and a half old and again no issues with either of those. I personally would only buy Samsung.

Oh i also have an LG plasma (3 years old) which works great too with no issues.
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I have always liked samsung lcd tv's also. but I spend almost 3 grand on a tv I would like it to last longer than 4 months. now that this happened I do a search on YouTube and google and this seems to be a big problem with them lots of people are having the same problem. I am hoping samsung will repair it or give me a new one but I am still looking at getting the new vizio led tv aslong as it's as good as people are saying. Lots of my family members and friends own vizio and never had a problem with them.
 
Samsung has very poor quality control...Lg is not that great either but better than Samsung IMO...but both make very good units...you just have to hope to get a good one
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14842724#post14842724 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chiahead
Samsung has very poor quality control...Lg is not that great either but better than Samsung IMO...but both make very good units...you just have to hope to get a good one
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Yea that scares me I read the people that are having a hard time also getting samsung to fix or give them a new tv as for lg I don't like them. I guess I didn't get a good unit:(
 
I have a 63" Mitsubishi DLP. 2 1/2 years old. We went to lots of places to compare. They were all using HD images off hard disks to make the TVs look the best. Not a real life comparison. Went to Spencers and they had a box that switched sources from regular TV to HD signals. We found at that time the DLP was superior with ambient light. The comperable LCD had horrible screen door effects. I know they have gotten much better since then but I wouldn't discount DLP till you've looked side by side.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14847194#post14847194 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philwd
I have a 63" Mitsubishi DLP. 2 1/2 years old. We went to lots of places to compare. They were all using HD images off hard disks to make the TVs look the best. Not a real life comparison. Went to Spencers and they had a box that switched sources from regular TV to HD signals. We found at that time the DLP was superior with ambient light. The comperable LCD had horrible screen door effects. I know they have gotten much better since then but I wouldn't discount DLP till you've looked side by side.
Click to expand...

i had a 60" Mitsubishi DLP FULLHD 1080P and i sold it and got the samsung LCD. i wish i would of kept my Mitsubishi dlp it was a very nice tv amazing picture on blu-ray movies. i would buy one again but there getting hard to find. i have a family member that has a 73" Mitsubishi DLP
 
The only thing to watch for with DLP is the rainbow effect, a small precentage of people will see a rainbowing effect in the picture on DLP. For most people they do not see this, but for those of us that do it can be very very annoying.

So before buying a DLP tv just make sure that everyone in your family looks at one in different lighting conditions to make sure that you dont have any issues. I know that I could never own one.
 
The Samsung LCDs that I've worked with have horribly inaccurate colors, and there isn't a way to individually adjust RGB channels, so all you can do is make the image more warm to reduce the blue which helps, but still leaves an inaccurate ratio between the channels. The film setting on Samsungs is actually closer to a correct standardized image.

Ditto about what Goon said about the DLP rainbow effect. Cheap DLPs with bad color wheels look like an acid trip to me. Good DLPs look really nice, but I can still see the RGB rainbows when I track my gaze quickly from one part of the screen to the other, especially when there is an image with sharp angles of high contrast. To test your sensitivity, watch a DLP set and suddenly move your eyes away from the set as quickly as you can (try it while watching a scene with a bright foreground over a black background). If you see a couple feet of red, green and blue trails, then you're more sensitive, or the set that your watching isn't well built.
 
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