What tv should I buy?

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ucatchtrout

ucatchtrout

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Time for a new tv.

What should I buy?

I want something around 50 inches.
 
Panasonic has very high ratings for their 50-52" models.
 
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10605-Cat2341&topnav=

LCD sucks. Unfortunately, the fact that you can tan off of an LCD television and the bad rep plasma HAD for burn in has pretty much given LCD a stranglehold on the market. IF you watch sports, and I think you probably do...duh....get a plasma. Pioneer is getting out of plasma and they were the best. My panasonic 50 1080p plasma is awesome and this Pioneer should be better. Better blacks and whatnot.
 
JFizzleRaider said:
no, no it doesn't. ONLY if you play any video games or your kids play any video games on the tv
Click to expand...

fixed it for you.

LCD viewing angle sucks
Motion blur sucks. Speaking of video games, sports look like sonic the hedgehog on LCD. You get a trail on LCD, as of now there isn't anything that has been done to get rid of that.

If you are watching tv outside in direct sunlight or want to use your tv as a computer monitor or only to play video games get an LCD. Otherwise, until OLED or whatever new technology comes around, get a plasma while you still can.

If I had kids that wanted to play video games all day, I would have bought a panasonic 720 50 inch plasma from costco for 899 a couple of months ago.

check out www.avsforum.com and read each section for plasma and lcd. You get proponents of both, but if you watch sports and movies plasma is for the win.
 
If you don't care about hanging the tv on the wall you should check out one of these models. This is the one I bought, it's bigger than you want, but will probably cost less than a 50" LCD/Plasma HDTV.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HL67A750-67-Inch-1080p-Powered/dp/B001413DWQ

Everyone that sees it can't believe the pic. Since it's LED you never have to change the lamp.

Quick edit, while you couldn't hang this on the wall it's not near as big as the old projection tvs. And man, sports are unbelievable on this! Like you are there! One other thing, lights don't bother it one bit.
 
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mgb said:
If you don't care about hanging the tv on the wall you should check out one of these models. This is the one I bought, it's bigger than you want, but will probably cost less than a 50" LCD/Plasma HDTV.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HL67A750-67-Inch-1080p-Powered/dp/B001413DWQ

Everyone that sees it can't believe the pic. Since it's LED you never have to change the lamp.

Quick edit, while you couldn't hang this on the wall it's not near as big as the old projection tvs. And man, sports are unbelievable on this! Like you are there! One other thing, lights don't bother it one bit.
Click to expand...

There's a pretty big price differential between the better LCD TVs and the lower quality ones. Perhaps 2x the price even. By "better" I mean 120Hz refresh rate, which makes watching sports more tolerable.

The DLP TV you link to is interesting because of the LED. DLP has long had a reputation for having a nice picture for a lower cost, but also for needing repairs or even being lemons due to the bulb and color wheels wearing out. I'd want to research this model to see if it still has a color wheel (my guess is yes).

Anything with moving parts (color wheel) will wear out in time, guaranteed ;)
 
Get that TV with a 1,000,000-1 pixel ratio or whatever. Looks awesome.
 
When it comes to significant purchases, I would still recommend checking ot Consumer Reports ratings. They extensively test products, and are very reliable.
 
I have 4 HDTVs... 3 at home and one at beach. One is Sony XBR CRT, amazing pic but amazingly heavy TV and only 34", LCD DLP... good TV but only 1080i... bulb burned out once. The new one at the beach... Toshiba 120hz 1080P is amazing. Jaw dropping. Samsung and Sony would be even better but they were quite a bit more expensive. Blue Ray DVDs are freaking awesome. Even regular DVDs look amazing. So... newer LCD's... I say are very good. I dare you to find motion blur on that Toshiba LCD... I am the most sensitive person in the world for motion blur... I literally can't watch a lot of movies that do the camera shaking shit... can't play first person shooter type video games etc... but the 120hz LCDs are fantastic.

Also... go to video only... they do have awesome prices... and you can usually talk them down even lower than what they have listed... or get them to throw in Blueray or something.
 
From what I have been reading on the avs forum, the 120hz LCD tvs look awesome on bluray and movies in general but still have problems with sports. That is the killer for me and I have witnessed it in person at my friend's house. His LCD is 120 so he says. The superbowl looked like crap. We watched it live over the air, which should give you the best picture. I recorded it on my direct dvr and watched it on my plasma at home and it was awesome.
 
I have the 46-inch Samsung LCD, and I couldn't be happier. People are astonished at the picture. Samsung makes the best TVs around, and they're rated #1 by Consumer Reports.
 
bodyman5001 said:
From what I have been reading on the avs forum, the 120hz LCD tvs look awesome on bluray and movies in general but still have problems with sports.
Click to expand...
Not true. My Samsung is a 120hz and the Super Bowl looked fantastic on it.
 
Shooter said:
Not true. My Samsung is a 120hz and the Super Bowl looked fantastic on it.
Click to expand...

How much was it?


I don't mean to say that any of the newer hdtvs are bad. They are all amazing, especially when you first get one.

Some are just better than others. I would buy a few Pioneer Elite plasmas and keep them in storage if I had extra money to burn.
 
JUST BUY THE BIGGEST DAMN HDTV YOU CAN GET.

I gave away an old Mitsubishi big screen when I got the new tv and I feel like George Jetson from the future. woo hoo.
 
bodyman5001 said:
From what I have been reading on the avs forum, the 120hz LCD tvs look awesome on bluray and movies in general but still have problems with sports. That is the killer for me and I have witnessed it in person at my friend's house. His LCD is 120 so he says. The superbowl looked like crap. We watched it live over the air, which should give you the best picture. I recorded it on my direct dvr and watched it on my plasma at home and it was awesome.
Click to expand...

Digital over the air on my tv doesn't have near the pic that Directv has. Over the air depends on the distance as well as the antennae and the way it's pointing. Also digital doesn't mean it's HD.
 
Shooter said:
Not true. My Samsung is a 120hz and the Super Bowl looked fantastic on it.
Click to expand...

Ya, sports looks amazing on my HDTV too. A live HD telecast is the best pic! Cars look great on HD too. I love watching HD travel programs too. Such beautiful scenery. Breath taking at times.

What's really amazing on the one I have is how bright and vibrant the colors are. Just unbelievable how many colors.

Btw, mines a samsung too. I liked the ones at the Rose Garden so I figured they are pretty good. But I did a lot of research before I bought my TV and for the price especially you won't get a better pic. The only thing that isn't as good as my last projection is the sound. The sound is ok, but my last one had giant speakers on the bottom while this one doesn't. But like I said it's ok and I have a nice surround sound receiver so it doesn't matter. I mainly wanted a great pic.
 
bodyman5001 said:
From what I have been reading on the avs forum, the 120hz LCD tvs look awesome on bluray and movies in general but still have problems with sports. That is the killer for me and I have witnessed it in person at my friend's house. His LCD is 120 so he says. The superbowl looked like crap. We watched it live over the air, which should give you the best picture. I recorded it on my direct dvr and watched it on my plasma at home and it was awesome.
Click to expand...

Also was he receiving a analog or digital signal? Analog can look real bad on a HDTV. From what I've heard mine isn't as bad as most. You can tell the difference, but it's not terrible. He might have to make a switch for it to show digital air stations as well. As a default mine only showed analog. I thought I'd check out one of those tests that broadcast digital only for a min. I was surprised when my screen went to snow. I check my manual and found out I had to make it look for digital channels. Once I did that I got the digital channels too.
 
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In Vegas the OTA broadcasts are all available in digital and all the big networks are in HD. Some of the channels have already stopped broadcasting analog.

My directv is great, but there is the slightest difference in quality compared to OTA of the same broadcast. I have an old amplified antenna for backup in case the dish quits working for some reason.

I can only get about 87-90 percent on the signal meter with my antenna but as long as the signal doesn't break up it looks perfect.

CBS looks the best to me for sports, I think it is broadcast in 1080i and Fox is 720p. I think.

If I remember correctly, all cable and satellite providers have to compress the signal to some extent to get as many channels as they do. Still looks pretty damn good. I saw a preview for a movie that we had also seen in the theater and the tv looks better by a mile.

I just need to upgrade my receiver , I have an older Harmon Kardon avr 240 that doesn't always decode the available sound formats. It doesn't have any HDMI inputs, so I use digital optical for now. Oh well.
 
Yeah OTA should be better. Either you get the signal perfect or you get snow. HDTVs, especially larger ones, show the flaws in SD tv more. You are basically blowing up a picture and the quality does get worse. Some TVs correct for that better than others... but the bigger screen... the more you are going to notice it.
 
bodyman5001 said:
I just need to upgrade my receiver , I have an older Harmon Kardon avr 240 that doesn't always decode the available sound formats. It doesn't have any HDMI inputs, so I use digital optical for now. Oh well.
Click to expand...

Same here...I have a 5yr old Yamaha that has optical ports out the wazzoo, but no HDMI. I make it work somehow--there're just more cords.
 
I got good ol trusty TUBE 27" it's great, simple cheap and big so ya don't have ta worry bout nobody jackin it.
 
quick question.
HDMI cables. Do they make a significant difference?
I have a 42' Samsung Plasma and I'm using a variety of cables to connect my TV, DVD Player, HD Digital TV box and old stereo system. I don't have HDMI for the DVD player or the stereo, but would adding an HDMI cable be good from my HD Cable box to the TV? I know it won't affect the sound, but would it improve the picture alot?

I've read that an HDMI cable is the same regardless of price and the pricier ones is pure advertising bunk.

cheers for any and all help :D
 
Celtic Fan said:
quick question.
HDMI cables. Do they make a significant difference?
Click to expand...
The short answer: No.

I hooked up my new Samsung with the regular red-white-and-yellow cables and the picture was great. I finally replaced that cable with the HDMI cable, but I couldn't tell any difference in the picture. Both of the technicians from Comcast who came to my house told me that the HDMI cable doesn't improve the picture quality. It's really just a convenience factor: one thing to plug in on each end instead of three.
 
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