Research on flat screen TVs

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

We are tired of beating our old (14 years) tube TV to get it to work. Yes, we literally have to hit it after we turn it on because it generally displays just a thin, horizontal line at the mid point of the screen. It takes several hits sometimes to get the image to appear without lots of horizontal lines streaking across it. Of course, the advent of digital TV and demise of analog has something to do with it as well.

We were in CostCo the other day (ended up buying a great new chair for the computer room) and my wife took a casual look at the TVs there. She thinks anything over 40 inches (and that's pushing it) is too big (whatever happened to "size does matter"?). The LCDs look less expensive than the plasmas. We don't have cable and are extremely unlikely to get cable in the foreseeable future.

I've been assigned the research for this purchase and naturally, I'd like something that won't cost me an arm and a leg (and I have absolutely no intention of going into debt over this). Any suggestions?

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

If ou want to eliminate ghosting or such happening then go for LCD, you can also get big LCD TVs these days.

For me Personally when looking at TVs I always look at Philips or Panasonic, I have always found those to be the best pictures and last the longest.

Just be aware that when you go into a shop that is selling plasmas etc they are normally strategically placed and the contrast is turned to it's best setting to make everything look better than what it will look like when you get it home, so dont fall for any sales crap.

Also if you are going for a hi-def TV some people can't see the difference unless the tv is over 32" and some sets can look grainy close up.

When I worked in the Sony shop years ago, we were always told that if the tv is going to be less than 8 meters away then anything bigger than 37" would most likely look bad.

Hope that helps

 

Have you set a budget yet?

I would only recommend the best when it comes to TV's and that means buying a Pioneer. If a Pioneer is not in your budget then buy the next best which is a Panasonic.

The main difference between Plasma and LCD's are:

1. LCD's provide poor black contrasts an example of this is my brothers Samsung 42" LCD (5* rated TV), tried watching AVP (Alien V Predator or indeed any film with black scences) it's a joke, you just cannot see a damn thing.

2. LCD's response rate is not as high as Plasma, if like to watch alot of sport, then go for Plasma.

3. Plasmas provide much larger array of viewing angles, which can be a big buying motive depending on room size and furniture location.

I have to say that I'm Plasma biased. But again, no LCD I have seen comes even close to the picture quality of my plasma Pioneer.

It just feels wierd watching an LCD, its a bit like watching a TV show on your laptop/pc it just doesn't feel quite right!

A good guide for some information is http://www.plasma-lcd-facts.co.uk/home/

Oh and my TV is a Pioneer PDP XDE 436 which I brought a couple of years ago. It is actualy worth more now, go figure

To top off your new 'plasma' I would highly recommend a Yamaha Digital Sound Projector. These bad boys have around 42 built in speakers that bounce sound around your room and configure virtual surround sound. No need for tons of cabling or wires. Have a look http://www.yamaha-uk.com/sound_projectors/

Last of all you should look at spending around 10% of your budget on cabling.

 

Forget LCD and Plasma, go for a Laser TV or an OLED TV!

Mitsubishi's laser tv is even 3D ready!!! Hey, if it's going to be a TV to last you a further 14 years, invest in Laser!

 

Forget the Laser TV I want the lady that appears on it

 

good advice there. Just beaware plasmas can still get burn in and ghosting.

 

and i'll have it when she does POV pr0n!

 

Back on topic,

 

I have a 32' samsung LCD which sits at the foot of my bed, great for sitting in bed playing the xbox 360 lol.
Its a good telly for a good price, I can't argue for plasma's because I don't have one but I felt LCD was a safer bet and cheap enough.
I've heard a lot of bad reviews about Sony Bravia's so I would personally avoid them. I think for a lot of them you will get what you pay for. TV's appear to have dropped a lot in price but I think for the best part its actually a case of they have made cheaper models. Our Toshiba 42' downstairs is still around the same price as it was 2 years ago when we brought it.

I went into a few of the local currys stores looking at the tv's and actually found that most had some very poor quality tv picture running through them which really doesn't inspire anyone to make a purchase.

 

I'm currently looking at getting a flat screen also - have decided on the Panasonic 32" one.
It will look huge compared to the 14" CRT one we have now!

 

That it will definately do.
I have terrible trouble when I go round to my gf's house, I have my 32' at the end of my bed, she has a 14' about two bed lengths away, I need binoculars or something lol

 

We bought a Panasonic yesterday - 32LXD85 - does look bigger than where the last TV was, but the view is excellent
Well worth the £485!

 

Our 27" Sony Trinitron kicked the bucket a few months back, so I decided to take a risk on the latest Tiger Direct promo. We bought a Soyo 37" LCD for around $500 including shipping. I notice that the price has since doubled:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3321420&Sku=S181-3700

We're very happy with it. The only complaint is that it's new enough that the remote for our StarChoice satellite system doesn't support it.

 

Price-has-doubled...ouch. We don't have satellite or cable and aren't particularly likely to in the near future, so compatibility problems aren't a huge issue. The vast majority of our video entertainment comes from DVDs. We went down that route to be able to have more control over what our children saw on the TV, at least at home, but now, there just doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile to watch on the "telly" (with the exception of "House").

I should be gathering together all your input today or tomorrow and starting shopping. I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks.

 

If you're able to wait, keep an eye on Tiger's site. They usually have the best sales towards the end of the month when they need to move stuff to improve their numbers. That's when I find the best deals.

 

nice piece of info from the plasma-lcd-facts.co.uk site. thanks

Am I right in saying analogue devices such as the wii, retro consoles or anything that has a scart wont look as good on a LCD/plasma then it does on a crt tv?


-Mallet

 

Sorry to drag this one up out of antiqity, but it looks like the missus and I are narrowing the search. For some reason, she is really interested in doing the research on this right now (regardless of what I'd planned to do, today).

Anyway, we're thinking about a Panasonic - 37" 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV from Best Buy. Actually, we're probably going to go to CostCo tomorrow and see what they have that's comparable. We did visit the CostCo site as well as Circuit City, before browsing around at Best Buy.

37 inches seems about right for the size of the room we watch TV in and the other features also fit our tastes. What do you all think?

 

Trip,

Just sent you a pm and email.

 

Jim

CostCo are having a big sale start on the 5th, I have a $300 off coupon for a Vizio 40 or 47inch LCD I think
They also carry my Panasonic Plasma 42" as far as I recall

I'd be happy to meet up for a beer and discuss the options with you, I'm pretty fluent ;)
I'm heading to Montana for a week on Sunday though, PM/Call me and lets see what we can arrange

 

Plan B:

LG - 37" 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV. The company has an interesting history.

Whatcha think?