Posted on 10/03/2006 4:21:47 AM PDT by AZRepublican
I would like a TV with at least 36", it will be in a fairly good sized family room (16X12).
LCDs often look bad in stores because they aren't properly set up and are displaying poor quality video. Stores generally show standard def programming stretched to fit the 16:9 display and turn the brightness up full. You end up watching short, fat, grainy video with oversaturated color.
The only real way to choose an HDTV is to see a properly adjusted set running real HD content. LCDs are the only (non projection) way to get true HD resolution in a reasonable price. Plasmas under 50" only display 1024 X 768 (with rectangular pixels) and most CRTs downsample the display to half 1080i resolution.
Shadow detail is the only area where LCDs really fall down. On the other hand, if you are watching in a bright room, LCDs can compete with strong window light and won't wash out in conditions that ruin CRT and plasma pictures.
"I guess I am just different: I sell this type of equipment, including projectors, for nonresidential use. I have a CRT TV and when I replace it I will buy a CRT unit. I see no reason to spend the extra hundreds on a flat panel to watch the tripe that most television is."
What HD CRT TV brands in the 32 to 37" size do you recommend?
Our 17 year old RCA with a great Dish Picture will die one of these days.
We are not that impressed with the LCD picture quality we see at various stores, and the variance of picture quality is all over the place.
Like you, don't watch that much tv. It is only on at night for one to 3 hours at the max.
Thanks. I'm looking forward to your imput.
Hard for me to envision. I'm already hypnotized at the beauty of the image in plasma TVs, and when I walk past one I have to stop and watch, helpless to move as though held by a magnet, even though I have no interest in the subject matter.
The best plasmas (think latest generation Panasonic and Pioneer HD units) are pretty nice. Better than the best LCDs I've seen, I would venture to say, although the latest, greatest LCDs from Sony that I've seen (full 1920x1080 HD XBR2 models) are also very nice, and higher resolution. Haven't seen the LCD in a controlled environment, though.
When I went looking last year I didn't really need anything as big as even 42" (the smallest common plasma size, although Panasonic makes a 1024x720 HD 37" unit, too). I tried a 37" Sony Plasma, one of the 1024x1024 interlaced units, and while its picture was fantastic on well-lit subjects (wathing the Tonight show you sometimes felt like Jay and the guests were in the room with you), its performance at the dark end of the scale was abysmal. And at CDN$2,799 it was one of the cheapest ones. Of course, now I see 42" LG HD plamas are going for CDN$1,999.
Anyway, I finally settled on a 34" HD CRT, in this case a Panasonic. It's comparable to the non-XBR 34" Sony Trinitron CRT, both in price and performance. I would have like the higher-spec Sony 34" CRT model, but it was almost twice as expensive, and weighs in at 230 lbs (!) compared to the relatively svelte 160 lbs for the one I did get. Being a CRT, it's not perfect - it has some minor ghosting issues and is not perfectly focussed in the corners - but its black level and colour reproduction is fantastic, particularly with HD programming. My XBbox360 looks great on it.
"No more will night scenes be a washed out muddied black, but you will actually be able to see things on the screen."
Assuming you're watching in a darkened room. In even a moderately normally lit room, you'll never notice the difference. Still, current plamas and LCDs can't beat the old CRT's contrast and black levels, so maybe this will be the way to go. I wonder if it will be hideously expensive, which is the real deal breaker for many people. Actually I'm surprised as many people as have done so have shelled out as much as they have for the relatively mediocre picture of (most) large plasmas.
Heck....LCDs are better than plasmas, having far high resolution. But the price point on Plasmas is much better as you get into the larger sizes.
DLPs are pretty sweet but, they're too thick for smaller sizes: you want a 70-inch TV? Get a DLP. 42-60: plasma. 42 and smaller: LCD.
Each technology has it's strengths and weaknesses: plasma is prone to burn-in....LCDs are prone to dead pixels....I wonder what SEDs problems will turn out to be.
I have 2 plasma TV's. A 52 inch HD Plasma in the family room and a 32 inch in the bedroom. The biggest gripe I have is that they look funny when in traditional aspect mode, so I put them in widescreen mode (just about every plasma is a widescreen), but then you get little eddies of gook where the tv is trying to interpolate how to convert the regular aspect signal to a widescreen signal. However, programs that are broadcast in HD, or DVD's, look better on those TV's than any other TV's I have ever owned. Oh, and I got the big TV (Vizio) from Costco for under 2K, and the small TV is some brand I dont remember that starts with an A ... and I paid about a $1000. The no-name brands give you just as good of quality, and maybe even better reliability than the big names. Same time I got my 32, my parents got a similar size & feature Panasonic, and it died 3 months later.
Thanks. We will probably decide between Sony and Toshiba.
We know 3 couples, who are friends and inherited money for so called home theatres. Each of these so called home theatres cost over $10,000. Two of the flat panel LCDs did not have as good of a picture as our old Dinosaur. The other one might have a comparable picture. Within a year after the new wore off, these families aren't really watching their theatre tv with the exception of football games.
One couple recently removed their so called home theatre system and are using the sound system with their older sterio system. The wife had a plain jane 20 inch tv installed in her kitchen, and it serves mainly as background noise. They now watch tv in their bedroom with their decade old Toshiba. They were 49er and Raider fans, and they said they didn't need to watch losers on a 10k set up.
You can say the same about Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, Allianz, and Bayer.
Under the New World Order political entities come and go, but corporate entities endure eternal. ;)
I am still watching my 60 inch Hitachi "Ultravision" projection TV and can't find a good reason to replace it since we have flogged it for 10 years now and it hasn't missed a beat. I was in Best Buy the other day and saw a 40" Samsung LCD HDTV and fell in love with it but I need at least a 60" TV. Now this. What should I do? I go through any TV store and there are million models there and I don't have a real good idea of what to get. I want reliability, outstanding picture and low energy consumption. Choices, choices, choices.
I you a 12,000 lumen, 3-chip DLP projector.
The 61" DLP from Samsung is very light (feels like half that of a 27 inch tube set) and has a fantastic picture.
I recently bought a 19 inch flat screen for the bedroom for that very reason-to reduce clutter. It is mounted on the wall and there is so much more room now.
Right - and I think they were a major supplier of aircraft engines.
I'm the last one who should give advice on which TV to buy. I haven't figured it all out myself, yet.
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