VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

tackerman · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:27 am Post subject: My station went to HD

And I'm finally thinking about buying an HD set. Any of the techies out there have suggestions in the 30" to 40" range? It kills me since I just bought a Sony Wega (that weighs about 2 tons) a few years ago.

louzucaro · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:51 am Post subject:

You really have to go and look and see which picture you like the best. Sony & Panasonic both make great tube TVs, but they have a different feel. Sometimes I prefer the picture on one, sometimes on the other.

I have a Samsung HD DLP that I love, but being totally honest, watching NTSC broadcast over DirecTV looks somewhere between "eh" and "lousy" depending on the station we're watching. DVDs (even NTSC ones) and anything HD look truly stunning on it, however.

In the size range you're talking about, you could go either LCD or Plasma...again, the three brands I mentioned earlier should all be good products.

YMMV Smile

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tackerman · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:18 am Post subject:

I guess the question it boils down to is Plasma or LCD.

I'd imagine this is one of those personal preference questions like choosing mics... Lips Are Sealed

louzucaro · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:30 am Post subject:

Yeah, you know they're both much better now than they were even a few years ago. I think the general wisdom is that Plasmas have (usually) better contrast ratio than LCDs, but LCDs don't have the tearing problems that Plasmas have during some action scenes.

I think both of these issues are less severe than they used to be...some LCDs have pretty exceptional contrast ratios these days and I think tearing on Plasmas is likely less noticeable than it used to be, too.

There's also more overlap in screen size now as LCDs continue to get a bit bigger. One of my aunts got a Samsung 40" LCD recently for about $1800 and she loves it. She's not really a techie, but she doesn't have Buyer's Remorse so that's something Wink

I guess the only other advice I'd offer other than "go see what you think looks good and choose something from one of the major players" is just make sure it has at least 2 HDMI inputs and component inputs as well as more common A/V connectors.
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richgates · Guest

Tom:

I can offer up something that might be helpful. I am not sure if you play any console games or plan to. Plasma has the tendency for burn in, so an LCD would be a better choice if your TV is going to be multi-purpose like that.

One potential disadvantage of LCD that bothers some people is what is called the "screen door" effect. Essentially it is what it sounds like, it is like looking at your T.V. through a screen door. Different people have different sensitivity to screen door, and it typically gets more pronounced the closer you sit to the T.V.

Another common issue for LCD's, although they've gotten much better in recent years is their contrast ratio. Some people think that LCD's have terrible black levels, which results in an inferior picture. I had an LCD projector in my old house and it never bothered me.

The key really is to go to a show room and check out all of the technologies such as LCD, Plasma and DLP and find which one looks best to you, and which one suits your functional needs.

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:49 am Post subject:

I don't like how the picture is formatted to fit the screen, and therefore looks squished. And st00pid. My friend's got him one of them. Don't know if it's plasma, lcd, lsd, lds, or what...........
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louzucaro · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:59 am Post subject:

No, no, no, it's not the TV, it's operator error!

Modern widescreen TVs, at least all the ones I've seen, have different aspect ratio (width to height ratio) settings. For some unknown reason, many stores don't set this correctly on their display TVs depending on the source.

NTSC ("regular TV") is always 4:3...the shape of a normal TV set. Our new TV system is generally referred to as 16:9 or widescreen and is approximately the same shape as the majority of theatrical movies.

Most DVD players can output 16:9 and a lot of HD broadcast is 16:9 although some is 4:3.

I know, it's a lot of mumbo jumbo to those who don't care about all that, but the point is that the TV needs to be set correctly to display the correct aspect ratio of whatever you're watching..."standard TV", DVD, HD etc.

Usually this setting can be changed pretty quickly with a button on the TV's remote that says something like "Aspect" or "P Size" etc.
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Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:55 am Post subject:

whaddaya do with the bunny ears?

had to say that, since it's so close to those other bunny feet things. Devil

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louzucaro · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:07 am Post subject:

You can still hook 'em up although I believe that those don't work with HD.

I guess the rabbit community isn't planning an upgrade to their TV tech Smile

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chriswagner · Contributor IV Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 114

I've got a 37" LCD HDTV from Syntax (it's an LG company)..

Regular TV looks good on it, but HD is Phenominal... I really can't say how happy I am with it.

Cost me about $1200.. Well worth the price, it's about the same that I paid for a 32" Panisonic tube TV about 7 years ago.

It's got gobs of inputs as well, and can also double as a PC monitor.

allensco · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:23 pm Post subject:

I've got the 47" Samsung HD set. It's a projection type so it may not be as sharp as the true flat panels like LCD and plasma. BUT for a projection tv, it's way sharper than anything I've seen recently. It has plenty of input on the back, the digital and normal a/v connections. Regular tv looks like regular tv on it..but DVD's look absolutely stunning.

I am partial to Samsung as I've had a few of their tv's in the past. Their picture quality is just better (to me) than all the other brands I've seen. I did quite a bit of shopping around before committing to this one. I can say I'm very happy with my decision Laugh

Lizden · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:51 pm Post subject:

Nice Allen!
Did you clean up just for us? Wink

L.
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louzucaro · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:54 pm Post subject:

Allen, I also like your HD telephone at the top-left of that picture!

Verrrrrry snazzy!
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COURVO · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:10 pm Post subject:

TV is mindrot. I try to avoid watching it.

Courvo
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gkarnes · Guest

LOL Dave!

Hey I have a Westinghouse 42" LCD. It doesn't have a tuner, but who tunes in off air TV these days.

It has great reviews and it is truly 1080P. Be sure to get at least 1080P not 720 or 1080I (I = interlaced and means the refresh rate is terrible).

Lou-
I don't like to be contrary, but it is the LCD which is subject to tearing with fast action. Basketball seems to be about the worst. But even then, it is only right at the edges on my set. As you mentioned, Plasma and LCD have gotten better.

Plasma has slightly richer darks especially blacks. Plasma is also subject to burn in as someone mentioned.

One other thing that weighed in on my decision, was Plasma has an expected life of 30K hours and LCD has a 60K expected life.

Ohh satellite HDTV...not great like someone said, but just regular DVD movies are dabomb. I have to admit I don't know what an HDDVD would look like. When I bought the TV the HDDVD players were still costing 1500 bucks and couldn't swallow that.

Anyway, here is a link to a site that has it.
http://www.excaliberpc.com/Westinghouse_42_inch_1080p_LCD/LVM-42W2/partinfo-id-570007.html

I got mine through Amex for points.

Hey, I can't believe I remember all that stuff. I wish I was getting a grade on it.