flat screens

[poppa]

Having trouble decideing on a new flat screen. Got a 42 ",looked really good in the store,but notice a fair amount of the pixel thing at home. Name brand better? LED,LCD,Plasma?? Bought my mom a 32" That is awesome,would like a little bigger one.

[jdiesel33]

Samsung, Samsung, Samsung.


or Sony.

[jdiesel33]

Oh yeah, and LED or LCD. Much better, longer lasting, and lighter than Plasma. At least in my opinion/experience and from what I have read.

[bull]

We bought a Sanyo 46" LCD about a year ago and it's been great. I did a bunch of tireless research on all of them and narrowed it down to Toshiba but then the purchase got put off 3 or 4 times. One day we walked into a WalMart with a bunch of Christmas money looking at TVs. I saw the Sanyo, liked the picture and asked the clerk about it. She told me the thing had been sitting there powered on 24/7 for about a year straight so I figured that was enough of a stress test to satisfy me. We paid $700 for it and went home. Been happy with it ever since.

[404NOTFOUND]

I'm happy with my Samsung LED DLP "72. It's pretty awesome on Bluray.

[RallyeMike]

Looked great in the store because they used high resolution input to sell it to you. Now at home, the output on the screen is only as good as the input from cable or the DVD player.

[chargerboy69]

I have a 56" Panasonic Plasma in my living room.  Nearly every site I read said Panasonic was the best for a Plasma TV.

I also have 2- Toshiba 26" LCD's with built in DVD players in my motorhome. They have a good picture, but of the three types out there I would rate LCD's last.

Without a doubt I like the picture on the Plasma much better. Plasmas have a deeper, richer color in my opinion.

[Dino]

Looked great in the store because they used high resolution input to sell it to you. Now at home, the output on the screen is only as good as the input from cable or the DVD player.

Very true and the bigger the tv, the more artifacts you will see on the screen.

Usually you can tweak them fairly good though.  The one setting that changed my picture drastically was the energy saving setting.  Switched from high to low and it was like having another tv.  If you have an lcd/led and have blotches visible in dark scenes, this may fix the problem.

I hear that plasma is still the best picture but for my application a glossy screen would not work.  I bought a rear projection lcd Sony years ago.  50" and it got some defect last year so Sony cut the price of one of their new 60" led/lcd tv's down to $300 and it's awesome AFTER some tweaking.  Out of the box the picture looked like crap.

[Chryco Psycho]

We bought an LG 42" LED , nice pic 

[Ponch ®]

Looked great in the store because they used high resolution input to sell it to you. Now at home, the output on the screen is only as good as the input from cable or the DVD player.

I work at an electronic's store and that is precisely what they do. they have them at max res. and they show Blu Ray movies.

That being said, keep in mind that big TVs arent meant to be watched from a close distance. the further you get away from them, they better they look. Otherwise, get a computer monitor. The resolution up close is far better. Most newer ones have HDMI inputs and some have built in TV tuners. Keep in mind, anything over 27" will be beacoup $.

Oh yeah, and trying to watch a DVD on a high def TV is pointless. DVD resolution is 480i, thats why they look like crap. Get an upconverter DVD player (PS3's automatically upconvert DVDs) and it'll ameliorate the situation.

[Fred]

Our's is a Panasonic LCD, LED. The colour is great and the black is really black. And there's absolutely no reflection even with the sun streaming in so we don't need to darken the room. 

[c00nhunterjoe]

Plasma will always have a better, crisper color contrast and refresh rate then lcd. Weight differences are irrelevent anymore. My 50 inch plasma might weigh 40 pounds.  The image burn is the only downfall to a plasma tv but they have come a long way. The image will shift pixels periodicly and has a program you can run to erase burns. I've had mine for 4 years and there are no burns on it.

Samsung all the way. My 720p 600 hz 50 inch plasma blows all of my 1080p tvs out of the water. I also have a toshiba, sanyo, emerson and an lg lcd, all that are 1080's and my samsung's picture and sound is far superior. Hd tv and blurays are incredible on it.

[mauve66]

8 page buying guide and you can subscribe if you want the actual ratings of individual tv's
i had the paper subscription when i bought mine

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/tvs/buying-guide.htm

[hatersaurusrex]

My 2 cents - I've been nothing but happy with Samsung.   I got a 60" 1080p Plasma (which also does 3D) last year and I've been nothing but happy with it.  It does put off a bit of heat so it's not as cheap to run as an LCD/LED display but the difference is dramatic and it's got the best picture I've ever seen on a TV.   Had a Samsung 32" 1080p LCD before and it was nice, but the colors are much brigher and the blacks much darker on the plasma.

Burn-in isn't really an issue.   Back in the early days TVs would burn in in a few days but this is my second plasma and it sits on the same screen sometimes for hours (thanks, wife) and I've seen zero evidence of burn-in.

[BananaDan]

Oh yeah, and LED or LCD. Much better, longer lasting, and lighter than Plasma. At least in my opinion/experience and from what I have read.

Agree 1,000%. Samsung LED/LCD is top notch. When you walk towards the TV section of a store from a distance, you can easily pick out the Samsungs first. Great sharpness, contrast and motion. Make sure you turn off the feature that makes non-3D content look 3D-like. It ruins the feel IMO.

[Silver R/T]

LG, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic are all good brands

[2Gunz]

I really wouldnt worry about if its an LCD, LED or Plasma.  They all can look amazing.  I think its more of a matter of personal preference.

Look at a bunch and pick the one you like the best.


The best way to get an amazing picture is to have a great source.
I dont care what you do to a DVD its NEVER going to look even close to the quality of a blu-ray.
So if your watching DVD's and wonder why it doesnt look as good as it did in the store.... thats why.
Same thing with SD Cable and satellite VS HD Cable and satellite.

You put crap in and you get crap out.


Some TV buying tip's

Dont get caught up in the numbers.   It should be 1080p or 1080i.  Forget the rest of the sale gimmicks.

When viewing TV's make SURE the source is a Blu-ray connected Via HDMI.

View multiple TV's at the SAME time, Playing the same source.

When watching, pay close attention to how the TV does in very dark scenes.
Also make sure you watch something that moves fast like a basketball game or nascar.

Make sure the ambient light in the room is equal for all TV's.

Play close attention to the video source. A salesperson once tried to up-sell me from a sale TV I was looking at. The TV's he was attempting to sell me looked WAY better.
             Turns out the cheap Tv's where run on composite (worst possible signal)  the midrange tv's where run on component (pretty good source) and
             the expensive TV's where run on HDMI (best possible source).




Thats my 3 cents.

[rooks]

Good advice 2Gunz.

Another thing to consider - you'll notice that most stores that have the room put all the TV's together in wide open spaces. Makes the TV's look smaller than they are and plenty of people have been caught off guard buying up a size or two on impulse (which is the stores intention), only to get home and find it's too big for the room it was intended for.

Take note of where in your home it will be placed, and where you will be sitting when viewing - and measure the distance. Stand that approx distance from the TV in store and see if it's OK. A TV that looks great at 10' away can be too big, look horrible and hurt your head at 5'.

[Fred]

Well poppa, are you good and confused now? 

[Musicman]

Plasma has always been the benchmark to which other systems are compared...

[bull]

The one time I saw an LED flat screen TV I was very impressed with the picture. Not sure if the price has come down on them yet but if price were no object I'd choose LED over plasma and LCD.

[Fred]

The one time I saw an LED flat screen TV I was very impressed with the picture. Not sure if the price has come down on them yet but if price were no object I'd choose LED over plasma and LCD.

Still a bit pricey but well worth it. I'm happy as Larry with mine. 

[poppa]

Well poppa, are you good and confused now? 

Yep...I'll just get an old projector and point it at the wall. 

[Troy]

I have a 42" Samsung plasma and an upconverter DVD player. Totally happy with it! Plasmas have "blacker blacks". If I remember right, plasma cuts the power to create black where LCD makes black by turning on all colors. I think the most important thing when it comes to plasma/LCD is your environment. Plasmas have a shiny/reflective screen so if your room has a lot of light sources (or windows during the day) it will make viewing a pain. I pretty much only watch movies at night so I don't notice. I have a large format, widescreen LCD on my computer and it works fine for watching baseball games or movie clips online in all conditions. I haven't done any research in a couple of years so I'm sure a lot has changed.

Troy

[bull]

Plasmas have a shiny/reflective screen so if your room has a lot of light sources (or windows during the day) it will make viewing a pain. I pretty much only watch movies at night so I don't notice.
Troy

Yes, very shiny, so you almost have to be looking at them straight on or you'll pick up some glare. Even then you'll see a glare if you've got lights on that are in your line of sight. They weigh a lot more than the other types too so if you've got a TV alcove above a fireplace or something similar you'll probably need a hand getting it up there. There's also more of a burn-in risk with plasma and they use more power and get hotter.

I do like the plasma picture but I think many of the LCD sets have caught up in that area. All of them have drawbacks.