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View Full Version : Whats the Best Big Screen TV.



mod25
12-26-2008, 08:36 PM
I was told the plasma will go out sooner and expensive to fix but they sure have a clear picture. Anybody with any experience or advice?

Euroski
12-26-2008, 08:39 PM
Heard the same. I have a Samsung LCD which when purchased last year was a leader. Also was told Sony and LG are almost as good. sure hope I don't start a war...

patchesII
12-26-2008, 08:41 PM
i just bought a 42 inch sony lcd. i did some research online and found that in my size tv the samsung typically finishes first followed by the sony. lcd's are better for bright rooms. plasma's show black better. to answer your question samsung and sony.

BUSHWACKER
12-26-2008, 09:10 PM
Tough question, I asked alot of people, I bought a Vizio 46" LCD from Walmart. I also have a 32" LCD Toshiba. Was told by too many DO NOT buy plasma.

mod25
12-26-2008, 09:12 PM
Thanks for the info guys. Going TV shopping tomorrow. Looking for a 42 or 46. Will check out the sales on the Samsungs and Sonys.:cheers:

twogees
12-26-2008, 09:13 PM
samsung!!! definitely cant go wrong.

mod25
12-26-2008, 09:17 PM
I'll stay away from the plasma for sure. Looks like LCD is the way to go.

AwesomeBullet
12-27-2008, 04:37 PM
Remember, too, that viewing angle plays a huge role. A plasma has a larger viewing angle than an lcd. I bought a Samsung 42" Plasma last year and it is great. 180* viewing angle makes it perfect for putting in a room where you entertain guests or have multiple people trying to watch the game.

Airboater
12-27-2008, 05:20 PM
Lotta pro's and con's between types and brands ,read on another forum to stay away from Samsung that they are built cheap.The Sharp and LG are my choice but undecided on plasma or Lcd due to viewing angles and room lighting ,but my standard tube works fine so far.

Story
12-27-2008, 06:41 PM
I have been in the business for too many years to count. If you want to give me a call I will run through it with you. EVERY brand makes a good and a not so good set. View angle, ambient light, placement, price all play a role. I am a video calibrator by trade and can tell you what looks the best out of the box. YOU CAN'T GO BY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN BEST BUY. ALL TV'S ARE SET INTENTIONALLY WRONG FROM THE FACTORY. The best one out the box is a Pioneer Elite Plasma. I own one and could have anyone I want. Thats my first choice. 2nd I would go with Sharp. I tell you what, How much are you willing to spend? Where is it going? What is going to be played on it? You don't want to buy a race motor if it aint going to be raced!

kuczman
12-27-2008, 08:50 PM
Story is right. I would like to hear from him a bit more about the plasma/lcd choice.
Not for top end system, just average use in a living room, not a dedicated home theater. Power consumption, HD resolution misinformation out there...

BarryStrawn
12-27-2008, 10:19 PM
My 11 year old daughter really likes the 200" 2.35:1 widescreen projection system at our local dealers. Double stacked projectors with anamorphic lenses but I don't remember if they were LCD or DLP based. I think just the screen cost more than a Verado.:) That is the "best TV" I have seen.

We recently bought a 46" Sharp SE94 LCD for the living room. 120Hz 1080p etc. Pretty damn good picture after turning the calibration down from flamethrower. Not as good as the more expensive plasma like a Pioneer Elite, but it was also half the price.

BUSHWACKER
12-28-2008, 01:29 AM
:iagree:If I were ypu (see his post) I would take Story's advice, why just look how clear his avatar is compaired to all the others! :D:D:D:D:D
Just kiddin ya, don't take it to heart. :cheers:

mod25
12-31-2008, 04:02 PM
Story

I didn't see your post until after i bought the TV. I bought a samsung 46" LCD 35000:1 ,1080P 120hz. Application for living room. Hope I made the right decision. I guess I'll find out. Haven't bought a tv in 10 years. Lots of new stuff.
Thanks for all the feedback. If takes a dump I'll let ya'll know so you don't buy one.:cheers:

twogees
12-31-2008, 04:58 PM
i have one and my mom has two and i have two friends that all have samsungs as well no complaints ive heard so far or had myself.hd looks sharp. Just dont buy their phones. they suck. good luck with it.

22VelocityProMax300
01-01-2009, 01:07 PM
I have a 3 year old 46" Samsung DLP , the first year the set was awesome . High Def sports and movies were great to watch. I purchased the optional 3 year insurance and I am really glad I did. After the first year of the manufacturers warranty the TV began going through projector lamps and other parts. This coming week the so called tech is coming out to replace the light engine .Parts and labor $1200.In the last year,including the upcoming bill it will be a total of $2000. If something else goes wrong in the next sixty days it will qualify for a replacement under the lemon law. You really have to be careful with these HDTV sets, when repairs start happening the costs are high. In the future I would replace it with an LCD,there are a lot fewer parts and less chance for repairs. When the manufacturers use more solid state we will be much better off. Frank

twogees
01-01-2009, 08:09 PM
i know 3 people right now all with dlp's, that are all broken due to lamps gone bad. all different brands i believe. my boss being one in which he did purchase the extra warranty but they screwed him and said it covers everything except the lamp..:nonod:

Options
01-01-2009, 08:54 PM
We have a two year old Sony 60" XBR DLP and it's been bulletproof. The picture is amazing.

Sonik
01-02-2009, 07:00 PM
I'll throw my .02 in here from my experience although this has sparked my interest for another thread involving who has what for a complete home theater.

I know that recently LG and Samsung have jumped in bed together to produce LCD panels for TV and monitor lines across both manufacturers. Thus, you end up with the same LCD panel in either brand. What differs is the peripherals and misc electronics. Even a large portion of the on-screen menus are shared. I agree with the aforementioned statement that the Pioneer Elite plasmas were the best bar-none for a long time, albeit they demanded a premium. I can't speculate now as to how they compare but back in my college days when I did small-scale, high-end AV retail sales, they were simply smokin'...nothing even came close.

The DLP / LCD/ Plasma debate has gone on forever and depending on who you talk to, you'll get conflicting responses. I stay involved with the new stuff through an old coworker of mine that stayed in the business....the retailer he works for sells 8 different brands of TVs and a majority of the employees can agree that LG and Hitachi are a close tie for the best overall package. (fit and finish, intuitive menus, warranty, customer service etc etc) And these guys are true audiophiles first, salesmen second.

I believe it was stated somewhere in this thread that stores intentionally jack up all the settings to make the TV's look bold and bright (only to compensate for the 8 million fluorescent lights in the store I'd say). I would never buy a display TV because of this practice. Having the contrast and brightness jacked up on some TV's, while making it look desirable in the stores, CAN have a long-term effect on longevity (depending on TV type). This is true for most of the chain stores but the smaller businesses that pride themselves on educated employees take the time to set the TVs up right (using proper setup DVD images) and perform unbiased comparisons.

I personally decided to go with a 50" LG plasma due to better contrast ratios and darker blacks (best of what was available at the time). My TV is a 50PC1DRA 720P (1366 x 768 native resolution). It has a built-in 160gig DVR and was built during the DVI to HDMI transition so it has both. I got a smoking deal on it from a friend when it was 1yr old...it is now going on 3. Have not had a problem with it ever. It gets used every evening for several hours and for the investment, I'm satisfied. If you want/have Blu Ray then a 1080P 120hz (1920 x 1080 native resolution) is what you want to get the most out of your player regardless of TV type.

Plasma's are rated in "half life" hours meaning it will take X hours for the screen to reach 50% of its original brightness. Most LG plasmas are rated around 100,000 hrs. How accurate that is, I don't honestly know. Plasma TV's are also usually much heavier than its LCD counterpart and also produce alot more heat. Oversaturating the screen with jacked up settings not only looks horrible to the trained eye, it also degrades the life of the plasma panel. Another thing to consider with plasmas is burn-in. I don't game on mine because of this. I may just be over-anal and most, if not all new plasmas, have a screen wipe option which floods the panel with white light to rid the panel of any burn-in. I have dish Network and notice sometimes when I first turn it on that I have ghosting of the menu screen which is easily remedied with this option.

LCD TV's have gone through some significant changes in the last 5-7 years. Sony hit it big with their LCD rear projection setup in 2003ish (light passed through a small LCD panel onto the front screen). Drawbacks with LCD TV's involve stuck pixels which usually are ALWAYS in the most annoying spot on the TV and most manufacturers have a rating scale in which to judge the position and number of stuck pixels as applied to warranty replacement. I have a pair of 2ms Samsung 22" LCD computer monitors and 1 week after the warranty expired I ended up with a stuck pixel (green) in one corner of my screen....irritating. Because it was in the corner, they opted not to warranty it for replacement which pissed me off honestly because at the time, these weren't cheap monitors. So my opinion of samsung is biased because of that, but they do look awesome.

I don't know much about the DLP's anymore so I can't really provide much input. DLP's and older LCD projection setups have bulbs that can fail, and they usually are pricey. In simple terms, DLP's pass light / image through a moving "color wheel" if you will, to produce an image on the screen.....moving parts inevitably fail.


Sorry I ended up writing a book.....hope my incoherent ramblings gave you some food for thought. Good luck with your purchase.


Jeff

Story
01-06-2009, 10:43 PM
I agree with the last post and was well put. I will add a little to this just to clear up some questions on what is best of all worlds. DLP's are on the way out and do have moving parts that fail. The bulb thing I will say can be looked at from two side. First ALL things that produce light have a half life. Every light will degrade. Most Projectors need to have their bulb replaced from anywhere from 800 to 3000 hours. Most video gurus say 800 for best performance. A DLP is a projector and needs it's bulb replaced. Good news is it can be replaced. www.projectorlampcenter.com is just one source to find them. If you think about it, a DLP will be close to a new set because of a bulb replacement. How many 50" plasmas or LCDs can be bought for $300-$400. A 50" DLP is at least a 3rd or more less in cost compared to Plasmas and LCDs.
Ok, I'm not sure where I was going with that. LCD's seem to be winning the sales battle. I would agree with the most major name brands make good sets. Most dedicated Home Theater shops will spend the time to set up their equipment. Best Buy is not the company that sets the TV wrong. It's the manufactures. I was refering to grey scale or pure white. Here is a test every one can do. Go into your settings and set your TV to Dynamic, Vivid, etc. You will notice that the whites have a blue tint to it compared to say the standard or normal setting. This is the setting from the factory who knows that most tv's are bought at large chain stores not custome stores. Furthermore, they also know that these employees don't know nor will not adjust these settings. They will take it out the box and plug it in. Thats it. Now for the science behind this. Remember to follow the money. The human eye sees blue as the brightest light. A light source is only going to put out so much light. Most people shopping at the large chain stores will buy according to who is the biggest and the brightest. Well if a light source will only put out so much light then how can it be brighter or seem to be brighter. Shift pure white to a blue white. This just happens to be why most laundry detergent is blue. It's making your whiites a bluish white which your eyes see it as a brighter white. Nice trick huh. The problem with this is the set is being over driven. It's like turning your car radio all the way up. Most people know about bad or distorted sound but not bad or distorted video. The funny thing is this color shift is the main reason why people fall asleep in front of tv. Its because their brain is having to adjust for this color shift and making them tired with out knowing it.
OK, I'm getting tired typing. I have barley scratched the surface here.
So what do I think. Well I think that an LCD is the way to go. They are getting thiner, lighter, and seem to work well in most lighting conditions. I think that most brands make a good TV. You have to adjust the user settings. Most sets brightness settings will go + or - 10% from center and most contrast settings can run up to about 70 - 80%. Leave color and tint alone or one click up or down. Sharpness should be set real low to off. It depends on the set. If you can get into the more advance settings adjust color temp to normal to a mid warm. This will help with the blue shift thing. Turn all the lights off when watching a movie. It will give you a better experience. After you do some adjusting, let yours eyes adjust to the change. Give it a week or two. It may look wrong to you at first but give it some time.
Some up. I would buy a LCD that is 1080P with HDMI 1.3 inputs. Most have this. Blue Ray DVD only works with HDMI so keep that in mind. That is a different class for a different day. If you can afford it, The Pioneer Elite Plasmas are the best TV on the market peroid. Yes they are pricey but remember you get what you pay for. Its like buying a diamond, trust your eyes but use caution. It truely is a personal prefrence.
Long but hope it helps.

rock
01-06-2009, 11:10 PM
50" Samsung plasma app. 18 months old and it is starting to take a crap. Turns itself off whenever. Comes back on eventually but you don't know how long it's gonna last. Into the thing for about $2300 so ya gotta fix it. Guess the nightmare begins.
Rock

kuczman
01-06-2009, 11:14 PM
I know what you mean by "bying a diamond"- but that's a really bad refference actually: diamond market is not driven by economics, but by control of supply and trade agreements. There is nothing special about diamonds, they are plentiful and not rare. And are now made commerially in any color or size. Hell, you can have your loved one cremated and the carbon from the body made into a diamond.
The only rare diamonds are the black diamonds- now believed to originate from the beginings of the Earth, when a part of exploded star crashed into our planet and shattered the black diamonds all over.
The regular diamonds are believed to come from the ocean's bottom carbon deposits that come from all the living things. As the bottom is being sucked under another continental plate, the carbon dissolves and than cristalises into diamonds that emerge elswhere. Mineral, but of organic origins ;)
Back on track- yes, Color, Clarity, Cut- isn't that right!

Story
01-07-2009, 07:53 PM
I know what you mean by "bying a diamond"- but that's a really bad refference actually: diamond market is not driven by economics, but by control of supply and trade agreements. There is nothing special about diamonds, they are plentiful and not rare. And are now made commerially in any color or size. Hell, you can have your loved one cremated and the carbon from the body made into a diamond.
The only rare diamonds are the black diamonds- now believed to originate from the beginings of the Earth, when a part of exploded star crashed into our planet and shattered the black diamonds all over.
The regular diamonds are believed to come from the ocean's bottom carbon deposits that come from all the living things. As the bottom is being sucked under another continental plate, the carbon dissolves and than cristalises into diamonds that emerge elswhere. Mineral, but of organic origins ;)
Back on track- yes, Color, Clarity, Cut- isn't that right!

I was referring to trust your eyes. If it looks good to you then that is the one for you. You don't always have to buy the biggest and the best just because the industry says it is. If it looks good and fits the budget well I say go for it. Just use some caution and don't get rope a doped into one that you don't really want. Thats all. Good lesson on diamonds though.

As far as the Samsung plasma going bad in just a few years, well that just plain sucks. I'm sorry to hear it. It's not the nor for plasmas to fall out in just a few years. Mine runs for at least 10 hrs a day every day of the week and has so ever sence I bought it 4 years ago. Yes I do have a Pioneer but they too are not without their problems. I have installed several Samsung plasmas with out any problems.

Musashi
01-08-2009, 11:25 AM
clearly this (http://www.marine-audio.com/Products/TV's,-LCD's,-Tuners-&-Brackets/LCD70.htm) is what you want

voo-doo_child
01-08-2009, 04:12 PM
Sharp Aquos. IMO and the NFL's!

Go with the LCD, unless you are placing the plasma in a viewing room (one that stays dark all the time). They fade out pretty quickly, and are none too cheap either.
Spend the extra couple bucks on the LCD, you'll be happy you did.

Story
01-08-2009, 09:26 PM
Sharp Aquos makes up about 80% of what I sell and install. I just put in a 50" and 65" SE92 series. Both looked absolutely beautiful. I would say that it is the best all around TV that would work in all lighting conditions. It even has a network port on it for doing limited web surfing. I haven't played with this part yet so I'm not to sure about how it works. I will say that Blu Ray and sat both at 1080p looked awsome.

BarryStrawn
01-08-2009, 09:47 PM
In addition to the picture, one of the things I like about the Sharp SE94 is it does not have a big high gloss piano black bezel like most everything else. Seems to be the current fashion but to my eyes distracts from the picture in a normally lit room.

Carlson150XS
01-09-2009, 09:07 PM
Consumer Report last year said that the picture on Panasonic Plasma was the best. They stated that both Plasma and LCD had the same expected life. I can tell you that we bought a 58" one and a Panasonic Blu Ray player last year. After a year I'm still amazed with the picture.

Story
01-09-2009, 09:32 PM
Consumer Report last year said that the picture on Panasonic Plasma was the best. They stated that both Plasma and LCD had the same expected life. I can tell you that we bought a 58" one and a Panasonic Blu Ray player last year. After a year I'm still amazed with the picture.
I had the pleasure to see the 103" Panasonic plasma that was playing an HD Offshore race with the Panasonic sponsored Fountain. Now that was a REALLY bright TV. I had to squint to watch it and this was in the middle of a big show called CES. Was a great picture even at 5'! I hear they have a 120" now.

justincase
01-17-2009, 09:29 AM
i bought a sony, several retailers told me to stay away from plasma so i bought lcd. sony is the only tv that has a cable card in it so you dont need a cable box unless you are using dvr.

aaronmt73
02-15-2009, 09:41 PM
I have a 46" samsung 1080p lcd and its great.I have a big window in the front of my house with direst sunlight hitting and can watch it anytimne of the day.Csi miami on this tv is almost creapy how clear it is.Im sure others are great but I have never had a problem with a samsung product yet. Aaron

JR IN JAX
02-16-2009, 03:41 PM
I have 3 LCD flat panels, a 26" Panasonic, a 47" Phillips and a 40" Samsung. Rating the three, the Samsung is the best, followed by the Panasonic and lastly the Phillips.

camtra
02-17-2009, 02:10 PM
I'd stay away from plasma unless money is no object. LCD's also have a life expectancy. I bought a 65" Hatachi projection for $750. My father-in-law has a 61" Sanyo LCD and I can honestly tell you that you couldn't tell our pictures apart in HD. He paid closer to $1500. So you do the math. Also the sound is no comparison. I blow him away.