Tv?
- Thread starter C Reed
- Start date
LCD is what you want to go for. The plasma burns out too quick and doesn't have a very good contrast ratio. The LED's are still a little pricey.
But Samsung, sony, and rca are great brands. but don't quite give up on the "off" brands. most of the time they are built by the big companies but just don't advertize them, so they are cheaper.
Josh
But Samsung, sony, and rca are great brands. but don't quite give up on the "off" brands. most of the time they are built by the big companies but just don't advertize them, so they are cheaper.
Josh
I know several people who have Vizios and are very happy with them. I have a Pioneer, myself, but that exceeds the 800 budget by quite a bit. I've also read very good things about Panasonic TVs. I did quite a bit of research on avsforum before buying mine, and there is quite a bit of good advice over there.
I, too, am partial to Samsung LCDs. That said, don't kill yourself researching picture quality numbers on these things unless it's fun for you. A lot of the differences in viewing quality between brand a and brand b are really pretty minute in the standard home viewing environment. Focus instead on perceptions of quality and, of course, good pricing. There are some excellent deals to be had online, as well. Slickdeals.com is one of several sites that regularly posts TV deals.
Panasonic Plasma all the way.
Advantages of Plasma TVs:
- Plasma TVs are available in larger display screen sizes.
- Plasma has better black levels, and contrast ratios.
- Plasma TVs can be viewed from any angle, as long as the viewing angle is between 160 to 180 degrees. - Plasma TVs have top refreshing rate which captures every detail in a fast action scene.
- Plasma screen can display billions of colors, producing smooth gradations of shades, enhancing the picture quality to a great extent, making the images life-like and realistic, responding sharply to fast moving images.
Check these out:
http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/plasma-vs-lcd.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/4351-12658_7-6583301.html
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gYk6Mqqssr8/learn/learningcenter/home/tv_flatpanel.html
Advantages of Plasma TVs:
- Plasma TVs are available in larger display screen sizes.
- Plasma has better black levels, and contrast ratios.
- Plasma TVs can be viewed from any angle, as long as the viewing angle is between 160 to 180 degrees. - Plasma TVs have top refreshing rate which captures every detail in a fast action scene.
- Plasma screen can display billions of colors, producing smooth gradations of shades, enhancing the picture quality to a great extent, making the images life-like and realistic, responding sharply to fast moving images.
Check these out:
http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/plasma-vs-lcd.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/4351-12658_7-6583301.html
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gYk6Mqqssr8/learn/learningcenter/home/tv_flatpanel.html
Steal the money, ditch the girl, and spend the cash on stereo equipment and books. You're welcome.
Steal the money, ditch the girl, and spend the cash on stereo equipment and books. You're welcome.
Wow, so good it needed to be said twice I guess.
Sounds like you've been listening to the uniformed sales associates at Best Buy. Panasonic specs indicate a half-life of 100,000 hours; watching 4 hours a day, that's over 68 years of use.
Opt for a high contrast device only if you can view the image in a light controlled room. Despite what might seem to be a huge difference in absolute terms between say a 1,000:1 and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, you will have to view the image in a completely dark room to perceive the resultant minimal difference in picture performance. Paying extra just to enjoy a higher contrast ratio is just waste of money.
I'm sure your daughter could care less about half-lives and contrast ratio. I would only buy a Panasonic plasma for my main viewing area but I think your daughter would be more than happy with a nice LCD unit. I see that Amazon has some good deals in your price range on Samsung and Sony LCDs.
Last edited:
I have a Sony Bravia LCD. People tell me it's nice. I feel like it's burning a hole in my retinas. I watch my old Trinitron in the basement.
If there is a lot of natural light, I would go with an LCD.
If there is minimal natural light in the room, I would go with Plasma.
Plasma costs less.
That having been said, I love our Sharp LCD. IF I didn't have so much natural light, I would be perfectly happy with a Samsung Plasma.
Don't be sold on 1080p image quality. It doesn't mean a thing for most of the population.
Some of this information is taken from the ex-top seller of TV's in the nation. (a co-worker. He has 30+ TV's in storage that were gifts for selling so much.)
Not that this means anything, but he was responsible for choosing which brands we would carry. Samsung was at the top of his list.
If you NEED LCD, it's worth it. If you don't, it isn't. Pretty simple.
If there is minimal natural light in the room, I would go with Plasma.
Plasma costs less.
That having been said, I love our Sharp LCD. IF I didn't have so much natural light, I would be perfectly happy with a Samsung Plasma.
Don't be sold on 1080p image quality. It doesn't mean a thing for most of the population.
Some of this information is taken from the ex-top seller of TV's in the nation. (a co-worker. He has 30+ TV's in storage that were gifts for selling so much.)
Not that this means anything, but he was responsible for choosing which brands we would carry. Samsung was at the top of his list.
If you NEED LCD, it's worth it. If you don't, it isn't. Pretty simple.
- Thread starter
- #13
I'm more confused then when i started....
This, makes more sense then any of the rest.
This, makes more sense then any of the rest.
Steal the money, ditch the girl, and spend the cash on stereo equipment and books. You're welcome.
This stuff is very confusing. It gets worse when you go a store, and you see all these things displayed, and you think one looks great, but then find out later that a lot of them hadn't been set up properly and thus looked "worse" than they should have.
I haven't bought one, and went back and forth. Initially, I was going to get a plasma because LCDs have a problem with "blurring'--i.e., fast motion scenes can look jumpy or blurry. This is more noticeable with LCDs that have a 60HZ refresh rate (all this number refers to how fast the screen 'repaints" itself. The higher the number, the faster the repainting and, therefore, theoretically, the smoother the motion. Plasmas generally have much higher refresh rates than LCDs, and, therefore, motion tends to be smoother on them). To me, the blur/jerkiness is less noticeable on 120Hz LCDs. It seems to be totally cleared up on the 240Hz LED models, but those are very expensive.
But then I began to notice that Plasma screens "shimmer." For some reason, my eyes are ultra-sensitive to refresh rates. Used to have this same problem with the older PC monitors. It makes the screen look like it's 'shaking,' kind of like a fluorescent. I know this is not a figment of my imagination because I can go into any Best Buy and instantly identify a Plasma TV from by the shimmer without even looking at the label.
So, I decided when I do get one, I'll get an LCD.
The 1080p resolution is definitely important if you want to use BlueRay with it, since all BlueRay movies are in 1080p, so you might as well spring for it. Fortunately, nearly all TVs these days have it.
Other than that, everything else is a matter of looking and seeing. Oh, and don't forget to listen to the audio as well, particularly if you're not going to hook it up to a stereo. Some models have absolutely horrendous, tinny audio.
Just my .02.
Jeff in Boston
stick with LG SAMSUNG and some Sony. I prefer the LG and SAMSUNG LEDs but for around 800 you wont get that. The samsung touch of red 120 hz tv is sharp as a feather.
I just bought a 27" 1080p Samsung LCD and I loooooooove it! 
It got it at Costco for a great price.
It got it at Costco for a great price.
cosco has some 40 inch Vizios in your price range we have a vizio for several years and love it
- Thread starter
- #19
I don't think Cosco is an option for those of us who live in Manhattan, which is a shame cause i want to stock up on my canned goods for the end of days.
I'm not going to recommend a particular TV for you, but here's some good advice that I had to learn the hard way:
It's not the numbers and technical stuff you need to worry about, but the issues that pop up.
My example: I bought a Sony HD LCD back in the end of 2008. It has a particularly annoying (and ingeniously stupid) issue where in order to achieve "true black" it turns off half the backlight. It does it when there's a picture that's dark enough on average to require "true black". What this means is that when there are dark scenes, instead of the visible parts being visible and dark parts being dark, with the backlight half-off, the bright bits are now mostly dark, the dark bits are black, and you get a picture that's... well... mostly not really visible. Try watching a movie like Dark City or The Dark Knight on that...
Sony never properly addressed the issue in that model, and only fixed it for the 2009 models following a big lawsuit.
The point I'm trying to make is, you can't count on the makers fixing the problems in the set, so do your research about the problems in the particular models you're looking to buy, to make sure that you are comfortable living with them.
It's not the numbers and technical stuff you need to worry about, but the issues that pop up.
My example: I bought a Sony HD LCD back in the end of 2008. It has a particularly annoying (and ingeniously stupid) issue where in order to achieve "true black" it turns off half the backlight. It does it when there's a picture that's dark enough on average to require "true black". What this means is that when there are dark scenes, instead of the visible parts being visible and dark parts being dark, with the backlight half-off, the bright bits are now mostly dark, the dark bits are black, and you get a picture that's... well... mostly not really visible. Try watching a movie like Dark City or The Dark Knight on that...
Sony never properly addressed the issue in that model, and only fixed it for the 2009 models following a big lawsuit.
The point I'm trying to make is, you can't count on the makers fixing the problems in the set, so do your research about the problems in the particular models you're looking to buy, to make sure that you are comfortable living with them.
