Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

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Diablo25
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Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Diablo25 »

Not sure if I'm going to do this but I'm looking to upgrade my 46" Sammy to a 55". I haven't researched this stuff in a while so any advice /recommendations are welcomed. LED?? Plasma??? Best Buy has a 55" LG LED that is 3D capable for $999. Good deal???

http://deals.bestbuy.com//hdtv+savings/ ... ++3d++hdtv
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by MizzouRah »

My advice, don't get caught up in the fancy numbers, go cheap. :)

My $500 Walmart, 50" LCD TV (60hz/1080p) is the best TV I've ever purchased, I absolutely love it.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by DivotMaker »

MizzouRah wrote:My advice, don't get caught up in the fancy numbers, go cheap. :)

My $500 Walmart, 50" LCD TV (60hz/1080p) is the best TV I've ever purchased, I absolutely love it.
Gotta disagree. I have bought a 42, 46, and 55 inch sets in the past 9 months. I would recommend you stay away from ANY set that is not at least 120 hz. All 3 sets I purchased (42 for our family room, 46 for my PC/360, and the 55 is going to our Staff House in West Africa) are 240 hz LED's with 3D. The picture while watching TV/movies is incredible and the output to the 360 is stunning. I had a 42 inch 60 hz TV and after a few hours returned it for a 120 hz, but before opening it, I did more research and ended up with a Toshiba 240 hz LED from Best Buy. Great TV and VERY noticable difference from the first 60 hz. My 46 is a Samsung, and the 55 is an LG. I can't stress enough to stay away from the cheap brands as they just don't last. The LG should be just fine. The higher the refresh rate, the better your viewing experience will be. Hope this helps..

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by pk500 »

Or you could just get a plasma, which is 600 hZ out of the box. :) Plasmas are the best TV's for fast-motion sports because they have 2 1/2 times the refresh rate of the most expensive LED sets. Plus plasmas have the widest viewing angles, important if you have a wide, shallow room.

I LOVE my 50-inch Panasonic plasma. But avoid one like genital warts if you have a room without light control. Plasmas still use glass screens, and they become a giant mirror in rooms with too much light or direct sunshine.

Interesting comparison of plasma, LCD and LED:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7-57 ... ma-vs-lcd/
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Feanor »

If your TV will be used for gaming, make sure it has a good response time.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Diablo25 »

Thanks for the responses fellas. Still on the fence about buying anything.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by MizzouRah »

DivotMaker wrote:
MizzouRah wrote:My advice, don't get caught up in the fancy numbers, go cheap. :)

My $500 Walmart, 50" LCD TV (60hz/1080p) is the best TV I've ever purchased, I absolutely love it.
Gotta disagree. I have bought a 42, 46, and 55 inch sets in the past 9 months. I would recommend you stay away from ANY set that is not at least 120 hz. All 3 sets I purchased (42 for our family room, 46 for my PC/360, and the 55 is going to our Staff House in West Africa) are 240 hz LED's with 3D. The picture while watching TV/movies is incredible and the output to the 360 is stunning. I had a 42 inch 60 hz TV and after a few hours returned it for a 120 hz, but before opening it, I did more research and ended up with a Toshiba 240 hz LED from Best Buy. Great TV and VERY noticable difference from the first 60 hz. My 46 is a Samsung, and the 55 is an LG. I can't stress enough to stay away from the cheap brands as they just don't last. The LG should be just fine. The higher the refresh rate, the better your viewing experience will be. Hope this helps..
I notice no difference from my 60hz TV from my dad's 240hz tv watching any sports or playing any x360 games. In fact, I think my tv has a better picture than his and he paid $1200.

Read up on hz and what it means to tv's. Expensive tv's last NO LONGER than cheaper ones, there is no proof in that whatsoever.

To each his own though, I could buy 4 of my new tv's for the price of the piece of s*** Sony tv that lasted all of 4 years.

Never again will I spend a lot of money on a tv, never.. ever.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by DivotMaker »

MizzouRah wrote:
I notice no difference from my 60hz TV from my dad's 240hz tv watching any sports or playing any x360 games. In fact, I think my tv has a better picture than his and he paid $1200.

Read up on hz and what it means to tv's. Expensive tv's last NO LONGER than cheaper ones, there is no proof in that whatsoever.

To each his own though, I could buy 4 of my new tv's for the price of the piece of s*** Sony tv that lasted all of 4 years.

Never again will I spend a lot of money on a tv, never.. ever.
We'll agree to disagree. I know what I am talking about with TV's as I researched them heavily. I CAN see a huge difference.

C'est la vie....

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by MizzouRah »

DivotMaker wrote:
We'll agree to disagree. I know what I am talking about with TV's as I researched them heavily. I CAN see a huge difference.

C'est la vie....
I researched them heavily myself. Hey, if you want to pay a bunch of money on a TV, go for it. There is a lot of information out there and it confuses the crap out of the everyday Joe buyer. I'm just saying this $500 TV I bought is 4" bigger than my Sony and has a better picture and I have never seen motion blur or any of that other crap those high priced TV's say you'll have on a 60hz TV.

For me, cheap is the way to go when it comes to an HDTV. If you have the cash and want all that fancy hz, response time, 3d, etc.. go for it. I'm just blown away at what my $500 bought me.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by dbdynsty25 »

Even the crappiest TVs today are just as good as the best LCDs and Plasmas of even five years ago. Can't really go wrong with anything these days. The technology in the upper end TVs is obviously awesome and you can see the difference there, but if you're not buying top of the line stuff, might as well sit in the bottom rung. That's my TV advice at this point.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by DivotMaker »

dbdynsty25 wrote:Even the crappiest TVs today are just as good as the best LCDs and Plasmas of even five years ago. Can't really go wrong with anything these days. The technology in the upper end TVs is obviously awesome and you can see the difference there, but if you're not buying top of the line stuff, might as well sit in the bottom rung. That's my TV advice at this point.
Exactly.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by DivotMaker »

MizzouRah wrote:
DivotMaker wrote:
We'll agree to disagree. I know what I am talking about with TV's as I researched them heavily. I CAN see a huge difference.

C'est la vie....
I researched them heavily myself. Hey, if you want to pay a bunch of money on a TV, go for it. There is a lot of information out there and it confuses the crap out of the everyday Joe buyer. I'm just saying this $500 TV I bought is 4" bigger than my Sony and has a better picture and I have never seen motion blur or any of that other crap those high priced TV's say you'll have on a 60hz TV.

For me, cheap is the way to go when it comes to an HDTV. If you have the cash and want all that fancy hz, response time, 3d, etc.. go for it. I'm just blown away at what my $500 bought me.
Great...you are happy and I am happy. We both gave our opinions.....

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Rodster »

I'm with Mizz. I went with an el cheapo 40" Tosh 120hz a couple of years ago and been pretty happy with it. Yeah it's got it's limitations but it cost me under $500 and I basically use it as a gaming monitor.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Macca00 »

dbdynsty25 wrote:Even the crappiest TVs today are just as good as the best LCDs and Plasmas of even five years ago. Can't really go wrong with anything these days. The technology in the upper end TVs is obviously awesome and you can see the difference there, but if you're not buying top of the line stuff, might as well sit in the bottom rung. That's my TV advice at this point.
This.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Spooky »

dbdynsty25 wrote:Even the crappiest TVs today are just as good as the best LCDs and Plasmas of even five years ago. Can't really go wrong with anything these days. The technology in the upper end TVs is obviously awesome and you can see the difference there, but if you're not buying top of the line stuff, might as well sit in the bottom rung. That's my TV advice at this point.
Well said. 3-5 years ago I would have considered myself a TV expert (after years of research and trial and error). I own what at the time was considered the pinnacle of flat panel TV's - The Pioneer Elite 9 series Kuro (plasma). Last I looked (a few months ago) that TV is still considered to be the panel that all others are compared to as far as overall quality goes (especially black levels). However, it really does appear that the overall technology has gotten to a point at which the gap between the lower end models and what were considered higher end a few years ago has significantly shrunk. And what was higher end a few years ago has really not advanced much at all.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Brando70 »

I bought plasmas in 2005 and 2009 and did a lot of research. My two cents:

-- Plasmas still need a break-in period. The odds of permanently burning an image into a plasma today is very slim if nonexistent, but they do still produce ghosting that can hang around for a while, especially in the first 500 hours you have the set. You really need to break the set in for 100-150 hours and run full-screen content that doesn't have static images. If you don't want to do the break in or are going to freak out every time you see a faint EA logo in your screen for a couple hours after playing Madden, don't buy plasma.

-- Black levels separate the great TVs from decent TVs. LCDs have gotten a lot better with black levels but if you're looking at two comparably priced plasma and LCD TVs, there's a good chance the plasma has darker black levels.

-- If you plan to watch a lot of movies on this set, plasmas tend to look a lot more like film. LCDs can be all over the place. Some look film-like, but a lot have this enhanced picture that looks like someone filmed a movie with an HD video camera. Some people like that look, I personally cannot stand it.

-- If you're going to watch a lot of sports, I would not buy an LCD sight unseen without seeing how it shows sports. It varies a lot from set to set: the refresh rates and such don't matter that much. There are 120hz LCDs that will greatly outperform 240hz sets.

-- If you're going to use the set primarily for gaming, I'd probably go LCD.

I personally love my plasma sets and even my 2005 Panasonic has held up very well, but really, it's more about individual sets than which technology is best.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Naples39 »

I recently bought a 50" plasma, but sent it back because it looked dim and a little washed out to me. Replaced it with a 52" sharp LCD. Not top of the line but it looks good.

I have to admit the fluid motion and natural lighting and colors looked great on the plasma, but I decided it wasn't right for our bright living room with lots of windows. Watching a soccer game was amazing, and my wife kept remarking that sitcoms and other tv shows "looked weird" because it was pretty easy to spot all the makeup on the actors and stage lighting with the plasma.

I say for movies, dramas and a dark room, go plasma. Games and/or brighter rooms, LCD.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Brando70 »

Naples39 wrote:I say for movies, dramas and a dark room, go plasma. Games and/or brighter rooms, LCD.
Well said, Naples, that's a good guide. And really, TV picture preference is so subjective. You can show someone a "perfectly" calibrated set and they may think the picture doesn't pop enough.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by sportdan30 »

I've considered plasmas in the past but the fact that they're dimmer than LCDs and they're not as energy efficient has been a concern of mine. Also, I've read that some have a buzzing sound when the volume is low or off. So, that is something to consider. Maybe plasmas are plasmas, but I've always considered Panasonic number 1 and the rest further down the line.

If you have a HH Gregg store in town, you might want to compare prices. I recently purchased a 42" LG LCD 1080p 120hz from Best Buy. I stopped in to HH Gregg and they had a 11 percent off deal going on at the time. I was able to go back to Best Buy and save an additional 45 dollars. Got the tv for around $460.

By the way, you can negotiate prices at HH Gregg, something I was unware that still went on at retail stores. I purchased a Yamaha surround sound audio system from there and I was able to save $40 off the sticker price.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Macca00 »

Naples39 wrote:Watching a soccer game was amazing, and my wife kept remarking that sitcoms and other tv shows "looked weird" because it was pretty easy to spot all the makeup on the actors and stage lighting with the plasma.
FWIW, I think porn looks fine on my LCD.

:)

(I'm going to try to avoid any comments about blacks looking better on plasma 8O )

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Naples39 »

And Macca has won the thread.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by sportdan30 »

Saw this Panasonic plasma at Costco this evevning. Seems like a heck of a deal with some nice specs. Not interested in 3D or internet capability. Any thoughts? I've never owned a plasma but I was amazed at the picture quality.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... 4*&topnav=

The other tv I'm considering is a 46" Samsung LCD 1080p for $679.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+-+4 ... &cp=1&lp=2

Which seems like a better deal and better tv? Thanks!

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by greggsand »

If you're going on the low-ish end of the scale (which is perfectly fine), go for the TV with the MOST HDMI inputs. Trust me, you'll run out of spots before you know it as u upgrade other gear.
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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by dbdynsty25 »

greggsand wrote:If you're going on the low-ish end of the scale (which is perfectly fine), go for the TV with the MOST HDMI inputs. Trust me, you'll run out of spots before you know it as u upgrade other gear.
Except if its going in a game room or a den, won't you have a receiver that takes care of that? I don't use anything other than HDMI 1 on any of my TVs. The stereo/receiver is much more important.

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Re: Kicking The Tires On A New TV...Advice Needed

Post by Spooky »

dbdynsty25 wrote:
greggsand wrote:If you're going on the low-ish end of the scale (which is perfectly fine), go for the TV with the MOST HDMI inputs. Trust me, you'll run out of spots before you know it as u upgrade other gear.
Except if its going in a game room or a den, won't you have a receiver that takes care of that? I don't use anything other than HDMI 1 on any of my TVs. The stereo/receiver is much more important.
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