Large flat screen TV help

[ScarabChris]

I'm going out to buy a 50"+ flat screen tomorrow to replace my ageing rear projection screen that takes up a ton of space.

Questions...

1) LCD, Plasma or LED....and why?

2) 720 or 1080....and why?

3) Brand?

Not looking to spend more than $1300.00 on the TV. I see them going from anywhere between $900.00 up to 3 grand plus. The 720p vs 1080p is one of the biggest price differences.

David?

[Trollnheel]

I'd go with a 1080P Samsung or Sony and here's why..

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-720p-and-1080p-hdtvs.htm

[DJWILLIAMS]

I'm going out to buy a 50"+ flat screen tomorrow to replace my ageing rear projection screen that takes up a ton of space.

Questions...

1) LCD, Plasma or LED....and why?

2) 720 or 1080....and why?

3) Brand?

Not looking to spend more than $1300.00 on the TV. I see them going from anywhere between $900.00 up to 3 grand plus. The 720p vs 1080p is one of the biggest price differences.

David?

Chris,

Feel like making another deal? lol.. Which is closer for you: Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville, or Orlando FL?

David

[DJWILLIAMS]

I'm going out to buy a 50"+ flat screen tomorrow to replace my ageing rear projection screen that takes up a ton of space.

Questions...

1) LCD, Plasma or LED....and why?

Plasma: Plasma I would stay away from, although you can get them somewhat cheaper than an LCD, but it is a dying technology. From a repair standpoint Plasma's have more working parts, which means more things to go wrong. Plasma's use a phosphor gas (Kinda like a thin CRT) to produce a picture. Also most plasma's have a glass outer screen which if the room has alot of natural light, a glare will be produced.

LCD: LCD is the emerging technology that uses a Liquid Crystal Display to create the picture, and has a CCFL backlight to brighten the picture. This is almost like a row of florescent lamps. I would recommend LCD, over Plasma.

LED: Led is typically an LCD TV, but instead of using CCFL Lamps to brighten up the picture, they use LED lights. The thin Edge lit LED TV's from Samsung are nice, but side viewing angles are not the greatest. I would give it another year on LED TV's, so they can get the bugs worked out. LED in a 50+ inch tv is going to be out of your price range, since this is a newer technology.

2) 720 or 1080....and why?

720/1080 is the scan lines in a TV. The greater the number, the better the resolution. The I & P that follows is interlaced vs progressive. Progressive is better. I would stick with the 1080P sets.

Also if you watch alot of sports, I would consider a 120HZ LCD. This helps eliminate the blur from fast moving objects.

3) Brand?

Brand: In purchasing a larger TV, especially one that will be with you for a while you want to stick with a name brand. The top two manufacturers are going to be Sony & Samsung. The reason why i say stick with a name brand is b/c you want a manufacturer to be there to support the product years later. Most of you no name brands (Vizio included) do not have parts available for there TV's a year after they are purchased.

Warranties: Chris, I know you are against warranties, but on a product like this I would HIGHLY recommend it. We do all of the warranty work for Best Buy, Walmart, Sams, and several other manufacturers, and the repair bills always exceed the purchase price of the warranty.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I am sure you still have my cell, if not let me know.

Not looking to spend more than $1300.00 on the TV. I see them going from anywhere between $900.00 up to 3 grand plus. The 720p vs 1080p is one of the biggest price differences.

David?

Edited December 4, 2009 by DJWILLIAMS

[aftergolf]

I'm going out to buy a 50"+ flat screen tomorrow to replace my ageing rear projection screen that takes up a ton of space.

Questions...

1) LCD, Plasma or LED....and why?

Plasma: Plasma I would stay away from, although you can get them somewhat cheaper than an LCD, but it is a dying technology. From a repair standpoint Plasma's have more working parts, which means more things to go wrong. Plasma's use a phosphor gas (Kinda like a thin CRT) to produce a picture. Also most plasma's have a glass outer screen which if the room has alot of natural light, a glare will be produced.

LCD: LCD is the emerging technology that uses a Liquid Crystal Display to create the picture, and has a CCFL backlight to brighten the picture. This is almost like a row of florescent lamps. I would recommend LCD, over Plasma.

LED: Led is typically an LCD TV, but instead of using CCFL Lamps to brighten up the picture, they use LED lights. The thin Edge lit LED TV's from Samsung are nice, but side viewing angles are not the greatest. I would give it another year on LED TV's, so they can get the bugs worked out. LED in a 50+ inch tv is going to be out of your price range, since this is a newer technology.

2) 720 or 1080....and why?

720/1080 is the scan lines in a TV. The greater the number, the better the resolution. The I & P that follows is interlaced vs progressive. Progressive is better. I would stick with the 1080P sets.

Also if you watch alot of sports, I would consider a 120HZ LCD. This helps eliminate the blur from fast moving objects.

3) Brand?

Brand: In purchasing a larger TV, especially one that will be with you for a while you want to stick with a name brand. The top two manufacturers are going to be Sony & Samsung. The reason why i say stick with a name brand is b/c you want a manufacturer to be there to support the product years later. Most of you no name brands (Vizio included) do not have parts available for there TV's a year after they are purchased.

Warranties: Chris, I know you are against warranties, but on a product like this I would HIGHLY recommend it. We do all of the warranty work for Best Buy, Walmart, Sams, and several other manufacturers, and the repair bills always exceed the purchase price of the warranty.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I am sure you still have my cell, if not let me know.

Not looking to spend more than $1300.00 on the TV. I see them going from anywhere between $900.00 up to 3 grand plus. The 720p vs 1080p is one of the biggest price differences.

David?

We purchased a new Samsung 46", LCD (non LED), 120 mhz, 1080p set this summer with HD DirecTV and the picture is fabulous. My neighbor has HD cable on a comparable set and his picture is no where close to ours due to DirecTV HD. I am in NC and looked at all of the local and online purchasing options and bought from Butterfly photo dot com. Free shipping, no tax and no problems, and by far the best price. Delivered on a truck right to my driveway. Just had to get it indoors myself, which was not a huge issue. Good luck and hope this helps.

[ScarabChris]

The Sony and Samsung 52" 1080p LCD are the two units I was looking hard at. I was also looking the Insignia but only because of price. I have two Insignia TVs and they are great units. But for the big TV I think I'll go with the big name brand.

I don't watch much sports so what Hz should I get?

[DJWILLIAMS]

The Sony and Samsung 52" 1080p LCD are the two units I was looking hard at. I was also looking the Insignia but only because of price. I have two Insignia TVs and they are great units. But for the big TV I think I'll go with the big name brand.

I don't watch much sports so what Hz should I get?

PLEASE stay away from the insignia, it would suck if it broke 1.5 years from now, and then you would have a 1000.00 boat anchor.

I would still go with the 120hz. Much better picture.

Which of those cities is closest to you?

David

[PatrickG]

A couple other pieces of advice. Plasma produces blacker blacks and LCD produces whiter whites. LED's do well at producing both. Plasmas do have a lot of glare in a basic room. It is very hard to compare the pictures of the TV's in the store. Many are set on different contrast/brightness ratios. Most of them are set on a very bright and high contrast so they pop out at you and most are hooked to High Definition. Some are hooked to Blue Ray. The tv will look bigger when it is in your room. LED is definitely the best picture, but the price isn't worth it. You can buy 3 50" plasmas for the price of one 55" LED. You can buy two 52" LCD's for the price of a 55" LED. The LED advantage doesn't, in my opinion, warrant twice the price. The price of LED will come down quickly in the future. The most logical choice would be LCD unless you have to have the lastest and greatest TV.

Edit: Also, the Sony's look bigger because the bezel is larger and they have a bigger speaker on the bottom. Samsung seems to have the best price for the features they offer. Shop around and whatever you get you'll think it is amazing comparing it to what you had before.

Edited December 4, 2009 by PatrickG

[jaydub]

I went through this about a year ago and went with a 46 " Sony LCD 1080p and I'm really happy with it. Bought mine from Amazon and got it $400 cheaper than the big box stores and paid no sales tax. Free delivery too and they brought into the house and took it out of the box. You can check out prices and get reviews of all models on Amazon-it's worth checking out.

[ScarabChris]

Yeah after hours of reaserch I will be going with an LCD 1080p 120Hz unit in the 52-58" range. I am leaning toward the Sony with Samsung and Panasonic following close behind. I am anxious to go to the store so I can see them all up close, you can only get so much perspective looking at pictures on the internet.

David....I'm near Miami.