I did a search, and couldn't find a thread on this subject, but I apologize in advance if there is a thread I couldn't find.

Anyways, I am getting tired of cave drawings and my etch and sketch, and am seriously contemplating the purchase of a HDTV. I already pay for directv HD receivers (what a dumbass), and have spoken with a few friends about their purchases.

What I have heard is that Plasma does not do quite as well as LCD on really fast sports like hockey, but that it is catching up - I figured I would probably go with LCD.

I also have a friend who purchased a TV off AOL, and he said it was $200 - $300 cheaper there than at Best Buy or Sams, or any of the other mega stores. He said it arrived fine and works great.

I am looking at 46" TV's, and would like to keep it within a couple hundred of $1000. Any advise would be greatly appreciated on where to buy, what brand, and LCD vs Plasma.

Many thanks

Homey

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"I don't feel like Satan, but I am to them"
Neil Young

Hey dude,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6889005072

this is what I bought back in July, and hockey looks amazing on it. I paid 749.99; so I can't imagine it's 46 inch mate is much more than 850...if you buy on Newegg, there is also a program where you can pay 6 months no interest. Gives ya 6 months to get the thing paid off, which can be much more manageable than paying the lump sum all at once.

Hope that helps a bit dude.

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

I have a 42" Toshiba and no that's not a euphemism, and I'm quite happy with it. I got it at Sam's club where it was pretty cheap.

Some other members can probably help you out more on the technical aspects.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

My HDTV, and for what it's worth I am very, very happy with its picture and sound.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

I suggest going into an HHGregg and looking at everything they have and base a decision from that, normally they are way Cheaper then Best Buy and such, and they have every TV on display for you.

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I have a plasma, almost 2 years old now. No problem with sports.

The only thing I don't like about my plasma is that it's a little more of a power whore than my LCD, and runs a little bit warm sometimes. It's not a major complaint, but something to consider.

I didn't have it on for almost a month before I moved into the house since my dish was already down, and there was a noticeable drop in my electric bill.

Newer models may be friendlier in that regard, but I haven't looked.

The differences between LCD and plasma are essentially down to what you prefer in the picture.

For LCD, I recommend Samsung most out of all. Toshiba also makes good sets. Stay away from the cheapos like Vizio, Westinghouse, and Olevia. Sony is way overpriced for the product it delivers.

For plasma, I would recommend no other than a Panasonic. Panasonic hands down has the best sets on the market.

As for the room you are keeping the TV in, you have to answer a question: is it bright or low lit? LCD naturally is anti-glare, making it ideal for bright rooms. Plasma looks much better in low light-normally lit rooms. Also keep in mind that while it is badass to have a 52" screen TV, make sure the room is big enough to handle it. Plasma also has better viewing angles and LCD is getting better, but it varies set-to-set. Definitely keep that in mind while looking for a TV.

The 720p/1080i vs 1080p debate is still going on and many sales people will tell you to get 1080p because it's a better picture and costly (yay commission). I only recommend getting a 1080p set 1. if the TV size is over 37 inches 2. you plan to watch Blu Ray movies or play Xbox 360/PS3 or 3. you do professional video editing. Even then, the difference is small enough that you wouldn't be ruining your viewing experience if you did not go 1080p. It took forever for broadcasts to come out in 1080i and there is no plan to bring 1080p broadcasting for the future as of right now, so if you're not going to be playing video games or editing video, save yourself some money and just stick with a 720p/1080i set.

As for sports, if you're going to be watching a lot them, response time is important. Older sets have a higher response time, and thus blur. Response time is the time it takes to go from active black, to inactive white, to black again. The lower the number, the better. Good sets currently have 4-8 ms response times.

I hope this helps a bit when you're purchasing your TV. Just remember that stores like Best Buy have their TVs calibrated and set perfectly for their store. It won't look that way in your home. Also, if you go the Best Buy route, do not buy $100 HDMI Monster cables. You can buy those same cables from monoprice.com for $3. I also don't recommend paying for their calibration service, they try to get you to spend unnecessary amounts of money.

If you're looking for a good quality set, but maybe want to make sure you're getting the best bang for your buck, I recommend the deal site slickdeals.net. Alternative to the first page where the best deals of the day are, is the forums, forums.slickdeals.net. If you go to the hot deals section, you can search for deals there. I live by this website and never buy anything without checking there first. It's good for any purchase you'll make ever.

If you need anything clarified, please let me know. I know I said a lot, but you're going to be spending a good deal of money on something that can last you 5-10 years. There's a lot to consider.

All I read in that was "Warm Whore"

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"I don't feel like Satan, but I am to them"
Neil Young

I've got a projector that I just love to death. It's a Dell 3300Mp...you can find them on ebay in the $500 range.

It does 1080i and last week I had the cable guy compliment me on the picture... The way I have my den arranged right now it's about a 70" screen.

The only problem with projectors is you have to replace the bulb every 3000 hours or so.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Thank you all for your input. It looks like everyone is pretty much in agreement that buying one online is safe. I have a 14' x 20' room that it will be going into, and one of my concerns was the angle, but it really isn't that drastic, so I will probably stick with an LCD.

The room is stuffed with mounts, including a full size Alaskan Brown Bear, so I don't think I could squeeze a projection set, but I like the size and price of the one you have Crosscheck.

Off to the suggested websites!

Many thanks for all of your thoughts and efforts.

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"I don't feel like Satan, but I am to them"
Neil Young

Hehe...it's not a projection set, like a rear projector...it's just a small projector I have mounted to the ceiling.


It's the ultimate in space saving

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Holy Shit!!

does it play on the wall, or a screen? Does the angle matter? probably not if it's on the ceiling.

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"I don't feel like Satan, but I am to them"
Neil Young

Nope, you have it opposite. Plasma does much better on fast action. Let's examine why.

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. What you have is not only an LCD screen, but a backlight and an LCD screen. The LCD screen is placed in front of the backlight, and overlays the color over it.

In order for a TV to display a picture, it refreshes each line individually in a very short amount of time (in the US, where we operate on 60 Hz, that's once every 1/60th of a second). For an interlaced signal, every other line is refreshed, then it goes back and refreshes the other lines. Essentially there's 30 refreshes per second then. For a progressive signal, every line is refreshed, so you get what amounts to 60 refreshes per second.

The problem with LCD and motion blur is that it takes more than one refresh to change a segment from one color completely to a different color. During the first refresh, it may only go part of the way - thus it will take subsequent refreshes to make it go to the correct color. This translates to blur when you have fast moving objects, as the TV always is trying to "catch up."

Thus, the higher the refresh rate, the crisper motion will be for an LCD TV. A 120 Hz LCD will refresh the picture twice as much as a 60 Hz LCD - 120 times per second. While the source material will still only refresh 60 times per second, these extra refreshes will help the segments change color quicker - thus motion will appear crisper.

Plasma does not suffer from this issue. It works on an entirely different principle - a certain mixture of noble gases is held between two panes of glass. Applying electricity turns this gas into plasma. The phosphors in the gas are excited, and thus produce a specific wavelength of light determined by the electrical charge applied.

This means that plasma pixels can change color instantaneously. While you may see plasmas as great as 480 Hz, it's not going to give much added benefit. Seeing how source material is 60 Hz, a 60 Hz plasma will look just as good, as the colors can change instantaneously. Thus the motion is much smoother on a plasma.

The other advantage of plasma is that it offers much more realistic colors, especially black levels. Since LCD's rely on a panel with varying transparency placed over a constant backlight, the blacks are often less true, as they are still allowing some light through. Plasmas, however, can produce a perfect black. Granted, LCD technology has come a long way in the past few years and the blacks don't look as bad as they used to, a decent display should look great, but plasma still wins that category.



When looking in that range, you're probably going to have to get an LCD. There's not too many plasmas smaller than 50" anymore. Panasonic still makes 42" ones, but the next biggest size is 50". LCD gives you many more options in that range - most every company has a 46" or 47" LCD.

Definitely Samsung for LCD. They have the best, period. Toshiba isn't bad either - their old sets were only OK, but I have one of last year's models and it's very nice too. I still prefer Samsung, but wouldn't argue against either. Sharp used to have good LCD's - heck, they basically invented them, but as of late they've gone downhill. LG's mid-line series aren't bad either, I'd stay away from their lower end but they do make decent sets too.

Panasonic wins hands down for plasma, unless you go to a Pioneer Kuro (way over your budget, and being discontinued/sold to Panasonic). Even their entry level plasmas look awesome. I scored a 50" 720p for $800 from Best Buy last year, the thing is totally awesome. The picture blows away the picture on the 46" Samsung that we spent twice as much on at the same time.

You can display it on a wall but that's not ideal. I have access to the white material that photographers use for screens and I made a screen out of that with a simple wood frame.
There is also a special paint on the market but I've never seen that used on a wall.
or
You can pay over $1000 for a professional screen.



The best part about the projector is, the greater the distance to the screen the bigger the picture. I could easily go over 100" without losing clarity.

The angle doesn't matter because the projector has a "tombstone" adjustment that can compensate for all but the most extreme angles.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

I got a 'cheapo' ~$750 a year ago, 42' 720p/1080i Plasma from vizio.

It works amazingly well, and i'm totally happy with it. I've seen better tv's since my purchase, but the difference in quality seems so minor compared to the significantly higher price.

Now you could probably find a similar tv for 500 or so somewhere online. Cut your cost in half and still get a totally awesome way to watch sabres games (once fucking center ice starts putting through an HD feed that is...)

i've seen thousands of hd tv's in person...stay away from the low end stuff....you get what you pay for with tv's....panasonic #1 for plasma....i say sony for lcd, but samsung does make good ones also....if you are going to go lcd...try to get a higher end model so you don't get motion blur

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"It is more about them than it is about the team...Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach with them. Can't do it. I want winners. I want people that want to win." - Mike Singletary

Tyler Myers - Future captain of the Buffalo Sabres, and future Norris Trophy Winner

Manning the machine gun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon - just in case any teams have an idea of prying him away from us (3 GM's shot already)

Connolly/Roy - 2 goals in the last 47 playoff games

The only downside to a projector is the bulbs can cost hundreds of dollars.

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mechaphil

Yep...well there are a couple other downsides...

You can't just turn them on and off. The bulbs require warm up and cool down periods.
You can't use them in rooms that get a lot of natural light that can't be blocked.
You can't position them in a way that would have lots of people walking in front of them.
The bulbs are expensive....I have 2 projectors and the bulbs are $250 (for the new DLP one) and $500 (for my ancient non-HD one).

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Hold my beer and watch this...

I'd imagine running the wires so as to be mostly inconspicuous can be a real pain as well.

Well I guess it depends how anal you are about the room it's in.
I ran my cables in a 1.5" wire conduit along the top of my wall. It doesn't look too bad, but I rent so I'm not willing to get serious and run them inside the wall.

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Hold my beer and watch this...