TV HELP

Chaddyboxer

Chaddyboxer

Banned
Hey fellas, my fiance and I are looking at getting a TV at NEB Furniture Mart. We are looking at getting a 45 to 50in screen and something with over 120Hz refresh rate. Now, does anyone have any experience with buying top quality TV's? Any suggestions? Brands or specific TV's??? I am looking for a TV that performs great for sports, movies and video games.

 
i have a 46' samsung that i love, great tv and great picture. i also have a 70' sharp aquous. awesome tv, but i do not think the quality quite stands up, but that might just be because of its size. it still has a really good picture.

 
I have a 50" samsung plasma it's about 3 or 4 years old but I love the picture. I don't know what your finances are like but if you can afford it I would get a 55 or 60", my friend has a 60" samsung plasma and I just drool over that thing!

I think it really comes down to personal preference and what you like in a picture, but if you want the best picture I would stick with the best known top brands like sony, samsung, pioneer, and maybe lg (lg's are somewhat inferior to the others imo). You might pay more but they really can't be beat. The best advice I can give you is to just go and watch tv at the store and see what looks good to you (hopefully they have an HD feed), and maybe try to play with the settings.

My personal recommendation is anything samsung plasma. Samsung has the best looking frames and best picture in my opinion. If not samsung then something plasma. I know everything is about LED tvs now but I just can't see all the fuss, I'm pretty picky about tv's and they don't cut it for me. LEDs are still just a backlit LCD tv and the picture on that will always be inferior to plasma. My biggest gripe is that I always see a faint glow around the edges when the screen is black on an LED, and that doesn't happen on a plasma since the cells are essentially off. I believe plasmas also always have a higher refresh rate than any LCD. Plus plasma is a technology that's been around for awhile so it's generally cheaper. People will tell you plasmas use more electricity, and they do, but were talking maybe $20 or $30 dollars a year which can be offset for several years if you think about the price for an LED.

Oh and definitely get surround sound if you don't have it yet, WORTH IT!!!

 
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Bigger is not necessarily better. It depends on the size of the room you are putting it in, and what you viewing distance will be (this part is huge when it comes to 720 vs 1080)

First the resolution. Only Blu-Ray players and computers really take advantage of 1080p. Your cable/sat box doesn't really. TV shows and sports are shot in 720p is the reason. If you are going to be sitting over 7 or 8 feet away, the human eye also can not tell the difference between the resolutions at that distance.

Second is the tech. Once you cross 42 inches, just scratch LCD off you list, It is inferior tech, and to get the picture quality and refresh rates where you want them, there is no point to spend that kind of money. LCDs are backlit. Meaning there is a giant white light behind the screen. The screen for all intents and purposes is like a stained glass window that shows the picture, and the backlight is the sun shinning through. Also, while it is getting better, LCDs also have the most limited viewing angle. If you have a wide room and have a lot of people over to watch the Huskers, the ones sitting on the edges of the room may get a substantially worse picture.

Plasma is going to be far and away your best size to dollar buy. Plasma sets won't have a refresh rate listed, because the tech is different. Plasmas will never have motion blur/ghosts. They also get much better blacks (hence contrast) because they are not backlit like LCDs. Plasma TV's actual pixels generate the light, so no backlighting to bleed through. Samsung and Panasonic both make great sets. Mine is a 50' Panasonic Viera, and I love it. The sales guys may try to feed you a massive pile of crap using the words "Burn In" Burn in does not exists on good brands for the last several years. They may say something along the lines of "video games will ruin the tv with permanent images left over" Ten years ago this was an issue. The official line from Panasonic is "If you didn't worry about it with a tube TV, don't worry about it with our plasmas." Now you will get a little 'image retention' like the bottom line from ESPN showing for a couple seconds after you change the channel and get a black screen, but as soon as the picture changes color and moves it will be gone. They may try to scare you into a pricier LED set. The biggest drawback of a Plasma, is they are heavy. My 50' tips the scale at about 95 pounds. This is due to the screen being two panes of glass instead of plastic. You also can never transport one laying down flat, or you run a risk of cracking the screen.

Lastly LED. LED sets do have some of the best pictures out there and the tech is more like plasma in that the screen makes the light instead of a backlight, and they are also very light and thin. The drawback is the tend to be much more expensive than other techs at the same size.

All that said, I would recommend a Samsung or Panasonic Plasma.

 
Good break down Strigori, although I've heard that the difference between 720p and 1080i are almost negligible when it comes to cable because there is so much filtering before it gets to your tv that 720 can be just as if not sharper than 1080 at times.

Another thing I forgot about is never buy cables like HDMI from the store. Anybody who's done there home work knows they are ridiculously overpriced and there really isn't much difference between them. You can get them for under $10 at websites like monoprice.com. That's where I've bought all my HDMI chords they are cheap and fast. I've only had one go bad out of the 5 or 6 I bought but that was because it was an older rigid type of cable that got bent wrong.

 
Are you on a budget, OP?

If you're not, an LED-backlit tv is the way to go, but only if you want to spend top dollar. They're lighter, thinner, significantly more energy efficient, and produce a great picture. The problems with Plasma screens are they're heavy, HUGE power sucks (they do absolutely no favors to your energy bills), and they've been said to not last as long as other T.V.s, however I don't believe this to be as true as it used to be.

Plasma-quality dominance is a thing of the past. PCMag did a great article a week ago talking about their new research with televisions, getting very scientific and nitty gritty. They recommended this as the absolute best television you can buy right now when you take into account picture quality, weight, and power usage. However, they admit that if money is relevant, you'd be better off finding a cheaper plasma, as the t.v. they recommended there is almost $7,000.

 
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ZRod said:
Good break down Strigori, although I've heard that the difference between 720p and 1080i are almost negligible when it comes to cable because there is so much filtering before it gets to your tv that 720 can be just as if not sharper than 1080 at times.

Another thing I forgot about is never buy cables like HDMI from the store. Anybody who's done there home work knows they are ridiculously overpriced and there really isn't much difference between them. You can get them for under $10 at websites like monoprice.com. That's where I've bought all my HDMI chords they are cheap and fast. I've only had one go bad out of the 5 or 6 I bought but that was because it was an older rigid type of cable that got bent wrong.
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720p and 1080i are the same for the resolution, for all intents and purposes. The letter matters. p = progressive scan, i = interlaced. And 1080i really are not made anymore. 720p and 1080p are the spot where there is a difference.

Totally with you on HDMI cables. Mostercables are the biggest rip off in any form of retail. Do not buy expensive digital cables. A digital signal either gets there or it does not. You don't get the amplitude and modulation interference that RF signals are subject to.

And like the article Enhance linked, Plasma still remains the 'bang for the buck' type TV. Even the power difference I don't think is worth mentioning. The difference amounts to a case or two of beer a year difference in cost. I will say that the plasma does put off a bit of heat, which is fine when its not hot outside. My plasma has a listed 'half life' (the time of usage where the screen is half as bright as when it was new) as being 10 years.

 
Chaddy,

As a guy who is always looking at TV's I would recommend a Samsung LED TV by far. LED TV's are light, thin, and provide one of the best pictures on the market. I got a 46" in the bedroom and a 55" in the living room and I'd like to replace my 52" Sony downstairs with a 60+ LED Samsung. I was always a Sony fan but lately it seems like the picture on Samsung TV's are a little bit better than Sony. Plasma TV's are more for darker rooms and I've never really been a fan on Plasma TV's, maybe its because of their rap of the screens bleeding and images being burnt into the screen but from my understanding the newer Plasma's don't have those problems. Also I believe Plasma's are not as energy efficient when compared to LED and LCD TV's.

I'd also would check out CNet.com on all of their TV reviews and read some comments on BestBuy.com on TV's. I'm sure there are TV reviews on YouTube as well.

But in my opinion I'd get a Samsung LED TV that is 1080 w/ a 120hz refresh rate. You'll notice a difference while watching Football on a 60hz TV compared to a 120hz TV.

 
huskerjock said:
Also I believe Plasma's are not as energy efficient when compared to LED and LCD TV's.
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I've heard this as well, and this was a snippet from the PCMAG article I read.

Energy efficiency is an important factor when choosing an HDTV, and between the three technologies LED-backlit HDTVs win again. LED HDTVs measuring 55 inches or less consistently consume around 80 watts or less, while plasma HDTVs can eat up two or three times as much. The 46-inch Sony KDL-46HX850 LED HDTV consumed only 47 watts in our tests, while the 55-inch Panasonic TC-P55ST50 plasma HDTV used a whopping 305 watts. That's six times the power for less than 10 diagonal inches more screen size.
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ZRod said:
I have a 50" samsung plasma it's about 3 or 4 years old but I love the picture. I don't know what your finances are like but if you can afford it I would get a 55 or 60", my friend has a 60" samsung plasma and I just drool over that thing!

I think it really comes down to personal preference and what you like in a picture, but if you want the best picture I would stick with the best known top brands like sony, samsung, pioneer, and maybe lg (lg's are somewhat inferior to the others imo). You might pay more but they really can't be beat. The best advice I can give you is to just go and watch tv at the store and see what looks good to you (hopefully they have an HD feed), and maybe try to play with the settings.

My personal recommendation is anything samsung plasma. Samsung has the best looking frames and best picture in my opinion. If not samsung then something plasma. I know everything is about LED tvs now but I just can't see all the fuss, I'm pretty picky about tv's and they don't cut it for me. LEDs are still just a backlit LCD tv and the picture on that will always be inferior to plasma. My biggest gripe is that I always see a faint glow around the edges when the screen is black on an LED, and that doesn't happen on a plasma since the cells are essentially off. I believe plasmas also always have a higher refresh rate than any LCD. Plus plasma is a technology that's been around for awhile so it's generally cheaper. People will tell you plasmas use more electricity, and they do, but were talking maybe $20 or $30 dollars a year which can be offset for several years if you think about the price for an LED.

Oh and definitely get surround sound if you don't have it yet, WORTH IT!!!
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Thanks guys! I was thinking about going the Samsung route.

 
huskerjock said:
Chaddy,

As a guy who is always looking at TV's I would recommend a Samsung LED TV by far. LED TV's are light, thin, and provide one of the best pictures on the market. I got a 46" in the bedroom and a 55" in the living room and I'd like to replace my 52" Sony downstairs with a 60+ LED Samsung. I was always a Sony fan but lately it seems like the picture on Samsung TV's are a little bit better than Sony. Plasma TV's are more for darker rooms and I've never really been a fan on Plasma TV's, maybe its because of their rap of the screens bleeding and images being burnt into the screen but from my understanding the newer Plasma's don't have those problems. Also I believe Plasma's are not as energy efficient when compared to LED and LCD TV's.

I'd also would check out CNet.com on all of their TV reviews and read some comments on BestBuy.com on TV's. I'm sure there are TV reviews on YouTube as well.

But in my opinion I'd get a Samsung LED TV that is 1080 w/ a 120hz refresh rate. You'll notice a difference while watching Football on a 60hz TV compared to a 120hz TV.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the great info. guys! I am looking at heading to NEB Furn. Mart this Friday.

 
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