TV Advice

[cdgreg]

Long story short, came home last Saturday after Christmas from being out of town, our apartment was broken into, and the dirt bags stole the 42' LG TV. Since last weekend we moved to a new apt, filed our renter's insurance claim, and should be getting the check tomorrow. The TV we previously had was:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LG+-+42%...&skuId=9246808

My beef with this TV was twofold:
1.) The built-in speakers came out the top of the TV, so the sound seemed to shoot straight upwards which pissed off my upper neighbors all the while I couldn't hear it very well. Even though I'm in a new apt, I still have other renters above me.
2.) No matter what aspect ratio I used, I could never see the scores/clock/scrolling bar at the bottom/top of football games.

Here is the new apartments living room:
From behind the couch (approximately 11 feet from the tv space):
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5088/behindcouch.jpg

From the hallway showing the 5.5ft wide window next to it:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5031/hallwayb.jpg

Now that I have a second chance to buy a new TV I want to do it right. A year ago I completely disregarded plasma because of all the "rumors" about their evilness but now I have been doing some research and am leaning towards plasma except for the fact that we have that 5.5ft window next to near where the TV will be. If I stick with an LCD I've been doing further reading into the 60hz vs 120hz debate but everything I find seems to be 2 years old which says there's really not much of a noticeable difference since TV is 60hz. Has technology changed where 120hz makes a larger difference?

We generally use the TV for Blu-rays, HD sports, and standard non-HD tv watching. I think I'd like to go a bit bigger than 42', possibly up to 50/52' but I'm not sure if that is in my price range. Max price will be about $1200, and I'm not too picky where I order from if there's a good deal on a reputable online site. I do have a Best Buy close though if that matters.

Sooo, let me know what you recommend based on my budget, standard usage, and room setup. The 5.5ft window is the only thing throwing me off there, and the distance between the couch/tv area is about 11 feet. Thanks in advance.

[Ratatapa]

I am not TV saavy but all i can say is

Since your room seems well lit i would go with ACL.

Plasma is good but since plasma adds light, it's kinda useless in a well lit room

But that's about all i can say

[cdgreg]

Paging minidragon, where's the tv/entertainment system guru?

[Darus Grey]

Probably like me and just tired of responding to these topics 10 times a week ;0

[cdgreg]

Probably like me and just tired of responding to these topics 10 times a week ;0

Fair enough, but for the record I did go back a whopping 3 pages and read the 2-3 topics I could find.

edit: have my eye on this guy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Panasoni...&skuId=9236294

[kareface]

Nah, 1/2 the time it's because I don't noticed the threads to begin with or too late to be useful. I usually scan to see if there are any new HT related ones, but I seem to miss them fairly often, lol.

As for the TV, if you used blackout curtains on the window you could easily use the plasma. In that price range the Panasonic's are good. I don't suggest getting anything from places like bestbuy also.

[Mrf]

I picked up my last 2 TVs from Amazon (42" Panasonic Plasma and a 52" Samsung LCD).

I couldn't get your best buy link to work but if it was the Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P50G10, Best Buy Price = $1399 Amazon Price = $1249. The other nice thing about Amazon is of course no tax and free shipping. With Amazon's TV shipping they will do "white glove" delivery where they call you to schedule a delivery time then bring your TV in and unbox it to make sure it was not damaged in shipment.

I never had any issues with my plasma and Panasonic makes a great quality one I just wanted larger and the LCD was a good deal at the time. One of the things I had read about 2 years ago when I bought mine was the Image Retention / Burn-in that can happen especially within the first 100 hours of use. From the research I had done they recommended running a burn-in disc that will show different colored screens to help break in your new TV, the one I ended up using is from http://www.eaprogramming.com/ and is a free download. Here is a the big thread about burn-in from avs forums http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7&page=1&pp=50

Eclipse brand blackout curtains are my choice for my HT room.

[Furtwangler]

120hz you will notice a difference when watching most sports. (in HD)

[Shibo]

You didn't list this, but if you plan on using the tv for gaming and go with a 120hz do research on the model for issues input lag (i.e. from controller to game response on the tv). I had a friend go through about 4 tvs, all 120hz, till he could find one without the lag.

Aside from that, I have become a huge fan of vizio tvs as they will generally have very good quality for the price.

[Nyima]

Which TV did he find that didn't have horrible input lag?

[Darus Grey]

Worth noting that the panasonic plasmas me and kareface are always recommending have the least input lag of any consumer TV models, with or without game-mode.

Even good LCDs like samsungs have in the 30-70ms range(in game mode), where panasonics are 15 without game-mode and <4 with it.

[Cephius]

Worth noting that the panasonic plasmas me and kareface are always recommending have the least input lag of any consumer TV models, with or without game-mode.

Even good LCDs like samsungs have in the 30-70ms range(in game mode), where panasonics are 15 without game-mode and <4 with it.

Isn't he a Pioneer guy? Either way though, they're both solid.

[Tythera]

Pioneer's are no longer made and Panasonic is almost to the level of the non-elite Kuros with the upper end of the 2009 lineup. It's hard to suggest trying to find a TV that hasn't been made in quite a while.

[Darus Grey]

He's pioneer guy because he has baller money, they're better if you're spending in the 2.5k+ range on Kuros and shit, their lower end models aren't as good as the Panasonics though.

[Nyima]

While I agree that some of the plasma's are better than LCDs I think I'm going to go with an LCD anyways because with my room hitting about 78 in the summer the last thing I need is a spaceheater(plasma) making it even worse.

The reason my room is so hot is because I try and avoid having the AC too low and costing a fortune, that and my computer.

[kuronosan]

Yes, there is a pretty noticeable difference between 120Hz and 60. It also makes a lot of movies that are computer animated look like shit because they were animated for 60Hz and thus look totally unrealistic at higher refresh rates.

Second, low response time and high dynamic contrast are absolutely essential and make sure you see NO graininess at high resolutions. Vizio, Insignia, and even Toshiba are notorious for this. If you want to do it right, don't buy a TV based on price. Buy it based on quality. Next, 42" is a little excessive for your size apartment unless you're sitting like 30 feet away. 37" is probably what I would recommend at the most which not only puts you at a good price point, it allows you to have a good spread of brands to pick from.

If you still want to stick with a 40-42" TV, then just make sure to stay away from Zenith/LG, Vizio, Element, Insignia, Sylvania, or any of those other brands that shave $200-300 off of their price but offer an inferior product.

[Darus Grey]

Second, low response time and high dynamic contrast are absolutely essential and make sure you see NO graininess at high resolutions.

Bad advice simply because you didn't mention the caveat to this, doesn't count if you're watching film...in which case a better set actually makes the film grain more noticeable.

[kuronosan]

My mistake.

[kareface]

Sorry for the late reply again. I slept for almost 24hrs after my birthday party on Saturday, it's now 5am on Monday and I'm getting up.

Yes I am a 'Pioneer guy', but in the lower price ranges depending on the price point you'll want to get a panasonic.

As for the LCD's, everyone makes a big deal of the refresh rate, but there are 120hz TV's that look like ass and there are 60hz ones that look awesome. What you need to do is read about it's dejudder and anti-motion blurring systems. Hrz really represents the potential, how it's applied is up to the TV. I've seen a lot of samsungs that have terrible tearing problems when panning @120hz. Don't get me started with brands like LG and Philips. The best thing you can do is just read user reviews.