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    New TV advice appreciated

    I had a 50 inch older Panasonic plasma tv which I loved but it got some love from hurricane Irma ;;

    I'm looking for a 60 inch. Now I know plasma isn't the thing any more BUT I hate my parents newer (LED?) TV. It looks like everything is a soap opera. I really don't know how to describe it, their tv is too clear, I guess? I don't know how it works for video games.

    I know there are some awesome people here who know their TV's and I was just wonder what was good these days?

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    Quote Originally Posted by mistmonster View Post
    It looks like everything is a soap opera. I really don't know how to describe it, their tv is too clear, I guess?
    Sounds like they have that shitty image motion interpolation feature turned on that takes a 24/30hz signal and 'smooths' it out to 120hz. Generally that's a feature you can turn off.

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    We have a 50" and 60" (both) LG plasmas and while we love them for the rich darks and what not it's too difficult during the day for us in our house to full enjoy them due to so much sunlight in our living room. I just ordered a 60" Vizio 4K refurb LED so we'll see how it is.

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    As Kaisha said, that soap opera effect is the TV's motion interpolation and can be turned off. Every brand has a different name for it (trumotion/motion plus/motionflow). It basically adds frames in-between existing frames to smooth it out. I think it looks decent for live sports, but yeah, for TV shows, movies, and gaming it's crap.

    Anyway, best place to research TV's these days is rtings.com. Basically, just go to the site and under their "BEST" tab at the top, start clicking on what you want out of the tv. Want it mainly for gaming, movies/tv, or sports? It'll list them all and show what they thought was straight up the best, to best budget.

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    When will ppl finally learn that there are no "LED" displays (yet)? You currently only have the choice between LCD (with LED backlight) and OLED. Plasma is AFAIK dead.
    They're working on (micro) LED screens where the LEDs themselves are the pixels without an LCD layer in front, but those are still in research/proof of concept phase.

    LCDs are mostly cheaper depending on features, they can be very bright but lack a bit on the blacks. OLEDs are more expensive (though prices are dropping) and have incredible black values, but can't reach the brightness of LCD screens yet.

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    Well I admitted my ignorance in the OP. I'm really shocked that people actually knew what I was talking about with the "looking like a soap opera" thing. I didn't know that was so common.

    So I'm used to plasmas. This "true black" thing is new to me. Do plasmas do this well or am just not used to seeing it anyway?

    Another odd ball question.. Xenoblade Chronicles were unplayable because I couldn't read the text. Though this is the only game, that I know of, that I had a problems with. Will any certain tv clear that up?

    I mostly watch in the dark, I mostly play games but I like movies, tv and never watch sports.

    Thanks for everyone's advise.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mistmonster View Post
    Well I admitted my ignorance in the OP. I'm really shocked that people actually knew what I was talking about with the "looking like a soap opera" thing. I didn't know that was so common.
    It's both a common feature - on higher refresh rate panels particularly - and a common thing to see parents to inexplicably leave enabled.

    So I'm used to plasmas. This "true black" thing is new to me. Do plasmas do this well or am just not used to seeing it anyway?
    To a point, it's a matter of different tech. With plasma screens (and CRTs, and OLEDs for that matter), the individual pixel elements are what produce light. So, there's a whole range of light levels, including no light being emitted.
    Meanwhile, the pixel elements of an LCD itself don't emit light (think of like, older Game Boy systems). LCD TVs are backlit, which in most modern TVs is done with LED lighting. Still, all of the screen is producing light, just filtered to some degree by the LCD. The exception can be via localized backlight dimming, which a lot of better LCD TVs incorporate.

    How you perceive it tends to come down a lot to relative light levels. Plasmas and the like tend to not be as bright, particularly compared to LED backlighting. So, in a brighter environment, their relative lack of light emitted can make them look a bit washed out. While not to the same degree, it's kinda like movie theater - the projected image looks great in the dark, but less so when the house lights come up.
    The much greater amount of light an LED-backlit TV can put out, on the other hand, can contrast a lot better in a brighter environment. In a dark room though, the relative brightness of the darker parts of the image can become apparent. One way you can compensate for that is by using a bias light.

    Another odd ball question.. Xenoblade Chronicles were unplayable because I couldn't read the text. Though this is the only game, that I know of, that I had a problems with. Will any certain tv clear that up?
    AFAIK, font size was a common complaint for that game in general. A larger TV and/or higher native resolution if it was an issue of scaling might alleviate it. I don't think any specific TV would. Mostly for gaming you want to make sure the TV has low latency (at least in a game mode), which is something rtings.com notes in their reviews.

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