LC-60LE857U Vs. PN60F5350AF ------- HELP!

[nayaminfenrir]

So yesterday, my 50" Panasonic Plasma died. I bought it from best buy for about 1600 about 3 years ago and it has been a fantastic tv. Its the 2nd Panasonic I've owned. When I hit the power button, I hear a loud clicking in the back and nothing more.

Anyway, seeing how the Broncos are playing Sunday, desperate times call for desperate measures. I went to Best Buy yesterday night and bought an open box 60" Sharp Aquos tv "LC-60LE857U" for $1250.00. Unopened the tv is $2,000. However, Im now wondering if I made a mistake with my purchase. I was at Costco today and noticed the 60" Samsung Plasma " PN60F5350AF" on sale for $850.00.

Can any of you BG TV genius's compare these two tv's for me and make an educated recommendation? The Sharp has 3D, which I will likely barely ever use. My biggest concern is the fact that it was an open box. It does still have a 1year manufacturer's warranty and I have 45 days to purchase Best buy's extended warranty if you think its a good idea.

I use the TV mainly for regular cable tv, movies, and some Call of Duty.

Cookies and Cheeseburgers for everyone in advance. Thanks!

[Sonomaa]

plasma tvs were discontinued very recently by all manufacturers as far as I recall, thus I wouldnt say buying a plasma is a good choice.

[Quixon]

Open box is a big mistake if you don't figure out why it was open box.

You could be lucky in that someone just returned it. Or, it could be a floor model that has been on for 10+ hours a day for the past 6 months - year.

Best Buy will tell you if they are floor models if you ask them. You can also usually tell by checking for slight sights of dust/etc. in the vents.

[shepardG]

Im always amazed that folks enjoy plasmas. I literally view them and they look like garbage. I know peoples cones and rods vary, but even lcds (non-leds) have always looked better. Stick with an LED tv imo.

[Celerin]

Because I do this to pay my bills...
The sharp is actually one of the top of the line tvs out there... 240hz smart 3d led TV... has XM 960 (4 240hz managing 1/4 of the screen) so absolutely no "comet tailing" or blur. Also has aquos tech which makes light in pictures come out brighter. This is a very solid all around tv and at around $1200 not too bad... but you said open box, so who knows whats wrong with it.

The plasma is Samsung's mid range series... you get smart, no 3d, a 600 hz panel (10 subfields that are 60 hz, so you have basically a 60 hz panel), but it does offer true black and most of the time your upload times onto a plasma screen are faster than on an led, so if you do tons of gaming that requires quick actions, like CoD, you may want to look into this. This is brand new I take it. Plasma isn't dead yet from my understanding, but it is going the way of tubes and DLP.

Really it would depend mostly on what you find more important... What you want it to do and how much it would cost you. If you are ok w/out 3d (even though its active 3d with shutter glasses) then go for the plasma. If you really want the led, I would have them test it in the store before you think about purchasing it. If it looks fine, I would get that. Not often you get a top of the line smart tv at this time for $1200

[nayaminfenrir]

Because I do this to pay my bills...
The sharp is actually one of the top of the line tvs out there... 240hz smart 3d led TV... has XM 960 (4 240hz managing 1/4 of the screen) so absolutely no "comet tailing" or blur. Also has aquos tech which makes light in pictures come out brighter. This is a very solid all around tv and at around $1200 not too bad... but you said open box, so who knows whats wrong with it.

The plasma is Samsung's mid range series... you get smart, no 3d, a 600 hz panel (10 subfields that are 60 hz, so you have basically a 60 hz panel), but it does offer true black and most of the time your upload times onto a plasma screen are faster than on an led, so if you do tons of gaming that requires quick actions, like CoD, you may want to look into this. This is brand new I take it. Plasma isn't dead yet from my understanding, but it is going the way of tubes and DLP.

Really it would depend mostly on what you find more important... What you want it to do and how much it would cost you. If you are ok w/out 3d (even though its active 3d with shutter glasses) then go for the plasma. If you really want the led, I would have them test it in the store before you think about purchasing it. If it looks fine, I would get that. Not often you get a top of the line smart tv at this time for $1200

Exactly the type of info I was looking for. A+

Thanks!

[Kohan]

Although your decision has likely already been made, I must come into this discussion to strongly disagree with anyone who speaks poorly of plasma.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387377,00.asp

I own a plasma television, and I recommend them over LED-lit LCD televisions, which I personally find to suffer too strongly from the soap opera effect—a problem that you can mitigate, but never completely remove.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/c...710-2ppd2.html

I was honestly saddened when I discovered that Panasonic was leaving the plasma game, though I wasn't surprised. These TVs don't deserve to go the way of the aforementioned CRTs and DLPs, which were bulky and—in the case of the latter—expensive to maintain and unreliable, which doesn't apply to plasmas. Their only potential weakness is burn-in, but with a little research about preventative measures on the Internet, you should be able to safeguard yourself from that.

[Waraji]

So yesterday, my 50" Panasonic Plasma died. I bought it from best buy for about 1600 about 3 years ago and it has been a fantastic tv. Its the 2nd Panasonic I've owned. When I hit the power button, I hear a loud clicking in the back and nothing more.

I recently had a TV problem similar to this, luckily the TV was still within warranty. Call up your Panasonic support line, and figure out what servicing provider they have in your area, you can usually get the TV fixed, or at least diagnosed to see if its worth fixing. Sounds to me like the Power board went out, at least thats what happened to me and got similar results. Little power light would turn on and back to red and TV wouldn't turn on.

No use throwing away a perfectly good flatscreen meng.

[nayaminfenrir]

That's exactly what mine is doing. How much did the fix cost you?

[Waraji]

Nothing under warranty, but I suspect it is probably 100/200 something for parts and labor. But if you'd really like to go that route, like I said contact your manufacturer and let them advise you their local service provider. You might get mixed results with unaffiliated companies/shops.

Look up the power board yourself if interested though. Might be a super easy fix to do oneself.

[nayaminfenrir]

Celerin, or anyone else that may know:

So I've had nothing but issues with the open box Sharp TV I got. Thats the last time I ever buy open box... Im returning the TV soon as possible but cant decide if I should just buy the same TV which is now discontinued for 1500 from Sharp's website and wait a few weeks for delivery, or if I should just go into best buy and buy the LC-60LE755U for 1300 that they have in stock. I looked on sharps website to find the difference between the two, and the site was not helpful at all.

Can someone that knows tell me what the specific difference is between these two TVs?

$1,500.00 LC-60LE857U -- Wait at least a week to get through mail
OR
$1,299.00 LC-60LE755U -- Best Buy has in stock

[Surealistic]

fyi, all samsung plasma panels are built by panasonic, only/last company to build them

and the only reason they stopped making them, the cost to take them to 4k is just not worth it, they got waaaaaay to much bad publicity because they kinda sucked 13 years ago when they first came out, since then they have fixed ALL the "problems" with them

and if you look at any list of top 10 tv's, plasma will have 3-4