New TV Dilemma

[Darkdreamer]

So I'm looking to upgrade from my monstrous paperweight of a TV to a nice shiny new HDTV.

Now, I’m not looking to pay some outrageous amount of money, I don’t want or need some 80” beast that can show me such amazing detail that I can see the pours on the news woman’s face on TV.

I’ve been looking around to find deals on TV’s and with Father’s Day coming up there are a few sales out there. So I’m hoping to get the most bang for my buck and have something to watch HD TV on, hook my PS3 up to and play games/watch movies. After reading lots of reviews and everyone opinions a big dividing point seems to be between LCD/LED or Plasma.

Now, I found a nice deal on a 50” Plasma:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05775890000P?vName=Computers+%26+Ele ctronics&cName=Televisions&sName=View+All&filter=T ype%7CPlasma

But then a few co-workers I talk to swear by LCD’s and go nuts if I mention getting a plasma, but they’ve never even owned a plasma to base their opinion on.

Now I’m no expert on TV’s but this seems like it would do the job quite nicely and has enough outlets for what I would need; HD (Cable, PS3) and Composite for my PS2 hookup.

So does anyone else have any other recommendations, personal experiences, better deals, etc?

Again, I’m looking to get as much as I can for my money ($500-$800), preferably something with a name brand that people actually recognize.

[Omnipotent]

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-frnSDUh...flatpanel.html

[Darus Grey]

If you're looking at best bang for the buck, you're looking at plasma.

No reason to even consider LCD unless you have no control over ambient light.

[Darkdreamer]

Hmmm the room is fairly dark when the curtains are closed and it's a very wide room and it would have people in the far ends looking at an angle... sounds like plasma might be the better choice afterall.

[Kilik]

The TV you listed is only 720p. Since youre gonna be using the tv to play/watch bluray content, you should get a 1080p tv. For 500-800 you can probably find a 40-50in Panasonic S series or Samsung 550 series 1080p plasma. I only glanced at amazon since im at work, but the prices on there were around that range. I don't personally have experience with the tvs from those particular series. I have a 58" Panasonic V10 and my parents have 3 different Samsung 650s (split among 2 houses). The picture on all the tvs is amazing.

Be careful if you go to look at tvs in a store (like best buy). They seem to suck at configuring the tvs they have on the walls. The plasmas always look too dark. They probably do it on purpose so you buy the more expensive brighter lcd (or led) on the wall next to it.

[Minions]

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthr...7993&t=2069598

Insignia 42" 720p 600Hz plasma (Knockoff to the $550 Samsung PN42C430) 2-Year Mfg. Warranty; $359 After BCB Best Buy


It's sorta a offbrand (though vizio was once), but its pretty much the best bang for the buck I've seen in quite a while. I think the bing cashback is still going on at 20% but i'm not certain.

[Minions]

http://www.6ave.com/shop/InStoreSpecials.htm

some crazy prices there if you live near a store.

Mostly in NJ/NY and a couple stores in Pen/Delaware.

[Velgadess]

own both. 50 inch LCD and Plasma. sound is same to me on both. overall picture quality/colours etc etc. plasma > lcd

[Caiyuo]

As an LCD owner, I'd say if you can find a well-priced Plasma, go for it. A lot of what makes people gravitate to LCD over Plasma is hearsay or flat-out false and I really wish I would've been aware when buying my HDTV. Now I'm dealing with awful blacks in movies (god lol) and lots of blur during scenes with a lot of fast motion as well as games and I could have avoided both problems by going with Plasma.

As for specifics, I think Kareface is a pretty big fan of Panasonic Plasmas and I haven't seen him lead anyone astray before.

[Atreides]

I just got a 58" samsung plasma myself, thing is fucking amazing, ended up paying around 1750 with a 3 year warranty. Caiyuo is right, just about anything bad you've ever heard about plasmas is a myth/urban legend/whatever. They outclass LCD's in every department, including price.

Some jerk at bestbuy tried to convince me that an LED-LCD was what I needed if I was going to do serious gaming, at which point I laughed in his fucking face and left the store.

For your price range you can't go wrong with the mid-lower end Panasonic or Samsung plasmas. I ended up going with Samsung over Panasonic because the comprable Panasonic 58" in the 1500-2000 range has been known to have some black level issues, while the Samsung can have speaker buzzing. No TV is perfect, and drawbacks/downsides are going to vary by model/size/brand/etc, so you're going to have to do some research.

[Darkdreamer]

Alright, while I would like to get a 1080p TV that may be a future purchase down the road, of course by then technology will be way better and cheaper. So I'm narrowing the TV's down to 2. I want to get them from stores I can find where I live so that way in case anything is busted I'm not having to deal with shipping the thing away to get it fixed and I can choke the sales/repair person if they're a dumbass. So it's either the Zenith I originally posted:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...5&blockType=L5

Or a Panasonic Viera-
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Panasoni...&skuId=9788583

Are the Best Buy Warranty plans even worth the extra $$, or no?

[Darkdreamer]

Now this one is 42" instead of 50 and pushing the limits of how much I'm budgeting for this but provides a 1080p.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Panasoni...=1218168620157

[Grey Jorildyn]

Plasmas are indeed awesome. I have indeed considered one myself but picked up an LED-LCD instead from Samsung (cannot speak enough praise about their TVs). Only thing that steers me away from it is the heat they give off. I currently live in a pretty small studio and air doesn't circulate well in there as it is. I have good, adjustable lighting as well so it works well enough for me.

[Darkdreamer]

Yeah I have a pretty big living room with lots of air flow and I keep my place fairly cool so heating won't be an issue. I plan on making my purchase this weekend so I'm not quite sure which to go with right now. My wife thinks 50" might be a little too big but we plan on going to the store to look at them either tonight or tomorrow.

[Necronus]

I got a 42" plasma like most of you guys (Vizio in my case), but the one thing that struck me is the nigh instantanous temporary burn-in. Don't get me wrong, I've had no permanent burn in or anything close, but I noticed that my plasma will retain ghost images after somethings been on the screen for even as little as a minute. Now, perhaps its just my model but its kinda odd when a predominantly black scene occurs and very faint ghost images of onscreen huds or radars are visible.

Its not a huge issue, and I've had some recent sessions of > 8 hours from being sick, and not even the static presence of the Red Dead Redemption radar outline stayed permanenty ghosted.

[Darus Grey]

I got a 42" plasma like most of you guys (Vizio in my case), but the one thing that struck me is the nigh instantanous temporary burn-in. Don't get me wrong, I've had no permanent burn in or anything close, but I noticed that my plasma will retain ghost images after somethings been on the screen for even as little as a minute. Now, perhaps its just my model but its kinda odd when a predominantly black scene occurs and very faint ghost images of onscreen huds or radars are visible.

Its not a huge issue, and I've had some recent sessions of > 8 hours from being sick, and not even the static presence of the Red Dead Redemption radar outline stayed permanenty ghosted.

It's more or less the model, in the good samsung/panasonic models "Image Retention"(not burn-in, they're different things) pretty much doesn't happen in the same way I've seen on other brands/models.

Very bright whites are always an issue, but it fades in a couple seconds on my S2 and G10, don't see it on yellows and greens though like I did on older ones.

Though as I've said before, you literally need to display an image for DAYS to get actual burn-in, and I suspect maybe not even then, I'm certainly not going to try.

I use the S2 at my arcade for SSF4, often 10-16 hours at a time, and well I'll get image retention from the life-bars, they're gone in less than a day of playing/watching something else, and not even noticeable well doing so unless you run solid bright colors to notice them.

[Darkdreamer]

So I ended up getting the 42" 1080p Plasme I linked. Got it home set it up no problem. Kicked back on the computer while watching the TV off an on from a distance. About 2 hours of the TV being on a wonderful 3" thick vertical black line appeared off center on the screen.... WTF.....

Leave the TV off overnight and turn it on in the morning it's still there... time to take the bitch back or have Best Buy come out and replace the bitch. I can't win.

[Darus Grey]

So I ended up getting the 42" 1080p Plasme I linked. Got it home set it up no problem. Kicked back on the computer while watching the TV off an on from a distance. About 2 hours of the TV being on a wonderful 3" thick vertical black line appeared off center on the screen.... WTF.....

Leave the TV off overnight and turn it on in the morning it's still there... time to take the bitch back or have Best Buy come out and replace the bitch. I can't win.

Yeah, that's not normal. Get it replaced.

[Darkdreamer]

Yeah the wife called Geek Squad and they said they can come out and fix it, or I drag the damn thing back to the store for a replacement. Since it's a day old and I don't want something that already has a history of being messed up we're just going to drag it back to the store.

[Oreth]

Ye same thing happened to my GF with her Samsung PC Monitor. Only on for 2 hours and blue lines constantly appearing down the screen.

Anyways how come so many are saying Plasma are better than LCD/LED? Is this the case if so i have been had. I looked at both Plasma & LCD/LED displaying the same football match and the Plasma didnt look as rich at all? Quite dull.

We got the LCD/LED and really happy with it but we could of got a bigger tv for slightly cheaper in the Plasma but it the display didnt look as nice or rich in colour and detail. This was in a big heavily lighted open store would this be the case?