Please help us choose a new TV (LCD? Plasma?)

General Forums Questions and Answers
21

Ah, the choice between two fantastic technologies. I tend to research the crap out of stuff like this before I buy it, but I’ll try to keep this post simple and short.

My vote is LCD unless you’ll have it in a darkish home theatre room that has few windows. I bought a Samsung LN52A650 (LCD) about a week ago. I’m pretty happy with it so far, other than the RSS/weather only supporting USA, (some US models support only Canada) and I think the menu overlay animation is slow and choppy. Also, having 2nd gen 120Hz processing, I expected more out of the feature.

I picked LCD for two reasons. The first was because my living room is fairly bright, having 3 large windows. Secondly, I might eventually hook an HTPC up to it. LCDs generally display a desktop, etc a lot better than a plasma and do so without the risk of burn-in, though all new plasmas have an etch-a-sketch sort of thing you can run to ‘cycle’ the screen through black, white and grey.

That said, if you’re still thinking Plasma… It does offer better picture, color, and value. LCDs and even more so, LED LCDs cost more when you start looking at big sets, and they don’t give as accurate a picture, though the LEDs sets are pretty amazing. A plasma is probably more child-proof since the entire front is glass. You can poke at, break, tear or scratch the surface of some LCDs.

If you’re willing to spend on an LED backlit LCD, be aware that there are two types, edge and direct. Edge is more common right now, but my guess is that as direct becomes more available, the edge sets will drop a fair bit in price. Direct is better, having an array of LEDs behind the panel, vs having LEDs at the edge being projected onto the back of the panel.

OLED is also just around the corner, and will blow away any form of plasma or LCD. I imagine they’ll be very expensive.

Really though if this is your first HDTV, any option will leave you impressed.

22

I’m a lcd fan my self, i can’t stand plasma because i seel flicker on all of them, with lcd i don’t, my fav brand is the Samsung. Over the years of installing, i dislike LG.

23

I’m loving my Sharp Aquos LCD.  Beautiful picture and sound.

24

We chose the 42" Panasonic Plasma several years ago (3) and are very happy with the performance so far. We were a bit overwhelmed by the information overload when we started looking at consumer reports and guides etc. so we just looked around town and got what looked the best for the right price at the time. Very happy.

25

And the NEW Aquos LC52E77U can be found for ~1700 on sale, and is still a bargain for it’s size. When the Aquos line was first launched ~3 years ago, it was one of the best lines you could buy, period. Sadly Sharp hasn’t really kept up with Samsung and Toshiba’s advances in the last couple of years. It does have a LOAD of HDMI inputs, is 120Hz capable and is still a fantastic set. Slightly less glossy, more of a matte kind of screen. Might be a better movie TV becuase of its natural look and since a lot of people hate the high contrast and vibrance of the Samsung/Toshiba sets.

26

Yeah, i agree on that, the product is not keeping up, thus why samsung is raping them in quality and technologies.

Even their low end tv’s are VERY clear.

27

Thanks for all the comments… we will be shopping for our TV real soon…

28

Let us know what you end up getting.

29

okay. I was in City furniture on Sat. and looking into HD LCD Toshiba 42" . we are still waiting for a bit… it was a beautiful picture. Something I did not know ( DUH ) was you have to subscribe to HD cable to get the HD quality…  :|
I need to pay more attention to technology …LOL

30

Very true,  remember you have to either A) rent abox for hd, or B) buy the box then pay the fee for the hd feed. It’s not cheap :smile:

I’m not a fan of toshiba, i like samsung way better! Where do you live ? If in Prince Rupert maybe pop into teddys and see what they have too!

31

I’m very happy with the HD picture I’m getting from my HDPVR from Shaw Direct (Star Choice), the Sharp Aqous has excellent image quality. :sunglasses:
This thread is very interesting, there are a lot of good choices out there.

32

Bought our 42" from Teddy’s great picture , eventhough we don’t have HDTV yet … it is still pretty clear.

33

It was weird, few months ago, i connected a HDTV to a providers service, no digital box or no digital services to the house, did a channel scan and found that 3 HD channels were available, now the weird thing was, GOD DAM it was so clear, way more clear than what it was when he got hd connected at his house.  We did a comparison, and well the show that came in on the built in tuner, was more clear than the channel from their digital box, so weird.

34

Just did some searching on google,  you can actually plug your tv into regular cable tv outlet, try it, just use a simple coax cable and plug it into the wall, remove your digital box and do a channel scan, HOWEVER this only works if you have a tv with a digital tuner in the tv, Pretty slick that the cable company can’t scramble this :smile:

FREE TOO!

35

My old set has a built in digital tuner. I never played with it and just assumed it was for HD OTA (over the air), needing an antenna of some sort to be connected. Supposedly lots of larger cities provide several free local HD channels in the way of the modern rabbit ear. I’ll try unplugging my cable box and see if can pick anything up when I’m back in town.