UnaBonger Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 As the topic says, which do you prefer and why is one better than the other? I've been shopping around the last few weeks for a new TV and am thoroughly dumbfounded by all the choices. I thought a poll might help me better decide which type of TV to get or at the very least which type of TV neowinians prefer... I was out comparing this weekend and noticed that it seems like the price of plasma's seems to be dropping and the price and quality of LCD's is going up. Or is that just a wrong observation on my part? I'm hesitant to get a plasma because of the early issues that they had (such as burn in). LCD seems to be the best choice going forward but are fairly expensive (not that the others arent expensive but they just seem to be more expensive considering the size of the display) and while CRT still has a great picture, they are just way too bulky. And DLP, not sure what to make of it... All comments are welcome :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGOB Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 i would say go with a plasma for now, we have a few LCD's here in the office that aren't bad but they are on 24/7/365 and are getting some washed colors in them etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SioPao Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 I just bought a Panasonic 50PHD8UK. Loving it so far. 50" below 3k$ before shipping is not a bad deal to me. Space was a concern for me. I didn't have the depth for anything and the display looked so much nicer to me than the LCDs I'd seen. What's your budget? As usual, if you can handle the immense amount of information, avsforum is the place to read up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfLing Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 What about DLP? I am considering a 42" DLR Samsung DLP. Any good? for gaming? Jake- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insanekiwi Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 no crt because of the space it needs. lcd: cheaper regarding prize-size, last longer than plasmas, plasma: better video quality, more expensive, various view ?, little flickering, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Well, I thought I'd share something since I sell plasmas for living (2nd job). DLP: Pros: good technology with prospects, very good crisp image. Cons: light technology, therefore suffers from any type of sunlight, viewing angle just sucks (contrast and colours are washed away). Very young technology LCD: Pros: light units; good resolution and crisp images; good view angle. Cons: not as mature as plasma (we are only a year away from the time people stopped worrying about burned pixels); contrast ratios are 3 times lower than plasma's Plasma: Pros: big screens, 60000 hour screen life (about 20 years of TV 8 hours a day), almost 180 degrees viewing angle, contrast ratios 3000:1 and up. To wrap it up, LCD is maturing and I guess it will replace plasma in 2-3 years time (LCD is cheaper to make and the technology hasn't hit its lowest manufacturing costs like plasma has, therefore it can get even cheaper). But for now, if you are going for 37-inch and up TV, go for HD plasma (Panasonic's PV500 from Viera range is the best way to go), anything less - HD LCD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfLing Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 If I was to use DLP without view of direct sunlight would it work decently? Jake- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnaBonger Posted October 11, 2005 Author Share Posted October 11, 2005 Well, I thought I'd share something since I sell plasmas for living (2nd job).DLP: Pros: good technology with prospects, very good crisp image. Cons: light technology, therefore suffers from any type of sunlight, viewing angle just sucks (contrast and colours are washed away). Very young technology LCD: Pros: light units; good resolution and crisp images; good view angle. Cons: not as mature as plasma (we are only a year away from the time people stopped worrying about burned pixels); contrast ratios are 3 times lower than plasma's Plasma: Pros: big screens, 60000 hour screen life (about 20 years of TV 8 hours a day), almost 180 degrees viewing angle, contrast ratios 3000:1 and up. To wrap it up, LCD is maturing and I guess it will replace plasma in 2-3 years time (LCD is cheaper to make and the technology hasn't hit its lowest manufacturing costs like plasma has, therefore it can get even cheaper). But for now, if you are going for 37-inch and up TV, go for HD plasma (Panasonic's PV500 from Viera range is the best way to go), anything less - HD LCD. 586656409[/snapback] Now that was a very helpful post. Thank you :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolvereen Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 (edited) DLP is not a TYPE of TV per se. It is merely a color replication system developed by TI. It is a system of mirrors that reflect light from color wheels. JVC has a competing technology that is very similiar called LCOS that uses mirrors to reflect light from LCD's. Both are still RPTV's. Of the choices, DLP or LCOS RPTV's are the best IMHO. They offer the best value for the price. Flat is in, and as such LCD's and Plasma's are both subject to high prices. Both are more subject ot flaws as well. Plasma's will discharge after 30,000+ hours of TV (while it might not sound like a hug deal, I want 10+ years of TV for $2500+ [like my 10+ SOny CRT]). LCD's can often have dead pixel issues. Both LCD and Plasma do not replicate blacks to extent that some DLP's do. My current fav is the Gen6 Samsung 1080p TV (hopefully will own one by the end of the year). I am looking at the Samsung HL-R5668W. Also, I haven't seen any viewing angle issues on these TV's. I'd check 'em all out for yourself. Do yourself a favor though. Even if you buy elsewhere, drive to a home theater store and look at a PROFESSIONAL setup. Do not judge bu setups (including color values, etc) at places like Best Buy and Circuit City. Their sets are often mis-calibrated and their environments are NOTHING like your home (lighting, ambiance, windows, etc). Edited October 11, 2005 by Wolvereen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deciever Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 yea wolve it is funny how you can see this uber expensive setups and tvs at places like bestbuy and they put on some crappy signal to show it off and all the colors are way off. And they want to make the customer think they know what they are talking about o0? reading a 1 page article on wikipedia or howstuffworks would give you more insight on the tv's and what their stats mean and even at that manufacturers tend to fudge their stats to make them look better. Prime example is Samsung LCD computer monitors, I swear to you compare them to the equivlant price Viewsonic and even if the contrast ratio on the viewsonic is lower and backlight rating the Viewsonic still looks 3x brighter and the colors look 5x better and more vivid and more contrast. And no it was not just the particular model I was looking at I compared it at 3 different stores and two of them had my viewsonic and I compared it directly against the samsung. There was no mistake that Viewsonic makes better LCD's at least at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 Of the choices, DLP or LCOS RPTV's are the best IMHO. They offer the best value for the price. Flat is in, and as such LCD's and Plasma's are both subject to high prices. Both are more subject ot flaws as well. Plasma's will discharge after 30,000+ hours of TV (while it might not sound like a hug deal, I want 10+ years of TV for $2500+ [like my 10+ SOny CRT]). LCD's can often have dead pixel issues. Both LCD and Plasma do not replicate blacks to extent that some DLP's do. Again, read my post before. Panasonic estimates their screen's life as 60000 hours (look into the above post for details) till half-life (e.g. till the time contrast and brightness decreases to 50% of its initial value). This is more than enough, I think. Second, again on Panasonic's example: their Real Black Drive technology allows the display of very rich blacks by reducing the reserve discharge, also resulting in lower power consumption. Read it all here. This is NOT FUD, go in the store and see for yourself. And although DLP as you say offers very good picture, the technology isn't up to speed yet and there's no way I personally would pay the price for a DLP TV and be able to enjoy colours and contrast ONLY looking in the middle of the screen. For as you know, DLP TVs have only 40 degrees of vertical viewing angle, and only about 90-100 degrees of horizontal depending on the manufacturer. Due to this fact only I would never invest money in DLP because it's bonkers - you can only enjoy it in a darker room sitting right in front of it. You know I'm right here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonComet Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 Plasmas have the best image quality of any technology currently available. Oh and direct-view crts are typically rated at 30k hours to half brightness. All current lcd and plasma tvs are rated to 60k hours to half brightness. So if anyones direct-view crt has lasted them for longer than they need, I don't think any new type of tv will cause them problems. Personally I would choose a plasma for color, black lvls (on any brand that uses a current panasonic or 6th gen pioneer plasma), viewing angles about equal to a direct-view crt, etc. I am too tired to think atm, lol. Anyways, by the time I can afford the tv of my dreams I will probably be debating between oled and sed, heh. For flat-panels plasma is the best. For rp LCOS, particularly sony's implementation and not jvc's is the best. When comparing both I prefer Plasma. I just don't like the viewing angles, and look of a rp image. Although, if someone was to buy me a qualia 006 or sony sxrd I would not be complaining. I would just probably sell it and buy a 50" fujitsu plasma, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnaBonger Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 How bad is this tv? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;js...d=1110265591243 I'm assuing utter crap based on the 600:1 contrast ratio but it does 1080p..., just thought I'd ask for opinions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 17, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 17, 2005 How bad is this tv? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;js...d=1110265591243I'm assuing utter crap based on the 600:1 contrast ratio but it does 1080p..., just thought I'd ask for opinions... 586682221[/snapback] The set is terrible. Colors are washy because of the low contrast and it has a high response time which gives ghosting in moderate to fast paced action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fr8t Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 DLP currently offers the best picture quality and HDTV decoder on the mainstream market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnaBonger Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 The set is terrible. Colors are washy because of the low contrast and it has a high response time which gives ghosting in moderate to fast paced action. 586682262[/snapback] Thats what I thought... thanks for the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 17, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 17, 2005 Thats what I thought... thanks for the answer. 586682320[/snapback] No problem. I know a lot of people get enticed by the price and the resolution, but it's cheap for a reason. I always tried to sway customers from buying it. I'm sure the company wouldn't have liked that if they found out, but it's my obligation to help the customer make the best choice and that Westinghouse is never a good choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Floyd Veteran Posted October 17, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 17, 2005 unfortunatly, not all salesman are this way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnaBonger Posted October 22, 2005 Author Share Posted October 22, 2005 I'm starting to think this might be the one --> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1118841724863 Comments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnaBonger Posted October 22, 2005 Author Share Posted October 22, 2005 I know it's a rear proj type set which I wasnt necessarily looking for to begin with, but I'm coming to the conclusion that I can't afford what I really want and dont want to wait all that much longer to but something... My budget is roughly $2000 and I want something in the 40" range... What are my other options? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 22, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 22, 2005 It's an LCD projection TV. It's a nice set indeed, but will not have the same brightness levels of it's flat panel counterparts. Unfortunately, I haven't bene able to see it in it's HD glory. My moron store has it set up in a living room setup but has no HD feed coming into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 22, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 22, 2005 Look at the 46HM95 from Toshiba. Best Buy has it overpriced, but you can probably find it for around $1700 at a smaller chain. It's a DLP set with VERY nice coloring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syphonic Posted October 26, 2005 Share Posted October 26, 2005 (edited) Hrm it's like having a personal shopping assistant! Here is my requirement/guide list: Used for: 1. Watching DVDs 2. Watching films from a connected computer 3. TV (In that order) LCD would be best? Size: 32" Price: Max $2000 (?1130) Edited October 26, 2005 by Syphonic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 26, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 26, 2005 Hrm it's like having a personal shopping assistant! How about something LCD (which I'm guessing is the best thing for me to go for since I'll be mainly watching DVDs, TV, a bit of gaming (probably not HD) and linking up a computer to it) in the range of more than or equal to 32" but less than 40" which isn't going to be more than $2000 (?1130) I had my eye on the 32" Bravia but I dunno if I can justfiy $2484 (?1400) 586728693[/snapback] The Samsung LNR328w is a nice set to look at. Should run around $1800. It uses the same lanel as the Sony's, though the imaging chips isn't as good (the picture is still fantastic, though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 26, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 26, 2005 Thank you very much :) I must admit Samsung's ads made me want one of their tvs, I just wasn't sure if they were actually any good!Is the LNR328W known as the LE32R41B in the UK/EU? Searching UK sites for LNR328W returns nothing :/ 586728770[/snapback] I believe so, yes. No idea why the difference in numbers, but I believe that's the UK equivalent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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