big screen tv's
 

I'm getting ready to buy a new TV. I am looking at a Panasonic LCD wide screen, 50"- 60". The plasma are out of my price range and the projection don't look as clear. only want to spend up to $3000.
What TV's do you guys have?
Differences between brands?
Pro's and con's?
Any info to help with my decision is appreciated.

This could start a thread as heated as the political ones if we have some home theatre nuts... and I suspect we do.

Image quality/color accuracy all depends on the eyes looking at it. Going to stores like BB, Circuit City or whatever isn't much help as you have poor lighting & the sets are not calibrated. Go to a nice high-end shop that knows what the heck they are doing.

LCDs are nice, but can lack the black levels and contrast ratio you desire. The sharpness and brightness are impressive.

DLPs generally have higher contrast ratios and deeper black levels, but often suffer with color accuracy, some lean towards more blue and I've seen in-accurately rendered reds even on high-end sets.

CRT projectors are pretty darn good, but bulky. Very bulky!

The site is down now, but offers a good review of what '04 had to offer: http://www.hometheatermag.com/direct...vs/204faceoff/


Good luck!!!

My neighbor across the street has a big screen TV, I think it's about 60 inch. The picture is very clear. I can't tell you anything about the sound.

He closes his curtains about 9pm so I just go to bed.

I work in the Cable Industry. I used to be a field tech going on higher end trouble calls. The ones that got escalated beyond the normal Field tech.

I've seen lots of sets. We recently gave away a higher end ($4000 + ) panasonic LCD for a Promotion. I hated it. Way to much Artifacting when watching a higher motion picture ( Sports, Waterfalls etc. ) I have a $1700 High def Rear Projection that put the pic on the LCD to shame. NOw mine is bigger as in bulkyness but the difference is clear on pic quality. If I have the money I'd do plasma. If I had it to do Over again and couldnt afford plasma, DLP would be second.

Now for a True "Home Theater" Projection is the way to go.. MOunt that sucker to the celing and Mount a screen on the wall. Some of those Have excelent Pic quality.

2 Great resources
www.hometheaterspot.com
www.hometheaterforum.com

I have been studying TV's for about a month, my stepfather is trying to make an informed purchase. I think for the money that the HD rear projections are the way to go. Sony, Hitachi or Mitsubishi. Hell, BB has a GE for $1099, it's a 51" rear projection, HDTV, it has a great picture on it and you could buy five of them with the money for one plasma, or 3 for one LCD.

Also, as someone else mentioned, go to a good high end local TV store, they have a lot more choices, amazingly.

My biggest is a 36" Trinitron. I wanted the old school tube picture and not a projection screen or anything like that. 36 is a little small though.:( But you cant beat the clarity, birghtness and most of all cost. Only down side is the SOB ways 200lbs.

ccla - have you seen the new Sharp Aquos LCDs? Motion artifacts are a thing of the past! With less than 16ms response time, they've just about got it completely licked! Also, the black levels are much better.

Right now I'm torn between the following:

Pioneer Elite 43" plasma
Sharp Aquos 37" LCD
Various 42" DLP rear projectors...

While I have a 62" CRT rear projection set in the basement with all the high-powered audio stuff, I must have a HDTV for upstairs where most of the TV watching is done...

I have the RCA 61" DLP. Great picture. Much brighter and better contrast than the regular projection HDTV set I had before.

I have a 20" daewoo!!! :devil: (cost me $50 brand new) But I dont ever watch it, alway's busy doing something else or on the computer. :o

I have the 65" mitsu and for me the picture is good and I won a $500 gift certificte in a golf outing towards the purchase so my decsion was pretty simple. :D

i recently purchased a 40 inch sony hd which is a tube. fine
picture. down side this tv weighs 206 pounds i am told it was
delivered and set up. this tv just can't be moved easily
so next time i would pass on this heavy of tv and go for
the rear projection. just my two pennys

I've looked at them all, and I say it comes down to personal preference.
To me, if I had money to burn, I would get a DLP, those things blow everything else out of the water (from what I've seen)

We picked up a 48' JVC i-ART widescreen in the summer, and for a cheap television, it works pretty good, but then again, they all do nowadays.

The rec room still has a 46' RCA cheapy that we bought about 13 years ago, and the thing still works like a champ.

If I were buying a tv based on "best picture quality", it would be a DLP, prob a Samsung or Panasonic, if I were buying one for the best cool factor, it would be a plasma.

The only thing about the plasmas that worry me is that the are very expensive and if the plasma screen goes out, you might as well throw the tv out as the replacement cost is about 2/3 the original price of the tv. They do look good. But.
As for price of the DLP, if you shop around or know someone you can get some decent prices. I got mine $1k off list price as I deal with a family owned store for all my entertainment electronics.

A plasma screen just isn't going to 'go out' on you. The current generation is rated at a 60,000 hour ½ life. That means after about 60k hours of use, the screen will output approxomately half of its brightness it did when new.

That's nearly 8 years of leaving your TV on 24x7. No worries.

Right now, Plasma's offer the best overall picture quality when compared to DLPs & LCD based products. They are dead-nuts on in color accuracy (when properly calibrated), have zero problems with motion artifacts and excellent black levels (although still not perfect).

Look at your room this is going to be in, determine the best size then go off to the stores and compare... and like I said before, the high-end stores are the ONLY place to shop. Be sure to ask if they've calibrated the set for their shop, and how much it will cost for a pro to come out and calibrate for your house. You don't want to blow that much money and not get the best picture in your surroundings...

By the time the tubes warm up in my TV, the show I wanted to watch has already gone off....:mad:

Seriously, 52" Sony rear projection wide screen and a progressive scan DVD player makes for about a good of picture as you could want IMO, and a nice DTS DVD playing through the sound system keeps my neighbors wondering what I am watching.