I honestly haven't price shopped that model, so I can't say.

go to froogle.com and browse around

BUT ALWAYS READ THE WARRANTY AND RETURNS POLICIES.

Typically the best deals are insanely low because they are NOT legit, authorized sellers and they don't even allow returns, period. But if you shop around you can find comparables. Just make sure you compare prices from legit sellers, the iffy ones don't count IMO.

 

thank you you have been a lot of help. do you know a good way to get a tv stand cheap and to make sure it will fit?

 

We got a stand for our 52" Mitsubishi from ikea. It was the best one for us because we were looking for DVD storage... it has a huge drawer underneath.

That price doesn't look bad for that specific model, but you might find a better deal if you broaden your search. At the very least, CC generally does 10% off all TV sales, stuff like that.
Remember you'll have tax on that price which adds up quick.

Also, don't get the TV home until you've found a stand you like... you might find a stand you love and it'll only hold a 52", or whatever...

 

check out www.cnet.com

and search around there....have almost all brands and models listed with a review and options of each one...with independent reviews and where to by them. i got my 1080p 52' sharp aquos from abes of maine (they were out of NJ). saved over 1000 than buying from best buy or circuit city...they shipped it free and it was tax free since it was out of state. got a home calibration kit with color cells and test pannels on dvd...great. flat pannel lcd great flexibility with where ever you want to place it, almost a full 180 viewing angle and brighter than dlps but not as bright as plasma. i read a review that plasmas are getting better but still have a burn in problem...and that have a fade to them. they claimed that a plasma used for 8 hours a day for 7 years will be 1/2 as bright as it was the day you brought it home....dont know about that but could be true.

 

every single one of you need to go register over at www.avsforum.com and look around.

and fwiw, i think it's immensely humourous that people talk about "full HD" when the programming content you receive from your provider is chopped and compressed to save bandwidth.

oh and Pioneer > *

 

I've already mentioned avsforum several times... but yeah, I agree.

Not only is it chopped and compressed, but it isn't even broadcast in 1080p at all, either (1080i or 720p, depending on the station).



As for the other guy above who mentioned plasma being at its half-life from 8 hours a day, 7 days a week in 7 years...sigh, try 20.54 years. Not even close to your 7 years crap. People genuinely have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to plasma TVs..they just hate them with absolutely no valid basis for their discrediting comments.

 

mis-information is the single biggest roadblock for HDTV. nothing is plug and play with this technology. you now have choices and sadly, most of the lazy population isn't willing to educate themselves.

1080p is a LOOOOOONG way off from seeing mainstream broadcast support. we're just now getting 1080i/720p programming. 1080p capable tv's just dont' hold enough market share for broadcasters to dump loads of money into more expensive equipment. it's not as if there's a magic "1080p button" they can press. not to mention the fact that most of the population doesn't know/care enough anyways. it's all HD to them.

interestingly enough, there was an article sometime ago on AVS that cited 2/3 of the population doesn't know they're not watching HD programming on their HD tv. they just assume they can plug it in the wall and viola! HD!

by far the most widely disputed argument i ever come across is the resolution debate. i'll take a TV that has deep (read: CRT) blacks, proper grey scale tracking, and proper color mapping and reproduction. you can keep the 1305274350247520845pipppippi tv. you can't use it anyways.

oh yeah and the av. half life of current generation plasmas is 60,000 hours. you're right it's about 20 years though i suspect it'll be replaced before then. how many bulbs are they going to have to change in a DLP or BLU's in an LCD at $300 a pop in that time frame?

 

Exactly Big Slick...EXACTLY...

And on your last point, I couldn't agree more. People JUMP at the opportunity to point out that once a plasma is burned out- it's out. Too bad your DLP, projection, and LCDs will have failed long before the plasma ever needs replacement

 

Plasmas are now suffering from the lower technical standards of their predecessors. With the "old school" plasmas, people were oohhhed and aahhhed at the great picture and many bought into it. Then there was a huge public outcry when the half-life fact was widely published... and now that it's a non-issue, it'll take a while to recover.

In the meantime, I still don't see LCD/DLP bulbs as being a big issue either. By the time it's time for me to replace a bulb, I'll probably be ready to buy the next biggest thing anyway...

 

I'm still afraid of "burn"

From Ultimate AV mag

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/flatpan...ays/207hp5060/

A Burning Issue?
Plasmas are phosphor-based displays like CRTs (LCD, LCoS, and DLP are not). And all phosphor-based displays are subject to burn-in. There are two types of burn-in. The worst is a permanent ghost image caused by leaving a bright, still picture (or a moving image with bright, steady elements, like the scoreboard on a video game) on the screen for an extended period. The other, which is more properly called image retention, fades out after a few minutes.

You can produce permanent burn-in on any plasma if you're careless. HP warns about this in the manual. But even if you're careful, you will see temporary image retention on many plasmas, including the PL5060N. This will also occur when you watch a 4:3 or 2.35:1 program that requires black bars on the screen; after extended use you may see the lines where the image transitioned to the black bars.

My buddy has the black bars on his Sony. Google "Plasma Burn" and you come up with a Ton of hits.

Here's a good article on it as well:

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/p...tv-burnin.html

Seems like they're making advances but maybe not 100% there yet...

 

as a plasma owner, i can tell you it would take blantant abuse to permanently burn in a plasma screen in a residential environment. the phosphors used in plasmas age as time goes on. during the first 200 or so hours of use, they're the most sensitive. common practice is to keep the contrast and brightness turned down slightly and vary the content you watch (no extended gaming, no LOTR trilogy marathons w/black bars) to properly break in the phosphors. there is a long discussion about this over at AVS and Pioneer even recommended it in the manual. additionally, most burn in isn't burn in at all, just image retention. you can get rid of it through varying the content you watch or running a screen wash disc through your DVD player. FYI, because phosphors age with use, burn in or image retention occurs (using the black bars as an example) because part of the screen is used to display the picture, while the rest of the phosphors are "off". the phosphors that were "off" in the black bars haven't aged at the same rate as the ones of the rest of the screen, and viola....image retention. same principle applies to channel logos (though i can't see this happening. commercials that dont' have the logo interrupt programming) and gaming icons.

i'm not rally sure how your buddy can have burn in on his sony plasma since, to my knowledge, Sony has never made a plasma. They back LCD and LCDRP.

A lot of the information you'll run across doing random Google searches is old hat or very generic.

 

so you replace your tv every two years, give or take?

 

I could be convinced to, but I don't see my bulb burning out after 2 years.

Your belief in how long bulbs last is just as misled as other's beliefs in plasma's half-lifes.

Most bulbs now are rated 8k to 10k hours... that's over 7 years at 3 hours a day every day.

If I'm faced with buying a $300 bulb vs. a new TV for under a grand... it would be a consideration.

 

with anything it depends. YOU might only watch 3 hours a day, but Jim across the street might have it on for 6. that's about 3.5 years. apples/oranes.

 

Just an FYI, Sony *did* make plasma TVs but their dismal sales forced Sony to pull from the market. Now the only true in-house builders of plasma TV are Pioneer, Panasonic, and Hitachi.