Help! Does anyone know anything about flat screen TVs?

[__disneygirl]

Hi guys! I was hoping that someone who knows about flat screen TVs (or at least, knows more than I know, which is nothing) can help me.

I want to buy a flat screen that I can mount on the wall. I don't care about menu options and special features and all that at all. I just need to be able to connect it to my cable box and DVD player. I don't need to buy the #1, top of the line TV that is going to last me years and years and years, but I don't want a crappy one that is going to break in 6 months. I was looking on Wal Mart's website and came across some 32" ones that are about $348-$400. I was wondering if this is a good value... would you recommend I spend a bit more or less? Also, what brands have you had success with? I usually like Sony, but I have not bought a flat screen before.

I would appreciate ANY help at all so much! Even if you aren't an expert... trust me, if you have one, you know more than me. Thank you SO much!

 

[golfgal]

We got our 42" from Walmart a couple years ago. It is a Poloroid and it works just fine. We got a 32" from Best Buy just this past Christmas and it works fine too. One tip, don't buy your wall mounting bracket from the store, get it at monoprice.com along with your HDMI cables. You will save about $150 doing that.

 

[mjkacmom]

All of my research convinced me to buy a Samsung.

 

[bicker]

Hi guys! I was hoping that someone who knows about flat screen TVs (or at least, knows more than I know, which is nothing) can help me.

I've recently bought a flat screen (and normally follow the industry closely regardless), so I'm up-to-date on the latest info.

I want to buy a flat screen that I can mount on the wall.

It's generally considered to be a bad idea to mount a flat-screen more than a couple of feet off the floor. The screen should be mounted at eye level, not lofted high. If you do end up lofting the set, you will need to get a very sophisticated mounting that tips the set at an angle, so you're still viewing it straight-on. A lot of people don't like this because it seems like the set is going to fall down on you, all the time. Also, that solution, while it addresses the viewing concerns about a mounted flat-screen, it doesn't address the crick-in-the-neck issue.

I don't care about menu options and special features and all that at all.

One of the most common complaints I'm reading these days is from folks who bought a set a year or two or three ago, with that perspective, now expressing regret, or outrage, that in order to take advantage of Feature TBD they would have to buy new equipment. You need to ask yourself, "How often do you want to buy a television?" The reality is that new stuff is going to be rolled out all the time. You're never going to be able to buy a television and "be done with it" - that's simply not how the consumer electronics industry works anymore. However, buying something that is missing too many of today's features is going to end up bringing you much more quickly to that point where you're one of those folks complaining that you need to buy a new television to take advantage of some feature that suddenly becomes important to you.

By the same token, the very latest features are always overpriced, so while getting a set with the latest features may protect you from one year of disappointment, down the line, that's a very expensive one extra year of enjoyment.

I just need to be able to connect it to my cable box and DVD player. I don't need to buy the #1, top of the line TV that is going to last me years and years and years, but I don't want a crappy one that is going to break in 6 months. ... Also, what brands have you had success with? I usually like Sony, but I have not bought a flat screen before.

Quality and reliability are big issues. Unfortunately, these things cost money. While the failure rates, even for the worst devices, may be only 7%-8%, that's little solace if yours happens to be in that percentage.

The high quality and reliability brands are Samsung, Panasonic and LG. Sony, Mitsubishi, Sharp and Toshiba are in the second-tier (Sony falling in recent years, after having been in the top tier for a while). Vizio and all the Funai brands (such as Magnavox and Philips) are in the third tier.

Personally, I stick with Samsung. It's super, and often a better value than Panasonic.

 

[bicker]

I bought my new set from Amazon.com. With Amazon Prime, it was free two-day delivery, and with Amazon Visa I got another 3% off the price.

Here's a good option for you...

Samsung LN32C350 32-Inch 720p 60 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)
$429.98

 

[ndelaware]

Costco almost always has the best prices on TVs. And they double the warranty when you buy a TV there.

I bought the wall mounts for our 32" TVs at 6th Ave. Electronics for $19.99 each.

 

[Shmily1]

I bought a Vizio for my DS20 a few years ago and it is awesome!! We're looking for a new one that's bigger for the living room and found the best deals at Walmart and Best Buy.

The most important point is do not buy a plasma!! Those break soon. My friend bought a huge one for her new house. Three days after she had it a year, it broke. The guy at the store told her "I could have told you not to buy a plasma... they don't last very long".

 

[mill4023]

I can give you a couple pieces of basic advice.

First, don't buy cables from Best Buy or any other big box store. There's no reason to spend $80 on a cable that you can get online for $10.

Second, don't just go to the store and decide which one looks better to you. The viewing environment is nothing like what you will have in your home, so it's a really bad way to judge picture quality. The stores typically crank the brightness way up because they have to compete with fluorescent lights and lots of glare. You're much better off reading reviews to decide which sets have the best picture quality.

What kind of viewing environment will you have?
How bright is the room?
Are there any reflections or glare issues to worry about?
How far away from the TV will you be sitting?
What is your budget and what size were you thinking of getting?

 

[mill4023]

I bought a Vizio for my DS20 a few years ago and it is awesome!! We're looking for a new one that's bigger for the living room and found the best deals at Walmart and Best Buy.

The most important point is do not buy a plasma!! Those break soon. My friend bought a huge one for her new house. Three days after she had it a year, it broke. The guy at the store told her "I could have told you not to buy a plasma... they don't last very long".

That is completely false.

If the guy at the store actually said something so ridiculous, he's an idiot and I would not want to do business at that store.

 

[mkel34]

That is completely false.

If the guy at the store actually said something so ridiculous, he's an idiot and I would not want to do business at that store.

Pioneer plasma owner here running 7yrs strong, no problems. I've installed at least 5 42-50" plasmas for friends over that time and not one of them have failed yet. Only major problem I've heard of with lcd/plasmas is the Sony XBR lcd problem.

 

[__disneygirl]

Wow, this is great! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!! This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. For instance, I had no idea that what you need to mount it to the wall is not included when you buy it, but that figures. I really appreciate all this information. I am so glad I asked here! Thanks!

 

[Shmily1]

That is completely false.

If the guy at the store actually said something so ridiculous, he's an idiot and I would not want to do business at that store.

Not completely false at all... her tv did die like I said and he did tell them that. Now wether you believe it or not, that's up to you, that is the FACT as to what happened.

BTW, he's not the only one that says that.

 

[Christine]

We own three Vizios that we purchased at Costco.

The guy at Costco was nice enough to tell us that the picture we get at home may not look like what is on display there as they have to use differnet settings to get it to look good in the warehouse. However, I have been very please with the quality we have received at home.

We only mounted one TV (our very smallest one) because it is in one of our very tiny bedrooms. I thought about mounting the larger one but I just bouight a console for it instead. Costco does sell the mounting brackets but I can't remember what they charge for them.

 

[mill4023]

Not completely false at all... her tv did die like I said and he did tell them that. Now whether you believe it or not, that's up to you, that is the FACT as to what happened.

BTW, he's not the only one that says that.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.
This is the part that is a completely false statement(or at the very least, a huge generalization based on anecdotal evidence that doesn't hold true for the vast majority of cases):

The most important point is do not buy a plasma!! Those break soon.

I wasn't disputing the fact that your friend's TV died. But that doesn't mean plasmas are less reliable than LCD's or that they "break soon".

Consumer reports did an article on LCDs and Plasmas back in 2007 and found that both had similar repair rates. Both were around 3%. In other words, reliability varies among different manufacturers, but Plasmas are NOT inherently less reliable that LCDs and both are very reliable compared to DLPs, and other rear projection sets.

 

[mill4023]

If the OP is looking for a 32" TV, the whole LCD vs Plasma debate is irrelevant anyway.

But once you get to 42" or larger, you need to look at the pros and cons of LCD vs Plasma. LCDs are typically lighter and don't require as much energy or generate as much heat. LCDs are also often a better choice if glare is an issue. But overall, plasmas have a better picture. Higher contrast, deeper blacks, less motion blur, and more natural colors. LCDs have continued to improve over the past few years and whether or not the picture quality advantages of plasma are noticeable to the average viewer is a matter of much debate. The technology is to the point now that most average viewers would be happy with either one if they stick to a high quality brand like Samsung or Panasonic.

My next purchase will probably be a 63" plasma.

 

[Micca]

Not to muddy the waters, but I'd get something a little bigger than 32 inches.
HDTV is really cool and if you have space, try for something at least in the 40-something range. Have fun shopping.

 

[bicker]

The most important point is do not buy a plasma!! Those break soon.

That's a myth. Name-brand plasmas and LCDs have about the same reliability stats. According to Consumer Reports, only about 3% of name-brand TVs of either format breakdown in the first 3 years. Cheaper brands breakdown more, of course.

Generally, plasma provides better picture quality, per dollar, than LCD, while LCD offers lower power consumption. Otherwise, there aren't any significant overall differences between the two technologies, for the typical purchaser.

Perhaps your friend's unfortunate circumstance has colored your understanding of the actual comparison.

 

[bicker]

I can give you a couple pieces of basic advice.

First, don't buy cables from Best Buy or any other big box store. There's no reason to spend $80 on a cable that you can get online for $10.

Great advice. monoprice.com is a great source for inexpensive, high quality HDMI cables.

Second, don't just go to the store and decide which one looks better to you. The viewing environment is nothing like what you will have in your home, so it's a really bad way to judge picture quality. The stores typically crank the brightness way up because they have to compete with fluorescent lights and lots of glare. You're much better off reading reviews to decide which sets have the best picture quality.

More specific, if you really want to be sure, then read professional reviews. The quality of lay-person reviews, for HDTVs, is shocking poor, on average -- often very misleading. Many brands and technologies have evoked almost religious perspectives among their fans and detractors.

I wouldn't even trust my reviews, if I didn't know me.

With regard to the "viewing environment" issues mill4023 raised: There was a big difference between how different sets looked at Best Buy, versus what those sets looked like at Paul's TV: At Best Buy, within the brands we were considering (Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and LG) some were clearly better than others, while at Paul's TV all the sets were practically just as good as each other, and all better than they looked at Best Buy.

Conclusion 1: The folks at Best Buy (and really, the vast majority of retailers) don't know how to (or perhaps don't care to, though that seems strange), set televisions up correctly.

Conclusion 2: The decision with regard to which has the best picture isn't going to be obvious, and indeed, we're in the realm, now, perhaps, of personal preference being the main determining factor. Some folks will care to defer to electronic measurements; other folks will recognize that their eyes probably cannot detect minute differences like that. (Having said that, I went for the "better" set.)

 

[bicker]

Not to muddy the waters, but I'd get something a little bigger than 32 inches.

Good point... since HDTVs are wider than older standard definition televisions, you need a larger diagonal to get what is effectively the same size (vertical measurement) set. Here's the translation table:

OLD SIZE -> NEW SIZE
19 inch -> 24 inch
25 inch -> 32 inch
32 inch -> 40 inch
36 inch -> 45 inch
40 inch -> 50 inch
45 inch -> 56 inch
50 inch -> 62 inch

 

[mill4023]

Great advice. monoprice.com is a great source for inexpensive, high quality HDMI cables.

More specific, if you really want to be sure, then read professional reviews. The quality of lay-person reviews, for HDTVs, is shocking poor, on average -- often very misleading. Many brands and technologies have evoked almost religious perspectives among their fans and detractors.

I wouldn't even trust my reviews, if I didn't know me.

With regard to the "viewing environment" issues mill4023 raised: There was a big difference between how different sets looked at Best Buy, versus what those sets looked like at Paul's TV: At Best Buy, within the brands we were considering (Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and LG) some were clearly better than others, while at Paul's TV all the sets were practically just as good as each other, and all better than they looked at Best Buy.

Conclusion 1: The folks at Best Buy (and really, the vast majority of retailers) don't know how to (or perhaps don't care to, though that seems strange), set televisions up correctly.

Conclusion 2: The decision with regard to which has the best picture isn't going to be obvious, and indeed, we're in the realm, now, perhaps, of personal preference being the main determining factor. Some folks will care to defer to electronic measurements; other folks will recognize that their eyes probably cannot detect minute differences like that. (Having said that, I went for the "better" set.)

Nice change of pace for us to agree on something.

I should have been more specific. Reviews by regular viewers who bought the TV will tell you if they were happy with the purchase or not, but it won't really give you a good way of determining which sets have the best picture. Most people who buy a TV will only buy that one TV, take it home, and post about whether they like the picture or not.

Professional reviews on the other hand, are generally done by experts who take the time to properly adjust the settings first and do comparisons between two or more TV's, often side by side. Like I said, the technology is good enough now that some of the more subtle differences in picture quality won't be obvious unless you are looking at two sets, side by side, both properly calibrated, in a typical home viewing environment.

As an example, most people would never have any complaints about black levels with an LCD unless they bought both an LCD and a plasma, and took them both home and put them side by side.

Also, when I mentioned the poor viewing environment and setup, I was really referring to the big box stores like Best Buy or Costco. The basic problem with setup at a Best Buy or Costco is that there is too much light and too much glare. So they crank the brightness all the way up on all their sets because most consumers are more impressed with a bright picture. But turning the brightness all the way up really washes out the picture and is not a good way to judge picture quality at all.

If you want to compare picture quality for yourself, go to a specialty store, where they have AV experts and nicer viewing environments. When I was shopping for my projector, I saw one at Best Buy in their "viewing" area and it looked horrible. Way too much ambient light for a projector. Then I went to Zobo TV and every single projector they had looked amazing.