Help! Does anyone know anything about flat screen TVs?

[KAMLEM]

But once you get to 42" or larger, you need to look at the pros and cons of LCD vs Plasma.

Or LED. We bought a Samsung 46" LED last year and we love it.

 

[bicker]

Consumer Reports just gave the Samsung PN58C7000 (the model one level below the one my wife and I recently bought) the highest rating of all "54 inch and larger" plasma HDTV's. All categories were rated "excellent" with the exception of sound quality which was rated "good".

 

[mill4023]

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

Yep.
32 inch old TV = 491 sq. inches
32 inch HDTV = 438 sq. inches

That's assuming you are watching 4:3 material on your old TV and 16:9 material on the new one, using the full display size.

The ideal screen size depends on how far away you are going to be sitting. There are a bunch of calculators out on the internet that all use different formulas. Personally, I wouldn't want to sit more than about 5 feet away from a 32" screen. In my theater room, I went with a 120" screen (overhead projector) from a seating distance of about 14 feet and it's perfect.

Of course, for TV's, bigger is more expensive, so most people buy what they can afford, not what is ideal.

 

[mill4023]

Or LED. We bought a Samsung 46" LED last year and we love it.

LED = LCD with LED light source instead of older CCFL light source. It's still an LCD panel.

I know that black levels are improved with the new LED LCDs, but I'm not sure if motion blur and color tones are any better than traditional LCDs.

The comparison in pure picture quality between LED and Plasma is much closer than the comparison between traditional LCD and plasma. But LED's are also much more expensive than plasma.

 

[mill4023]

Consumer Reports just gave the Samsung PN58C7000 (the model one level below the one my wife and I recently bought) the highest rating of all "54 inch and larger" plasma HDTV's. All categories were rated "excellent" with the exception of sound quality which was rated "good".

It still surprises me that people will spend a couple thousand dollars on a TV to get a great high def picture, then use the built in speakers rather than spending a couple hundred for even a low end sound system. Sound quality is completely irrelevant to me on a TV because I will never be using the speakers on a TV.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

Yep.
32 inch old TV = 491 sq. inches
32 inch HDTV = 438 sq. inches

That's assuming you are watching 4:3 material on your old TV and 16:9 material on the new one, using the full display size.

The ideal screen size depends on how far away you are going to be sitting. There are a bunch of calculators out on the internet that all use different formulas. Personally, I wouldn't want to sit more than about 5 feet away from a 32" screen. In my theater room, I went with a 120" screen (overhead projector) from a seating distance of about 14 feet and it's perfect.

Of course, for TV's, bigger is more expensive, so most people buy what they can afford, not what is ideal.

We had to go with the 32" in the living room because the entertainment center wouldn't fit a bigger tv. We couldn't put one on the wall because one wall is a huge window, another has a huge fireplace, the third has a huge painting and the last is our house entryway. We also couldn't get another tv stand because the entertainment center we have has some angel figurines (some quite large) on top of it and there's no where else to put them. Plus, our insurance (which bought our tv due to lightning hitting the house) wouldn't pay for a new stand.

I do wish we could have gone bigger as our living room isn't exactly small.


We know a guy who does electronics repairs, and he says that he gets more Vizio tvs than any other brand to repair.

It still surprises me that people will spend a couple thousand dollars on a TV to get a great high def picture, then use the built in speakers rather than spending a couple hundred for even a low end sound system. Sound quality is completely irrelevant to me on a TV because I will never be using the speakers on a TV.

By the time you shell out the money on the tv, some people don't have the money to spend on a system. Plus, we didn't go for one because we simply don't have the room for it. And I would never buy a cheap system anyway. If I'm gong to spend money on a sound system, it's going to be a good one.

 

[mill4023]

By the time you shell out the money on the tv, some people don't have the money to spend on a system. Plus, we didn't go for one because we simply don't have the room for it. And I would never buy a cheap system anyway. If I'm gong to spend money on a sound system, it's going to be a good one.

Yeah, I understand. But I'd rather spend a little less on the TV and leave room in the budget for at least a receiver and some decent bookshelf speakers. Even a cheap system will be better than the built in speakers.

I guess it depends on what you are watching, but for movies, the sound is half the experience, so I think it's worth at least a small portion of the budget. In my bonus room, I actually spent just as much on the sound system as I did on my projector.

 

[Handbag Lady]

All of my research convinced me to buy a Samsung.

This.


We have a 58" in the living room and a 42" in the bedroom. They are both LCD and they've been great. The picture quality is lovely.

 

[bicker]

The ideal screen size depends on how far away you are going to be sitting. There are a bunch of calculators out on the internet that all use different formulas.

This one is the most comprehensive:

http://hdguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/hdtv_distance_chart.pdf

Of course, for TV's, bigger is more expensive, so most people buy what they can afford, not what is ideal.

Generally, your best bet is to buy the biggest you can afford (up to the biggest you'd need for the room, of course) and if you cannot afford the biggest you'd need for the room, then just rearrange your seating so you're closer. We had a 50" DLP in a room where we were about 14 feet from the screen, i.e., nowhere near big enough, so we rearranged the room so we were actually about five feet from the wall (we put a credenza behind us). When we got our 58" plasma, we moved the seating back up against the wall (and that made room for an extra guest seat ).

 

[Shutterbug]

One reason I have been holding out is for the LED technology.
Suppose to use less energy. Also I have put my hands over the vents of LED tvs and the LED's put out less heat than the LCD's

The other thing to mention is in the past, the lowest model of the line is not great. I know from reading in the past the lowest 32" model for Sony and Samsung had many complaints in one form or another while the next model up of the same size of tv had better reviews.

 

[bicker]

We also were concerned about power consumption, but in the end, the added cost of LED over plasma wouldn't make up for the additional 4% power consumption. It was a close thing, though.... not a clear choice either way.

Good point about avoiding the lowest model of each line. I wasn't aware of that, but I don't follow the low-end that closely.

 

[KAMLEM]

It still surprises me that people will spend a couple thousand dollars on a TV to get a great high def picture, then use the built in speakers rather than spending a couple hundred for even a low end sound system.

Some people are just not that picky about the sound. We planned on buying a sound system after we bought our TV then we decided we did not need it.

 

[mill4023]

Some people are just not that picky about the sound. We planned on buying a sound system after we bought our TV then we decided we did not need it.

It's all relative, like a lot of things, where you can be perfectly content with something until you've experienced something better.

Take the case of watching a DVD on a 50" HDTV with built in speakers.

If you watched that DVD after watching a VHS movie on a 27" SDTV, you are going to be blown away and think it's fantastic.

But if you watch that DVD on the 50" HDTV after watching a blu-ray on my 120" screen with 5.1 surround and 12" subwoofer, your impression will be a little different.

 

[Micca]

It's all relative, like a lot of things, where you can be perfectly content with something until you've experienced something better.

Take the case of watching a DVD on a 50" HDTV with built in speakers.

If you watched that DVD after watching a VHS movie on a 27" SDTV, you are going to be blown away and think it's fantastic.

But if you watch that DVD on the 50" HDTV after watching a blu-ray on my 120" screen with 5.1 surround and 12" subwoofer, your impression will be a little different.

Mill makes good points.

The audio portion of HDTV, DVDs, Blu-ray is a big factor in what makes it great. I think it's fine to add the audio components later, but I honestly think you're missing out without some decent audio components and speakers.

 

[bicker]

It's all relative, like a lot of things, where you can be perfectly content with something until you've experienced something better.

Yes, that's a good point, especially with regard to sound systems. I cannot believe how many friends and family members bought HDTVs before they bought DD5.1 sound systems. Having a nice, big, crisp and clear screen is great - don't get me wrong - but you're still getting a two-dimensional color image when you go from a standard definition television to a (non-3D) HDTV. By contrast, by going from stereo sound to 5.1 channel sound, you're really gaining a full dimension to your viewing experience.

And really, the .1 part of 5.1 adds a second full dimension.

 

[mill4023]

By contrast, by going from stereo sound to 5.1 channel sound, you're really gaining a full dimension to your viewing experience.

And really, the .1 part of 5.1 adds a second full dimension.

Absolutely.
Nothing quite like watching an action movie and feeling the floor shake when there's a big explosion.

 

[Squirlz]

I looked at large LED sets for the first time a couple weeks ago. A soccer game was on and the fast action was creating terrible pixelation. I thought something was wrong but I asked a salesman and he said that's what they do. Checked around and sure enough, it's true. Nice bright picture for sure, but LED would not be for me until they can remedy that.

 

[bicker]

I thought something was wrong but I asked a salesman and he said that's what they do.

He was fibbing. Pixelization is a reflection of poor signal. A well-designed 1080p display, LCD, DLP or plasma, will not pixelate with good signal.

 

[Squirlz]

He was fibbing. Pixelization is a reflection of poor signal. A well-designed 1080p display, LCD, DLP or plasma, will not pixelate with good signal.

Right, but this was a Samsung LED television, and apparently pixelation is its weakness.

 

[bicker]

Are you talking about halos around moving objects? You can control that by turning the Auto Motion control feature to Clear.

We have something similar to that with plamsa televisions that have a similar motion jitter canceller feature. All such features are marketing sugar, but really are just shell games - make this better at the expense of that.