[Doc]

The wife is giving approval to buy a new TV.

As long as I stay under $1000 and it has to be at least 36 inches.

(Did I tell you how much I love her?)

Anyone have any reccomendations?

[R1slowflyer]

Anything but an LCD.

I suggest a good CRT tv

or even a good projector.

Plasma's are no good in that range, and LCD's pixelate with HD.

Although BJ's and Sams club actually offer decent Plasma's at about 1500$

[mycirus]

Originally Posted by R1slowflyer

Anything but an LCD.
........ and LCD's pixelate with HD.

What do you mean by that? Pixelate?

I have an LCD connected to HD through cable and the pic is clear as day and its an awesome picture. Also LCD's are good for rooms that have windows or a lot of light and Plasmas are good for darker rooms cause on a plasma you will get a reflection on the screen. Also plasmas are heavier and the plasma can break down after a while. I dont see any bad sides to LCD. Maybe someone smarter than me can chime in.

Bruce

[audiojeff]

If you are going to use a cable or satellite box as the tuner, and have a sound system attached, the Panasonic 42PH10Uk can be a good choice. The Panasonic 42PX75U is a little more, but its a TV not just a display. The Samsung 4254 would be my second choice. All of these are a little more than $1k, but the next step down is probably too small for your living room, or built by a third tier manufacturer. (a 32" widescreen has a smaller image in height than a 27" regular TV).

jcm

LCD sets can be very good TVs, but not in this price range.

[duey]

I have a Sharp Aquos LCD 37" that i bought roughly a year ago for 1200 from Best Buy on some sort of sale. I can't remember the exact specs, but I have no complaints on it. Been playing my ps3, and xbox360 in HD and IMO looks perfectly fine.

[Honclfibr]

LCDs look less than stellar at non-native resolutions because they have fixed pixels; there's a little tiny set of lcd "mirrors" that turn on or off for each of the pixels. Therefore, at any resolution other than the native resolution, the image needs to be upconverted; for non-integer multiples, you end up with artifacting. This doesn't occur with a standard CRT as there are no fixed pixels, but rather an electron beam that's deflected by a magnetic field to excite the screen.

This means that an HD-resolution LCD will look somewhat diminished in *standard def*, not HD.

[Doc]

So I am hearing stick with a CRT? They don't make those in Flat panel?

I may be able to go up to $1500. What say you now?

[audiojeff]

This is true, but now I think you'll have to tell him the rest of the story. That its not the only reason LCD doesn't look as well, and that every TV he's likely to consider, nearly every TV on the market, is based on a fixed pixel display. This is true for plasma, LCD, LCOS, SXRD, and the whole host of others. They just don't make CRT anymore. All modern TVs use a processor to take the various different signals and resolutions and make decisions on how to get the picture to fit the pixel grid. The process is called scaling, and some do it better than others. CRT wasn't perfect either, it had real problems with picture geometry (drawing straight lines), every CRT picture was masked at the sides so that 5-10% of the image was shielded from view, the balance of color tended to drift over time, and it didn't develop very much light, making it difficult to see large screens in a well lit room.

jcm

[97BladeRider]

Originally Posted by mycirus

Also LCD's are good for rooms that have windows or a lot of light and Plasmas are good for darker rooms cause on a plasma you will get a reflection on the screen. Also plasmas are heavier and the plasma can break down after a while. I dont see any bad sides to LCD. Maybe someone smarter than me can chime in.

+1 on plasmas and rooms with light. I have one of the older 42" Philips ambi-light plasma TVs and the light reflection is distracting.

It also gets pretty hot and has to reset after a few hours being on. I guess I sometimes need to get my ass off the sofa.

[bump909]

check out Sony's rear projection LCD televisions. i have a 50" one and the picture is much better than any flat panel LCD i've seen. you should be able to find a 42" one under a grand these days. they take up a little more space than a flat panel but for the cost and picture quality it's well worth it.

[Cheese-GSXR]

Originally Posted by mycirus

What do you mean by that? Pixelate?

I have an LCD connected to HD through cable and the pic is clear as day and its an awesome picture. Also LCD's are good for rooms that have windows or a lot of light and Plasmas are good for darker rooms cause on a plasma you will get a reflection on the screen. Also plasmas are heavier and the plasma can break down after a while. I dont see any bad sides to LCD. Maybe someone smarter than me can chime in.

Bruce

+1

I have a 50" Sony Grand Wega LCD that's ~2 years old and have no issues at all. I think they're in the $1500 range now. Don't forget to keep saying, "no" while they try to talk you into a service contract.

You may want to consider raising the budget a little for sound if your room will support it. People comment on my TV when it's off. Once I turn it on it's the 12" subwoofer and surround sound that really makes HDTV an experience.

[Doc]

I have a nice surround sound system with my current TV (36 inch CRT).

I was doing research and LCD seemed the way to go (Over Plasma). Maybe I should get a Consumer reports subsription.

[bump909]

fuck consumer reports.. check out this forum if you what to get your knowledge on - AVS Forum

[audiojeff]

I have no idea what research you could do that would steer you toward LCD over plasma in this category. The best TVs for most applications in this price and size will be plasma TVs, period. Good 40" LCD direct view sets start around $1500, 46/47" $2100, great ones that would compete with plasma TV quality are two and three times your budget. Now, to really be able to make the right choice you need to consider seating distance, viewing angle, light control, mounting options and program material choices. We aren't looking at any of these...anything else is based on generalizations.

jcm

[neuthunder]

we picked up a 42" LCD westinghouse from bestbuy and the things pissah, no pixelation looks great, tons of connections and it cost about $1100

[SEVENSGT]

Originally Posted by Cheese-GSXR

+1

I have a 50" Sony Grand Wega LCD that's ~2 years old and have no issues at all. I think they're in the $1500 range now. Don't forget to keep saying, "no" while they try to talk you into a service contract.

I've got a sony rear projection, 5yrs old now and nothing at all wrong with it, the RP lcd is the way to go, sony creates a great picture

[benVFR]

Don't forget to mention the extra fragility of plasma, possibility of burn-in, increased maintenance of plasma, DLP, etc.. over LCD. Or the horrible viewing angles of almost all projection TVs, etc.. Or 1080p being curiously missing from many of the TVs that are not LCD.

If TV is your life and your hobby maybe you can come up with a reason to get something else, if you want a no nonsense TV that doesn't require maintenance, looks good like a CRT from many angles, etc.. get an LCD.

Better yet wait a while, can't be long till you can get a good 1080p 40" LCD for $1000-1200, maybe this XMas?

I just cannot comprehend people saying Projection TVs are OK for anything but sitting in the sweet spot in a darkened theater that was built to match the specs of the screen... every time I go in the store I can't even see anything unless I duck down to exactly the right height & angle.

[bump909]

my rear projection LCD has great viewing angle.

to get a degraded picture, you'd have to be standing up and like 2 feet infront of the tv.. sitting down anyone in the room gets as good a picture as anyone else. no sweetspots.

[marshdrummer]

I just picked up a Samsung 1080dpi LCD at Best Buy for $1399. It's da bomb! I sit about 12 feet away from it and it has no pixilation at all that I can see. When I get within a couple feet, I can, but you're not supposed to sit that close with that size. High Def is AMAZING!

[bump909]

keep in mind, any pixelation you guys might see is because the HD cable feed you receive is compressed a shitload. sorry if this has been mentioned already.

[neuthunder]

Originally Posted by bump909

keep in mind, any pixelation you guys might see is because the HD cable feed you receive is compressed a shitload. sorry if this has been mentioned already.

+1 usually the pixalation occurs with non-HD channels... but no pixelation with the HD channels

[benVFR]

I wouldn't say SD looks pixelated.. it just looks like ass in general.

Broadcast HD looks a hell of a lot better then Comcast's HD too.

[ssg]

47" Vizio LCD in 1080p @ Costco for 1599$ , you're welcome.

[ssg]

Originally Posted by bump909

keep in mind, any pixelation you guys might see is because the HD cable feed you receive is compressed a shitload. sorry if this has been mentioned already.

Please explain?

[audiojeff]

First, lets stop with the myth concerning the fragile nature of plasma TV. Is just not true. In fact, it is one of the most robust technologies used in video displays. Further, most LCD TVs have a backlight service interval that is shorter than the half brightness rating on many plasma sets. Nearly all current rear projection sets will have had a service cost that exceeds their own purchase price in the same period just in re-lamping.

Five flat-panel TV myths -- debunked!

Second, digital video has artifacts. They enter the picture at nearly every stage, from the video camera, to the broadcast equipment, to the conversion equipment in your cable box and TV. Some gear deals with DV artifacts better, some worse. The link attached is a pretty good review of the most common types.

Digital PhotoCorner - Digital Artifacts Page 1 of 5

jcm