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Buy me a TV!
Kato
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well. Tax returns are here. My family has been without a good tv for a long time. We still have an old old 23" tv. It is finally starting to die out. We need to replace it. Plus...TV's are damned expensive.
I want a nice flat screen tv. 1080p (1080i? what is the difference?) We never purchased an HD/blu-ray player or a PS3/360 because what was the point. If you can't see the good graphics, then we saw no reason to waste the money on it. Specially when we play a lot of Wii/DS. So the gaming side would be nice...but I see us getting a PS3 because it's a gaming system, plus a blu-ray player.
Anyways...back to the TV. We would like something 30"+. Flat screen. 1080p/i. We don't have a surround sound set up..but maybe one day it would be nice. I have looked at the store and I don't like the TV's that look...pixelated. That bugs me. Why spend so much money on this supposedly nice tv and then get a blurry picture. I see some in the store that do that...and then I see some that do not. What causes this? I would like to avoid it?
Is it safe to have them ship the tv? We don't have access to a best buy or a circuit city. Nothing like that. The best we have is a wal-mart and a Sears. There IS a "Del's" Electronic store...but it is pricey. I get scared when I go in that store. So if we have to order online...I guess we will have too. I just worry about exorbant shipping prices. And I worry about my tv showing up not damaged.
I suppose I should mention price range. Looks like we will have at the most, 1k to spend. If we have to buy online, then this will have to include shipping. Or if there are any other accessories or anything we need to know about, that would be great.
Our current set up has the tv hooked up to a little 4 connection RCA box deal? Red/yellow/white cables hook in to it and it has 4 buttons and inputs. If we want to play wii...press this button. DVD...then this button. Will a new tv be able to connect like that or are we going to have to get something different.
If this is not the right place for this or if it will get better help in Moe's tech...then mods, feel free to move it. I don't know much about anything when it comes to TV powers and the money that buys them.
P.S. I am really really concerned about the pixelated look that I see with a lot of flat screens in the store. Please...I do not want a tv that has this problem.
I want a nice flat screen tv. 1080p (1080i? what is the difference?) We never purchased an HD/blu-ray player or a PS3/360 because what was the point. If you can't see the good graphics, then we saw no reason to waste the money on it. Specially when we play a lot of Wii/DS. So the gaming side would be nice...but I see us getting a PS3 because it's a gaming system, plus a blu-ray player.
Anyways...back to the TV. We would like something 30"+. Flat screen. 1080p/i. We don't have a surround sound set up..but maybe one day it would be nice. I have looked at the store and I don't like the TV's that look...pixelated. That bugs me. Why spend so much money on this supposedly nice tv and then get a blurry picture. I see some in the store that do that...and then I see some that do not. What causes this? I would like to avoid it?
Is it safe to have them ship the tv? We don't have access to a best buy or a circuit city. Nothing like that. The best we have is a wal-mart and a Sears. There IS a "Del's" Electronic store...but it is pricey. I get scared when I go in that store. So if we have to order online...I guess we will have too. I just worry about exorbant shipping prices. And I worry about my tv showing up not damaged.
I suppose I should mention price range. Looks like we will have at the most, 1k to spend. If we have to buy online, then this will have to include shipping. Or if there are any other accessories or anything we need to know about, that would be great.
Our current set up has the tv hooked up to a little 4 connection RCA box deal? Red/yellow/white cables hook in to it and it has 4 buttons and inputs. If we want to play wii...press this button. DVD...then this button. Will a new tv be able to connect like that or are we going to have to get something different.
If this is not the right place for this or if it will get better help in Moe's tech...then mods, feel free to move it. I don't know much about anything when it comes to TV powers and the money that buys them.
P.S. I am really really concerned about the pixelated look that I see with a lot of flat screens in the store. Please...I do not want a tv that has this problem.
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Also, when I was looking into getting a new TV, I found that reading reviews did more harm than good, especially the reviews on CNET. They made it sound like any TV under $2000 was a piece of crap, but they judge based on factors that only the most hardcore videophiles would care about. The TV I ended up getting got pretty mediocre reviews, but I think it looks great. Just something to keep in mind.
you need an HD source - either cable, over the air HD, upscaled DVD, Blu Ray, etc. to actually have a good picture on an HDTV.
If you're looking to spend a thousand dollars on something in the 30" range, you're going to be able to get a really nice set.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889252089
The LED technology is sure to be short lived as OLED comes to mass market, but the picture quality is undeniable.
If you do your shopping carefully though you can get quite a lot out of a grand, I waited for a sale and was able to purchase a 47" 1080p 120hz LG set that I'm in love with quite recently.
480p is considered "enhanced definition" not "high definition".
If your cable provider offers HD you're going to want it. SD cable television can look decent on a quality HD set, but it will never hold a candle to HD gaming, or blu-ray or any HD cable signal.
32" would be nice. If we could find a good tv that is a little bigger but with similar quality, then we would do so. But I get a feeling that the 32-36 inch range is where our money would best be spent at. No?
LCD = You have your screen, it is back lit by some means, either LED lights around the edges of the screen or by cathode lights.
Plasma = a double pane of glass traps plasma cells which make up the pixels of the screen, each cell is self illuminating when activated.
LED = an LCD panel, backlight by an array of LED lights to provide higher contrast ratios than with a standard LCD, also, since this technology is more expensive these sets tend to be part of higher quality model lines.
OLED = very similair to an LCD type of display, made up of Organic LEDS that are themselves the pixels. Very basically, an LCD set with self illuminating pixels.
LCD and Plasma are very comparable, and LED and plasma are also fairly comparable, with scales of quality varying with in all of them.
OLED is the superior technology, but is still comparable to LED and is at this point in time, still outrageously expensive.
Regardless of the tech you opt for, plasma is probably going to be the best bang for your buck, but plasma sets that small are rare. LCD or LED is probably where you're going to be looking, and for your price point and size, a high quality LCD is probably what you want. The picture quality you'll see will still be amongst the best possible.
All of this. I have a 42" HD TV, and within about 6 weeks after I got it I stopped watching SD channels. It looks awful. You'll want to check into what it's going to cost for HD service with your tv provider. I'll also say it's DEFINITELY worth it.
Last winter I got a 42" LG and love the thing to death. I find 42 is about the size you really need. Anythign larger and you need a huge living room. Ours accepts anything upto and including 1080i/p I myself don't notice a difference between 1080 and 720 myself though.
From you cable you will have to get an HD receiver as your regular digital cable box can't give you the HD channels.
I use a regular DVD player and with componant cables it is not to bad but I can't wait till I get a Blu-ray.
42" is also big enough to be able to appreciate HD signal, but also about the point where non-HD sources are still reasonable, start going larger and you'll end up wanting to upgrade everything in your house to get a clean feed into the tv, and everything becomes a money pit.
If you're after a simple answer, go buy a 42" panasonic plasma. You'll not feel ripped off or under-spec'd. Otherwise, sift through the rest of the general advice and make up your own mind.
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From what i have read, and i agree with. The human Eye can not tell the difference between 1080 and 720 under 50" My Father in law has the Sony Bravia which is a 1080 and is a 32" and the picture quality looks the same if not better on our Panasonic.
It is not a good idea to take these anecdotes as law.
#1 - OLED- I would not purchase/not purchase a set based on this technology. There is tons of evidence out there that suggests we won't start seeing mass-market adoption of this technology for at least two years. In my opinion, we'll be lucky if we even see something resembling a normal-sized TV you can buy at a store in 2011, at any price. When it IS available, and mature, it will almost certainly offer better color accuracy, deeper black levels, thinner screens, and lower power than either plasma or LCD/LED TVs.
#2 - Panasonic: I would not buy that X1, or any Panasonic from last year at this point. There is a well-reported problem that broke in January that literally all Panasonic plasma sets can lose their black levels at around 1000 hours of use. This is because the voltage that drives their panels is adjusted too drastically at that point. All plasma panels do this but somehow Panasonic managed to fuck it up. I would feel relatively confident in buying one of their sets this year though.
#3 - LED - Captain Vash's definition is close, but not quite correct. LED panels come in two flavors: edge-lit (much like most laptop screens), and local-dimming. He described the local-dimming tech, which is the best LCD-based screen you can get, but is horrendously expensive and STILL doesn't get the black levels (the basic building block of contrast and image quality) that the best plasmas do for much less money. Edge-lit screens provide a great picture except for the fact that it's very hard to control brightness when you're lighting a screen from the edge of the display. And they are also way overpriced.
PSN: TheScrublet
What do you mean "lose their black level"? I have a G10 50" that I bought a few months back.
After a year of getting rave reviews (all done using new or broken-in-150ish-hour sets), heavily-used G10s were shown to double the brightness level of their blackest black. This was initiated on the AVSForum and quickly picked up steam. That D-Nice guy referenced in the OP is no fucking joke, he doesn't talk much about his personal life (beyond being a professional calibrator) but the dude seemingly buys new TVs all the time for the simple purpose of testing/benchmarking them (who knows what the hell he does afterwards with them). He is well-connected in the TV business, so when he says that Panasonic goofed on how they're driving those voltages he knows what he's talking about.
After a month or so of activity on this, Panasonic finally produced this little statement. A cynical viewer reading between the lines can come up with this tl;dr: "Our TVs are awesome. Over time they get less awesome but they're still awesome and everyone else is the same way. But our TVs next year won't have this problem, if there was a problem. No we're not replacing your TV or fixing it."
To be fair, their 2010 TVs are incorporating technology from the famed Pioneer Kuros so I do believe that the problem won't be around with this year's models.
Edit: if you don't trust the masses of the forums, the guys at CNet ran some further tests on this issue. As far as reviews go I usually wouldn't give CNet the time of day (I've some cheap shitty TVs get some pretty high marks...kind of like gaming reviews now that I think about it), but some of their tech analysis is pretty good.
Further Edit: Note that if you go through that thread for awhile (I did once back when this issue came out), not everyone with the elevated blacks noticed. Some did some didn't. The people who did were pissed. If you're the kind of guy who walks up to the Best Buy display wall and can't believe someone would spend $1000 more for this TV that looks the same, you will probably not notice or care about this issue (unless you're one of the people who was actually watching something right when this voltage change happened). Me, I'm a stuck up pain in the ass who over-researches anything I buy, and I guarantee I'd have noticed this and been really frustrated by it.
PSN: TheScrublet
One of the things I know I saw somewhere about this year's models, one of the improvements, is that they've found a way to use much less voltage to drive a completely black pixel. This should provide an even deeper black (and a new G10 does VERY well), and will probably also age the pixels a lot slower. My guess is this black was derived from Kuro tech.
PSN: TheScrublet
We absolutely love our 42" plasma, but a word of warning. They are absolute power hogs. We definitely saw a huge hit on our power bill going from our 30" HDCRT to the plasma. LCD will have much lower power consumption, thus being cheaper in the long run, and the picture quality is pretty well the same.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Anyways...looks like a good buy so far. Pleased with the tv we got and the advice from everyone out here. The only drawback I can see from my limited knowledge is that it is edge lit and not truly back lit. But otherwise...it is nice.
I've made use of it a few times to sort out issues with my own TV.